Sea change in the arcade business: large chains dangle snacks and everyday items скачать в хорошем качестве

Sea change in the arcade business: large chains dangle snacks and everyday items

There’s a sea change underway in the arcade business. Traditionally, Taiwanese arcades were individual businesses. Sometimes a single claw machine was the whole venture. Now, much larger chains of giant arcades are gaining ground. They don’t necessarily lure consumers in with toys. Instead, they dangle snacks and everyday items. We spoke to a business expert to find out more about the trend. He says it’s an import from Japan, where arcades full of everyday items have become big business. A visitor changes a bill for a handful of coins, and prepares to attack the claw machine. But this arcade is not touting plushies or plastic toys. These baskets full of winnings overflow with candy, crackers, and drinks. Just push in a coin to give it a try. Consumers keep coming back for more! Drinks and Ferrero Rocher are the simplest prizes to win. This “one-star” difficulty level is achievable even for kids, claims the arcade. But more stars means more difficulty. This well-practiced expert is going for a five-star household item. Lee Shih-chen Business administration and finance expert When there’s a tiny element of gambling, I want to keep refining my skill or challenging myself, and I give it another try. Can I get the one-star? The two-star? The three-star? It goes up and up. Psychologically, we enjoy it and we want to challenge ourselves, and we’re not bothered about whether we got the prize or not, or how many prizes we got. The arcade employs more than a dozen part-time workers. They constantly rotate the locations and numbers of the prizes in this arcade of almost 100 ping. There are more than 80 machines here, and 90% contain snacks. There’s a parking lot in the basement, so no need to fear how consumers will cart away their mountains of winnings. The chain arcade has almost 10 locations nationwide, and at weekends, they’re full to bursting. Lee Shih-chen Business administration and finance expert An arcade used to be able to operate as a single location, or a single machine. But now I want more, and in that case I need lots of stock. If I have lots of stock, I can push down the costs. Eighty percent of consumers are just coming to have fun. Twenty percent are more about the skills. You balance them, and then expand the locations, and then more people will come in. Then of course economies of scale start to appear. In the old days, a claw machine with toys inside was enough of an excitement. Now that the scale has ramped up, consumers can be kept entertained for longer by a wide choice of machines, as this large-scale arcade format becomes the norm.