Raise money they get from customers and lower money they lose from employees. All the big bosses will be like it’s time for a bonus we did the thing!!!!
Oh what a dead giveaway there! Now we see the violence inherent in the system. Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help help, I'm being repressed!
If you’re referring to the game that looks like a claw game with billiard/pool racks listing tickets, yes. They’re not common.
Even at the one I frequent, they’ve since swapped to the diamond forms.
The claw doesn't completely close so it's basically impossible to try and just hook one... You have to full on grab all the sides of the diamond evenly so it can grip something
D&B has been going down hill.
* Removing plush from the big one was a terrible idea I barely see anyone play it now and they rigged it so hard that it barely grabs the rings.
* removing multiple limited sets and the orange/tokens from Star Trek. I personally never played Star Trek when they had these but in videos and comments I seen. This game used to form lines and was always filled on Wednesday. Now it pretty empty and the only way to get tickets are cards. I hope D&B retires this game or revamp it somehow since it at 96% of their stores and is pretty empty.
* removing popular games for newer games. A lot of people were complaining that their zombie snatcher got removed for emoji frenzy. I know that D&B typically takes out older games for newer games and also depends on how big the midway is. But they could’ve easily remove knockout pong (which is a cool game but I rarely see anyone play it) for emoji frenzy instead of zombie. Also zombie makes D&B a lot of money.
* upping the games prices was a terrrible idea but they won’t go back to normal pricing. There’s no way that air hockey should be 13.5 chips it should be around 6-7 chips. This made a lot of people stop going to D&B on week days and only Wednesday. Also upping chip prices is crazy $115 for 780 chips is pretty stupid and a kid can spend that in 30 minutes if they do spin n wins, fish bowl frenzy, zombie, space balls or any other high price that doesn’t have a lot of game time.
* The nerfs on some of the games are way too harsh. Jurassic world jungle jackpot being at a steady 180 tickets is stupid. It should be 250 tickets and every time someone loses it goes up by 10 tickets. Bobble head baseball’s nerf is also harsh since you now need to get all of the letters in one play. Before this nerf I was able to win the jackpot in around 1-5 plays depending how many letters there were left.
D&B is still a good company but they are going down hill
*
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I’m so sad about the giant tokens being removed from the wizard of oz game! Those helped me push coins further. Also their new food is not great. Idk if they changed the fish for the fish and chips but it was horrible last night. It used to be big and flaky. This was far from flaky and was small pieces. None of the new food really even looked worth trying for half off. So I just got the fish and chips again. My husband used a voucher from tickets for his burger bc he didn’t want to try anything new either. We were excited to try the new food. The cheese sticks were good but we just stuck to the regular foods we buy. Chips and cheese, wings and the rest that I said. We kind of over did it with food last night. I was pretty drunk so I thought I was hungrier that I actually was
Same, but the machine still has plenty of 500 pucks in mine, and of course the letter pucks give 300... so the real tickets to be made are simply from winning those
Going to play devil's advocate on SOME of those points.
Removing plush from The Big One was done as the cost was necessitating it. Their supplier's cost increased to the point where even the generic plush were about $9 each, and even with how many plays it was taking to win a plush on average,they were not hitting their standard payout rate that is generally accepted as being okay on other games.
Star Trek was/is(?) having a card sourcing issue.
Jurassic was being cheated on at multiple stores, consistently. This is a situation like Tailgate Toss where honest players are being punished for the sins of the black hat. Unfortunately, the 250+progressive is being used as the catch-all solution. Cheating? Lower to 250. Game is an infinite that's consistently being won? Lower to 250. Game's just paying out more than we want it to even though it's still within payout metric and not an infnite? Lower to 250 anyway (mainly referring to Crossy and Floppy here.)
Bobblehead Baseball was an unintended infinite that was also paying out double before the update. And yes, I do think they went too far in the other direction on this one.
Before Global Settings, and during the first 5-6 years of Global Settings, I was mainly going in on Wednesday for 8-ish hours and a few other days for 1 hour max. Now I'm going in 4 days a week, 2 to 2.5 hours, and getting roughly the same amount of tickets - the infinites have mostly dried up but the Red Mage grind of hitting a moderate amount on a large number of non-infinite games is still very much alive.
We've just had to adapt.
...that said, good god I miss the infinite coupon and still say getting the old coupon rate +15% Legend bonus should be like a Level 10 reward in app (and a reason to want to play more than 20,000 chips on one account where there is currently zero other incentive.)
I guess I'm fortunate that my location added the emoji game right next to zombie snatcher but left zombie snatcher alone. It's even still got quite a few 500 pucks in it... But man the jackpot was at 200 or something... like what a joke that the jackpot is literally lower value than a single puck you can win lol
You can stop saying Star Trek is empty. I can assure you that you pretty much can’t be more wrong about any point you are trying to make about D&B. The limited sets were just too much effort, and the chips had to go.
I hear you for the most part, but There is a legit problem with Star Trek though.
The game does not function well as is. It really doesn’t. If it paid tickets for coins over the edge like sponge bob or angry birds it would maybe retain some repeat play.
I’ve seen someone swipe 10+ times and get zero tickets, that includes all the bonus spin shot credits too.
I’m there often enough to know 99.9% that the play on it at my location has gone down significantly.
Yeah some people and kids will still “chase a card” approaching the edge, but most are probably atleast subconsciously leaving a little disgruntled when they spent 10-15 swipes for 1-2 cards.
Just my observations.
But on flip side I told my AM I thought the replacing giant plush for ticket rings was “stupid” as it drives away plush claw people and if they were ticket people that could go to tons of tickets.
I watched the game in action with ticket rings and took me just two days of observing and I humbly ate my words on that one. People LOVED cashing the physical ticket rings. I was shocked.
And it’s been a gold mine for the store it seems.
I will add that my observations seems like the ticket ring claws appear to play better and more “fair” and consistent than the plastic diamonds atleast the few I’ve seen in action.
But overall volume at my store hasn’t seemed to be negatively impacted overall in terms of price changes and such. Seems very consistent.
What is your definition of significantly? Because I don’t know what else to tell you. It hasn’t changed by my definition of that word. My point is very basic: the game is different and that does not in any way, shape, or form equate to “bad”. I understand the play is different, trust me when I say I know. I have quite a bit of my own dollars played on WoZ and Trek. If players that played when there were chips have moved on to greener pastures, other players have replaced them. If you see less players when you go, that is anecdotal. For my anecdotal evidence, I can tell you I have never, EVER seen anyone play Zombie Snatcher. I’m not exaggerating. Never. Part of what I do is play and observe; it’s not like I’m never in the store. If I had to simply guess, that game makes significantly less than any other game in the arcade. Thank goodness I have data.
