Watch Costs But Don’t Over-Economize
by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com
You have an FEC. It’s a few years old and you’re looking for direction. Should you concentrate on new games and attractions? Food quality and clean bathrooms? Live entertainment and children’s birthday parties? All the above? Pick a direction and get started!
This magazine is a resource for game operators and manufacturers. It can give you some ideas and insights into what can work and what life experiences can be shared. It provides an opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes.
Let’s face it, any business today is under pressure. High inflation is hurting the consumer’s buying power. As I write this, diesel fuel is $6 per gallon and it’s hurting everything we buy. Speaking of costs at my factory, games that used to ship for about $250 now cost around $600.
Most businesses have raised prices. I noticed one manufacturer recently raised prices on two different models by $1,000 a game. It will be up to the buyer to weigh perceived value as they decide to make the purchase … or not.
This summer, I’ve seen many businesses scale back. At restaurants, I’ve seen them cut staff, reduce the size of portions and serve drinks in smaller glasses (filled with more ice than usual). I get it.
If rising costs weren’t enough to deal with, restaurants are also facing the increasing number of GLP-1 users who are simply eating less. They may order an appetizer as a dinner, share a meal and/or skip dessert. Young people are drinking fewer brown liquors, and are sitting at bars less often, using social media more to interact with their peers. They also don’t pull slot machine handles at casinos and instead, use their phones more often to make all kinds of wagers from the comfort of their home or the office.
Everything changes. You must change, too. But, and here’s the important part, what doesn’t change is the value of having friendly and knowledgeable staff along with fair- and value-pricing so the customer feels good and is satisfied by what they spent. You need to offer the highest quality, freshest food available. You need the cleanest bathrooms and best stocked redemption counters. You must have the latest games and attractions that work and are safe.
This is a tall order but hey, you want to be in business, right? If you haven’t added any meaningful games or attractions in the last year, you’re on your way out of business. Your customers notice, and there are likely other places in your area now that have better and newer games. By not updating your amusements, you may be thinking that you’re saving money, but you’re not. You’re choking the business.
It’s been said that nothing worth doing is easy, and that rings even more true today. Keep your eyes open and pay attention to your business and it will pay you back.
Jack Guarnieri started servicing electro-mechanical pinball machines in 1975 and has been involved in every phase of the amusement game business since then. He was an operator in NYC, then began a distributorship in 1999, PinballSales.com, selling coin-op to the consumer market. In January of 2011, he founded Jersey Jack Pinball (named after his RePlay Magazine pen name), which builds award-winning, full-featured, coin-op pinball machines. Email Jack at jack@jerseyjackpinball.com.