50% of Workers Earned Less Than $26,000 in 2010

If you have been wondering why open play bowling is off (as are restaurants, bars and nightclubs), maybe this article will shed some light on  the issue.

The following article was excerpted from a recent report on payroll taxes.

"1) Half of all workers made less than $26,364, the median wage in 2010. That means the typical wage is at its lowest level since 1999, after adjusting for inflation.

2) The number of millionaires increased by about 20 percent.

3) The size of the missing work force is 10 million. The number of working people fell by 5.2 million since 2007. But that's not the entire job deficit, because, based on population growth estimates, 4.5 million more would have joined the work force between 2007 and 2011. Add it up, and you get a 10-million-worker gap.

 

What you see in the graph above is that median pay took a  nose dive after 2007, effectively wiping out all gains made in the previous eight years. The macro explanation is that the economy shrunk, and middle class jobs disappeared and were replaced with (or outlasted by) lower-paying positions that companies kept on.  But the economy isn't one giant corporation. It's thousands of giant, medium-sized, and small companies in industries that lived through very different recessions.

So to fix our open play, is it an either or situation of having to cut our prices to  get to this market or target a  more affluent  market?  Perhaps a combination of both.

Or do we create a high level bowling loyalty program that encourages repeat business by offering discounts for future business transactions?

What would you do?