Future of Vintage Penny Arcades

[badpenny]

This is more of an open question really, and I am making a tenuous link to what's in store for our hobby.
Given facts......
Most of us will say we love our hobby for the machines and not the investment
Fluctuations in value will always happen anyway (ie Bell Cascade)
Quality will always out (compared to 10 years ago Allwins are worth double, bandit increases are negligible in comparison)
The demographic of collectors demonstrates a mature age, newcomers are unknown numbers but not coming in droves
The current financial cock up limits disposable income especially for hobbies

However so much for the good news.
How are the professionals doing? They have an insight into general public interest in our machines.
Apart from Bob's new enterprise (currently relocating?) we hear rumours and questions about the closing of Vintage Arcades.
Recognising that overheads, fixed or otherwise can finish a business, they don't affect the number of interested visitors.
We've had crap Summers so they were probably blamed for footfall
Now we've had a great one but I still hear despondency

So two questions.
Have the beaches/host venues been packed but not the arcades?
What is the demographic of vintage arcade punters? Is it indicative of the future for our hobby?

Apart from those doing their best to earn a living from them (long may you succeed) to the rest of us does it matter?

Finally I started this post by saying ..... Most of us will say we love our hobby for the machines and not the investment .... however I can't imagine any of us would want to lose money either, and I'm happy to stand up and say publicly that if I thought that I could take a heavy kicking in the wallet then my collection would downsize to just those I can't live without. I might be unstable but I'm not stupid.

So vintage arcade operators share your thoughts ..... others too of course.

BP

[coppinpr]

My view is that where as all of us interested in the genre would like to see the arcades continue, the vast majority of the seaside public dont care. They are simply not exciting enough for the current seaside public,and is it surprising? I dont think so. If you had asked the makers of the machines we love (and travel half the length of the country just to have ago at) if he thought hed still be making the same machine 50 years on he would have laughed at you, he would have predicted bigger,brighter,noisier machines offering the public something new and better than the other makers were churning out. Sure the penny arcades have a charm for the general public but its a different charm from it had originally, now its pure nostalgia, a peek back in time to a simpler easier pleased public.
When I was a kid id go to an arcade as often as I had the money to go,and loved every moment,never expecting to make a profit, now a visitor (other than those of us love and care for these machines) will go once to an old penny arcade ,and love it, but why go again? hes done it,seen it. Like visiting an ancient castle, really great, but you wouldnt go every week to the same one. Old style penny arcades are a labour of love,we should do all we can to preserve them, but it wont be easy

[jonesthegarage]

you're right. It's a diminishing demographic. Once all us old geezers are gone there will be an abundance of cheap machines being thrown out by our offspring/executors. My 18 year old twins think I'm in a time warp and although they show literally "passing" interest when walking past a working machine their interest lies in the stuff of today. Paul, you were obviously a reprobate the same as most of the rest of us (I don't imagine we have too many who bunked off Sunday School or choir practice to go to the arcades), but the electronic options are now so mesmerising that ours will remain very much "niche".

Practicalities of running a vintage seaside arcade have been amply recorded on these pages and if you want to get footfall you've got to pay very serious money. It is, like most things, a hobby/obsession for those interested but commercially it is likely to be an unmitigated disaster. If you own a freehold property in a suitable location with no other particular use and can run it on your own I doubt you'd make a long term wage. If you had such a property you'd be better off renting it to someone giving the great British public what they want.

Blackpool Promenade sees millions of feet every year and from one end to the other there is nothing but shite, even the little independent bingo places are closing because the supply of little old ladies or homely housewives is no longer there. What they want is what they get, and what they want ain't a load of old tat from a some guys in sheds keeping these things going. Alternatives to achieve similar footfall are places like Trafford Centre, Laekeside, Bluewater et al, and there you would get a mild interest from some bored guys forced to accompany their spouses to these hellholes, but you'd probably not make 10% of the rent required.

I once dreamed of owning a childhood museum, and let's face it we all had a childhood, but the reality is that the majority of the disposable income these days has a nostalgia for the 70s and 80s, the next lot will have their "fix" from the 90s and noughties etc etc ours just happens to be the 50s and 60s,