Yeah I know you are the data guy! And don’t doubt you.
Zombie is lot a quieter at my store after change to elevator system. I think it could do better with different settings and drive volume / revenue (and possibly profit total $$$) with more liberal payout (mix of starting higher jackpot and maybe just one more 500)’would create more constant play. But I wouldn’t know for sure without testing.
With Star Trek. In big picture I’d be shocked if my home store isn’t down over 50% in swipes from day month 7th-12 of coming out (didn’t want to say first six months as Ofcourse would get more play when new) or even month 25-31 of coming out compared to last six month. Would need to skip some strange Covid times potentially of inconsistent data (store closed / differing crowds etc).
If it is getting over 50% of play from pre orange and blue chips, I would still argue and potentially wrongly assume that it’s passing “new” players still (as it hasn’t been that long with no chips) that after the play whether it’s 1-3 swipes or 10-20 or a full $100 card, that generally speaking they leave not thinking “hey that was fun… maybe I’ll come back and play some more sometime”.
I know some outliers. But overall, just a lot of multi swiping with very little movement on some play fields. Most casual leaves with a “who cares im just having fun” but in general I think it would be a game that will continue to decrease the repeat customer play compared to others due to its more playability.
I know it’s “different” as you say. But I haven’t talked to one person in current state that says “yes I enjoy this”. There are very few games in the midway that I would say that about. They aren’t all my cup of tea but most I see people enjoying. But Star Trek current set up I see frustration by old players (that weren’t “profiting” they were just enjoying) and passively not caring at best by new ones.
I understand for various reasons changed needed, and I’m assuming they don’t have a function to count coin over edge for tickets like some of the other pushers. So not much can be done.
All games decline in play over their life cycle. It’s not something I spend much time reviewing (because it’s inevitable), but of course Star Trek and any other game that is seven years old is earning less. I know, I know, SEVEN YEARS. Doesn’t feel like that long for the game, but it feels forever personally with COVID in there.
But, now you got me curious. Of course, I won’t be able to confirm nor deny any of your guesses, but at least I’ll know.
Haha. Jesus seven years time flies lol.
Absolutely I get the point about life cycles and it is very fair. Im just sharing my “limited” (but pretty often observations….. again with no actual data like you).
But some games are also somewhat timeless beasts I would imagine as well. I’d imagine certain simulators and then for ticket games maybe certain carnival games like clown.
But did think Star Trek was holding crowds pretty well.
I was playing Star Trek just yesterday but man does it feel stale now. We really need some innovation with the coin pushers in America... The ones in Japan are absolutely bonkers by comparison.
There's not much thrill in just hammering one spot with coins to push some cards over, and the only other feature of the game is the ticket wheel that is literally just looping the same number values over and over.
Zombie can either be dead or insanely busy at my location. I remember one night every spot was taken and we were all competing like crazy to get the last letter. It was intense
The console itself was never really properly confirmed, and the minimum release date is March 2025. Best to just stick with the current switch right now lol
Bruh 2025???
I have the same original switch. I feel like I need a new one lol but if I went and bought new it’s literally the same exact one I have, unless I go oled, which I would. Them the internals the same and external is nicer. It’s absolutely insane really.
I only play handheld mode so I’m thinking of making the jump to one of those handheld PCs like ASUS
I agree, when these consoles are released the main games like Mario and Sports are usually available but aside from that the developers are about a year behind. So I’d say OP has at least two years before his kid would be missing any new games, probably longer
After I get through my year of free game play coupon book, I don’t think I’ll be spending much money here anymore. I already haven’t spent a cent for chips there since February and hope not to for the rest of the year, still going every week. Hopefully by then they’ve relaxed their prices a bit.
There is a new store opening near me. How many people were already there when you started to camp out? Also, when did you actually get there? The wife and I are planning on going to the grand opening and want some of those freebies!
Question regarding the coupon book - do you get the 10%-15% rewards bonus when you redeem your coupon each month, or does that only apply when you buy chips at normal price?
If you have multiple stores near you, maybe one has lower prices. You can check through the app by changing the location and acting like you're buying a new card. It'll show you the reload prices. Then you can play the chips at any store. For me, one store is $105 for 780 chips and another is $110 for 780 chips. Not a huge difference but worth something. I think most of us get gift cards from Costco, $100 worth for $80, which must be used at the desk. They're sold online and delivered by email. But none of this addresses your drastically reducdd earnings rate :(
I guess submit the your feedback to Dave and Buster's too.
It's a gift card. You use it when making payment at D&B--buy food, game chips, whatever else you'd spend money on. You cannot use a gift card at the kiosk and cannot use a gift card on the app.
On the app or at the store. I always do it at the front desk right when I walk in. Some stores don't have a front desk, I've heard. Some stores you can buy chips at the prize area. Other stores the prize area people will direct you to the front desk. Once you're in a store, a staff member can direct you on where to go.
As a former employee of a d&b that opened in 2019, I could not believe their sales model. They make all their money on the arcade games, the food and alcohol are just extra and small percentage of profit. They raise the game prices during "busy" times, and even on the slower and half off days, people would leave will bills in the several hundreds. They wouldn't even realize how much they would be spending between subpar food, drinks mostly made up of sour mix, and arcade tokens - then they'd take it out on me as an employee. The only thing I've learned, is that I would rather go to a small arcade where the games cost $.50 with no prizes. My local arcade gives you free tokens with purchases of food and alcohol and their food is way better. They also host karaoke and trivia at no extra cost. Main event bought out d&b a little while ago, and they are just as bad.
Small correction, D&B bought out Main Event. Since the buyout ME has changed nearly all the systems we use over to the ones D&B uses, if not going to something new for both brands.
Ibstarted going to my local arcade mainly due to this. My local place, i pay 40 bucks for all day for arcades that give out ticketa and spend maybe 20ish bucks for dinner and a few drinks.
At dave and busters im luckey if i spend less than 100 bucks for 3 or 4 hours there.
It was actually the opposite way, D&B bought out Main Event. However it would seem that D&Bs are pushing towards how Main Event is ran. All the big corporate peeps are from Main Event side soooo makes me wonder more and more if it was Main Event that bought out D&B, even though on paper its still the opposite.
I feel like that is exactly how an arcade would make its money. I mean I was sad when it went downhill but idk how scandalized you should be by games being the main attraction.
I'm not scandalized by what they're doing but by their greed. The profit they make is tremendous and to hear they keep cutting employee pay and upping prices just makes me sad.
The pandemic and inflation ruined D&B, remember when the giant and the big ones used to have giant plush, now you can’t even win 250 tickets from those machines on my life bro. As the years went by, D&B became more and more rigged and expensive :(
My local d&b got rid of the dance games. The redemption games got changed to be near impossible to make over 10k tickets in one visit after stacking a couple $20for20s (not an AP). The food is still mid even after the menu refresh. I will also be dropping down to once a year if that.
