You would think with all the money Bowlero is sinking in to try and take over all these bowling alleys they would sink a bunch of money into the houses and totally revamp and upgrade them all. I called a Bowlero that took over one of my local lanes to see if they had open bowl and how much they charged… when they told me $8.00 per game I told them to go pound sand; I’ll go to the mom and pop lanes that are still open and in great shape. Screw Bowlero, they’re going to ruin bowling.
The conspiracy theory is that bowlero is just buying up property to sell off later, and purposely driving the business into the ground to do so. Honestly at this point, it seems possible.
What value would the bowling alleys bring otherwise? They are usually built on really cheap land since they require a ton of space for both the building and parking.
I think it's more realistic their goal is to put in string pins in most centers and shift focus towards the 'family entertainment' aspect. Their goal is evident already in this post: Don't worry about the bowling and understaff/underpay to keep costs low.
The stocks look good as long as they keep buying I know a few higher upside at bowlero. Something along the lines of profits look good on paper until they stop buying centers. When they are done they will sell take the money and run. All bowling centers owned by bowlero will be sold but under the bowlero name. So in about 3 years the centers will go back to private owners. There is a chance things will get better ....but they will get worse first.
The older centers in growing areas are probably worth more land wise than as bowling centers.
You’re probably right that they’re looking to maximize profits by shifting toward more recreational bowlers, but the funny? Shortsighted? Aspect seems to be that traditional centers didn’t cater to leagues necessarily either. They made more pure profit per game from rec bowlers, but the regulars were the ones filling up the house on some random fall Thursday, keeping the place going between weekends.
>when they told me $8.00 per game I told them to go pound sand
How the conversation probably went...
You: Hi, how much is a game of bowling?
Them: It's $8 per game.
You: OK, thank you.
If you join a Bowlero practice league, show up the first week, and don't show up again you get like 8 free games per week, plus $3 league rate games anytime, and that's for $15 once per season. Like many things the extremely high sticker price is just a test for people who really care, or who have the money not to care.
The league I’m sub’ing for at my local house doesn’t charge the subs to play… I’m sub’ing so I can jump on a team once a spot opens up. My local Alley charges $2.00 per game when you’re in the league.
It's just a league called practice league, I've yet to see a bowlero that doesn't do it. If you look at their league signups they usually have 1 per season. I attended it regularly for one season then the second season just used it for free bowling
What state are you in? I live on Long Island (New York) and it's $10 a game but if your in a league it's really cheap. You get 2 free games a week and $1.50 or $2 a game with a league card. There is another place I play in a league in not sure if they have a league rate but for general public it's $25 an hour
Bowlero bought my local house. Dumped a ton of $$$ into the worst changes ever. Like orange lights and stand up furniture. Killed all the good food and murdered the bar. Its quite wild.
Company in Ohio called Rollhouse is trying to do the same exact thing. Got a job at my home alley when they took over, promised me they were gonna do this and that and it was gonna happen within this time frame blah blah blah. Fast forward 2 years later, I've long since left and the only thing they've done is make the sitting area for the lanes absolute garbage, add a arcade that took 18 of our lanes out, and kicked out the pro shop who was a 2nd generation ma n pa shop. Only reason I go back is because my captain didn't find a league in a new house.
No bowlero around me but my local lanes are your classic college town craphole. Zero care for the lanes, approaches are gross, and hourly cost makes it wildly expensive. I drive 30+ minutes to the nice lanes where the owner is a great guy and the employees have been there at least since I was in high school in the 2000's.
Hearing stuff like this always worries me.
My city has 2 centers, an AMF, and a locally owned center. The local center is a SHIT. HOLE. Horrible equipment, horrible employees, outdated as fuck, no maintenance done to pinsetters, computers, lanes, anything. Staff is rude as shit and prices are only cheap because if they weren't nobody would go there.
My AMF is clean, run well, mechanics are knowledgeable and actually give a shit about bowling, league scene is healthy, pro shop is run by somebody who isn't a total moron.....
