Would you support buzztime at a non-restaurant?

mrgray · **Joined:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:14 am **Posts:** 348

Say a small bookstore wanted to create a trivia scene near you. Would you pay just to use the Playmaker? Say $5 an hour or $50 a month for unlimited play? Mostly trying to make enough to cover the cost of having the system in the first place. Since they are a small establishment they would treat the players well, but there wouldn't really be any food or drinks. Would you go for it? If not, what's the food/beverage threshold you need?

mudee · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2015 5:33 pm

It is a good idea, but there would need to be beverages at least. Depending on where I play, I will eat before I arrive if the venue is not known for decent food. So food is not a must for me. I might be willing to fork out $5 for a few hours play, but $5 an hour seems a bit much. $50 a month seems a bit more enticing. Its cheaper than going bowling or something similar if you went twice a week. Although LILJOL would give their system a good workout for his $50 if he decided to play at such a place. :mrgreen:

If I end up moving my shop to a more rural area, I have pondered the same idea if there were no BT sites within reason. In that case you could do a BYOB (and food too) and make it a "private membership" that anyone that wished could join for a small fee. This would eliminate the need of a liquor license and other such things that would be necessary if it was a bar setting.

BUD · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:02 pm

If they let me bring in my own drinks (Beer), otherwise no way.
I could do 5 bucks per visit.

However,there is no way a small bookstore would ever draw enough players for it to ever work.

MitchWolf · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2015 8:36 pm

There is a bar in St Louis (Tower Pub) without regular food...Just cheap pizza and popcorn. and STILL has the blue playmakers

poman · **Joined:** Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:05 pm **Posts:** 1513

There's a Barnes & Noble a mile away from me. If they had buzztime, I'd be there all the time.

Of course, they do sell beverages.

I would think the play area, no matter how small, would have to sell some kind of beverages.

BUD · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:35 pm

There are buzztime bars all over Florida that don't serve food, but they do serve drinks and have enough TVs for sports games and buzztime. Those 2 things are the bare minimum. A bookstore probably won't have any TVs. It just wouldn't draw more than handful of players, not enough to pay for the BT system.

But...if a place like that were to get BT here in MD I'd check it out a few times with some pre mixed rum & cokes. :mrgreen:

mrgray · **Joined:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:14 am **Posts:** 348

Seeing a lot of agreement on drinks.

mudee wrote:

It is a good idea, but there would need to be beverages at least. Depending on where I play, I will eat before I arrive if the venue is not known for decent food. So food is not a must for me. I might be willing to fork out $5 for a few hours play, but $5 an hour seems a bit much. $50 a month seems a bit more enticing. Its cheaper than going bowling or something similar if you went twice a week. Although LILJOL would give their system a good workout for his $50 if he decided to play at such a place. :mrgreen:

If I end up moving my shop to a more rural area, I have pondered the same idea if there were no BT sites within reason. In that case you could do a BYOB (and food too) and make it a "private membership" that anyone that wished could join for a small fee. This would eliminate the need of a liquor license and other such things that would be necessary if it was a bar setting.

The pricing would all come down to whatever best makes covering the costs worthwhile. The more people you have the more something like $5 for several hours works. But $5 for 3 hours creates a problem. The only people who will spend $50 for all month play will be those who will play over 30 hours a month. Otherwise, why do it? LILJOL would need to tone down his banging away. I am thinking $50 reserves the same Playmaker for you (and only you). :p

What kind of shop do you have, mudee?

Yeah Bud the trivia community would have to sustain it if they wanted it to work. The business itself wouldn't create a large base of players. The business owner could go a long way in fostering the community/seeing big turnouts, though. Maybe have cash/in-store prizes for the winner, and have it increase per # of competitors. When Bell Tree Tavern had NTN, they kept everyone's scores per game and added them up at the end of the night. The person with the highest total won in-store credit, except for the third week of the month. That week, the 3rd highest total won. I actually won a third week competition by intentionally missing some questions in the last game and then pretending to have to use the restroom (with several questions to go). :p Skills!