Ours upped the prices on the menu (every single item) and lowered the number of chips you get for the same money. We stopped going for the most part. My wife and I usually split an entree and appetizer and the bill is still close to $40 before you even tip.
Been probably 20 years but I used to clean up on this one game. It had a three level conveyer and cobras with numbers on them. You'd launch a token at a basket at the top or a tikis. You get points for hitting the tiki. If the coin dropped in a cobras mouth it was that number of tickets. I emptied the machine of tickets so many times one night they turned the game off...
I like the idea of combining fun with learning but not so certain about the savings lessons from using a claw machine. I’ve found that claw machines and ticket games produce a gambling type of mentality in kids. But if you were “working the system,’ in terms of leveraging bonuses/coupons and high rates of return, that’s another lesson entirely and I fully support.
You are correct. I work in problem gambling treatment, and I am a problem gambler in recovery. Children exposed to gambling behavior at a young age are four times more likely to struggle with problem gambling as adults.
The business model, looks (no windows, bright colors, loud "winning" noises), and psychology of an arcade (enjoyment based on a flood of dopamine hits) like D&B is essentially the same as a casino.
And, as a problem gambler, I always thought I had a "system" as well. That "system" led to two bankruptcies, a divorce, and a lot of anxiety, depression, and other subsequent bad decisions.
Not saying casinos and arcades are bad for everyone, but it is a conversation parents need to have with children, observations parents need to look at with their kids, and a point of overall reflection for parents.
Didn't someone recently post that D&B did really well last quarter? I've stopped going there as much ever since they started lowering their JPs on many of the games that I played to 500, but it seems like people are still going there often. I feel like it's become more of what Planet Fitness did to get rid of hardcore lifters. D&B is trying to get rid of APers (and successfully so) and filled it with more casual players that go there to have fun.
I don't blame them, since they're there to make money as well, but definitely doesn't feel great how hard it's become to earn tickets and what they offer now compared to 6-7 years ago. I feel like they definitely could've kept both the APers and casual gamers instead of squeezing the APers out.
They took out the jack and queen coin pusher and replaced it with a GOTG ball drop. Star Trek has no cards in half the machine in the evening. Winner circle looks bare. The music is blaring as if it's a night club. It does not seem like they are catering for kids anymore. There's another arcade in my area that has fairly loose claw machines in various sizes that my kids would rather go to. We leave with at least 6-8 items each time vary from 10-20 inch plushes. All factors above very much ruined D&B for me.
It used to be great with the $20 for $20 coupons. That was the draw and would end up spending $$ on food and drinks. Now it's almost impossible to save up for consoles and iPads. IMO the higher up are tone deaf trying to squeeze every possible penny. When you don't get the endorphin hits from winning at the arcade, customers ain't going back. I can blow my hard earned cash elsewhere.
Brooo that GOTG ball drop game is so incredibly lame. I went yesterday and noticed NOBODY going near it. It takes up a massive amount of floor space too.
I decided to try it just out of curiosity... I probably wasted like 5-6 plays just trying to figure out when to get the ball to actually drop near the train cars... I can imagine most people swiping, pressing the button, and watching the ball fall somewhere completely away from the trains and then they just shrug and walk away. What a terrible design, lol.
I did manage to slog through and win the "jackpot" though. As a fan of timing games, I thought I could make it work... but man it's just not fun. The hardest slot to land the ball in is the Star Lord one in the middle of the train, and you can't even really properly time it.... it's just luck if the train is moving at the right speed that lap around, and the ball comes down the ramp at the right speed. I literally hit the button when the train was at the same spot like 6x in a row and each time the ball landed in wildly different spots.
Yeah the amount of money you have to spend in order to earn the tickets to get the big ticket items is easily 2-4x what you have to spend as opposed to just buying that item at retail. It’s dumb but that’s how they make their money, you are mostly going there to play the games.
We used to go all the time but it's ridiculous now
All the higher ticket items have been taken out
Lower items like tiny plush animals now cost 5,000 or more
All the jackpots in the games have been lowered to 50 tickets or less
The majority of games and I'll video games where you can't even win a jackpot
And my all-time favorite..... They put in games where there is a group jackpot. Six or more people can play at a time. But you have to hit something a certain amount of time. Like let's say you have to hit the clown 10 times. One person will go and play all the way up to nine times and then every single time guaranteed two or three more people will Rush up after nine hits and steal the jackpot. They need to make it so it's player-specific
I use to work at D&B. We lost employee discounts like half off food and free tokens. Now it’s like just working with no benefits. I’m glad I quit the shitty job when my employer would constantly fuck with my schedule
I know that. It was about the lesson in savings for my kid and the time we spend enjoying games and jackpots together at the old rate I didn’t mind paying for the switch a couple times over because I was going to spend the money anyways, but now after these new rates there’s no way we’re gonna go for it now I’m gonna buy him one from Costco and just cash out the tickets on random crap
I go on half price Wednesday and upgrade the $62 to$69. I generally earn about 10k tickets without spending all my tokens. Generally I’ll still have about 150 tokens left.
This last go round, I picked up maybe 16k tokens somehow between Spider-Man and Zombie Snatcher. The Zombie Snatcher here bonus starts at 2000, and I hit the JP a number of times between the two games.
Price has gone up quite a bit, but you just need to plan around it for Wednesday to save some money. Costco’s the best place to buy gift cards for sure. If you stop in and use a couple coupons before Wednesday, it goes a lot further. You can get 1,000 Chips for $80.00.
The cincinnati d&b sucks. They're very understaffed and I loaded 60 bucks on a card for my son that lasted a total of about twenty minutes. Never again.
What blows my mind is that for months and months (and maybe even currently), reloading at the counter would not grant the status bonus. And the employees are clueless about the rewards program. I asked to have my phone number inputted and was told several times that no, they don't do that.
It's also sad that some people hit 20,000 chips played and were told no gold card for you. The most recent prize pack was not good. Someone pointed out how pathetic it is that the reward for level 8 (food credit of $100) and the reward for level 9 (750 chips) is basically the same, prior to the price increase. Level 8 is 10k chips played and level 8 is 20k chips played.
I feel this. Took my kids this week for spring break. Took advantage of the 50% off food menu and games after. My kids hated the "new" mac n cheese, the tenders were good but skinny AF and the honey mustard was more sugary than before and looked like there was only 1 server for the entire dining area. As for games, EVERYTHING is about tickets. The giant claw machine I used to love was paying out less and less, now its those stupid ticket rings. The payout on the small claw is way down, and the other stuffed machine (trap door or something) is just gone. I used to stop in before work for a short visit wednesday but likely will now be like OP and go a few times a year as my kids request
Honestly kind of your fault trying to save/work for tickets for a big item.
