How are you handling bowling shoe rental?
Sure, professional bowlers use specialised shoes. Professional footballers and professional runners and cyclists and golfers and tennis players and skateboarders and ... do as well. But if you do any one of these activities at a low enough frequency and/or level that you're not buying your own specialised shoes, whatever sneakers you have will do just fine.
I was a little surprised when the local bowling centres stopped bothering to make everyone use the proper shoes. I get what you're saying about playing casually, but when I last went bowling with colleagues, and won comfortably, and others were asking for tips because they just can't roll the ball properly, but won't try proper shoes, they tried to wind me up by telling me I was "cheating" by using the proper shoes that are offered for anyone who wants one - I can't win :)
If you did this in tennis shoes, or any shoe with proper soles, the friction would cause your feet to stick and it'd be simply impossible. Socks would be much better than normal shoes, but then you have the opposite problem of too little friction and it's difficult to maintain control. Bowling shoes aren't like running or something where a pro runner is going to have some absurdly expensive pro shoe that improves his time by a fraction of a percent. They're much closer to something like ice skates for ice skating.
And yeah that's a pro with perfect perform, but even a beginner who's not just walking up to the lane, stopping, and throwing, is going to have to deal with sliding. It's just part of the game.
That's a good way to put it.
Bowling is very rare for me these days, but because they used to require you to wear bowling shoes, I've become used to the slide and can't bowl without them. I have tried a few times in my normal shoes, and found it almost impossible not to go arse-over-tit when letting go of the ball.
Bowling shoe vs running shoe? As soon as you’re trying to get better, the shoes matter a lot. They let you use the established techniques.
Bowling shoe vs socks? Never tried it, but I’m going to guess once you can break 100 that socks don’t cut it.
Nerds seem to forget that entertainment venues and sports are social spaces, interaction with staff matters, and is one of the more distinguishing features of a venue.
Unless you've got someone walking up and down the lanes introducing themselves as the manager/owner/whatever...
My thinking on that is, don't make the customer get up if they don't need / want to.
Long story short, the intent of the kiosk isn't to delete human interaction. Honestly, I implemented it as a way to summon servers or bowling mechanics, and any self-service options I could think of as-needed. One doesn't have to use the kiosk, they're just there as a convenience thing.
It depends a lot on whether your customer base is made up mainly of one-off walk-in casuals, or regulars. Getting to know the regulars, and having a chat with them, can improve the feel of being in work for the staff themselves, as well as providing a more friendly and welcoming atmosphere.
The OP described this particular case as being in a small town, with not many other options for entertainment, i.e. a small captive audience. You could say the customers don't have much else to do so it doesn't matter if you're a miserable git, they'll still come. But just being friendly and chatty makes all the difference to a lot of people, and can help you build a loyal audience of core customers who'll choose your place over the few alternatives, will keep coming, keep bringing more friends and family, and sometimes even support your business in unexpected ways.
Which I like because I always have to try a few sizes to get one that actually fits.
Sure you can jack up prices on food and drink. Sure you can fleece the people who do come, but everyone who stops coming "because it's too expensive" is lost forever.
The alternative is to create a space people want to come to. Yes sell food & drink. Being "good value" helps that. Being expensive fights it.
While yes, the flashy electronics is cool, do people come for that? Does it make it more fun? I just saw the ball with my own two eyes. Does an animation make it better?
What brings in a family? Work colleagues? Teenagers on a date? What brings in more competitive folks? Is there progression? What makes my friend group go once a week? Why do housewives want to hang out there at 11am? How to catch the bored teenagers at 3pm in the afternoon?
It's not even just about bowling. Can you create a space people want to come to?
Over many years I've tried to work out where a positive vibe comes from (mostly at food and beverage places).
My current theory is that a good vibe is an emergent behaviour from the customers.
Obviously poor managers/owners can make a toxic place (but negativity is a completely different issue from creating positivity). I've witnessed many owners think they can create a vibe, but then crash and burn (especially when taking over somewhere with an existing vibe). They often don't seem to understand how they failed (maybe have excuses that don't ring true). Starting or buying a business requires ego, but too much ego leads to mistaken self-belief.
I'm sure a wise manager can encourage a vibe to grow, but actually it seems like the customers drive the process.
Maybe it's just a human thing that like-minded people create spaces for themselves.
I watched the vibe at one place radically shift from tradies to more gentrified customers. Same owners and staff. I also suspect I'm just not good at it myself, so I lack the skills to even see why someone is good (and might not even understand if they try and explain to me).
Anyone else tried to grok how a good ambience grows? Is there some standard for learning it?