There was a recent post on G+ that I responded to where I expressed my observations about the Bowlmor corporate philosophy change of AMF centers. This is actually something I've been following in various forums ever since Bowlmor took over AMF, and it's been interesting to see the changes and how those changes have been received.
To bring everyone up to speed . . . well . . . I'll let the Press Release bring everyone up to speed about the technical parts of the merger. What I'm more interested in addressing is how Bowlmor is implementing/has implemented it's philosophy of upscale bowling lounges across the scope of the AMF landscape. This is certainly not new, Bowlmor is one of several groups that have moved towards the 'urban bowling center' (Lucky Strike Lanes, Garage Bowl, Sunset Lanes are other examples of this movement) that are trying to redefine bowling as hip, chic, and trendy. There are positives to their business plan and practices, else they wouldn't have the capital to come out on top of AMF in the merger. My question is: does their business plan and practice really scale well to the number of centers that they've just acquired? My initial observations in listening to people directly impacted on the forums, and reading the news articles from various local news agencies across the nation, is that their niche that worked well in smaller, more intimate settings are having problems in dealing with 36+ lane houses, or areas of the country that are not quite metropolitan enough for that level of 'trendiness'.
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