Has anybody mentioned cue sales/repair?
After reading this thread I am surprised that know one has mentioned retail sales and cue repair. When I opened my room in Lakewood, Washington back in 2004 the first thing I did in preparation was check out every room in the entire state. By doing this I gained a great deal of insight and information into what would be profitable and what I was competing against.
Where I grew up in the St. Louis, Missouri one local room stood out in my mind. This room sold retail billiards equipment and I mean everything from Cues, tables along with all the accessories to support them to include installation and repair and they also sold custom Jewelry. Now this is something that no pool room in Washington State did, so I took what I liked and added the above.
I also fully support the local pool leagues in my room and have many teams that play for my establishment. By selling beer, doing repair work, and selling a full range of pool and billiards accessories I have found a niche market that gives me income sources that others have not tapped.
In my opinion billiards / pool rooms have to be a one stop operations that include what the other posters have said along with what I have added. I personally think that for a pool room to be successful they must incorporate what the retail only operations are doing. While many of the retail only operations will be effected it is only business and today if you can't change you will cease to exist.
The days of the Pool rooms that do nothing but rent tables are long gone, the profit margin is no longer there. While having tournaments will bring in people, when the room is adding 100% to the pot their is little room for profit for the room owner, unless they can offer more than food and drink. Everyone needs cue repair, and other merchandise the more you have on hand, the more the items are seen by players, along with great customer service, the better a pool room will do.
Oh and by the way, Location!!!! Location!!!!!! location!!!!!!!, to many rooms appear to open up in areas that are not suitable based upon the area's population and interests. In my opinion this kills as many rooms as opening up a room thinking that you can make money opening a room and just renting tables and selling food and drinks.
JIMO, but it has worked well for me!!!!