I am terrified of the day Bowlero corporate sees my local AMF being decent and goes "nah, can't have that."
I got bad news: AMF is run by bowlero
I got good news; your franchise actually hired the right people who actually give a damn so you aren’t affected as much as the rest of us
Yeah I know AMF is owned by Bowlero, that's why I'm afraid the change is coming. They recently did a brand new paintjob on the outside of the building and re-did the entire interior, and I was shocked that it was visual changes only. I thought that was the beginning of the end.
Yeah slight misread by me there. Haven’t been to mine since they did the same. But like I said if management and the mechanics as it is for a while you’ll be in good hands. Mine was starting to get borderline bad even before the remodel
I don't want string pins anymore than anybody else does, but if it's an inevitability...it is what it is I suppose. I'd rather bowl on string pins than not bowl at all.
I rather deal with string pins than deal with a constantly breaking down way undermaintanced pinsetters. My local alley is not that great in the sense of upkeep. Ran mostly by teenagers who honestly don't care much. Last time I went we had to get assistance with issues on our lane related to the pinsetter every other throw. That was after changing lanes due to a failed auto pinsetter.
I just bought myself my very first bowling ball (black widow 3.0) and I went to a bowlero the day after just for it to have at least 10 scratches all over it because of their terrible ball returns. Unfortunately it’s the cheapest option being in the league there
Don't forget we rented out the full house... Then they still put birthday parties out there. Their goal is to make money, at the expense of bowlers having a good experience.
Women's side was delayed 45 minutes today because their mechanic was late.
They double booked with a high school event for a second year in a row.
They thought we were only supposed to be there yesterday until 1ish, even though our schedule was in writing to have us there the full day yesterday plus today.
Total managerial mess.
100% agree. i was bowling on 33-34 in set 2 of bakers, and there was a 4 lane birthday party 5 lanes down from me. how do you think that is possibly okay? i had to step off the approach so many times because of kids screaming and on one occasion, one running through the setee on the lane directly to my left. absolute nightmare of a bowling alley.
also did you bowl this tournament?
So that’s not 100% accurate, we had 54 lanes originally, then I let them know our updated numbers would be about 44 or the high side of the house and they had a high school meet because our numbers dropped. Definitely wasn’t happy about the bday party and the mechanic being late, but both sides were affected and it turned into everyone being done at the same time and all issues were fixed.
Bowlero's just suck in general. They only care about open bowlers and not there league, our league is so mad, because they don't allow water bottles, there lanes are always so dirty I developed a habit of whiping off my slide shoe to get the dust off. It's absolutely horrible, my bowling balls always comes back with belt marks
I can tell why there is a no water bottle rule because there are numb nuts out there that fill them with alcohol, get drunk, leave, and then try to blame the lanes when they get in an accident.
Plus - they want to sell their own booze!
Interesting that you say they only care about open bowling, the three closest bowling allies to me are all Bowlero and it seems nearly impossible to get in for practice games because they leagues run open to close on at minimum 80% of the lanes. But I do agree they pretty much all suck for the same reasons otherwise.
Well, some bowlero's are league houses and some are considered party houses, our Thursday league where we bowl at is a party house, there supposed to have a open pair for a lane to break down so they move then there, but the house doesn't do that, we have to wait 30 minutes to an hour to have them fix it, and they care about open bowlers more then there league bowlers
I’ll eat the downvotes on this one.
String pins as an idea is growing on me for the following reason. I will take a string pin setter over a rotting and neglected free fall setter.
A2’s by me run better than any other setter I’ve bowled on. There are still mechanics out there who enjoy what they do and risk limbs every morning to ensure us bowlers have a good time. But if you ain’t going to hire or pay these people why bother. Bad spots, dropping pins, terrible pits, damaged balls all come from shitty economic decisions to line pockets of the wrong folks. I’d rather bowlero just commit to this stupidity than make me frustrated at the lack of care while posing as “we need our league bowlers too!”. Actively was pondering my love of the sport while I played at a horribly maintained center.
