Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Arcade Collecting => Miscellaneous Arcade Talk => Topic started by: psik0tik on April 08, 2005, 01:31:48 pm
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I've been thinking of this for awhile and I think I'm gonna open a real arcade in virginia beach more geared twords the classics..pacman...galaxian..etc. Ive been rebuilding these cabinets and I need somewhere to put them so why not share them with everyone. Any opinions on how it should look and mabye some 80's music i dunno yet. Thanks
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hehehe I know what people are thinking that its a wastre of money but.....but mine is unique...what buisness uses quaters alot and has people standing aro0und for hours at a time.....A laundry mat....lol...yeap thats what im thinking....a retro laundry mat..lol
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Well, if I had to do laundry at a laundromat, i'd go there. ;) I hope you don't have any emotional attachment to the machines you restore as they will just get beat up again on location. :(
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The ones Im attached to ill probably keep here but ive got quite a few and I have a few other people wanted to do it also. We found a place between 2 big technical colleges for cheap (600 a month) at about 2500 square feet. And college kids use laundry mats. It should make money and if it doesnt at least I tried to bring back an arcade ;D
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$600 a month >_< where do you live!? Do it do it do it do it.
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Thats kinda sad you have to trick them into doing there laundry and are so board that they will play these games, also if you have more washers then arcade games its a laundromat, not an arcade. :laugh:
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i think you need to remember that you need washing machines for a laundrymat. you've got the games, and a possible location, now just get 5-10 laundry machines. also, you could do other things there too. gotta think of what the college kids want though.
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i think you need to remember that you need washing machines for a laundrymat.
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Man, you are BEHIND the times! I live in local yokel-ville, and there's three laundromats that have in them...brace yourself....a big screen TV, tailor, 4 tanning booths, kids play area, two or three video games, washing machines/dryers and a little snack/deli counter.
I used to live right behind one, and I'd take all our big stuff (comforters, rugs, etc) to clean while I played games ;D
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Im getting the washer and dryers pretty cheap..another guy is shutting his laundrymat down and just wants to get rid of the stuff. There are no other laundrymats like this one is gonna be anywhere near there...i made sure and checked. And Im gonna try to cater to the college kids as much as possible. Before we open we are gonna put flyers up for suggestions. Its not so much the Money being made as much it is that we just want to bring an arcade back. Theyre a dying breed so you gotta hook people somehow. We arent gonna charge much for tokens. most of the money to keep the place going will be made off the laundry equipment. And yes there will be more arcade then laundry.
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Well good luck with your venture.............
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most of the money to keep the place going will be made off the laundry equipment. And yes there will be more arcade then laundry.
Hmm...it sounds like you really thought this out then!
::)
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Whoa, this would be great if it happens. $600/month is a steal for a business place, especially if you get the machines cheap and you're near 2 colleges. Unless the place is rat-infested, do it! Good luck.
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Its not rat infested but its gonna need work. getting it so cheap cause its a buy owner kinda deal. it will be awhile before its off the ground but its a childhood dream comming true.
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well, along the lines of free beer and chics...you could always sell beer there. video games, beer, and getting your laundry done. three things i'd love to do all at once. can't think of anything for the chics though...i guess they've got to do laundry too though.
also, colleges have their own laundry things, so you might want to price yours the same...
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Yeah we looked at the prices of the on campus laundry 1.00 to wash 75 to dry...we are gonna do like 75 wash 50 dry . And im pleased to let you know. weve already applied for an alcohol licence. We should be aproved in a few weeks. Weve had alot...ALOT of middle aged guys come boppin around too asking "when are you going to open...oh my god is that an original tempest machine"
Its gonna be fun
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Your childhood dream was to get peoples clothes clean??
;D
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lmao...yes all ive wanted since the ripe age of 13 is to bring fresh clothes and a twinkle of dryer sheets in a young persons eyes.
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where is this again? sounds like a nice place to clean my laundry...
also, it sounds like you already are, but go ahead and start posting flyers all over the schools, but don't hype it up too much, or you wont be able to live up to it and people wont come back. just be mysterious so people want to come see what it's all about. are you going to have a tv and couch? or couches? man, now i want to come. or better yet, have one of my own.
BYOLM (build your own laundry mat). on second thought, you should call it that. or even better, call it
_____'s place, like as if it was your home. so when people were talking about doing thier laundry, they'd be like, "hey, i'm going over to ___'s place to do my laundry, wanna come and back me up on ____(arcade game)?"
you lucky B@stard...we all dream of this, and now you get to have one...