But yeah those nights we'd easily see 15-20 people. Sometimes we'd go and not everyone in my group could get a Playmaker. Say you'd get 5 month-long members and 10 people plopping down 5 bucks show up. That's 450 a month for just those 4 days a month. How much /is/ buzztime for store owners, anyway?

zog741 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 7:08 am

mrgray wrote:

Say a small bookstore wanted to create a trivia scene near you. Would you pay just to use the Playmaker? Say $5 an hour or $50 a month for unlimited play? Mostly trying to make enough to cover the cost of having the system in the first place. Since they are a small establishment they would treat the players well, but there wouldn't really be any food or drinks. Would you go for it? If not, what's the food/beverage threshold you need?

I give the idea a thumbs-up; at least it won't be another BWW!

Not sure you can sell the idea of charging for Playmaker use when you can play for free anywhere else. If this can work in a bookstore, I would think a better fit would be a large, Barnes & Noble type of place with a coffee shop located inside.

If such a place opened near me, I'd certainly visit at least once.

-- RWM

mudee · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 7:24 am

mrgray wrote:

What kind of shop do you have, mudee?

I make aftermarket suspension parts or air cooled VWs. http://www.bugzyla.com

BUD · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:45 am

Cool shop Mud, lots of racing Buggies in your area, hope business is good.

MrGray, the current pricing, last I heard,was a $300 upfront fee per tablet then $400 to $450 per month for 10 tablets. So that $3k upfront fee is the big problem. Tough for any small bar or shop to do that.

mrgray · **Joined:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:14 am **Posts:** 348

zog741 wrote:

I give the idea a thumbs-up; at least it won't be another BWW!

Not sure you can sell the idea of charging for Playmaker use when you can play for free anywhere else. If this can work in a bookstore, I would think a better fit would be a large, Barnes & Noble type of place with a coffee shop located inside.

If such a place opened near me, I'd certainly visit at least once.

-- RWM

I actually think this system is more courteous to the wallet than what we have now. Unless you're a punk, you are definitely paying quite a bit to use Playmakers. We just don't conceptualize it like that. I specifically eat at BWW to support buzztime (yeah...), the logic being if we all just played for free and didn't buy anything, BWW would have less of an incentive to keep the system. I get there is value outside of the people actually playing but we still represent a decent value on our own.

A typical night will see us spending around 30 dollars for two hours. That's $7.50 an hour for each of us to play. It's not a forced cost but it's one we are paying anyway. Then there's the tip, of course. BWW gets up to $240 from us a month. Sometimes the cost is less (my dad doesn't always eat there and we don't always play twice a week) but sometimes the cost is more. My mom and sister joined us last night...at about the time we usually leave, actually. (Played my first Late Shift, got 8998 on it.)

Turning in that $240 a month into $50 plus some light snacks is very appealing to me. Even $5 an hour is generally better than what we pay now.

Oh wow cool business mudee. I appreciate your avatar all the more.

BUD wrote:

MrGray, the current pricing, last I heard,was a $300 upfront fee per tablet then $400 to $450 per month for 10 tablets. So that $3k upfront fee is the big problem. Tough for any small bar or shop to do that.

See that's pretty much insane. How can anything other than BWW and top tier independents touch that? I thought there was still a special option where businesses could get the blue playmakers. Smaller, more battery efficient ones. The tablets lost any edge in my book when they dropped the News app. They have to be cheaper for NTN to make, right?

mudee · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2015 9:58 pm

BUD wrote:

Cool shop Mud, lots of racing Buggies in your area, hope business is good.

Thanks Bud, business is good, at least a month backlogged at this point. A majority if my business is mail order.

BUD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:25 pm

mrgray wrote:

zog741 wrote:

I give the idea a thumbs-up; at least it won't be another BWW!

Not sure you can sell the idea of charging for Playmaker use when you can play for free anywhere else. If this can work in a bookstore, I would think a better fit would be a large, Barnes & Noble type of place with a coffee shop located inside.