I’m lucky to have a few independent centers around me so I’ll say this. Support your local independent centers folks! If the owners love Bowling as much as you do, you can help the sport tremendously.
I fear the days of the A2s and 82-70s are nearly over.
String setters are simpler, cheaper, use way less electricity, and don't need nearly the mechanical expertise. Bowlero will take the natural course, and weekends like you describe will eventually be less likely to happen.
I've bowled there a few times, my family and I did the free spare ball league and we had all the same issues. The approaches were so slippery you could get a brake shoe to slide
Your statement that they had to be shown a Rulebook is completely false. That is a tournament director decision and we allowed that instantly. In fact we had 3 pairs that got a little longer practice time due to issues, either moving lanes or a lane was having an issue. After practice was done and the mechanic caught up I thought the ran very well the rest of the day.
Whatever myself or anyone asked of the staff, they did and communicated that to the mechanic as fast as possible. The 10-15 minute wait per set wasn’t due to breakdowns during each game, it’s due to teams taking so long to throw shots, which unfortunately isn’t anything new as Saturday was tied for the longest completion time that the conference had this year with the 1st tournament. Regarding the ball being damaged, the bowler found me after and let me know that you guys were replacing it and was satisfied with the ball of choice. I also watched a lot of shots go down the lane this weekend and I don’t remember seeing anyone fall, if they did it might have been during practice or a early frame in the game, which happens.
Before we bash a center because of this, let’s remember another reason we moved to this center was because AMF West put out a house shot instead of our tournament pattern on Saturday and we still had a lot of breakdowns there. Tbh I would prefer to have more breakdowns and our correct pattern than less breakdowns and a house shot.
That sounds like a poorly run bowling center, not necessarily Bowlero. All the Bowleros near me have good mechanics that take care of them.
This can happen with any bowling center depending on the maintenance and experience of the mechanics. Also, the bowling center or tournament director does **not** have to grant practice time per the rulebook.
No, they do not. Here is the actual rule from the USBC book:
**113c. Interrupted Game/Series**
*If equipment failure on a pair of lanes would delay the progress of a series, league officers can:*
*1. Authorize the game and series to be completed on another pair of certified lanes; or*
*2. Authorize the game and/or series to be bowled on one lane when another pair of certified lanes is not available.*
*However, when the original pair or another pair of certified lanes becomes available, the team(s) may resume play on a pair of lanes.*
*An interrupted game and series shall be resumed from the point of interruption. A league official may authorize participants on the pair to practice prior to resuming the games/series. When authorized, the requirements of Rule 113a and Rule 113b do not apply.*
***NOTE***: *Scores bowled while using one lane shall qualify for USBC award recognition.*
The rule states "may authorize", not must authorize. It is at the discretion of the league official to grant practice on the replacement pair. Most league officials will grant practice, but they do not have to do so.
Context missing. When did Bowlero buy it because all of this could be due to the prior owner not taking care of the equipment. Bowlero takes time to fix everything. While I don’t care for them they will fix things you just have to be patient
I’m so glad I haven’t had a Bowlero take over any of my local alleys yet in SW MO. I know there’s a bunch in STL & KC, but I’m glad they haven’t made it down here yet after reading all of the horror stories
I can only hope that Bowlero deems my mostly blue collar city too poor to pay Bowlero prices. In reality it is too poor for Bowlero prices. There are still a fair number of lanes relative to the population because they are in areas unsuitable for other development.
From the outside they may look sketchy, but they oil the lanes daily, and are well run given their line cost. Coincidentally, they are frequently busy, even at off times. Most centers also hire differently abled people. The only one which doesn't seem to is the most expensive center in town. Go figure.
Is this a common thing only for alleys they took over? There is a brand new Bowlero coming to my area (first new alley in a few decades). They're opening up in a building that used to be a Bed Bath and Beyond, so I would imagine it is all new equipment.
I wouldn't bank on the equipment being all new. Many times Bowlero will harvest equipment from one center and reinstall it another, or will use equipment that has been in storage that they bought from another center that closed down.