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Nah not hyping it up at all. We want to be able to deliver on our stuff. This is in virginia beach. I dont live there yet but 3 of the other guys do (was sad to watch my arcade machines get loaded up onto a uhaul) We thought about couches but we dont know yet. On the name we're stuck one guy said retromat the other had your idea. We had a freind die not to long ago and his name was Wid so we were thinking of calling it Wid's Place. He loved arcades and this was his dream too so it fits. We just ordered carpet for the arcade part...blacklight stars and planets...got the idea from someones home arcade. And we've been looking into projectors like on the arcade84 video to project the characters that go up and down the isles. And as far as big tv..We found a guy thats gonna sell us an old style multi television setup for like 3000 which is a steal considering its 4 by 4 27" tvs that all make up one picture. As soon as I get up to virginia beach im gonna get some pics to post..itll be easier when I move there.
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sounds pretty cool........ and sounds like you got it all planned out........
the Chuck E Cheese of laundry mats :D
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With all the friggin stuff in there, you should throw in a restaurant! Food, alcohol, games, TV, luxury, laundry. This could be the new college hangout if you make it well known!
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That alcohol liscense is going to give you a lot of trouble IMHO. Disregard the fact that an establishment that will serve alcohol on-site will have at least a $10k initial investment, you will have annual fees to pay that can vary GREATLY depending on where you are. Virginia Beach may not be NYC, but it's not the middle of nowhere either. I know some NYC bars have to pay quite a lot (I've heard up to 50k a year, but that is backed by no credible info, so take that with a grain of salt). Either way though, you can be sure in a place like VA beach, you'll be paying fees and taxes that easily reach into the thousands. You also bring in people that will be getting drunk, and thus show less respect for your machines. You also have to then deal with the alcohol all over your machines.
Also, you need to personally have a very clean record, and jump through a ton of hoops just to actually GET the license, not even worrying about paying for it.
Good luck, but IMO that liquor license is more trouble than its worth.
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Well I dont think it should become a bar, probably just a little section that you can buy a quick beer from.
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With all the friggin stuff in there, you should throw in a restaurant! Food, alcohol, games, TV, luxury, laundry. This could be the new college hangout if you make it well known!
Well, technically the average college student isn't even old enough to buy alcohol, wouldn't that provide for a bit of a problem?
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Nope not a whole bar. just a quick beer for the older guys. (lotza older guys asking about the place) only 5 % of college students wanted beer. The majority wants food and arcades. And the other majority wants the cheaper laundry. So we are gonna get food (we have a deal with little ceasers pizza) and hotdogs the regulars. As for couches we asked and they are a good thing. The coolest thing is that these kids are asking for the older games....THE CLASSICS....they want them more then the new stuff...im loving it.
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and as for couches, just get cheap ones from the local goodwill, and throw some huge thick sheets over them. i'd give alot more input, but it sounds like your all way ahead of me, and going in abuot the same direction as i would. good luck with the whole thing, and i hope it works out for you all.
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Hehehe the funny thing about the couches is that they are comming from a prison....nice and durable. We are gonna pad them some how with softer stuff..they are kinda rubber right now. Im going up there tommorrow to check some stuff out. Last time I talked to them they were all in the building playing tempest....its gonna be a slow process.
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Well I dont think it should become a bar, probably just a little section that you can buy a quick beer from.
you still need a liquor license to distribute alcohol on-premise... whether you sell 1 beer a nite or 1,000. In fact, if the beer is only a small part of your idea, I'd say it's an even worse idea than before. Believe me, it is probably not worth the trouble.
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Might want to look into putting flyers up on the Navy bases around there. I was stationed there for a few years and a cheap place to do laundry while enjoying an arcade, food and beer sounds like something that a lot of sailors would get into. VA Beach might be a little far for some to drive but, a lot of my friends lived in that area and commuted to NOB. Just some food for thought. Good luck and I'll look forward to visiting Wid's Place when I go visit my old shipmates.
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UPDATE!!!!
...please?
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Well I dont think it should become a bar, probably just a little section that you can buy a quick beer from.
you still need a liquor license to distribute alcohol on-premise... whether you sell 1 beer a nite or 1,000. In fact, if the beer is only a small part of your idea, I'd say it's an even worse idea than before. Believe me, it is probably not worth the trouble.
