Bobby Lavan: Yeah. We look at our performance and we evaluate where we want to buy a stock, we would aggressively buy our stock here.
Jeremy Hamblin: And in terms of the window of when it reopens?
Bobby Lavan: We don’t comment on those kinds of mechanics.
Jeremy Hamblin: Got it. Thanks for the updates [and color] (ph). Best wishes.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Ian Zaffino: Hi. Great. Thank you very much. Wanted to ask you a couple of questions here. First one would be, Bobby, I think you mentioned that Internet, which I guess is pre-bookings I believe, were very strong. So, how does that kind of foot with how walk-in retail moves? Why would one be strong and then the other one kind of lagging somewhat? And then also, I know you restored a lot of these mid-week promotions. Have you seen the benefit of those? Are they kind of baked in, or have the consumer been responding the way you expected? Thanks.
Bobby Lavan: Yeah. So, I mean, mid-week promotions coming back are great because we have an easy comp from June to October, right? On top of — Tom talked about Summer Season Pass, where we’re expecting — we had nothing last year, and we expect to kind of double from where we were two years ago. We’re really focused on traffic. Traffic doesn’t have to be just be walk-in retail. Events are up. Online is up 100%. So, ultimately, events and online are going to cannibalize just the walk-in retail traffic generally, because there’s just going to be some people who want to book ahead. But that’s a better experience for the customer and ultimately allows us to upsell them. So, it’s a better transaction, it’s higher ARPU, and ultimately it allows us to plan better and staff better.
And what we’re really excited about that dynamic as well is that if we have a center that’s full this weekend, Times Square is full this weekend, we don’t need to spend online marketing dollars driving traffic there. But if we have a center that we know might be — have lower utilization in the summer, we can go spend — shift the marketing dollars from high-cost [indiscernible] like New York to lower cost, and drive traffic into those centers. So, ultimately, the thing that if you take a step back, for years, our business was a pricing game. Now, it’s a traffic game. And ultimately, if we can get traffic into the centers, the incremental leverage on that is dramatic.
Ian Zaffino: Okay. And then, can you just maybe help us understand how the comps progressed throughout the quarter? I know you had a tough January, but when you say tough, was that sort of down mid-teens? Because if you kind of do the math or make some assumptions, that’s what it seems like. And then, you kind of were doing low singles in February and March. Is that kind of directionally right? And if that’s the case, I guess, you saw an acceleration of just 6% in April? I’m just trying to get a sense of the cadence of the business by month? Thanks.
Bobby Lavan: Yeah. The first three weeks of January were worse than minus 10%. We ended January minus 7%. February was plus 1%, and March was plus 3%, and April, as Tom said, was plus 6%.
Ian Zaffino: Okay. Perfect. Thank you very much.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Eric Handler from Roth MKM. Please go ahead.
Eric Handler: Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much. Wondered if you could talk a little bit about all the various initiatives that are working in amusements to drive that business?
Lev Ekster: Hey. Good morning. Lev Ekster here. So, when I started with the amusements department, we didn’t have very many company-owned arcades. Today, we have over 330 centers with company-owned arcades. And we consider ourselves to be a real player in the amusement space. But I don’t think the consumer has caught up fast enough considering us for that business. And so, all of these initiatives were to expose our amusements business to more consumers and to drive repeat visits as a result. So, offering them more gameplay for a similar amount of cost to them, better prizes and redemption, winning more, and overall, just a better guest experience. Because, as Tom — as Bobby mentioned, we’re in the trafficking. We want to provide as good of an experience as possible to drive those repeat visits, because at the same time, we’re getting better and really focused on increasing our F&B attachment when they come back, right?
So, amusements has become a major pull for us for traffic. And to do so, we wanted to offer a better experience. But also put a bigger spotlight on our amusements business. So, we’ve even recently been engaged with arcade influencers, visiting our centers, sharing content. We never had that level of focus on marketing our amusements business like we have today. Getting back to our redemption prizes. We want our guests to feel like they got a great value for their spend. So, we’re bringing in products that are market specific with fanatics, right? We want it to be a better experience. And that’s a 360-degree view. More gameplay, better game selection, better prizes, more value. And as a result, repeat visits, and a better sentiment towards our amusements business and our locations as a whole.
Eric Handler: So, as a follow-up then, I’m assuming the more time — well, the more people spend on amusements, the more time they’re spending in your centers, which I imagine then has a trickledown effect on food and beverage. Can you talk about, like, what happens, like, if a person spends one incremental hour in your center, maybe what that translates to an incremental spending or margin?