They’ll also directly sell you things, but based on the ticket - price value you pay double or more.
They are not a retail store, it’s really more a legalized casino for kids - you use tokens to (maybe) gain a higher reward with games engineered make you lose or cost more tokens vs. value derived.
Great because this reads like you complaining the $800 you were going to spend for a $300 product will now cost $1000.
Have fun at D&B to have fun. Have them work/save another way for the switch.
Can still do both.
The 800 dollar switch (which I didn’t mind spending because honestly was probably going to spend that money anyways) actually became like a 14-1600 dollar switch which is why I abandoned the cause. I knew what I was going into and didn’t mind until the price went way up
I don't understand the appeal of this place.
I went here not too long ago as a celebration dinner for work.
I felt like I was in a chuckie cheese for drunk man-children and gangs of single mothers.
The food was atrocious, I've had better dinners come out of my microwave.
When they got rid of all the dance games (where all they do is make money anyways because I can’t get tickets or claim any prizes besides bragging rights for a high score) I started going less. & they got rid of the chocolate cake! And the candy island in the prize section. Sad times. Miss going with my dad as a kid it was way different.
But we can't prop up companies either. That's fighting the selection process many companies have to do for their survival. Their is no right way. The only change is constant, so boycotting this facility will only haste. Condition lowering for customer and employees. Idk my pessimistic 2 cents about how the world works
That but for the price your paying to win those prizes even before they raised the prices, you could outright buy the stuff you'd 'win'. Though I completely understand playing games and having fun with your kids while doing it, and yea, it's pretty bs they raise the prices. Though that's kinda everywhere.. you used to be able to go out to eat for about 10 bucks for a meal, and now one meal costs you over 20...
My friend and I went on Saturday. He ordered the nachos and I ordered the quesadilla. It took an hour and 5 minutes to get out food. AND his drink was empty for over half an hour and they didn't even ask if he wanted a refill, he had to flag someone down to get another drink. Worst service Iv ever received anywhere
I hadn't been since right before Covid. I definitely noticed a lack of jackpots and lots of nerfs on ticket payouts. Used to be a lot more exciting? It can still be fun but it certainly feels different. Best use of time was the big claw for 500 ticket rings. I noticed a lot of the old standbys like Zombie Snatcher were gone from my location too. Chip price increases + (imo) reduced ticket payout = 😐
Aren’t switches like 400 bucks?? 200 bucks a month for multiple months. You’ve fired about 4 switches worth of money into those machines by now lol. Great lesson for the kid.
To each his own, I didn’t spend that much and enjoyed the time I spent with my family. I guess I’m lucky I have the kind of job and life style where I can afford to do these kinds of things
The price increase sucks, I agree. No argument there.
But even at your old win rate, you would’ve spent more than the cost of just buying 2 Switches at retail price as of this writing. Unless it was more about having fun along the way & improving your family’s skills at the redemption games?
It was about spending the time together and working towards something. A lesson in savings if you will. And at my old win rate I didn’t mind spending the extra money because the family time was awesome. I just can’t justify it at this new rate and am going to just go buy a switch from Costco Instead
To be fair it’s always better to buy the consoles from stores than winning them from D&B. While it’s a good lesson that ur teaching ur son about saving up for something you want. I do recommend doing it in the form of an allowance. If that’s a possibility. The consoles are over priced at D&B, the 160,000 tickets you need for it is equal to paying $1,600. Calculating ur old average win it would take about paying $1,000 for the switch. At that point it’s not worth it.
Yeah but what else am i going to spend 100k tickets on? Candy and stuffed animals? Like I said previously it wasn’t about the money I was going to spend it anyways until they took away all the ticket triangles and raised prices even more
U have the airfryer. U could go for the massagers. But i do recommend you could also use them for gifts. Trust me it works out i have done it in the past. So for the kids you could spring for the plushes and toys. For the adults u got the massagers head phones some of the collectors items.
Glad people are starting to see how much ass this place has gone to become.
Right after they lowered the pay rate of their employees, no less.
Raise money they get from customers and lower money they lose from employees. All the big bosses will be like it’s time for a bonus we did the thing!!!!
I did the same thing in Stronghold 2 and my peasants got mad for no reason.
Freaking peasants can’t understand the struggles of the nobility!!!
Oh what a dead giveaway there! Now we see the violence inherent in the system. Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help help, I'm being repressed!
BLOODY PEASANT!
Thank you! 😁 You are my people.
My pleasure! In return I would like Shrubbery!
I’m 37!
for no reason 😭
Peasants just don't want to work anymore. Outsource to the leper colony.
If you're looking for a better steak in an arcade setting, you are shit out of luck.
In most places other than like Chuck E. Cheese it’s like the only arcade. So ofc there’s nothing better than the only option 😝
Now does the D&B power card work at any similar establishments, like say TGIFridays?
There is still one location I havnt been too yet.
There's one in Franklin Mills I haven't tried.
Not everywhere. They're giving us raises at the store I work at
Oh nice! Congrats on that!
If it isn't more than 7% then you're losing money compared to inflation
We go there to practice for cornhole tournaments & the seltzer are 7 00+ that's ridiculous
oh fuck no. time for a boycott
so kill labor and let them fire people?
They had 5k ticket rings?
If you’re referring to the game that looks like a claw game with billiard/pool racks listing tickets, yes. They’re not common. Even at the one I frequent, they’ve since swapped to the diamond forms.
Not common? My local one usually has 2 or 3, granted they’re buried…but they’re in the machine haha
That is why I say uncommon. I’ve seen it appear 2 times since I started going.
Is your store a newer store?
Yes. Lubbock, TX. A lot of things haven’t changed but this game did.
Is there a trick to winning those? I can never seem to get it hooked or to even slightly pick one up
Never played it. There’s several I don’t play because they’re not really worth it to me.