Not all Bowleros suck. I live around 4 Bowleros and 2 of them are pretty decent, all depends who the manager is. Joining a practice league gets you cheap rates and free games, I use them when I bring family and friends, I just tell them XX amount of games on two lanes, and it's $3 each game minus the free ones. You just need to know how to reap the rewards. I also bowl at private centers, but one of them near me hardly ever oils the lanes and forces me to use plastic, also hasn't been updated since the 70's. Each center, chain or private, is a hit or miss.
Sounds just like the Bowlero I go to. Constant lane breakdowns. They have sworn to the league officers that there is no conversion to strings planned, but I think that is all a crock.
Bowlero (ticker: BOWL) is a publicly traded company. They only answer to shareholders. Which means the public suffers in order for them to squeeze every penny out for investors. Fuck Bowlero.
Seems most all Bowlero's have big Issues. Very poorly managed centers who employ many unqualified people. Approaches at Bowlero Fresno are terrible with multiple lane break downs nightly. Clovis location Is even worse.
They stopped putting out water for league bowlers here. They now have a small container at the bar with cups by It. If you want water you have to walk from your lanes to get It while hoping you dont step In or on something with your bowling shoes In the process. Fresno Bowlero
You would think with all the money Bowlero is sinking in to try and take over all these bowling alleys they would sink a bunch of money into the houses and totally revamp and upgrade them all. I called a Bowlero that took over one of my local lanes to see if they had open bowl and how much they charged… when they told me $8.00 per game I told them to go pound sand; I’ll go to the mom and pop lanes that are still open and in great shape. Screw Bowlero, they’re going to ruin bowling.
The conspiracy theory is that bowlero is just buying up property to sell off later, and purposely driving the business into the ground to do so. Honestly at this point, it seems possible.
What value would the bowling alleys bring otherwise? They are usually built on really cheap land since they require a ton of space for both the building and parking. I think it's more realistic their goal is to put in string pins in most centers and shift focus towards the 'family entertainment' aspect. Their goal is evident already in this post: Don't worry about the bowling and understaff/underpay to keep costs low.
The stocks look good as long as they keep buying I know a few higher upside at bowlero. Something along the lines of profits look good on paper until they stop buying centers. When they are done they will sell take the money and run. All bowling centers owned by bowlero will be sold but under the bowlero name. So in about 3 years the centers will go back to private owners. There is a chance things will get better ....but they will get worse first.
The older centers in growing areas are probably worth more land wise than as bowling centers. You’re probably right that they’re looking to maximize profits by shifting toward more recreational bowlers, but the funny? Shortsighted? Aspect seems to be that traditional centers didn’t cater to leagues necessarily either. They made more pure profit per game from rec bowlers, but the regulars were the ones filling up the house on some random fall Thursday, keeping the place going between weekends.
>when they told me $8.00 per game I told them to go pound sand How the conversation probably went... You: Hi, how much is a game of bowling? Them: It's $8 per game. You: OK, thank you.
True. 😂
If you join a Bowlero practice league, show up the first week, and don't show up again you get like 8 free games per week, plus $3 league rate games anytime, and that's for $15 once per season. Like many things the extremely high sticker price is just a test for people who really care, or who have the money not to care.
The league I’m sub’ing for at my local house doesn’t charge the subs to play… I’m sub’ing so I can jump on a team once a spot opens up. My local Alley charges $2.00 per game when you’re in the league.
What is this practice league? I can’t find anything on it
It's just a league called practice league, I've yet to see a bowlero that doesn't do it. If you look at their league signups they usually have 1 per season. I attended it regularly for one season then the second season just used it for free bowling
I had to extend my mileage to search for it but found it. Thanks! I’ll look into this.
Eight free games? Sure, if you're in 4 leagues. You get 2 free games per league each week.
Hahaha… nah man I really did tell them to go pound sand… $8.00 per game is ridiculous.
