How To Run A Bowling Alley-Arcade-Restaurant-Bar In The Middle Of A Pandemic

Joe Weisenthal (0:11)

Hello, and welcome to an episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:17)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:19)

Tracy, you know what I think would be a really hard business to be running right now?

Tracy Alloway (0:25)

I think you're gonna have to narrow it down, because I kind of feel like almost every business at the moment is pretty challenging, but what do you have in mind?

Joe Weisenthal (0:33)

Yeah, no, that was, there are a lot of businesses are challenging, but obviously, any business that's sort of like directly in the service industry, restaurants, things like that, where people congregate together are pretty tough. Here in New York, you see restaurants trying to make it work with outside seating and plexiglass between the tables and turning parking spaces and sidewalks into places to dine, but you can tell it's pretty tough.

Tracy Alloway (1:03)

Yeah, absolutely. And you also have to contend with multiple waves of coronavirus cases, which means that the regulations are constantly changing. So here in Hong Kong, we had restaurants that were open for a while in one way or another. And then last week, they decided to shut them all down. That lasted for about a day and now they're reopened again, but only for takeaway after 6 p.m. So everything seems to constantly be changing. And I imagine if you're a restaurant owner that already has very slim profit margins, it makes it really, really difficult to plan ahead, buy supplies, buy food, organize waiters and waitresses' schedules and things like that.

Joe Weisenthal (1:46)

Right, it seems brutal.

There have been multiple instances in the US., of course, of lockdowns, then the lockdown's lifted and then the lockdown's reimposed or some partial change or some arbitrary change. I think it was like in New York, like Cuomo said something like you can serve drinks, but you have to have food, but chicken wings don't count, it's too easy. It's just like the thought of like having a business and trying to navigate this right now, it just seems excruciating.

Tracy Alloway (2:13)

Yeah, although you have seen some restaurants become really creative with those requirements. So I think I saw a few in New York that were serving like one chicken wing, two fries, two accompany drinks and things like that. That happened in Hong Kong as well. So yeah, interesting times if you're in the hospitality business.

Joe Weisenthal (2:33)

Now you know what would be even harder than just running a restaurant?

Tracy Alloway (2:37)

Go on.

Joe Weisenthal (2:39)

Running a restaurant that was also an arcade and was also a bowling alley, right? Because part of the business involves a bunch of people touching stuff, and that's not obviously really a thing.

Tracy Alloway (2:52)

Yeah, and sharing shoes, right? How are you disinfecting the shoes?

Joe Weisenthal (2:55)

Sharing shoes, right, so many questions. Well, the good news is, today we have a guest who can speak exactly that because among other things, he has co-founded a bowling alley arcade bar and restaurant.

Tracy Alloway (3:08)

I love it, I have so many questions about the bowling alley business model just before, or even before, I should say, the coronavirus hit. So I'm looking forward to this one.

Joe Weisenthal (3:19)

Wait, can I just say one more thing, Tracy, before we bring our guest in?

Tracy Alloway (3:22)

Go on, go on.

Joe Weisenthal (3:24)

Do you know that I once bowled a 263, eight strikes or something? That's a fact.

Tracy Alloway (3:29)

Picks or it didn't happen. That's what I say.

Joe Weisenthal (3:32)

It was in high school. Otherwise I would have had iPhone camera anyway.

Anyway.

Tracy Alloway (3:36)

A likely story.

Joe Weisenthal (3:38)

Trust me. All right, no more introduction. So today I'm very excited about a guest, someone who we should have had on a long time ago, long even before coronavirus finally get him on. He's Adam Ozimek. So as mentioned, he's the co-founder of Decades, which is a bowling alley, arcade bar and restaurant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And he's an economist.

He's the chief economist at UpWork, which is an online freelancing platform. So kind of the perfect guest to talk about the macro of what he's seeing in the economy, but also in the micro of how do you actually run or try to run a business in these extraordinary times.

Adam Ozimek, thank you for joining us.

Adam Ozimek (4:21)

Thanks for having me guys.

Joe Weisenthal (4:22)

I guess you don't have to worry about disinfecting the shoes right now, because I assume no one's bowling.

Adam Ozimek (4:27)

People are bowling.