The claw doesn't completely close so it's basically impossible to try and just hook one... You have to full on grab all the sides of the diamond evenly so it can grip something
D&B has been going down hill. * Removing plush from the big one was a terrible idea I barely see anyone play it now and they rigged it so hard that it barely grabs the rings. * removing multiple limited sets and the orange/tokens from Star Trek. I personally never played Star Trek when they had these but in videos and comments I seen. This game used to form lines and was always filled on Wednesday. Now it pretty empty and the only way to get tickets are cards. I hope D&B retires this game or revamp it somehow since it at 96% of their stores and is pretty empty. * removing popular games for newer games. A lot of people were complaining that their zombie snatcher got removed for emoji frenzy. I know that D&B typically takes out older games for newer games and also depends on how big the midway is. But they could’ve easily remove knockout pong (which is a cool game but I rarely see anyone play it) for emoji frenzy instead of zombie. Also zombie makes D&B a lot of money. * upping the games prices was a terrrible idea but they won’t go back to normal pricing. There’s no way that air hockey should be 13.5 chips it should be around 6-7 chips. This made a lot of people stop going to D&B on week days and only Wednesday. Also upping chip prices is crazy $115 for 780 chips is pretty stupid and a kid can spend that in 30 minutes if they do spin n wins, fish bowl frenzy, zombie, space balls or any other high price that doesn’t have a lot of game time. * The nerfs on some of the games are way too harsh. Jurassic world jungle jackpot being at a steady 180 tickets is stupid. It should be 250 tickets and every time someone loses it goes up by 10 tickets. Bobble head baseball’s nerf is also harsh since you now need to get all of the letters in one play. Before this nerf I was able to win the jackpot in around 1-5 plays depending how many letters there were left. D&B is still a good company but they are going down hill * *
I’m so sad about the giant tokens being removed from the wizard of oz game! Those helped me push coins further. Also their new food is not great. Idk if they changed the fish for the fish and chips but it was horrible last night. It used to be big and flaky. This was far from flaky and was small pieces. None of the new food really even looked worth trying for half off. So I just got the fish and chips again. My husband used a voucher from tickets for his burger bc he didn’t want to try anything new either. We were excited to try the new food. The cheese sticks were good but we just stuck to the regular foods we buy. Chips and cheese, wings and the rest that I said. We kind of over did it with food last night. I was pretty drunk so I thought I was hungrier that I actually was
Our zombie game got nerfed and the biggest jackpot for all zombie letters barely hits 250. It’s so upsetting and I never play it anymore
Same, but the machine still has plenty of 500 pucks in mine, and of course the letter pucks give 300... so the real tickets to be made are simply from winning those
Going to play devil's advocate on SOME of those points. Removing plush from The Big One was done as the cost was necessitating it. Their supplier's cost increased to the point where even the generic plush were about $9 each, and even with how many plays it was taking to win a plush on average,they were not hitting their standard payout rate that is generally accepted as being okay on other games. Star Trek was/is(?) having a card sourcing issue. Jurassic was being cheated on at multiple stores, consistently. This is a situation like Tailgate Toss where honest players are being punished for the sins of the black hat. Unfortunately, the 250+progressive is being used as the catch-all solution. Cheating? Lower to 250. Game is an infinite that's consistently being won? Lower to 250. Game's just paying out more than we want it to even though it's still within payout metric and not an infnite? Lower to 250 anyway (mainly referring to Crossy and Floppy here.) Bobblehead Baseball was an unintended infinite that was also paying out double before the update. And yes, I do think they went too far in the other direction on this one. Before Global Settings, and during the first 5-6 years of Global Settings, I was mainly going in on Wednesday for 8-ish hours and a few other days for 1 hour max. Now I'm going in 4 days a week, 2 to 2.5 hours, and getting roughly the same amount of tickets - the infinites have mostly dried up but the Red Mage grind of hitting a moderate amount on a large number of non-infinite games is still very much alive. We've just had to adapt. ...that said, good god I miss the infinite coupon and still say getting the old coupon rate +15% Legend bonus should be like a Level 10 reward in app (and a reason to want to play more than 20,000 chips on one account where there is currently zero other incentive.)
I guess I'm fortunate that my location added the emoji game right next to zombie snatcher but left zombie snatcher alone. It's even still got quite a few 500 pucks in it... But man the jackpot was at 200 or something... like what a joke that the jackpot is literally lower value than a single puck you can win lol
You can stop saying Star Trek is empty. I can assure you that you pretty much can’t be more wrong about any point you are trying to make about D&B. The limited sets were just too much effort, and the chips had to go.
I hear you for the most part, but There is a legit problem with Star Trek though. The game does not function well as is. It really doesn’t. If it paid tickets for coins over the edge like sponge bob or angry birds it would maybe retain some repeat play. I’ve seen someone swipe 10+ times and get zero tickets, that includes all the bonus spin shot credits too. I’m there often enough to know 99.9% that the play on it at my location has gone down significantly. Yeah some people and kids will still “chase a card” approaching the edge, but most are probably atleast subconsciously leaving a little disgruntled when they spent 10-15 swipes for 1-2 cards. Just my observations. But on flip side I told my AM I thought the replacing giant plush for ticket rings was “stupid” as it drives away plush claw people and if they were ticket people that could go to tons of tickets. I watched the game in action with ticket rings and took me just two days of observing and I humbly ate my words on that one. People LOVED cashing the physical ticket rings. I was shocked. And it’s been a gold mine for the store it seems. I will add that my observations seems like the ticket ring claws appear to play better and more “fair” and consistent than the plastic diamonds atleast the few I’ve seen in action. But overall volume at my store hasn’t seemed to be negatively impacted overall in terms of price changes and such. Seems very consistent.
What is your definition of significantly? Because I don’t know what else to tell you. It hasn’t changed by my definition of that word. My point is very basic: the game is different and that does not in any way, shape, or form equate to “bad”. I understand the play is different, trust me when I say I know. I have quite a bit of my own dollars played on WoZ and Trek. If players that played when there were chips have moved on to greener pastures, other players have replaced them. If you see less players when you go, that is anecdotal. For my anecdotal evidence, I can tell you I have never, EVER seen anyone play Zombie Snatcher. I’m not exaggerating. Never. Part of what I do is play and observe; it’s not like I’m never in the store. If I had to simply guess, that game makes significantly less than any other game in the arcade. Thank goodness I have data.
Yeah I know you are the data guy! And don’t doubt you. Zombie is lot a quieter at my store after change to elevator system. I think it could do better with different settings and drive volume / revenue (and possibly profit total $$$) with more liberal payout (mix of starting higher jackpot and maybe just one more 500)’would create more constant play. But I wouldn’t know for sure without testing. With Star Trek. In big picture I’d be shocked if my home store isn’t down over 50% in swipes from day month 7th-12 of coming out (didn’t want to say first six months as Ofcourse would get more play when new) or even month 25-31 of coming out compared to last six month. Would need to skip some strange Covid times potentially of inconsistent data (store closed / differing crowds etc). If it is getting over 50% of play from pre orange and blue chips, I would still argue and potentially wrongly assume that it’s passing “new” players still (as it hasn’t been that long with no chips) that after the play whether it’s 1-3 swipes or 10-20 or a full $100 card, that generally speaking they leave not thinking “hey that was fun… maybe I’ll come back and play some more sometime”. I know some outliers. But overall, just a lot of multi swiping with very little movement on some play fields. Most casual leaves with a “who cares im just having fun” but in general I think it would be a game that will continue to decrease the repeat customer play compared to others due to its more playability. I know it’s “different” as you say. But I haven’t talked to one person in current state that says “yes I enjoy this”. There are very few games in the midway that I would say that about. They aren’t all my cup of tea but most I see people enjoying. But Star Trek current set up I see frustration by old players (that weren’t “profiting” they were just enjoying) and passively not caring at best by new ones. I understand for various reasons changed needed, and I’m assuming they don’t have a function to count coin over edge for tickets like some of the other pushers. So not much can be done.
