SECRETS BEHIND THE FUN PASS.
Many of you guys who have seen the video “Caine’s Arcade” know about the fun pass. If you wanted to come to play my arcade it would cost you $1 for 4 turns or $2 for a fun pass, which gives you 500 turns. Clearly, the Fun Pass was the better choice and the best deal. I had some marketing for the Fun Pass.
For example, pretend you go to a restaurant and are planning to order a small strawberry smoothie that will cost you $4.50 for an 8oz and a size large will cost you $5.00 for a 16oz smoothie. This pretty much makes the small one not the best deal and wanting to get the large for 50 cents more, which gives you double the sizing.
This was pretty much the same idea I had with my Fun Pass. It made 1 dollar for 4 plays, not a good deal. So then it makes the Fun Pass a much better deal. Which is why the Fun Pass was the most popular item and most sold at my arcade. A Lot of people ask me why did you make the Fun Pass have 500 turns for only $2 that's such a good deal. The main reason was I wanted my arcade to be cheap and affordable. You go to any other arcade you're going to spend at least 30 dollars to have fun. Giving the customer at my arcade more turns didn't cost me more. So I could give them 600 turns and I will still make the same amount of profit on them. Giving my customers a lot of plays got them to stay longer and therefore I'd be able to sell them other things I had to offer. It was all a marketing move.
Where I got the name for the fun pass was from the LA County Fair. The fair is pretty big in LA, I would go every year with my family. It was always so much fun and I just loved going. I would always get the Fun Pass every year I went. It gives you unlimited everything. Unlimited carnival rides, arcade games, and discounts to different things around the fair. It was the best deal at the fair so I would always get it. The Fun Pass at the fair gave me the whole package! They gave you a lanyard to put around your neck with it saying “Fun Pass”.
My Fun Pass was not fancy at all. The very first Fun Pass I sold was my old hotel key from Palm Springs that said “Welcome” on the front side. It was the most professional looking card I could in place as a Fun Pass that I had laying around. Then later I got cardboard and cut them up into little cards and wrote Fun Pass on it. It was my so-called “Little upgrade” from my first Fun Pass design.
The first weekend at Caine’s Arcade opened after the video came out. It was a 4 hour to wait just to play. I remember running my arcade for a couple of hours and going outside to look at the line. It was at the end of the block. Incredible. What constantly comes to my mind is that there is so much money to be made here. I could tell these people wanted to play arcade and were desperate to play it. I just knew I had to take advantage of the situation and time, that it would be a good business move. So I created a Fun Pass for 20 dollars and it let you skip the line and it gave you 500 plays. So I created about 20 Fun Passes with a special stamp that meant you could skip the line. I went to the end of the line and started to ask people if they wanted to buy a special Fun Pass for 20 dollars that let you skip the line. Telling them, “It’s pretty hot outside. The wait time to play is about 4 hours and you can skip the line for only 20 dollars”. As I was going down the line I eventually sold out of the “Skip the line Fun Passes” and soon realized that it was a good move. I came back to my arcade with a big smile on my face while having people walking behind me ready to skip the line.
