I am not OOP. Do not comment on original post or harass OOP.

Originally posted to r/MadeMeSmile by user imvii

3 updates - long (lots of comments to sort through since the original posts are images)

Original posted on Sept 1, 2022

One Year Update posted on July 6, 2023 (10 months later) 

"Update" 2 posted to r/ToFizzOrNotToFizz on Oct 13, 2023 

Update 3 posted Dec 12, 2024 (just over 2 years from original) 

...

“After years of collecting, problems with arcade bylaws, and a pandemic, I've finally quit my career in IT and opened a pinball arcade.”

• Editors note: OOP is based in the Canadian province Prince Edward Island, abbreviated to PEI

View photo from original post here.

Image description: A wide shot of an arcade with classic arcade games. The lighting is dim with purple and pink/red neon colours.

Comments 

ProfessionalUsual104

Great, now my brain wants to know about Canadian arcade bylaws...

OOP

The long and short of it is they tried to curb kids loitering in arcades in the 80's so they passed a bunch of weird bylaws or just banned arcades in particular zones. When arcades died out, the laws just stayed in place.

There were lots of variations. One area only allowed arcades in malls with a shared public entrance. If I recall Maple Ridge BC had particular hours you could be open and all windows had to be clear so you could see inside and no kids during school hours (so you'd have to know all the hours of all the schools in the area). Vancouver was 19 and older only. Seems like most places around the lower mainland of BC had old laws in place and most councils weren't interested in revisiting the laws.

I do know Abbostford went through their laws about 10 years ago and nuked all the old arcade language and just clumped it into something like indoor recreation. They also got rid of some law about walking your cow in the street.

Snoo-54784

We chanced upon your establishment a few weeks ago when I had my kids out on the island for vacation. I think you took a few minutes to tell my daughter all about the antique machine she got herself obsessed with. She's so rarely impressed, but this place did it 😎

OOP

This comment makes it all worth it. I'm so glad to hear this. Thank you.

Update 1: July 6, 2023 (10 months later)

View photo from original post here.

Image description: a wide shot of the arcade from a different view from the previous post. This appears to be taken from behind the counter.

OOP comments under the photo posted to r/MadeMeSmile

It's been a year since we opened Seven's Pinballorama and I thought I'd give Reddit an update.

My previous post about the arcade is here. (Editor’s note: link removed)

Things have been going really well at the arcade. We've had ups and downs, but mostly ups. We did get hit with a hurricane last year. It didn't do damage to the building but the winds thrashed the island. Most of the island was without power for 12-14 days (some longer). The arcade was without power and internet for 10 days if I recall. There were long gas pump lines of jerry cans for generators. There are still areas with lots of downed trees and old barns and houses are sprinkled around the island which became unrepairable after the storm.

We've been doing a steady business since opening. We had numbers we wanted to hit each month and we always hit them. We've done lots of birthday parties. I think our youngest was 7 years old and the oldest was a guy turning 81. We see lots of date nights and people who just like to play games. We have a large group of regulars we see several times a month. We still don't have a demographic. We get people of all ages and genders in here and it varies by the day.

We've changed our game lineup a little and brought in a handful of video arcades. I think we're at 38 pinball and 10 video right now - but I'm always moving things around from inventory I have off-site. We brought in more video because we found some kids start to get bored of just pinball. The video games offer them some entertainment. I even brought in a couple of little home versions of video games because they're the size of little kids - and the little kids love them.

We're having our official one year anniversary July 15th. We're having an open house and letting people in the arcade for free 90 minutes before we normally open. We're offering free coffee, drinks, snacks - and I ordered a bouncy castle for kids. I figure the people here have been so great to us, I'll do a little in return. I'm looking forward to it.

So here we are, a year in, and I don't regret quitting my IT job. There are hurdles in running a small business, I work a lot right now, but I feel more satisfied at the end of the day. Also, some of that work is playing games with customers, so I can't complain too loudly.

TLDR: Everything is awesome!

Edit: Forgot the link to the old post

Edit, Edit: typo.

Comments

xRee4x

I can't help but think of the fun and entertainment you've brought to a lot of people. Wish you continued success as you help others create fond memories.

