I feel ya. I can barely turn my phone on and off after each post. What a pain.
Yeah, myou need something like a Staples or health center for a space like that.
You'd think alcohol is the answer.
Greed. Real estate people get a free ride on all kinds of issues.; most common being acts of nature. If they insist on reaping (gouging) the demand they should be held accountable at the buyer level.
No. Most pool halls have a stricy policy in this regard. If the business doesn't have an alcohol license and they are caught with patrons consuming alcohol on premises they can be fined.
Not much hope is there? ...
Maybe OC couldn't deal with the vice crowd.
It wasn't the location that did them in. The location was actually pretty good; right off a freeway and easy to get to. They should have added alcohol (maybe they couldn't?). The added revenue would have come in handy as real estate and utilities costs rose. Their inability to pivot and expand revenue streams was their ultimate demise.
I went to the Cue Ball in Alhambra last week- has at least 15 good Brunswick 9 footers. One of the members of this forum said they used to have 9 ball tournaments on Sundays but have yet to restart them.
They couldn’t get the City of Bellflower to license them for alcohol since Chuck opened it in 88. It was doomed from day one-can’t make the bills with Pepsi & cup-o-noodles & snickers bars.
Yep, I remember seeing it. Right outside the entrance, on the left, some vandal wrote "Efren was here."
I wish you luck but think you are a little unrealistic in your hopes. I'm almost certain Eddie still owns the equipment that is in there and has probably worked some sort of storage fee with the owner. If the room was unsuccessful with someone running it who has owned and operated many pool rooms over his career, what makes you think you can somehow turn it into a successful, profitable venture? Three key factors will prevent you from doing so: rent is too expensive, utilities are too expensive, the city will not allow a liquor license. I'm sure the property owner doesn't care much if the building is vacant and not generating revenue. I'm sure he owns the whole block outright and that probably isn't the only commercial property he owns. He's not hurting for cash so he can charge fair market value which is not economically feasible for a business with no other revenue source other than table time. If you are wanting to "save" Hard Times for nostalgia purposes, it's an effort in futility and almost a sure fire way to go bust. If your desire is to open a pool room, you'd be better served finding a more affordable location in a city that will allow a liquor license. A full service kitchen with a good menu would be a good starting point as well. If you can afford to buy the building, even better. Danny K's would have suffered the same fate as Hard Times long ago if he did not have a full service kitchen and a full bar. I'd wager food and beverage sales outweigh table time revenue 10 to 1 (at least).
That's a good point. Owning the building means not having to worry about rent increases, and you can expect real estate appreciation to be another long term profit source.
I don't see anything like that in the pool halls I'm familiar with here in Chicago - for them table time is about 40% of gross revenue and close to half of net profit. The owners see food/drinks (especially food, which actually loses money) as necessary amenities for the pool business.