If such a place opened near me, I'd certainly visit at least once.

-- RWM

I actually think this system is more courteous to the wallet than what we have now. Unless you're a punk, you are definitely paying quite a bit to use Playmakers. We just don't conceptualize it like that. I specifically eat at BWW to support buzztime (yeah...), the logic being if we all just played for free and didn't buy anything, BWW would have less of an incentive to keep the system. I get there is value outside of the people actually playing but we still represent a decent value on our own.

A typical night will see us spending around 30 dollars for two hours. That's $7.50 an hour for each of us to play. It's not a forced cost but it's one we are paying anyway. Then there's the tip, of course. BWW gets up to $240 from us a month. Sometimes the cost is less (my dad doesn't always eat there and we don't always play twice a week) but sometimes the cost is more. My mom and sister joined us last night...at about the time we usually leave, actually. (Played my first Late Shift, got 8998 on it.)

Turning in that $240 a month into $50 plus some light snacks is very appealing to me. Even $5 an hour is generally better than what we pay now.

Oh wow cool business mudee. I appreciate your avatar all the more.

BUD wrote:

MrGray, the current pricing, last I heard,was a $300 upfront fee per tablet then $400 to $450 per month for 10 tablets. So that $3k upfront fee is the big problem. Tough for any small bar or shop to do that.

See that's pretty much insane. How can anything other than BWW and top tier independents touch that? I thought there was still a special option where businesses could get the blue playmakers. Smaller, more battery efficient ones. The tablets lost any edge in my book when they dropped the News app. They have to be cheaper for NTN to make, right?

I hope the up front fees have come down in the year and half or so since I heard that $300 per tablet. I would be interested in hearing a current quote, is this bookstore going to ask for a price quote? No way on getting blue boxes in a new install,they are done with those.

spotes · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:27 pm **Posts:** 1558

Cost analysis considerations aside, would a small bookstore be conducive to the social interplay common to NTN play?
Most folks illogically treat bookstores like a branch of the library.
You guys would be received about as well as the Philadelphia mass turbulence of 1947.
"You're right. No human being would stack books like this."

BUD · **Posted:** Wed Jun 10, 2015 2:22 pm

Mr Gray, was this bookstore buzztime idea real or just a hypothetical question?
If it is an actual bookstore please ask them to get a quote through the form on the BT website. I'm sure many on here would like to hear what the current offer is.

mrgray · **Joined:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:14 am **Posts:** 348

Somewhere in-between. Down the line I'd like to open a specialty bookstore, and I'd love to bring in Buzztime because I am passionate about it. Reading up on bookstores I learned that to make them work you basically have to sell the public on its value as a third place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place

With the rise of the internet and access to books cheaper than bookstores can really offer, they have had to move to a model that focuses on secondary services that bring people in there in the first place. Readings, meetings, etc. They talk about selling snacks, with some bookstores even having small restaurants inside.

Of course these side attractions can't simply break even. Even if the trivia playing was enough to pay for itself, it'd be ideal if they had something to eat or drink when they played.... or occasionally bought a book that caught their interest. It's just really important they don't operate at a loss. So I am curious what trivia players would need in order to make a place their new home (beyond a staff who gave a shit about them).

AARDVK · **Joined:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:30 pm **Posts:** 554

spotes wrote:

Cost analysis considerations aside, would a small bookstore be conducive to the social interplay common to NTN play?
Most folks illogically treat bookstores like a branch of the library.

That was what I was thinking about as well. From a trivia player's perspective, the more locations, the better, and I'd be willing to pay a fee to play without feeling obligated to consume food and beverages at a particular rate. But as someone who loves bookstores, I would find people yelling out answers very distracting. A bookstore that was large enough to have a cafe area separate from the shelves obviously wouldn't be a problem, but the smaller the store, the more intrusive the trivia players would seem.

