Owners of Bowling Alleys

[Easy Tiger]

Arguably the most dynamic centre ever opened in Oz was Kedron and the owners of that centre were not bowling people. They were business men who saw what the market needed and provided it. Whne you walked into the centre it was always clean and tidy, there were always too many staff on shift, generally the cafe had 4 or 5 working in there, the control had "good" looking women in thier jumpsuits and a smile and they had 5 or 6 mechanics employed because the place was so busy they had to work graveyard shifts to service the machines. Terry and John made that centre work. What other centre do you know of that replaced the carpet every 12 months and resurfaced yearly? Of course, now that MLG has taken over, we all know what has happened to that centre and most of the other privates that they acquired.

It was just as bad before Macquarie took it over.. when it was under AMF itself before the acquisition it was the same as it is now.

So basically, when the owners sold it (or leased it out to AMF), it went down the toilet. I was never fortunate enough to have ever been to the centre when it was non-AMF.

It certainly wasn't like what you described when I worked there in 04/05.. it was pretty quiet (especially in the day) and on a Friday night you'd usually be out by 11, in fact I got in trouble once because we weren't closed by 10. On a Friday night. The place looks tired (though it's been done up a bit recently with the cafe area), the lane conditions suck (they weren't interested in the slightest in changing them when I was down the back there), and there are bugger all staff on at any one time. Usually in the day, the person on the front counter was also responsible for the cafe. Ironically, the roof collapsed and the place got flooded a week after I left there. Wasn't really good for the lanes.

On the flipside, I've always felt welcome at Chermside and Aspley. I hope AMF Loganholme stays like it is now, because it is by far and away the best AMF centre in these woods. Followed by Mt Gravatt and then probably Richlands..

It's a shame to see that Kedron was obviously a great centre once.

 

[fatty083]

Bowlers should definitely own centres. My centre is owned by a businessman not a bowler and as such it is so hard to get the centre to do anything for the bowlers. They also dont care if their equipment damages your ball. not even so much as a sorry...nevermind offering to resurface or fix the ball.

Yeah but do u drive a car do u ring main roads every time u get a scratch on ur car no . U throw a ball into solid pins and think u wont get the odd mark or too yeah it sucks but the price of games would increase 10 x if they had to pay for all the damage that occures to peoples gear

 

[willey]

Fatty083, what are you saying, I've never seen a pin damage a ball. The machines rarely damage a ball, but when they do there is a problem and it should be fixed along with the ball.

I have worked in more than 20 Centre's over the years and I can tell you every Centre at some time causes damage to a ball, just the same as every Centre leaks when it Rains.

willey