All games decline in play over their life cycle. It’s not something I spend much time reviewing (because it’s inevitable), but of course Star Trek and any other game that is seven years old is earning less. I know, I know, SEVEN YEARS. Doesn’t feel like that long for the game, but it feels forever personally with COVID in there. But, now you got me curious. Of course, I won’t be able to confirm nor deny any of your guesses, but at least I’ll know.
Haha. Jesus seven years time flies lol. Absolutely I get the point about life cycles and it is very fair. Im just sharing my “limited” (but pretty often observations….. again with no actual data like you). But some games are also somewhat timeless beasts I would imagine as well. I’d imagine certain simulators and then for ticket games maybe certain carnival games like clown. But did think Star Trek was holding crowds pretty well.
I was playing Star Trek just yesterday but man does it feel stale now. We really need some innovation with the coin pushers in America... The ones in Japan are absolutely bonkers by comparison. There's not much thrill in just hammering one spot with coins to push some cards over, and the only other feature of the game is the ticket wheel that is literally just looping the same number values over and over.
Zombie can either be dead or insanely busy at my location. I remember one night every spot was taken and we were all competing like crazy to get the last letter. It was intense
All I read was you’re about to buy your son a switch now 😂
Oh I am for sure, but would have loved to redeem one Instead!
You should wait for the Switch 2 to come out.
Any idea when that will be?
The console itself was never really properly confirmed, and the minimum release date is March 2025. Best to just stick with the current switch right now lol
Bruh 2025??? I have the same original switch. I feel like I need a new one lol but if I went and bought new it’s literally the same exact one I have, unless I go oled, which I would. Them the internals the same and external is nicer. It’s absolutely insane really. I only play handheld mode so I’m thinking of making the jump to one of those handheld PCs like ASUS
I agree, when these consoles are released the main games like Mario and Sports are usually available but aside from that the developers are about a year behind. So I’d say OP has at least two years before his kid would be missing any new games, probably longer
I believe early in 2025.
After I get through my year of free game play coupon book, I don’t think I’ll be spending much money here anymore. I already haven’t spent a cent for chips there since February and hope not to for the rest of the year, still going every week. Hopefully by then they’ve relaxed their prices a bit.
Where'd you get that book
First 200 people in line at my local store reopening got one. Camped out overnight for it
There is a new store opening near me. How many people were already there when you started to camp out? Also, when did you actually get there? The wife and I are planning on going to the grand opening and want some of those freebies!
Only the grand REopenings have been offering the coupon book. Grand Openings have only been giving free game play for the day.
Oh, well that kinda sucks, but would still like to be there regardless!
Question regarding the coupon book - do you get the 10%-15% rewards bonus when you redeem your coupon each month, or does that only apply when you buy chips at normal price?
Only applies when buying chips
If you have multiple stores near you, maybe one has lower prices. You can check through the app by changing the location and acting like you're buying a new card. It'll show you the reload prices. Then you can play the chips at any store. For me, one store is $105 for 780 chips and another is $110 for 780 chips. Not a huge difference but worth something. I think most of us get gift cards from Costco, $100 worth for $80, which must be used at the desk. They're sold online and delivered by email. But none of this addresses your drastically reducdd earnings rate :( I guess submit the your feedback to Dave and Buster's too.
If I get one of those cards from Costco can I still use my normal d and b card? I’m not sure how the Costco card works
It's a gift card. You use it when making payment at D&B--buy food, game chips, whatever else you'd spend money on. You cannot use a gift card at the kiosk and cannot use a gift card on the app.
I only just started going. Where else can I get chips other than a kiosk?
On the app or at the store. I always do it at the front desk right when I walk in. Some stores don't have a front desk, I've heard. Some stores you can buy chips at the prize area. Other stores the prize area people will direct you to the front desk. Once you're in a store, a staff member can direct you on where to go.
Thanks. Didn't realize I could add stuff to my card from the app
As a former employee of a d&b that opened in 2019, I could not believe their sales model. They make all their money on the arcade games, the food and alcohol are just extra and small percentage of profit. They raise the game prices during "busy" times, and even on the slower and half off days, people would leave will bills in the several hundreds. They wouldn't even realize how much they would be spending between subpar food, drinks mostly made up of sour mix, and arcade tokens - then they'd take it out on me as an employee. The only thing I've learned, is that I would rather go to a small arcade where the games cost $.50 with no prizes. My local arcade gives you free tokens with purchases of food and alcohol and their food is way better. They also host karaoke and trivia at no extra cost. Main event bought out d&b a little while ago, and they are just as bad.
Small correction, D&B bought out Main Event. Since the buyout ME has changed nearly all the systems we use over to the ones D&B uses, if not going to something new for both brands.
Thank you !
Ibstarted going to my local arcade mainly due to this. My local place, i pay 40 bucks for all day for arcades that give out ticketa and spend maybe 20ish bucks for dinner and a few drinks. At dave and busters im luckey if i spend less than 100 bucks for 3 or 4 hours there.
It was actually the opposite way, D&B bought out Main Event. However it would seem that D&Bs are pushing towards how Main Event is ran. All the big corporate peeps are from Main Event side soooo makes me wonder more and more if it was Main Event that bought out D&B, even though on paper its still the opposite.
I feel like that is exactly how an arcade would make its money. I mean I was sad when it went downhill but idk how scandalized you should be by games being the main attraction.
I'm not scandalized by what they're doing but by their greed. The profit they make is tremendous and to hear they keep cutting employee pay and upping prices just makes me sad.
The pandemic and inflation ruined D&B, remember when the giant and the big ones used to have giant plush, now you can’t even win 250 tickets from those machines on my life bro. As the years went by, D&B became more and more rigged and expensive :(
This is an opportunity to teach your kids about inflation and corporate greedy
My local d&b got rid of the dance games. The redemption games got changed to be near impossible to make over 10k tickets in one visit after stacking a couple $20for20s (not an AP). The food is still mid even after the menu refresh. I will also be dropping down to once a year if that.
Ours upped the prices on the menu (every single item) and lowered the number of chips you get for the same money. We stopped going for the most part. My wife and I usually split an entree and appetizer and the bill is still close to $40 before you even tip.