Brooke/AARDVK

SEKA · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2015 1:03 pm

mrgray wrote:

Say a small bookstore wanted to create a trivia scene near you. Would you pay just to use the Playmaker? Say $5 an hour or $50 a month for unlimited play? Mostly trying to make enough to cover the cost of having the system in the first place. Since they are a small establishment they would treat the players well, but there wouldn't really be any food or drinks. Would you go for it? If not, what's the food/beverage threshold you need?

Theoretically, not a bad idea.

But my problems are:
1. Do enough people still go to independent bookstores, in this day and age of eReaders, etc.?

2. Even if a bookstore had Buzztime, players (who might not ordinarily go to bookstores) would ask for food/drinks. This would create separate issues of business (and/or liquor) licensing and health sanitation inspections.

3. What if there is no Buzztime interest in trivia, but there is for poker?

4. Some regular Buzztime players, who are not used to paying just to play, would be put off by a separate charge, and leave. I know I would!

5. During the football season, if that bookstore decides to show QB-1, do you really think Buzztime players are going to that place? TV screens in bookstores? If I owned a bookstore, there's no way I'm putting a TV set in there!

I wish you luck. I don't mean to sound such a pessimist. As for me, I'm sorry, but I just don't see it as being a practical idea. Perhaps an independent coffeehouse --- and not a Starbucks --- would be a better fit. In fact, there was a coffeehouse on the outskirts of the S.F. Bay Area that had Buzztime for a while, but they didn't have it for very long.

To my knowledge, the only non-restaurant/non-bar place of business that currently has NTN, is a tech company business called Barracuda Networks.

I recently did a search of Buzztime sites in the San Jose, CA area, and came up with this...

http://www.buzztime.com/site/39624

I have not called them up, nor have I visited them, but I'm guessing that they installed in their break rooms. And I cannot imagine a tourist, traveling through NTN sites, dropping by to visit Barracuda's offices just to play trivia, unless you are an employee there.

BUD · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2015 1:47 pm

SEKA wrote:

mrgray wrote:

Say a small bookstore wanted to create a trivia scene near you. Would you pay just to use the Playmaker? Say $5 an hour or $50 a month for unlimited play? Mostly trying to make enough to cover the cost of having the system in the first place. Since they are a small establishment they would treat the players well, but there wouldn't really be any food or drinks. Would you go for it? If not, what's the food/beverage threshold you need?

Theoretically, not a bad idea.

But my problems are:
1. Do enough people still go to independent bookstores, in this day and age of eReaders, etc.?

2. Even if a bookstore had Buzztime, players (who might not ordinarily go to bookstores) would ask for food/drinks. This would create separate issues of business (and/or liquor) licensing and health sanitation inspections.

3. What if there is no Buzztime interest in trivia, but there is for poker?

4. Some regular Buzztime players, who are not used to paying just to play, would be put off by a separate charge, and leave. I know I would!

5. During the football season, if that bookstore decides to show QB-1, do you really think Buzztime players are going to that place? TV screens in bookstores? If I owned a bookstore, there's no way I'm putting a TV set in there!

I wish you luck. I don't mean to sound such a pessimist. As for me, I'm sorry, but I just don't see it as being a practical idea. Perhaps an independent coffeehouse --- and not a Starbucks --- would be a better fit. In fact, there was a coffeehouse on the outskirts of the S.F. Bay Area that had Buzztime for a while, but they didn't have it for very long.

Right now, the only non-restaurant/non-bar place of business which currently has NTN, to my knowledge, is a tech company business called Barracuda Networks.

I recently did a search of Buzztime sites in the San Jose, CA area, and came up with this...

http://www.buzztime.com/site/39624

I have not called them up, nor have I visited them, but I'm guessing that they installed in their break rooms. And I cannot imagine a tourist, traveling through NTN sites, dropping by to visit Barracuda's offices just to play trivia, unless you are an employee there.

