3 ms·

I grew up behind the bowling machines. My dad was a bowling machine mechanic and worked on machines all around the midwest. He often moon-lite as the on-duty me

by msisk6 3mo ago

I grew up behind the bowling machines. My dad was a bowling machine mechanic and worked on machines all around the midwest. He often moon-lite as the on-duty mechanic during league nights and I'd go with him. Mostly he worked at the local 16-lane alley with ancient AMF machines. The logic was all relays in a "chassis" on each machine. Relays would fail, pins and balls would end up where they're not supposed to be, folks would roll the ball into the sweep. All kinds of stuff. As a kid was was fantastic to see. A pinsetter machine is a real Rube Goldberg type contraption. Probably lead me to being an engineer. We had the several opportunities to buy a small-town bowling center, but looking at the economics -- even back in the 1980's -- wasn't good. Most of the operating profit back then came from alcohol sales and that's a totally different business. Good luck! Recently Facebook has been showing me a lot of bowling content. Be cool if it's making a comeback.

leetrout 3mo ago
It's hard to tell if it's making a comeback but it's getting attention. Ben stiller produced a documentary for HBO "Born to Bowl" and it was very engaging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Bowl
- nunez 3mo ago
  Bowling by itself isn't coming back, but bowling with other entertainment activities has been trending for a few years now. These lanes are usually low(er)-maintenance string lanes.
cco 3mo ago
> Most of the operating profit back then came from alcohol sales and that's a totally different business. I think this is typical of a lot of similar-ish businesses. Restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters, all run on high margin alcohol (or concessions) and make very little profit on the primary business.
- Suppafly 3mo ago
  yeah, even gas stations mostly make their money off of other stuff. if anything it's a little weird for a business to make their money off their primary business model.

by msisk6 3mo ago

leetrout 3mo ago

It's hard to tell if it's making a comeback but it's getting attention. Ben stiller produced a documentary for HBO "Born to Bowl" and it was very engaging. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Bowl

nunez 3mo ago
Bowling by itself isn't coming back, but bowling with other entertainment activities has been trending for a few years now. These lanes are usually low(er)-maintenance string lanes.

cco 3mo ago

> Most of the operating profit back then came from alcohol sales and that's a totally different business. I think this is typical of a lot of similar-ish businesses. Restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters, all run on high margin alcohol (or concessions) and make very little profit on the primary business.

Suppafly 3mo ago
yeah, even gas stations mostly make their money off of other stuff. if anything it's a little weird for a business to make their money off their primary business model.