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Feasibility of opening an Arcade

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DaOld Man:
I was thinking of opening one in a shopping center (or mini mall) with a huge store like Walmart in the center. Parents drop the kids off at the arcade while shopping.
Im not sure about charging a flat rate.
Say if you had a scant 20 games.
If you charged 10 dollars people may think it is too pricey, and we all remember how some of the bigger kids tended to hog the good games. With unlimited play you would have to lay down some rules, such as maximum play time, IMHO. (Another turn off.)
Even at 10 dollars you are looking at each game being played for 50 cents per game, with unlimited times to play.
At 5 dollars, it would be back to the quarter per game.
I think I would rather have some kids with allowances spending until they were out then hit the road, make room for others,  than say, hey, give me your allowance and stay all day.
I can remember thinking I would only let my kids spend 10 bucks each (2 kids) at the arcade, but I would wind up spending at least 10 on myself too. 30 bucks. For about an hour, cause small kids are not going to play a game a long time. (But I could be wrong).
Now the food idea might be good, but then you got the headache that comes with that, health inspections, extra fire insurance, etc.
A 80's style arcade is what I had in mind.
As far as the machines, would you really have to buy them? Cant they be leased? Might cover the headache of repairing them.
Another idea could be to set up booths in the back, with a network set up for people to plug their playstations, or X-boxes into, charge a flat fee for X amount of hours, and host  Halo tournaments after the front arcade closed.
Of course no drugs or alcohol would be allowed.

bluevolume:
If this is something that you would enjoy doing, and don't care if you lose bags of money on it, then it might be possible.  Other than that, I would look for a much less stressful and difficult way to spend your retirement.

You mentioned renting the games -- that right there would completely squash any hopes of this working.  If you already owned all of the games, then there's that fine margin of maybe being able to pay the rent/utilities.  Sharing the profit with a vendor is not a viable option.

The booth/network plan is actually something that we have in my city.  Its sort of an arcade for gamers, mostly for PC games though.  But, like I said in my previous post, most of the real profit comes from the snacks and power-drinks.

DaOld Man:
Thanks for all the input..
I guess I have awoken and agree that it would most likely be a very expensive and elusive dream.
No, I do not have bags of money to throw at it.
I would love to do it, but not so much that I could go without eating..
And the real killer... my wife would probably not be as encouraging as you guys..
So I guess it's on to my next dream...
Now where did I put that ad for a tropical island??

Ken Layton:

--- Quote from: DaOld Man on September 12, 2007, 10:03:58 am ---I was thinking of opening one in a shopping center (or mini mall) with a huge store like Walmart in the center.

--- End quote ---

That's a problem right there. Any place with a Wal-Mart in it would automatically want too much for rent.

ChadTower:

You also want to consider workload.  I know you said you're retiring, but you're looking for a time filler, not a giant anchor of a timesink business.  Arcades have long hours, need to be attended, and really would limit your freedom as a new retiree.  Do you really want to go into retirement only to be completely tethered by a business that at best will break even? 

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