(Editor's note: This is part one in a two-part series.)

2022 was a hardly a stellar year for the location-based entertainment industry. While people were starting to return to entertainment centers following the COVID-19 shutdowns, full recovery was a long way off.

But Ed Golebiowski, the longtime manager of Cheap Skate Roller Park in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, saw an opportunity to expand when the owner of nearby Zero Gravity Trampoline Park wanted to sell his 10-year-old business.

Ed Golebiowski (Photo: Zero Gravity Adventure Park.

"Coming out of the COVID shutdowns, we saw a tremendous uptick in business as people wanted to get out of the house and get back to normal," Golebiowski told Vending Times in a recent phone interview. "Zero Gravity was a turn-key business, so it made sense to me."

Golebiowski, with his pulse on emerging arcade games, saw potential in the 25,000-square-foot trampoline park in nearby Mounds View, Minnesota. Continuing his work at the roller skating park in Coon Rapids, Golebiowski purchased Zero Gravity in January of 2022.

Fortunate timing

His timing could not have been better. That same month, GameWorks, an e-sports and eatertainment chain, closed its six locations in Chicago, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, Denver, Cincinnati and Seattle. Golebiowski was able to get excellent deals on GameWorks arcade games at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

He wasted no time expanding Zero Gravity's arcade games to include laser tag, renaming the business Zero Gravity Adventure Park.

The Sponge Bob Dynamic Duo virtual reality game purchased from GameWorks has been a winner. Photo: Zero Gravity Adventure Park.

From GameWorks, he purchased a Space Invaders video game, a Big One Xtreme claw machine, a Nerf Arcade by Raw Thrills game, a Grand Piano Keys game and a Fishbowl Frenzy redemption game. He also bought a Sponge Bob Dynamic Duo virtual reality game.

"I wanted to add a lot of unique features to the place," said. "It's been a great earner for us."

He also added colored LED lighting throughout the park and updated party rooms with fog machines to add excitement.

Transition to cashless

The biggest improvement may have been switching from coins, tokens and tickets to the Intercard cashless system, installing Intercard Impulse and Eclipse readers, as well as a Coast to Coast Entertainment redemption kiosk for prize winnings.

The Intercard readers accept both game cards and debit cards, allowing players to make $5 vends on games and collect points without reinserting their cards. The readers also eliminated the need for employees to refill cards.

"Intercard to me made the most sense for what I wanted to do because I wanted to integrate with one of the prize companies and I went with BMI (BMI Merchandise) as my prize company." he said. The system allows players to exchange their game cards and redeem prizes at the redemption kiosk.

Players can exchange their game cards and redeem prizes at the redemption kiosk. Photo: Zero Gravity Adventure Park.

"The systems talk to each other perfectly and one thing I didn't want to do is spend hours every week looking through catalogs on what to order for the prize counter," he said. "It works seamlessly in the sense that when the kids come up to the counter they scan it with Intercard. It has an inventory system. And every Monday the account manager at BMI gets a report on what we sold…We don't have to keep large inventory of prizes."

Card payments have pushed revenue well beyond what the coin, ticket and token games delivered. His 2023 revenue was $1.4 million, more than double the company's $600,000 2021 revenue. The arcade, food and beverage revenue quadrupled from 2021 to 2023.

The card-to-cash ratio in the arcade games is as much as 95% cards to 5% cash.

The company's 15- to 20-person staff — depending on the season, with winter being the busiest — includes one maintenance person who services all the equipment.

School fundraisers prove popular

The fastest growing part of the business to date is school, group and corporate parties. The growth is largely on account of a fundraising program Golebiowski created that has proven popular with schools.

He charges people $9.99 for use of the trampoline area, all of which goes to the school. For an additional $9.99, families get unlimited access to the laser tag arena and the netted arial challenge court above the arcade.

"For an additional $9.99, they can do that, and that's what I keep, and that's where I make the money," Golebiowski said.

About 65% to 75% of the people who buy the fundraising tickets select the upgrades. They have to buy them online for the school to get the rebate. To date, about 35 schools who have signed up for the program.

"It forces parents to buy them online, and then I can track how many sales are done, so that way I can reasonably budget for labor to know how many employees I'm going to have to keep my costs as tight as they can be," he said.

Part two in this two-part series will explore Zero Gravity Adventure Park's revamped the food and beverage vending operation to improve revenue and enhance customer experience.

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