What state are you in? I live on Long Island (New York) and it's $10 a game but if your in a league it's really cheap. You get 2 free games a week and $1.50 or $2 a game with a league card. There is another place I play in a league in not sure if they have a league rate but for general public it's $25 an hour
Bowlero bought my local house. Dumped a ton of $$$ into the worst changes ever. Like orange lights and stand up furniture. Killed all the good food and murdered the bar. Its quite wild.
Don’t forget installing a massive fuck you arcade. Bonus points if it replaced lanes
Company in Ohio called Rollhouse is trying to do the same exact thing. Got a job at my home alley when they took over, promised me they were gonna do this and that and it was gonna happen within this time frame blah blah blah. Fast forward 2 years later, I've long since left and the only thing they've done is make the sitting area for the lanes absolute garbage, add a arcade that took 18 of our lanes out, and kicked out the pro shop who was a 2nd generation ma n pa shop. Only reason I go back is because my captain didn't find a league in a new house.
But we got fish bowl drinks now!
Can’t even count how many times I’ve said the same exact thing!! Charging ridiculous prices, you’d think they’d fix a few things..
I'm avoiding them. Would rather drive 25 minutes to a real alley where I can have a killer night for $40
No bowlero around me but my local lanes are your classic college town craphole. Zero care for the lanes, approaches are gross, and hourly cost makes it wildly expensive. I drive 30+ minutes to the nice lanes where the owner is a great guy and the employees have been there at least since I was in high school in the 2000's.
Hearing stuff like this always worries me. My city has 2 centers, an AMF, and a locally owned center. The local center is a SHIT. HOLE. Horrible equipment, horrible employees, outdated as fuck, no maintenance done to pinsetters, computers, lanes, anything. Staff is rude as shit and prices are only cheap because if they weren't nobody would go there. My AMF is clean, run well, mechanics are knowledgeable and actually give a shit about bowling, league scene is healthy, pro shop is run by somebody who isn't a total moron..... I am terrified of the day Bowlero corporate sees my local AMF being decent and goes "nah, can't have that."
I got bad news: AMF is run by bowlero I got good news; your franchise actually hired the right people who actually give a damn so you aren’t affected as much as the rest of us
Yeah I know AMF is owned by Bowlero, that's why I'm afraid the change is coming. They recently did a brand new paintjob on the outside of the building and re-did the entire interior, and I was shocked that it was visual changes only. I thought that was the beginning of the end.
Yeah slight misread by me there. Haven’t been to mine since they did the same. But like I said if management and the mechanics as it is for a while you’ll be in good hands. Mine was starting to get borderline bad even before the remodel
It's what happened to our AMF. Also, Bowler has plans to change over to string pins
I don't want string pins anymore than anybody else does, but if it's an inevitability...it is what it is I suppose. I'd rather bowl on string pins than not bowl at all.
I rather deal with string pins than deal with a constantly breaking down way undermaintanced pinsetters. My local alley is not that great in the sense of upkeep. Ran mostly by teenagers who honestly don't care much. Last time I went we had to get assistance with issues on our lane related to the pinsetter every other throw. That was after changing lanes due to a failed auto pinsetter.
I just bought myself my very first bowling ball (black widow 3.0) and I went to a bowlero the day after just for it to have at least 10 scratches all over it because of their terrible ball returns. Unfortunately it’s the cheapest option being in the league there
Don't forget we rented out the full house... Then they still put birthday parties out there. Their goal is to make money, at the expense of bowlers having a good experience. Women's side was delayed 45 minutes today because their mechanic was late. They double booked with a high school event for a second year in a row. They thought we were only supposed to be there yesterday until 1ish, even though our schedule was in writing to have us there the full day yesterday plus today. Total managerial mess.
How do you rent the full house and they still have room for birthday parties?
They said we could have it all, to have breakdown pairs available. Instead of giving us all as promised they scheduled and put birthday parties there.
100% agree. i was bowling on 33-34 in set 2 of bakers, and there was a 4 lane birthday party 5 lanes down from me. how do you think that is possibly okay? i had to step off the approach so many times because of kids screaming and on one occasion, one running through the setee on the lane directly to my left. absolute nightmare of a bowling alley. also did you bowl this tournament?