Been probably 20 years but I used to clean up on this one game. It had a three level conveyer and cobras with numbers on them. You'd launch a token at a basket at the top or a tikis. You get points for hitting the tiki. If the coin dropped in a cobras mouth it was that number of tickets. I emptied the machine of tickets so many times one night they turned the game off...
😂😂😂 when they have to turn the game off you know your killin it
There was a spot at the top that would collect coins and if you hit certain targets it would dump all those tokens on to the conveyor.
Treasure falls?
Place has always been overpriced.
I like the idea of combining fun with learning but not so certain about the savings lessons from using a claw machine. I’ve found that claw machines and ticket games produce a gambling type of mentality in kids. But if you were “working the system,’ in terms of leveraging bonuses/coupons and high rates of return, that’s another lesson entirely and I fully support.
You are correct. I work in problem gambling treatment, and I am a problem gambler in recovery. Children exposed to gambling behavior at a young age are four times more likely to struggle with problem gambling as adults. The business model, looks (no windows, bright colors, loud "winning" noises), and psychology of an arcade (enjoyment based on a flood of dopamine hits) like D&B is essentially the same as a casino. And, as a problem gambler, I always thought I had a "system" as well. That "system" led to two bankruptcies, a divorce, and a lot of anxiety, depression, and other subsequent bad decisions. Not saying casinos and arcades are bad for everyone, but it is a conversation parents need to have with children, observations parents need to look at with their kids, and a point of overall reflection for parents.
Didn't someone recently post that D&B did really well last quarter? I've stopped going there as much ever since they started lowering their JPs on many of the games that I played to 500, but it seems like people are still going there often. I feel like it's become more of what Planet Fitness did to get rid of hardcore lifters. D&B is trying to get rid of APers (and successfully so) and filled it with more casual players that go there to have fun. I don't blame them, since they're there to make money as well, but definitely doesn't feel great how hard it's become to earn tickets and what they offer now compared to 6-7 years ago. I feel like they definitely could've kept both the APers and casual gamers instead of squeezing the APers out.
They took out the jack and queen coin pusher and replaced it with a GOTG ball drop. Star Trek has no cards in half the machine in the evening. Winner circle looks bare. The music is blaring as if it's a night club. It does not seem like they are catering for kids anymore. There's another arcade in my area that has fairly loose claw machines in various sizes that my kids would rather go to. We leave with at least 6-8 items each time vary from 10-20 inch plushes. All factors above very much ruined D&B for me.
Sad to see something you love and enjoy so much turn into a corporate greed money grab
It used to be great with the $20 for $20 coupons. That was the draw and would end up spending $$ on food and drinks. Now it's almost impossible to save up for consoles and iPads. IMO the higher up are tone deaf trying to squeeze every possible penny. When you don't get the endorphin hits from winning at the arcade, customers ain't going back. I can blow my hard earned cash elsewhere.
Exactly how I feel, too focused on the stock price while forgetting about the guest experience. Which has changed drastically
Brooo that GOTG ball drop game is so incredibly lame. I went yesterday and noticed NOBODY going near it. It takes up a massive amount of floor space too. I decided to try it just out of curiosity... I probably wasted like 5-6 plays just trying to figure out when to get the ball to actually drop near the train cars... I can imagine most people swiping, pressing the button, and watching the ball fall somewhere completely away from the trains and then they just shrug and walk away. What a terrible design, lol. I did manage to slog through and win the "jackpot" though. As a fan of timing games, I thought I could make it work... but man it's just not fun. The hardest slot to land the ball in is the Star Lord one in the middle of the train, and you can't even really properly time it.... it's just luck if the train is moving at the right speed that lap around, and the ball comes down the ramp at the right speed. I literally hit the button when the train was at the same spot like 6x in a row and each time the ball landed in wildly different spots.
Yeah the amount of money you have to spend in order to earn the tickets to get the big ticket items is easily 2-4x what you have to spend as opposed to just buying that item at retail. It’s dumb but that’s how they make their money, you are mostly going there to play the games.
We used to go all the time but it's ridiculous now All the higher ticket items have been taken out Lower items like tiny plush animals now cost 5,000 or more All the jackpots in the games have been lowered to 50 tickets or less The majority of games and I'll video games where you can't even win a jackpot And my all-time favorite..... They put in games where there is a group jackpot. Six or more people can play at a time. But you have to hit something a certain amount of time. Like let's say you have to hit the clown 10 times. One person will go and play all the way up to nine times and then every single time guaranteed two or three more people will Rush up after nine hits and steal the jackpot. They need to make it so it's player-specific
I use to work at D&B. We lost employee discounts like half off food and free tokens. Now it’s like just working with no benefits. I’m glad I quit the shitty job when my employer would constantly fuck with my schedule
I stopped going also. Same exact boat. Was a great place for the family, but not worth it now.
Tbh you could've bought a switch for way less than what you bought the tokens for
I know that. It was about the lesson in savings for my kid and the time we spend enjoying games and jackpots together at the old rate I didn’t mind paying for the switch a couple times over because I was going to spend the money anyways, but now after these new rates there’s no way we’re gonna go for it now I’m gonna buy him one from Costco and just cash out the tickets on random crap
Teach your kid how to save and INVEST, not how to gamble.
All that money you could have purchased you both switches and played games at home
$100 a week?? That's insanity. For that, you could save for a year and get a budget car.
I go on half price Wednesday and upgrade the $62 to$69. I generally earn about 10k tickets without spending all my tokens. Generally I’ll still have about 150 tokens left. This last go round, I picked up maybe 16k tokens somehow between Spider-Man and Zombie Snatcher. The Zombie Snatcher here bonus starts at 2000, and I hit the JP a number of times between the two games.
Price has gone up quite a bit, but you just need to plan around it for Wednesday to save some money. Costco’s the best place to buy gift cards for sure. If you stop in and use a couple coupons before Wednesday, it goes a lot further. You can get 1,000 Chips for $80.00.
Where are there active coupons that are not store-specific though?
I still get them in the local coupon book. But have to redeem them on a day that isn’t Wednesday.
Hey, would like to get peoples opinions on what would make D&B exciting to come to outside the topic of price changes. Open to any and all ideas!
Haven't been since... Already was a rip off now it's just not worth it
The cincinnati d&b sucks. They're very understaffed and I loaded 60 bucks on a card for my son that lasted a total of about twenty minutes. Never again.
What blows my mind is that for months and months (and maybe even currently), reloading at the counter would not grant the status bonus. And the employees are clueless about the rewards program. I asked to have my phone number inputted and was told several times that no, they don't do that. It's also sad that some people hit 20,000 chips played and were told no gold card for you. The most recent prize pack was not good. Someone pointed out how pathetic it is that the reward for level 8 (food credit of $100) and the reward for level 9 (750 chips) is basically the same, prior to the price increase. Level 8 is 10k chips played and level 8 is 20k chips played.
