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RePlay Magazine is a monthly trade publication for the amusement route and family entertainment center owners and operators. This blog is intended to foster dialogue between professionals at all levels of the amusement industry. The site will pose a monthly question of critical importance to operators (and other members of the trade) in hopes that the sharing of our readers’ respective experience will help foster solutions and create a greater awareness of the industry’s common bonds.
7 comments:
We plan to swallow up a few small operators who think that conversion kits are new equipment.
We plan to swallow up a few large operators who won't take care of their equipment.
"We plan to swallow up a few small operators who think that conversion kits are new equipment."
Oooo, I'm shaking.
As a small op, I keep up-to-date as to what's out there, and what I need to be buying to keep up, stay relevant, and be profitable. Conversion kits help keep prices reasonable and boost my bottom line.
I guess some larger ops feel some need to tout their "Brand New Games," such as SSB2007, which, in fact, aren't any "newer" than the conversion kits they sell for the traditional IT cabinets used for around 5 years for Golden Tee. When the original SSB came out, I converted several of the GT cabs into SSB, and when I was done doing a *professional* conversion, the only difference between the $5K dedicated machines and the approximately $2.5K conversions that I put together was the color of the cabinet sides. White instead of blue. That's it.
Oh yeah, and the $2500 I saved. If you want to throw away those cabinets to buy new ones for no apparent reason whatsoever, more power to you.
That being said, there are certainly things that need to be bought dedicated, like some digital jukes, Big Buck Pro, and other things. But conversion kits work, they're affordable, and when you take *care* of your equipment, there's no need to constantly buy the dedicated versions of everything.
Go ahead and *try* to swallow up my locations. If the local gift-givers aren't able to wrest my locations away from me, I guarantee that you won't by simply promising them new equipment.
"We plan to swallow up a few large operators who won't take care of their equipment."
Heh. Well said. It never ceases to amaze me how stupid some large ops are when it comes to the way they treat perfectly good equipment and locations. I recently just got an account based solely on the fact that the former op didn't keep the machines he had in the location working to any degree. He actually had a pretty decent selection of machines, *had they worked*. It wasn't a major-league A-list location, but hey: it cost me *nothing* to get it (didn't even have to gift), I'm certainly not losing money there, the split is well in my favor, and the location required very little in terms of demands: a new countertop and a dollar bill changer, in addition to the other equipment that I was going to replace the previous equipment with. The only real out-of-pocket expense I had was the new countertop. Everything else, I had.
It's better than free storage...and it's a *heck* of a lot better than having the equipment sitting in my warehouse making me nothing. The location's really happy with me, and especially with my equipment (which all works, and *continues* to work), and guess what? They know other places that aren't happy with the way their ops are treating them...sounds like opportunity knocking to me!
I'll never be the biggest op in my area, but I *rarely* lose locations, and when I do, I find out why, and correct the problem for the future. Large ops don't scare me...it's the ones who aren't legit that scare me more than anything. And we all know what I mean by that, so let's not bury our heads in the sand and act like we don't know what happens out there.
"We plan to swallow up a few small operators who think that conversion kits are new equipment."
Are there any new conversion kits available that are even worth considering?
I manage a medium sized company and we felt the hit of some bad decisions in 2006. Those decisions were mainly from buying the newest games out. We are striving to make better decisions about what games will pay themselves off in a reasonable amount of time, and if some operators want to keep throwing money at any new game that comes along, let 'em, I'll wait for it to catch up to them.
That being said, we focus on cleanliness and customer service.Yet some operators are trying to undercut our splits just to gain accounts....which we know can't support themselves if all money is reported properly....I hope it catches up to them.
Having fully functional equipment should be rule number one. If it doesn't work, it can't earn.
The key to any conversion kit is the state of the cabinet it goes into. I have seen very impressive conversions, and I have also seen some frightening ones as well. The most important element is a working monitor. I have seen Silver Strikes with wicked old low res monitors that look like crap. If you're not going to go full dedicated, take some of the savings and invest in some "current" hi res monitors. It boosts earnings and makes that "old wood" look new again.
Size doesn't matter. Quality does. A small operator can be very successful by providing clean, functional games, with amazing support. Add promotions/ contests/ leagues and you have a very successful formula. Top operators all seem to use this simple formula.
Since I see the industry shifting towards more establishments wanting to won their own equipment, I think my resolution will be to capitalize on this. Someone will have to help them choose the right games, maintain them properly and choose how to reinvest and rotate. Whoever does this will be profiting on a part of the industry that is growing and largely untapped. Someone is going to make this money and I would like that someone to be me.
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