Had a fascinating conversation with the owner of a local arcade/fun park...you know, those places with go karts, putt putt and the arcade games where you spend $1000 and win enough tickets to go home with an eraser. A few interesting things...
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Their most profitable game is a bass fishing arcade game. As in, $75,000-85,000 a year profitable.
For that one single game.
They've had it for nearly 10 years and 100% of the time it completely destroys all the other games. The next closet game only does $20k a year.pic.twitter.com/P6YyJ0aPEj
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Go karts make nearly no money, need adult staff to run and require employing a mechanic. They have to replace the engines in every one every single year. But "go karts are what bring people in, games are how we keep them here". Essentially a loss-leader.
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The worst part about having putt putt isn't maintaining the turf, or any equipment...it's the landscaping. It basically has to be immaculately maintained like a prize yard...for little kids to make an absolute mess of every day.
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Spring/Summer is the holiday shopping season of fun parks. They make all their money April-August and then pray it lasts them through the Fall and Winter.
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It's made worse here in Alabama where football is such a big deal. Weekends are usually good, but if Alabama/Auburn are playing, nobody shows up...at all. Completely dead.
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It takes at minimum 6-8 people to staff the park, even on slow days. On really busy Saturdays it takes over 20. Staff turnover is intense as it's made up entirely of high school kids.
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Wanted to chat about the insanity of the tickets-to-prize ratio, but alas School House Rock Live started (we were sitting next to each other on a school field trip for our kids). I've always been fascinated by local mom & pop type businesses...maybe I'll start interviewing them?
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Would listen the bits out of that podcast.
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