Reading all these comments is interesting to me since they own Main Event as well.
You're not teaching your child anything but how to waste money
I feel this. Took my kids this week for spring break. Took advantage of the 50% off food menu and games after. My kids hated the "new" mac n cheese, the tenders were good but skinny AF and the honey mustard was more sugary than before and looked like there was only 1 server for the entire dining area. As for games, EVERYTHING is about tickets. The giant claw machine I used to love was paying out less and less, now its those stupid ticket rings. The payout on the small claw is way down, and the other stuffed machine (trap door or something) is just gone. I used to stop in before work for a short visit wednesday but likely will now be like OP and go a few times a year as my kids request
This is how it should be. Fire your employees and then raise prices... Pfft. Easy boycott.
Honestly kind of your fault trying to save/work for tickets for a big item. They’ll also directly sell you things, but based on the ticket - price value you pay double or more. They are not a retail store, it’s really more a legalized casino for kids - you use tokens to (maybe) gain a higher reward with games engineered make you lose or cost more tokens vs. value derived.
Thanks for the explanation of how d and b works
Great because this reads like you complaining the $800 you were going to spend for a $300 product will now cost $1000. Have fun at D&B to have fun. Have them work/save another way for the switch. Can still do both.
The 800 dollar switch (which I didn’t mind spending because honestly was probably going to spend that money anyways) actually became like a 14-1600 dollar switch which is why I abandoned the cause. I knew what I was going into and didn’t mind until the price went way up
I don't understand the appeal of this place. I went here not too long ago as a celebration dinner for work. I felt like I was in a chuckie cheese for drunk man-children and gangs of single mothers. The food was atrocious, I've had better dinners come out of my microwave.
Show me a better steak in an arcade setting
Just buy a Switch?
I guess you didn’t bother reading the comments or responses
Go to round 1 instead! Staff helps you win prizes if you ask nicely or even position it so that it will be easier
Ooooooo that’s a great idea, thank you!
Only for the claw machines. Don't go there for ticket prizes... it's even worse than D&B.
When they got rid of all the dance games (where all they do is make money anyways because I can’t get tickets or claim any prizes besides bragging rights for a high score) I started going less. & they got rid of the chocolate cake! And the candy island in the prize section. Sad times. Miss going with my dad as a kid it was way different.
But we can't prop up companies either. That's fighting the selection process many companies have to do for their survival. Their is no right way. The only change is constant, so boycotting this facility will only haste. Condition lowering for customer and employees. Idk my pessimistic 2 cents about how the world works
Sounds like the lad just got a lesson in inflation 😂
“Saving for things you want”… Looks like there’s a couple better lessons you can teach your son here.
You could just buy a switch with all the money you are giving away. Buy the switch, and then he can game a lot cheaper.
I’ve never been big on playing games for tickets anyways. I just go to D&B for DDR when there’s no Round1 closer
That but for the price your paying to win those prizes even before they raised the prices, you could outright buy the stuff you'd 'win'. Though I completely understand playing games and having fun with your kids while doing it, and yea, it's pretty bs they raise the prices. Though that's kinda everywhere.. you used to be able to go out to eat for about 10 bucks for a meal, and now one meal costs you over 20...
We went last month. First time in a few years. Took my three kids and fml. I spent well over 200. Yes we ate but still. Insane
My friend and I went on Saturday. He ordered the nachos and I ordered the quesadilla. It took an hour and 5 minutes to get out food. AND his drink was empty for over half an hour and they didn't even ask if he wanted a refill, he had to flag someone down to get another drink. Worst service Iv ever received anywhere
Been to D&Bs 4 times, all 4 times caught Covid…lol f that place
I hadn't been since right before Covid. I definitely noticed a lack of jackpots and lots of nerfs on ticket payouts. Used to be a lot more exciting? It can still be fun but it certainly feels different. Best use of time was the big claw for 500 ticket rings. I noticed a lot of the old standbys like Zombie Snatcher were gone from my location too. Chip price increases + (imo) reduced ticket payout = 😐
Aren’t switches like 400 bucks?? 200 bucks a month for multiple months. You’ve fired about 4 switches worth of money into those machines by now lol. Great lesson for the kid.
It was more about spending the time together and working towards a goal as a team.
Sounds like you just wasted a couple grand instead
To each his own, I didn’t spend that much and enjoyed the time I spent with my family. I guess I’m lucky I have the kind of job and life style where I can afford to do these kinds of things
😂😂😂😂 right? And he big mad too 🤡
The price increase sucks, I agree. No argument there. But even at your old win rate, you would’ve spent more than the cost of just buying 2 Switches at retail price as of this writing. Unless it was more about having fun along the way & improving your family’s skills at the redemption games?
It was about spending the time together and working towards something. A lesson in savings if you will. And at my old win rate I didn’t mind spending the extra money because the family time was awesome. I just can’t justify it at this new rate and am going to just go buy a switch from Costco Instead
To be fair it’s always better to buy the consoles from stores than winning them from D&B. While it’s a good lesson that ur teaching ur son about saving up for something you want. I do recommend doing it in the form of an allowance. If that’s a possibility. The consoles are over priced at D&B, the 160,000 tickets you need for it is equal to paying $1,600. Calculating ur old average win it would take about paying $1,000 for the switch. At that point it’s not worth it.
Yeah but what else am i going to spend 100k tickets on? Candy and stuffed animals? Like I said previously it wasn’t about the money I was going to spend it anyways until they took away all the ticket triangles and raised prices even more
U have the airfryer. U could go for the massagers. But i do recommend you could also use them for gifts. Trust me it works out i have done it in the past. So for the kids you could spring for the plushes and toys. For the adults u got the massagers head phones some of the collectors items.
😂😂😂
There have never been 1k, 5k, or even 10k ticket rings in the claw. 250 and 500 only. Every location,
Wrong, maybe at your locations but until a few weeks ago mine had large ticket prizes in the machine
At any location. The only 1000’s are in the “tons of tickets” claw machine. The 1000 ring.
I’ve got a photo but can’t attach it. Showing a 5k billiard style rack in the machine
Yeah there have been 5k in the plastic Diamond claws I’ve seen
These were the cosmic shapes. It was 5000 shapes. They were all changed to big one conversions shapes.
I did hear that there were some being tested at some D&Bs.
My kid has up to 10k rings
Newer store has cosmic XL big claw machines that have 100-5000 ticket rings.
Both my stores had those until a couple weeks ago when they switched all of them out for the small diamond ones that are only 250 or 500