Barcade Brainstorming

[SirPsycho]

So those of you that have been around for awhile know that I would love to own and run a nice barcade. In the absence of any cabinets or capital to get that started right now I am limited to planning. Tonight, while in my evening shower (the best time to think) my mind was racing and I came up with a rewards system to get people in the door, playing games, and having fun.

The big reward system is the DD rewards. Nobody wants to be a DD and most bars do nothing to reward their efforts. So I came up with this simple reward: a free non-alcoholic drink (water, milk, soda, juices etc) and $2 in free quarters to play games. This is viable every visit and I would have little bracelets on top of permanent market Ds on the back of each hand to keep anybody from lying and stealing bracelets.

Another idea similar to this I had is an after school program, this depends on if any youngsters can appreciate big, bulky late 70s, 80s, and 90s arcade games. Obviously no alcoholic drinks, but their first visit in this program would get them $2 in free quarters and a membership card. Give me $20 worth of your parent's money and you'll get $5 in quarters for free! In order to keep any of this money from walking out of the door there would be 5 punches in the middle of the card to use, so if you only use $2 one day you don't have 3 more jingling in your pocket to spend elsewhere. I could have some video game history classes in here for those interested in learning where the games came from and what their creators might be doing by then.

If I end up with a kitchen you can bet I'll be cooking some bar food in there, burgers and fries, fish and chips, tacos, weekend specials, all this good stuff. So not only can you get your drink on and play some classic arcade games you can get your beer munchies satisfied with fresh, hot food! I have an annual event planned around food as well, a big Mardi Gras seafood boil like my family does every year. I could get some other restaurant and/or bar owners together to feed one giant street long party that might rival skunky Bourbon Street.

So what do you guys think? Are these sound plans? What would you do differently or add to this list?

[Duke.Togo]

Sounds like you have some fun plans there. When you say "$X in free quarters," do you mean tokens? If it is literally quarters what would stop them from pocketing them and leaving?

Another thought for after school would be free play from X to X time when you pay X to get in the door. I'd certainly do food, and also the usual bar items like billiards and darts. Rock Band for folks that want the karaoke experience.

[SirPsycho]

Sounds like you have some fun plans there. When you say "$X in free quarters," do you mean tokens? If it is literally quarters what would stop them from pocketing them and leaving?

Another thought for after school would be free play from X to X time when you pay X to get in the door. I'd certainly do food, and also the usual bar items like billiards and darts. Rock Band for folks that want the karaoke experience.

Tokens can cost quite a bit of money and they'll need to be replaced, quarters are money so they'll be much quicker to replace at any bank. My way to mitigate this is by having a change machine. Pop in $5 and you get $5 worth of quarters. If the quarters walk out I still get the $5. Drunks are going to forget about some change in their pocket anyways so this is a way to lower the risk, but there's no way to completely eliminate it. The punches could come from a card reader.

The free play with a cover charge is a nice idea, there is a place in my hometown that does/did it back when I was in Jr. High and High School but they didn't really do it well as the focus of the business wasn't on the 6 or so arcade machines they had, Gauntlet Legends + 5 racers.

[SirPsycho]

The more I think about it the more I don't like any card idea. Everybody and their dog groomer has a membership card and nobody likes having a wallet stuffed full of cards you rarely or never use.