Are arcades viable given the cost of energy?

[neoretro]

Christ wasn’t this about energy costs making arcades viable.

The only thing that would make an arcade non-viable is there’s not really the demand for it.

I’ve done a long post on this. But if you want to run an arcade, run a bar and put some arcade machines in it.

The problem with that is most pubs are saying various price increases will put them out of business. So how anyone new to the party with higher electric costs would beat that I don’t know.

Personally I’d avoid getting involved in anything which fixes you into a contract over the next 5 years. Whether that be rent, energy or a business.

But having done it, I wouldn’t touch an arcade as a primary business anymore. Certainly not a retro one. The demand doesn’t exist.

 

[northwest]

Buy arcade 1ups or fit LCD

northwest2022-08-30 22:53:34

 

[John Bennett]

It's going to be so catastrophic, the government will have to try to act fast.
What they do is another matter though (not helpful that it's near radio silence right now while they gear up to put a terrifying nutbag in charge).

It's the wholesale prices we import in energy at that have gone up and the UK supplier profit margin added onto it is something tiny like 2% or less and the govt energy VAT is 5%, I think (correct me if wrong), so you can't wave a wand and change 50p kwhr back down to 20p, so it's going to have to include things like windfall taxes on energy companies cash reserves and bank loans to either subsidise our bills, give us all handouts or dropping other forms of tax... Might take a slight edge off it for some, but it looks painful, no matter what

edit: So arcade wise, all we can hope is that whatever is done helps save any going under in the same way it's going to have to save squillions of pubs and other businesses.

John Bennett2022-08-30 23:27:47

 

[kingtreelo]

i was hoping to visit Arcade Club this Friday but have noticed that times have now been altered so my visit is no more

Knock on effect of all this i guess, i normally arrive at 11 and get a couple of hours in before the masses arrive and i have to stop myself from tripping up the kids treating it like a fun factory with no parents in sight to stop them.

Had to tell a few kids off who were hitting the machines last time i was there

I'm not a solo visitor also, i always take at the least 2 people with me and even they have said they would rather not visit on a Sat and Sun when the place is just ramed full of non arcade fans

 

[neoretro]

i was hoping to visit Arcade Club this Friday but have noticed that times have now been altered so my visit is no more

Knock on effect of all this i guess, i normally arrive at 11 and get a couple of hours in before the masses arrive and i have to stop myself from tripping up the kids treating it like a fun factory with no parents in sight to stop them.

Had to tell a few kids off who were hitting the machines last time i was there

I'm not a solo visitor also, i always take at the least 2 people with me and even they have said they would rather not visit on a Sat and Sun when the place is just ramed full of non arcade fans

This just reads like a bit of a whinge about kids at Arcade club.

The fact it’s full is a good thing. And kids want drinks so they’ll be keeping the bar side of things ticking over nicely.

Be pleased it’s that way. Anywhere doing a decent job will have a lot of kids. Anywhere empty or full of the odd adult will be closed by the turn of the year

 

[chubsta]

kids treating it like a fun factory with no parents in sight to stop them.

Had to tell a few kids off who were hitting the machines last time i was there

I'm not a solo visitor also, i always take at the least 2 people with me and even they have said they would rather not visit on a Sat and Sun when the place is just ramed full of non arcade fans

sounds like a proper old-school arcade to me, hitting the machines was always part of the fun when you died.

On a more serious note, good to hear places like Arcade Club get very busy sometimes though, I live too far away to visit any arcades but had the impression there may be a couple of people from UKVAC in there and that's it...

 

[Fantazia2]

i was hoping to visit Arcade Club this Friday but have noticed that times have now been altered so my visit is no more

Knock on effect of all this i guess, i normally arrive at 11 and get a couple of hours in before the masses arrive and i have to stop myself from tripping up the kids treating it like a fun factory with no parents in sight to stop them.

Had to tell a few kids off who were hitting the machines last time i was there

I'm not a solo visitor also, i always take at the least 2 people with me and even they have said they would rather not visit on a Sat and Sun when the place is just ramed full of non arcade fans

This just reads like a bit of a whinge about kids at Arcade club.

The fact it’s full is a good thing. And kids want drinks so they’ll be keeping the bar side of things ticking over nicely.

Be pleased it’s that way. Anywhere doing a decent job will have a lot of kids. Anywhere empty or full of the odd adult will be closed by the turn of the year

This. If only proper arcade fans were the ones going it would be out of business in no time.

Not sure about floor 2 now but pretty sure it used to be adults only most of the time with familys allowed in during extended holiday hours.

 

[John Bennett]

I was at Bury on Friday (adults only) and there was maybe 10% of machines in use at once (well for the rows of candy cabs and classic machines).
Fantastic for the punter who just wants to play some games, but yes, you'd want a better punter to machine ratio for most of the time, especially if electricity is 5x what it was.

(The machines were in brilliant nick too, especially the monitors

. Probably better than they were in real arcades in 1990)

 

[iamjimmi]

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/popular-skegness-arcade-warns-redundancies-7533863iamjimmi2022-09-01 19:30:27