Since when does AMF or Brunswick actually run a house?

Understood. Thanks for the education.
I thought it was a franchise/equipment thing, but I guess that's a recent phenomenon.

The two houses in my sleepy town are hydrids and old...a magic (ugh!) combination. At least there tearing down my primary house and starting from scratch with all AMF. They still have Brunswick 2000 scoring systems and those were first out in 1978!

Edited on 3/11/2005 2:05 PM

Well, they both suck. Neither are in Centerville, but you basically nailed it.

I won't argue that - its been about 10 years since I've been there.  Probably wasn't even an AMF lane then, probably still Fairlanes.  Of course I may be thinking of another place altogether.  Bunch of guys were drunk and wanted to bowl and play pool - that was the closest place with both.

I still think its stupid to make people pre-pay.  Take a drivers's license or credit card if you are worried about it.  At $5 a game you are probably going to do less business when people realize ahead of time that they are going to spend $50 bowling!  I'm sure we have all gone bowling with the intentions of bowling "just a game or two," only to bowl really well and decide to keep bowling - and I'm sure we have all needed to go to the ATM because "oh crap, I didn't think I was going to bowl that much."  Not to mention the group of people that go after work and start drinking and forget how much it is and end up bowling 5 or 6 games - that doesn't happen when everybody shows up and says "gee, $5 a game?  lets just bowl 1 or 2."  Just doesn't seem smart from the business side - I know you have to worry about people bowling and leaving, but I'm talking about grown adults, not teenagers here (really, how many times can the same person come in and bowl and dash before you realize they aren't going to pay?)

I bowl primarily in Bowl America's (closest AMF lanes are 12-15 miles away) and I can't argue that they need a renovation, but I do prefer the different bowling prices ($2.09-2.69 before 6pm and $4.95 after 6pm).  And I really like the "bowl all you want for $8.99" from 9pm to close. I don't really care about the fancy scorers, screens and ball returns.  I've only bowled at the 6 in my area (Burke, Fairfax, Chantilly, Dranesville, Mathis Ave, and Bull Run) and all have had nice lanes - Fairfax and Mathis just replaced the wood lanes with new synthetics. I also like the league rewards and discounts (right now its bowl 3 games and pay for 2).

Not trying to slam AMF, the lanes at "World Headquarters" in Hanover were very nice and I was really impressed with the layout, and I've only been to the AMF in Centreville a few times.  I plan on visiting AMF Dale City soon, but if they do charge $5 a game it isn't worth my time to drive down there when I can go around the corner and bowl for 6 games for $10.  $5 a game could very well be the reason they are having financial troubles.

Just my 2 cents.

The 40 lane AMF House at Edmond, OK is thriving and has more business than they've had for several years. A new manager was brought in approx. a year ago and what a difference it has made.

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Owner of a 129 game bowled with a Brunswick Impulse Zone.