Lev Ekster: It’s a good question. I would say the average dwell time in our centers right now is about 105, 110 minutes. We have seen that creeping up. It’s still early days. But really, if somebody were to order another cocktail, I mean, that’s $10, $12 increase with very little cost. And you multiply that by 40 million people, I mean, the numbers get meaningful very quick. And so, we are just very focused on traffic into the summer. Because from our perspective, we crush it in December. January, we got whipped around on the weather. We did fairly well in February, March. But we have this fixed cost structure, we have this payroll structure. And so ultimately, if we can add 50 million or 100 million of revenue in the summer, that’s a meaningful change to our business.
And if we give people a better experience, particularly with the season pass, then they’re going to come back in November and December. So, the flywheel of getting people into the centers, giving them a premium experience, letting them engage with the new menu, the new arcade dynamic, really improves customer satisfaction. And we’ve seen our NPS go up. Our NPS is up. It has gone from 62 to 65 in the past six months, which is meaningful for us. And ultimately, we think customers are choosing us, and that’s really exhibiting the fact that our comp in April is strong and that’s where we want to be.
Eric Handler: Great. And just if I could, one quick follow-up. In terms of the new menu, how many centers have the new menu? How many center — how long before it rolls out everywhere?
Lev Ekster: Yeah. So, just to share a little bit more about how we’re viewing our food and beverage attachment and the focus there. So, as Tom mentioned, it’s a really big focus and we’ve kind of underperformed there historically. So, TTM, if our centers are averaging $0.65 in food and beverage spend to every retail bowling dollar, I’ve seen firsthand being here in Miami, at our new location, Lucky Strike Miami, that number is closer to $2.25. So, we can really see what’s possible with this level of focus on food and beverage sales. But that’s a comprehensive effort, right? So, as Tom mentioned, new menus, new menu items, new pricing, even the presentation of the menu going from multiple sheets to a trifold, or in Miami’s case, on our luxury menu, a book.
New hiring standards to get chefs and kitchen managers into our locations, where we’re assessing them now on a skills-based approach versus doing Zoom interviews. We’re getting them into our kitchens to see how they perform. And we’re filtering a lot better. More training on the soft skills of selling food and beverages. We’re taking a look at our windows for food sales, right? We’ve had like this food truck design where we’re reevaluating it. We’re re-evaluating the bar displays to be more impactful and bigger focal points for our consumers. So, it’s like a comprehensive approach on food and beverage sales on top of driving more traffic into our centers. And if we get that $0.65 closer to a $1, really, really meaningful stuff. We’re going to be rolling out our traditional — to your question, our traditional premium menus in late May into June, and then the luxury menu I mentioned at Miami, through the Lucky Strikes and the higher-end Bowleros, that’ll be June into July.
So, by the end of July, all of our centers will be on a new menu, new pricing. And we’re also giving a real look to scaling our Cheeky Monkey concept. So that came with our acquisition of Lucky Strike Fenway. It was like an adjoining space, but really cool concept. We’re revamping the brand identity right now in the menu there, but we’ve identified ten of our existing locations that have viable restaurant spaces already built in that are just looking for a great concept. And we think Cheeky Monkey is just that.
Eric Handler: Thanks.
Lev Ekster: You’re welcome.
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Eric Wold from B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.
Eric Wold: Thank you. Good morning. So, two questions for me. I guess one, just a quick follow-up on your earlier comments on the season — on the Summer Season Pass. You mentioned you’ve done $1.5 million against your goal of $10 million to $15 million. How does that $1.5 million compare kind of from the start of selling to date to prior year that you sold the same or a similar offering? Running ahead of back then or kind of in line?
Lev Ekster: Yeah. So that’s a really interesting question because it’s not necessarily apples to apples. So, at its peak, the Season Pass sold about a little over $6 million. This year, with the launch of the Summer Season Pass — so we rebranded it from Summer Games and we really improved the value proposition, the pricing model to the consumer. There used to be a Kid Pass and Adult Pass option. There’s just one pass now, which is similar to our bowling pricing, right? There’s no kids bowling, an adult bowling price. We have a Basic Pass and a Premium Pass now. The Premium Pass gets you a slight discount on food and beverage sales, gets you some arcade credits. So, it’s a better experience. But through the first three weeks of selling this pass, where we’ve reached that $1.5 million in sales, that’s pre-redemption.
So, historically, when we sold the pass, those first three weeks, you were able to buy it and use it that visit and redeem it right away. Right now we’re calling it a pre-sale and you can’t redeem it until May 24. So, obviously, it’s increasingly harder to sell it right now, right? Because you don’t get the same instant gratification of using it at the time of purchase. So, the $1.5 million during this period, I think is really, really encouraging. And I think May 24th, when redemption opens up and you can purchase it and use it in that same visit, you’re going to see it explode in sales.
