Daytona Museum Closing

[deadlander]

Got a text from a friend who learned via Facebook that the Daytona Arcade Museum is closing.  They are selling the business for 375k.  Fun location was the old coliseum dance club from the 80's.  Unfortunately the pins always played poorly so I only visited once.  Also alcohol was limited to the bar and you couldn't drink and play.  Sad to see it go but I understand why it failed.
Regards,
Al

[DanielR]

Knew about this awhile ago, sad to see it go.

[JaxGator]

Really liked this place.  Too bad its shutting down.

[TheBatman]

I stopped by to say hi a month ago and the girl at the counter wouldn't let me in just to look around, not even for a few minutes unless I paid admission. I didn't have time to stay and play and it was towards the end of the day...

[k7]

I stopped by to say hi a month ago and the girl at the counter wouldn't let me in just to look around, not even for a few minutes unless I paid admission. I didn't have time to stay and play and it was towards the end of the day...

that equals closure.

i've been to silverball to speak with marcel on pinball repairs/parts needed, front desk lets me right in.

i've been in several arcades over the last decade down my way to "just look, snap pictures", and never turned away.

although fundepot didn't take me up on free maintenance on their dead pinball machines, that came as a bit surprising.

i've done service calls for several locations, with the pure goal of finding out how to buy their outdated or dead games.

[DanielR]

I stopped by to say hi a month ago and the girl at the counter wouldn't let me in just to look around, not even for a few minutes unless I paid admission. I didn't have time to stay and play and it was towards the end of the day...

Not defending her but that’s exactly how I was instructed to handle the front door. They wanted me to charge full price even if they walk in 10 minutes to closing. A movie that ended at 9:45pm when we close at 10pm was a disaster with a crowd of unhappy customers.

[Motoman]

Same thing here! My wife and I were in town and just wanted to check the place out, but they wanted full admission  before we could even look around! They finally "escorted " us thru via the way of the mezzanine.  No stopping, no photos, exit is over here!!!
Really.

[bigster]

The post on Facebook says they will return next season in a different location if no one buys the business.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[MilitiaMan]

I had a much different experience.

On the way back from a recent pickup, the JAX crew decided to take a quick detour to check the place out. Even though we couldn't stay long, we offered to pay full price because we really wanted to check the place out. The owner wouldn't have it. We were given free wristbands and had the run of the place for as long as wanted. The owner even went out of his way to show off a few of his prized pieces and then walked us over to check out the games he had in his overflow area.

For those of you that were turned away, it was probably simply due to the fact that you were dealing with "the help" and not actually speaking with the owner of the place, Brian. Good help is hard to find and the employees were most likely instructed to follow the rules. Once you allow your front desk person to decide who gets in for free and who doesn't, you wind up with an arcade full of their buddies and no money in the till.   

I wish they could have found a way to make it work in that location. The ambience of the building makes for an amazing arcade feel in the place.

Steve
MM

[TheBatman]

I had a much different experience.

On the way back from a recent pickup, the JAX crew decided to take a quick detour to check the place out. Even though we couldn't stay long, we offered to pay full price because we really wanted to check the place out. The owner wouldn't have it. We were given free wristbands and had the run of the place for as long as wanted. The owner even went out of his way to show off a few of his prized pieces and then walked us over to check out the games he had in his overflow area.

For those of you that were turned away, it was probably simply due to the fact that you were dealing with "the help" and not actually speaking with the owner of the place, Brian. Good help is hard to find and the employees were most likely instructed to follow the rules. Once you allow your front desk person to decide who gets in for free and who doesn't, you wind up with an arcade full of their buddies and no money in the till.   

I wish they could have found a way to make it work in that location. The ambience of the building makes for an amazing arcade feel in the place.

Steve
MM

I'd agree with you Steve, I'm sure this is the case.  The idea was just to stop in and say hi to Brian the owner and represent the pinball and vid community from Orlando area...as you guys did.  Most of us are used to a nice warm reception like you received, especially if anyone is from out of the area.  Since Brian wasn't there it was irrelevant anyway, but would have been nice to see the games and layout with a quick walk thru with my own eyes rather than on a video they had...like really?  I understood she was just doing as instructed though, so didn't give her a hard time.

[bamboo]

I'd agree with you Steve, I'm sure this is the case.  The idea was just to stop in and say hi to Brian the owner and represent the pinball and vid community from Orlando area...as you guys did.  Most of us are used to a nice warm reception like you received, especially if anyone is from out of the area.  Since Brian wasn't there it was irrelevant anyway, but would have been nice to see the games and layout with a quick walk thru with my own eyes rather than on a video they had...like really?  I understood she was just doing as instructed though, so didn't give her a hard time.

Anytime I race at Daytona I always made a point to go there and paid entry for anyone that was with me. Brian is a nice guy, passionate about his games.  Hopefully he figures something out.