OOP

It's such an amazing thing.

When I worked in IT I had two modes: most of the time I was the invisible dude in the back room silently keeping things going. When things out of my control went south then customers were mad at me. Invisible or hated. Hard to choose.

Now, it's just people having fun and smiling.

Shoddy-Ingenuity7056

When I saw your post my mouth dropped, in your photo dead center is a machine I’ve been looking for that was operational for my father to play. My grandfather worked for Ohio vending and worked on all sorts of vending machines and my father learned all about them as he was usually in tow to grab tools. He was brought up in a small marina town in northern Ohio that happens to have a penny arcade (63 just pinball machines) and dance hall. I have heard many stories about his times at both places, he worked at the arcade where he sorted silver out of change (and also developed a pack day cigarette habit at 8). Anyhow he has talked for years about the best pinball machine he had ever played, Palooka! I have already sent him a screenshot of the photo and the website, there is a family reunion annually in upstate NY, if we can swing it we will be headed your way this year! Thank you so much for posting!

OOP

I have a story about my Palooka. (Sorry, this got long.)

It used to be in a restaurant in White Rock BC in the late 60's, early 70's. One day the operator of the machine started packing it out. The restaurant owner asked what he was doing with it and the guy said it was going to the landfill. It had stopped earning enough due to all the quarter play pinball machines (Palooka was only a dime to play) so he was dumping it. The restaurant owner paid him $75 and took it home.

The son of the restaurant owner grew up playing the machine in the restaurant and then later in his house. Years later he moved out, got his own house, and Palooka followed him.

Over time Palooka started to break down. He put some money into it and got it running, but more years go by and it's no longer working again. The son decided it was probably time to sell it, but he was really split on it. At one point the restaurant burned down and the son told me Palooka was one of the few material things that survived those early years in the restaurant. Childhood memories and such, it had a special place in his heart.

He listed it for sale for way too much (partly because he wasn't sure the value and I think partly due to sentimental value). I went to check it out and was honest with him on the condition and what it would take to get going again. Everything was rusted, the game was pretty rough, didn't start, the front wood was severely chipped and gouged and most the paint was missing. I made him a fair offer and told him my plans to restore it and put it in an arcade.

He declined and we shook hands. I told him if he ever changed his mind to call me.

I'm 10 minutes out his front door and my phone rings. He said he thought about it and really liked the idea of this game being back in the public and being loved again.

I don't have his contact information any more, so I can't tell him, but he got his wish. It is well loved in the arcade and sees a ton of plays. It's one of the few in here that everyone who comes in has to try. Most of these machines are just machines to me. They're working assets I have for the business.

But, there ARE a few special ones.

OOP on arcade sounds

We have a couple sets of headphones in the arcade for people who have a hard time with the sound. We've had a few kids really benefit from them.

I have a bit of an acoustic background as well from having set up a number of home recording studios. My plan was always to build some treatments to hang around I just haven't had the time yet. It's not too bad in there right now though. The treatments would definitely help tighten the sound in the room up. Reduce the overall din and make games easier to hear.

It's on my list of things to do.

OOP on food and drink

We started with a few little candy items and soft drinks and then expanded our candy selection. At one point we brought in chips and crisps but they really didn't sell very well. We let those taper off and filled that space with more candy items. That's doing pretty good and we want to expand on it. We have people come in just for candy now.

I just brought in peanut brittle with ghost peppers and some freeze dried candy. I'm looking for more interesting impulse items like that.

We also went crazy on soft drinks and have around 120 different flavours (and growing). We found local producers of craft sodas and also have other brands you don't normally see - Pop Shoppe, Jones, Jarritos, Boylan, etc. Stuff in bottles. These have been really popular. We also have the regular coke/pepsi items.

We are right next door to a pizza place - which some of our customers use. We let them bring pizza in the arcade and eat it.

I don't know if I would want to expand and have our own kitchen. At least not right now in this location. I do want to bring in espresso and maybe cafe food things like muffins and scones. Limiting to quick, stand and eat finger foods.