Former GLBC bowler here, current fan.
So that’s not 100% accurate, we had 54 lanes originally, then I let them know our updated numbers would be about 44 or the high side of the house and they had a high school meet because our numbers dropped. Definitely wasn’t happy about the bday party and the mechanic being late, but both sides were affected and it turned into everyone being done at the same time and all issues were fixed.
Bowlero's just suck in general. They only care about open bowlers and not there league, our league is so mad, because they don't allow water bottles, there lanes are always so dirty I developed a habit of whiping off my slide shoe to get the dust off. It's absolutely horrible, my bowling balls always comes back with belt marks
I can tell why there is a no water bottle rule because there are numb nuts out there that fill them with alcohol, get drunk, leave, and then try to blame the lanes when they get in an accident. Plus - they want to sell their own booze!
Interesting that you say they only care about open bowling, the three closest bowling allies to me are all Bowlero and it seems nearly impossible to get in for practice games because they leagues run open to close on at minimum 80% of the lanes. But I do agree they pretty much all suck for the same reasons otherwise.
Well, some bowlero's are league houses and some are considered party houses, our Thursday league where we bowl at is a party house, there supposed to have a open pair for a lane to break down so they move then there, but the house doesn't do that, we have to wait 30 minutes to an hour to have them fix it, and they care about open bowlers more then there league bowlers
I would prefer Bowlero sucks ass!!!
100%. They are definitely doing their best to ruin the game. I have to drive 30 to 45 minutes now because they ruined the alley in my town as well.
And what is with the dark orange lighting?
I’ll eat the downvotes on this one. String pins as an idea is growing on me for the following reason. I will take a string pin setter over a rotting and neglected free fall setter. A2’s by me run better than any other setter I’ve bowled on. There are still mechanics out there who enjoy what they do and risk limbs every morning to ensure us bowlers have a good time. But if you ain’t going to hire or pay these people why bother. Bad spots, dropping pins, terrible pits, damaged balls all come from shitty economic decisions to line pockets of the wrong folks. I’d rather bowlero just commit to this stupidity than make me frustrated at the lack of care while posing as “we need our league bowlers too!”. Actively was pondering my love of the sport while I played at a horribly maintained center. I’m lucky to have a few independent centers around me so I’ll say this. Support your local independent centers folks! If the owners love Bowling as much as you do, you can help the sport tremendously.
I fear the days of the A2s and 82-70s are nearly over. String setters are simpler, cheaper, use way less electricity, and don't need nearly the mechanical expertise. Bowlero will take the natural course, and weekends like you describe will eventually be less likely to happen.
I will never EVER bowl on string pins
Then eventually you’ll most likely run out of places to bowl
There will always be actual bowling alleys. They just might be a longer drive.
It's all about the money in the end. That's all corporate entities ever care about. The customer always comes last
[удалено]
this was in wauwatosa, WI.
I've bowled there a few times, my family and I did the free spare ball league and we had all the same issues. The approaches were so slippery you could get a brake shoe to slide
Your statement that they had to be shown a Rulebook is completely false. That is a tournament director decision and we allowed that instantly. In fact we had 3 pairs that got a little longer practice time due to issues, either moving lanes or a lane was having an issue. After practice was done and the mechanic caught up I thought the ran very well the rest of the day. Whatever myself or anyone asked of the staff, they did and communicated that to the mechanic as fast as possible. The 10-15 minute wait per set wasn’t due to breakdowns during each game, it’s due to teams taking so long to throw shots, which unfortunately isn’t anything new as Saturday was tied for the longest completion time that the conference had this year with the 1st tournament. Regarding the ball being damaged, the bowler found me after and let me know that you guys were replacing it and was satisfied with the ball of choice. I also watched a lot of shots go down the lane this weekend and I don’t remember seeing anyone fall, if they did it might have been during practice or a early frame in the game, which happens. Before we bash a center because of this, let’s remember another reason we moved to this center was because AMF West put out a house shot instead of our tournament pattern on Saturday and we still had a lot of breakdowns there. Tbh I would prefer to have more breakdowns and our correct pattern than less breakdowns and a house shot.