Or Barracuda is a BT contractor/ service provider and it would make sense to have the product viewable and playable to their employees.

ranger · **Joined:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:27 am **Posts:** 630

I'm more positive about this than most. It would be much cheaper for me to pay $50/month for Buzztime.

mrgray · **Joined:** Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:14 am **Posts:** 348

SEKA wrote:

mrgray wrote:

Say a small bookstore wanted to create a trivia scene near you. Would you pay just to use the Playmaker? Say $5 an hour or $50 a month for unlimited play? Mostly trying to make enough to cover the cost of having the system in the first place. Since they are a small establishment they would treat the players well, but there wouldn't really be any food or drinks. Would you go for it? If not, what's the food/beverage threshold you need?

Theoretically, not a bad idea.

But my problems are:
1. Do enough people still go to independent bookstores, in this day and age of eReaders, etc.?

2. Even if a bookstore had Buzztime, players (who might not ordinarily go to bookstores) would ask for food/drinks. This would create separate issues of business (and/or liquor) licensing and health sanitation inspections.

3. What if there is no Buzztime interest in trivia, but there is for poker?

4. Some regular Buzztime players, who are not used to paying just to play, would be put off by a separate charge, and leave. I know I would!

5. During the football season, if that bookstore decides to show QB-1, do you really think Buzztime players are going to that place? TV screens in bookstores? If I owned a bookstore, there's no way I'm putting a TV set in there!

I wish you luck. I don't mean to sound such a pessimist. As for me, I'm sorry, but I just don't see it as being a practical idea. Perhaps an independent coffeehouse --- and not a Starbucks --- would be a better fit. In fact, there was a coffeehouse on the outskirts of the S.F. Bay Area that had Buzztime for a while, but they didn't have it for very long.

To my knowledge, the only non-restaurant/non-bar place of business that currently has NTN, is a tech company business called Barracuda Networks.

I recently did a search of Buzztime sites in the San Jose, CA area, and came up with this...

http://www.buzztime.com/site/39624

I have not called them up, nor have I visited them, but I'm guessing that they installed in their break rooms. And I cannot imagine a tourist, traveling through NTN sites, dropping by to visit Barracuda's offices just to play trivia, unless you are an employee there.

1. You know it's kind of surprising but independent bookstores are experiencing a kind of revival right now.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_edgy_optimist/2014/09/independent_bookstores_rising_they_can_t_compete_with_amazon_and_don_t_have.html

Independent bookstores had been crashing since their peak in the 90s but over 400 have opened since 2009. It's really inspiring.

2. Yeah it's pretty clear there needs to be food and drinks for the players. It complicates things but that's not a bad thing. Just more planning.

3. It would just be the same cost no matter what you wanted to do with the tablet. Play games, poker, trivia.... $5 an hour or $50 a month.

4. I would hope they understand that the benefit of the charge is that they are under no pressure whatsoever to eat or drink in the book store. And hell I'd have no problems shaving the margins on beers for people playing trivia. I'm not too familiar with beer prices at the moment but I found 24 bottles of 16 oz. Bud Light for $22. Maybe I'd do something like $2 for a bottle but if you're playing trivia make it $1 or $1.50. I'd need to do some research into fair price for that sort of thing. But it wouldn't be like BWW, which charges over $3 for a 12 oz. bottle.

5. Yeah football isn't really something I am interested in catering to. I'd have to pass on that one.

Brutus · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2015 7:37 am

I would support it but to answer your food/beverage threshold question it would be draft beer and appetizers for me. Now if I lived in a site poor area that might be different but right now I have several options within less than a 10 mile radius that would meet those requirements.

But more in general, my opinion is that you may run into problems trying to combine a bookstore with somewhere that serves beer as you are going to alienate the book store customers that want a quiet experience unless you had some sort of separate "members only" area for trivia players.

There used to be a place around here (didn't have Buzztime) that was a combination coffee shop and bar that served basic foods like sandwiches. They also had an upstairs area where you could play board games, read books from a selection they had on site and so on. They lasted for a couple years but ended up not making it as the clientele didn't mix that well.

If you could find a way to make it work though and not upset either type of patron you are targeting then could be a winner.

New Scaratings

Would you support buzztime at a non-restaurant?

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