Over the past 5 or 10 years the
debate about whether bowling is a commodity or not rears its head and people flock
to take sides.
Most of us have flocked to the commodity side and therefore feel
that bowling should be priced as such, especially (or specifically) in the “traditional
model.”
Admittedly, as the second shift
(9 p to close, Monday thru Thursday) continues to atrophy, many proprietors
have offered their lowest pricing during this time period such as: quartermania, dollar
days, $5 all you can bowl and a host of similar low price promos and
I don’t blame them.
But that is a
slippery slope and in competitive markets, it may portend who goes out of
business first. Then again, you have to do what you have to do.
But do you have to stop
there? Do you have to just offer a LOWER
price? Can you not create some fun to go
with that low price? Can't a commodity priced product have a little fun too?
Why not make an effort to make
these low priced nights special nights; sell beer from a wheelbarrow on the
concourse sold by a waitress in a 5o’s outfit; or selling pizza from a rolling
cart and singing Italian songs; dressing staff in masks or costumes or hats; or
having staff on roller skates (check your workman’s comp insurance on this one);
or play different kinds of music even funky stuff from the 40’s and 50’s?
Wear a tuxedo, maybe a red one, host
Martini nights and hire an old time band in white dinner jackets to play music
that the kids never heard before; or run a Great Gatsby night; or hire a friend
who is an amateur musician.
What about temporary tatoos or face painters and certainly clowns; or hold an “open Mike night” and let
people sing a song; or do a 5 minute stand up comedy routine. Maybe do karaoke on the lanes with their video image
projected on the overhead or big screens if you have them?
Maybe
run crazy bowl contests or give away unlimited pizza for $5 per person, just
cheese pizza and cut into squares and serve the squares on small plates or dish them out
yourself or serve them per lane. Very,
very few of us are doing does this kind of stuff because we’re afraid that “it
won’t work.”
So it might not? Big deal if It didn’t work! (At least the staff might have had some fun). Try something else
and keep on trying.
The
best hitter in baseball, Ted Williams, was only successful a little over 40%
Howver, if you really believe your product is a commodity, especially during 2nd shift weekdays) and you price it as such, what
are you going to do when minimum wage goes to $15 per hour? Places like Seattle WA want to (or are planning
to) raise minimum wages to $15 per hour. Yikes!
What
if, instead, you created the brand image
that can honestly say, “You can get bowling anywhere at 9pm wherever there’s a bowling alley,
but you can’t get this from anyone but ME!"