And if you don't sell a lot of beer you will get completely ripped off by your distributer. I managed a restaunt that sold a few beers occasionally mostly because the owner wanted to make sure he could get beer on sunday if he ran out ;) You could actually buy beer cheaper retail at any grocery store than you could wholesale from the distributer.
The customers would complain to me about the high prices think ing we were ripping them off and I would tell them we were literally selling it at cost but they wouldn't beleive me since the grocery store down the street was a dollar cheaper a 6pack.
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Well I dont think it should become a bar, probably just a little section that you can buy a quick beer from.
you still need a liquor license to distribute alcohol on-premise... whether you sell 1 beer a nite or 1,000. In fact, if the beer is only a small part of your idea, I'd say it's an even worse idea than before. Believe me, it is probably not worth the trouble.
And if you don't sell a lot of beer you will get completely ripped off by your distributer. I managed a restaunt that sold a few beers occasionally mostly because the owner wanted to make sure he could get beer on sunday if he ran out ;) You could actually buy beer cheaper retail at any grocery store than you could wholesale from the distributer.
The customers would complain to me about the high prices think ing we were ripping them off and I would tell them we were literally selling it at cost but they wouldn't beleive me since the grocery store down the street was a dollar cheaper a 6pack.
Why not just buy it at the grocery store then?
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Update is kinda slacking yes..but...theres alot of remodeling in progress. We ripped some of the dry wall out and there was mold behind it...which is bad so all that had to be cleaned and just yesterday the sheet rock showed up. So it's going slow but as soon as its remodeled I'll post some pics. Also since we had to do all the mold removing the owner is charging us 50 less a month cha ching. Other than that the 8 foot black lights came in and we have about 18 machines and going to the auction soon. Actually here is some pics
When we walked in and whats going up to block out window light...keep in mind this is just the arcade side. The laundry side is still mold infested...gross
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Whatchya gonna call it?
"Coin It" ?
"Slot Pluggers"
"Mean n Clean"
"Wash n Kill"
"LaundryCade"???
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Looks like you guys have been busy!
-S
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i like the names ray, keep em up. you might actually get one of your names on the place...
i personally like slot pluggers, but that might not be the best choice...
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Clean Kill
Dirt Zappers
Poor Man's Laundry and Video
Play Video Games While You Wait
(hey I can just see it now - bunch of college guys playing PacMan in their boxer shorts)
Stick A Coin In It
Oh My Gosh This Is So Retro!TM
Your Dad's Laundromat
Alien Invasion Coin-Op Center
I Spent My Last Quarter On Donkey Kong And Now My Clothes Won't Be Dried inc.
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awesome, just awesome...i think clean kill is the winner in this group, but just for the public's sake, i'd probably stay away from words like kill in the title. maybe i'm just a bad buisnessman though, so no one listen to me.
poor man's laundry and video is good too.
one of the long titles might be cool too, but you'd have to call it by a shorter name first, kinda like dr strangelove (or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb), otherwise no one would want to say where they were going, because it would take too long. that's why i'm in favor of a name like " ____'s place".
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Porky's
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maybe we should open a competing laundrymat accross the street ray...these guys seem like amatuers anyways. 8)
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I think slot pluggers would bring in the pervs....Its gonna be named Wid's after our freind that recently died. Also we already got one noise complaint. Some old ladys across the street have a thrift shop of sorts and we plugged up the stereo and played the descendents at a moderate level (loud) and they called the cops. Which the cops said that they said we were playing rap.......also how does some 80 yr old women hear anything across 2 lanes of busy traffic. Tommorrow we shall play the misfits and see how much like rap that sounds ;D
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i know this might seem sacreligous, but are you going to have normal systems in there too? like xbox and playstation?
some kids just don't know what fun games are...but you could still use thier laundry money.
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also how does some 80 yr old women hear anything across 2 lanes of busy traffic.
Uh, maybe because the music was too loud?
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it wasnt that loud
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This place sounds awesome, please post pics when you're done!
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Update?!??!
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I went to school at Texas A&M in College Station, TX for a couple of years. They had a laudromat/bar. I never used the place, but I always got the impression that they did pretty well. College students can't drink for the first couple years of school, but they can drink after that. And a drinking college crowd attracts a non-drinking college crowd.
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"LaundryCade"
Simple, yet brilliant. That one get's my vote.
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Wid's LaundryCade.