By Brad Hodge
Published: April 13, 2013
Last year, we witnessed the closure of Tumblewoods, a children’s indoor play park. In a town as cold and rainy as ours, Tumblewoods seemed a sure fire hit.
And yet, it was gone in a few years. Tumblewoods, sadly, was one among several entertainment businesses, including our movie theatre and former bowling alley, to shut their doors.
What is it with Squamish? Why do these venues keep failing?
In the case of the cinema, I think the answer was obvious: Overhead costs.
A screen for a town of 17,000 was rather ambitious and expensive, given Squamish’s proximity to Vancouver.
Annual rent and property taxes alone came close to half a million dollars.
And that’s not including paying for staff, electricity, equipment maintenance or the films themselves.
No shocker there.
Tumblewoods, I’m sure, faced similar costs, and there would have been other factors – after all, proximity to the city can mean competing with it, and there are lots of venues for entertainment there.
Yet, it still doesn’t seem right.
There is Whistler, which supports neat attractions like Bounce! And then you have a bowling alley in Hope (pop. 6,335), and the town is minutes from Chilliwack.
It costs some $40,000 per bowling lane, according to bowling supplier Brunswick.
Coupled with high lease costs, how could such an enterprise ever survive in our town?
I think the key is being innovative. Perhaps as a business, a bowling alley and a movie theatre simply aren’t viable here.
A business has to not only cover its costs, but provide an income for its owner.
In contrast, a non-profit co-operative doesn’t, and maybe that’s a model we need to examine.
Tiny Campbellford, Ontario (pop. 3,600) did this with their Aron Theater Co-Op project.
They bought an existing theatre and run it today as a non-profit.
Perhaps a community co-op could make a go of it.
I had a crazy vision of a non-profit mobile theatre co-op renting idle space around town and doing bring-your-own-seating indoor/outdoor first-run movies.
Tuck away money and lease proper space, or do something else like a bowling alley down the road!
To that end, I decided to push the ball and created a Facebook page called Squamish Family Entertainment Association.
Admittedly, as a busy IT guy, I haven’t had as much time to push it, but I think it’s do-able.
I like the idea of the community creating entertainment for itself rather than waiting for a business to take the risk.
I would invite anyone with the energy and passion (and time) to join ‘us’, or create something similar, and bring Squamish families some entertainment.
Michael says
Apathy. People say that they want these things, a movie theater, bowling alley, but, when we had them, no one supported them.
Marty says
I agree we need to do something.
adam says
Outdoor seating to watch a movie…I doubt you would sell a single ticket.
We have pay per view in our lovely warm homes. Tumblewoods didn’t do proper market research as the math to breakeven was just way off. Our kids should be outside anyway playing on real trees. It suits West Van a bit more for the cost involved. The DOS needs a shake up to make this town a lot more viable to new businesses.
Storm says
I think it all comes down to business planning. A 5 screen huge theatre facility was never going to be viable for this size of town. Why cant the one screen theatre at the adventure centre be utilised – there is already a cafe there for concession and they cld probably handle ticket sales too. Who knows, it might actually make the adventure centre budget balance. Powell river has similar population (and no access to alternative venues) and has the oldest operating movie theatre in canada – 1 screen and probably 1 owner/staff member! As regards bowling – again think smaller scale. How about more traditional style skittles or just a couple of mechanised lanes in somewhere like the upper lounge at brennan park – concession and staff for ticket sales already in place. Same goes for an indoor play place – it works best as a spin off of something else as the volume of business here will never support the rent and staff costs. Simply not enough foot traffic. It is sadly clear that many businesses here are not going through thorough business planning before wasting their money on a venture that will not work.
Dave says
The trouble , which has been for many years in this town, is that would-be entrepreneurs do not present, or cannot afford, a business plan that will “cut the mustard” down the road. You have to pump in the capital and sometimes take a risk or two. There are many businesses that have done this and survived to go on to prosperity. I predict that “The Farm” Garden market on Mamquam road will be one of these. The owner has done her homework and pumped in what is required. Time will tell, but I am confident that she will do well. Too many ventures have been conceived on “a shoe string” and have subsequently failed.
Don’t talk about “skittles”, talk about “full 10 pin bowling” and all the trimmings….be prepared to put up the ante and hope that the Council will not block you with red tape….Hmmm on this last point!.
“He who aimeth at a star, reaches higher than he who only means a tree” (W.S.)
Dave says
If I wanted a bowling alley, I would negotiate with the owners of the casino and get them to consider a facility next door….see what I mean?…sound and innovative business planning!
It used to be alcohol but we know that is a dying thing but you gotta have a draw of some kind. Maybe a bowling alley next to a neighbourhood pub might work….but then I am not, and will never be, a business man.
April says
For the previous comments…
I did over 5 years of planning and market research before I opened Tumblewoods. I spent a lot of time, sweat and money trying to make it like the outdoors, rocks, trees etc. and avoiding cartoon characters and electronic games and TVs, so those who would rather be outdoors could come and be comfortable when outdoors was not an option. I made all my food from scratch and tried to keep everything quite healthy to appeal to our active community.
I had a solid business plan with realistic worst case scenarios that our town somehow managed to beat. If all the clients in my database had come only once per month and also maybe enjoyed a coffee or some homemade food, I could have remained open…. unfortunately a lot of those people only came once per year! There was no reason this business should have failed in our town. I was lucky to have a small group of amazing supporters, but it was just not enough.
Cheers 🙂
Dave says
I grew up near Campbellford and happen to own a drive-in movie theatre. Problem with indoor theatres is you cannot play more than one title at a time, meaning the multiplexes grab all the small town customers if they aren’t too far away. Local municipalities still want full commercial taxes of course, despite tiny revenues for these places closed most of the day. That’s probably your issue with a bowling alley, not to mention there are so many competing businesses these days. I wasn’t aware Campbellford went co-op with their theatre, though I don’t think that makes much of a difference, most small town indoor theatres are literally a job that a person or family owns, and even a co-op or non-profit will still have to pay staff and expenses, and “private” owners often do work for (much) less.