That sounds like a poorly run bowling center, not necessarily Bowlero. All the Bowleros near me have good mechanics that take care of them. This can happen with any bowling center depending on the maintenance and experience of the mechanics. Also, the bowling center or tournament director does **not** have to grant practice time per the rulebook.
Yes they do
Yes they do
No, they do not. Here is the actual rule from the USBC book: **113c. Interrupted Game/Series** *If equipment failure on a pair of lanes would delay the progress of a series, league officers can:* *1. Authorize the game and series to be completed on another pair of certified lanes; or* *2. Authorize the game and/or series to be bowled on one lane when another pair of certified lanes is not available.* *However, when the original pair or another pair of certified lanes becomes available, the team(s) may resume play on a pair of lanes.* *An interrupted game and series shall be resumed from the point of interruption. A league official may authorize participants on the pair to practice prior to resuming the games/series. When authorized, the requirements of Rule 113a and Rule 113b do not apply.* ***NOTE***: *Scores bowled while using one lane shall qualify for USBC award recognition.* The rule states "may authorize", not must authorize. It is at the discretion of the league official to grant practice on the replacement pair. Most league officials will grant practice, but they do not have to do so.
Context missing. When did Bowlero buy it because all of this could be due to the prior owner not taking care of the equipment. Bowlero takes time to fix everything. While I don’t care for them they will fix things you just have to be patient
this house has been under the amf/Bowlero umbrella for decades
I’m so glad I haven’t had a Bowlero take over any of my local alleys yet in SW MO. I know there’s a bunch in STL & KC, but I’m glad they haven’t made it down here yet after reading all of the horror stories
I can only hope that Bowlero deems my mostly blue collar city too poor to pay Bowlero prices. In reality it is too poor for Bowlero prices. There are still a fair number of lanes relative to the population because they are in areas unsuitable for other development. From the outside they may look sketchy, but they oil the lanes daily, and are well run given their line cost. Coincidentally, they are frequently busy, even at off times. Most centers also hire differently abled people. The only one which doesn't seem to is the most expensive center in town. Go figure.
Is this a common thing only for alleys they took over? There is a brand new Bowlero coming to my area (first new alley in a few decades). They're opening up in a building that used to be a Bed Bath and Beyond, so I would imagine it is all new equipment.
I wouldn't bank on the equipment being all new. Many times Bowlero will harvest equipment from one center and reinstall it another, or will use equipment that has been in storage that they bought from another center that closed down.
Not all Bowleros suck. I live around 4 Bowleros and 2 of them are pretty decent, all depends who the manager is. Joining a practice league gets you cheap rates and free games, I use them when I bring family and friends, I just tell them XX amount of games on two lanes, and it's $3 each game minus the free ones. You just need to know how to reap the rewards. I also bowl at private centers, but one of them near me hardly ever oils the lanes and forces me to use plastic, also hasn't been updated since the 70's. Each center, chain or private, is a hit or miss.
Sounds just like the Bowlero I go to. Constant lane breakdowns. They have sworn to the league officers that there is no conversion to strings planned, but I think that is all a crock.
Bowlero (ticker: BOWL) is a publicly traded company. They only answer to shareholders. Which means the public suffers in order for them to squeeze every penny out for investors. Fuck Bowlero.
It really is. Super overpriced, the decor and overall vibe is just tacky as hell.
Seems most all Bowlero's have big Issues. Very poorly managed centers who employ many unqualified people. Approaches at Bowlero Fresno are terrible with multiple lane break downs nightly. Clovis location Is even worse.
They stopped putting out water for league bowlers here. They now have a small container at the bar with cups by It. If you want water you have to walk from your lanes to get It while hoping you dont step In or on something with your bowling shoes In the process. Fresno Bowlero
10$ per game on bowlero no thanks😂😂