We are now a distributor for the company that makes Lava Lamp and sold a ton of those over the holidays. You can't see it in the picture but we've got about 30 Lava lamps running in the arcade. I want to expand those types of items as well. Interesting toys like magic tricks, plastic dog poo, sea monkeys, little science toys. Wacky stuff like that. The test items we've brought in have sold so I think it's a fun direction.

And

I do have a "no outside food or drink" sign on the door, but I usually tell people it's cool, just don't set drinks/food on the machines.

If someone wants to buy a hamburger and eat it in here, I don't really care because it's not like I sell hamburgers.

“Update” 2: Last year I opened a retro arcade in Canada. I wanted to have a really unique selection of soft drinks. How am I doing so far?

Photo of soft drink selection originally posted here. 

Image description: A closeup of two drink refrigerators with glass doors. Cans and bottles with brands such as Pepsi, Coke, Crush, Jones, Pop Shoppe, and many more.

Comments

OOP

There are a bunch that are Canadian brands - like Pop Shoppe. I've also got a handful of local ones like Hollis John's Root Beer, Raspberry Cordial, and East Coast Soda - which are made on the island here in PEI.

The Lime Crush I had to bring over from Newfoundland.

Update 3: Two years ago I quit my job in IT and opened an arcade. Last week I opened the new location - double the size.

Photo originally posted here. 

Image description: A view looking down a "hallway" of pinball games. The lighting is a purple/blue neon, and there is a person sitting facing away from the camera at another game.

Comments

OOP responding to a deleted comment

Enjoying life is a ton of work. I'm tired. I'll have a few days off in a few months though - so there's that.

western-information

enjoying life is a ton of work

Not a fan of this paradox

1quirky1

It is easy. Just two rules:

1. Be stupid rich like the 1%.
2. Don't be poor.

OOP

I forgot both those rules.

Instead I went with;

• Come up with crazy scheme
• Throw all your money at it and hope for the best.

Redditforever12

are you profitable? i dont know how arcades can really be profitable unless you do a food/beer combo kind of thing.

dracostheblack

He opened a second one i would imagine he has to be?

OOP

We moved to a new larger location. Closed the original. We've been profitable and the larger location is needed because we had to turn away people at the old location because we'd hit capacity. Also had to turn away private rentals and parties because we didn't have room for the people they wanted to bring in.

OOP on pay-to-enter

That's what we do. Pay to enter. $14.95 for an hour, 5 cents more for two hours. All machines and games on free play.

And

I stamp hands with the time their session expires.

Nanostrip

You should just buy a bunch of drones that hover over each individual person. When they're still in a valid session, the drone shines a green LED. When the time expires, the light turns red and starts zapping them until they get their ass out of your arcade.

OOP

I like it!

OOP on owning his games

When I was collecting games for the arcade I bought mostly broken ones. They're cheaper and I could learn how to fix them.

We've been debt free for the past two years but the move we had to take a little because I went over budget. We should have that paid off by Jan/Feb if our numbers are like last year.

The new location has a candy store in the front and lots of unusual soft drinks. We're also bringing in coffee/espresso

OOP on starting the business

My girlfriend and I bought a pinball machine for the house not knowing if we'd play it. We played the crap out of it. A year later we had about 8 machines shoved in the extra bedroom and people coming over all the time to play. We thought maybe we were on to something.

I did some research on arcades and different models (pay to enter vs coin drop vs barcade vs family friendly vs etc)

I spent over two years buying mostly broken machines and learning how to fix them. I figured I could always resell them later and make my money back if the arcade never pans out.

We moved to PEI with the intention of opening the arcade - then the pandemic hit. I hunkered down for a couple years and waited it out.

It has been worth it. We've been growing what works. We brought in candy and snacks at the old location. That did well so the new location has a proper candy store as a second revenue source. I'm going to bring in coffee/espresso as the new location is in a business park with nothing else like a cafe around. Try to get a third revenue stream going.

It's been hard work. Some really frustrating times when a bunch of machines on the floor all blow up at once, but the new location has space for a proper workshop so that will help.

REMINDER: I am not OOP. Do not comment on original post or harass OOP.