By Will Feuer
Jan. 18, 2024
Would all-you-can-eat wings tempt you out on a school night again?
Bowling alleys, golf simulators and other family-entertainment centers are testing a flurry of new promotions and discounts in a bid to lure back consumers who have cut down on outings during the Monday-to-Thursday stretch.
Players at Topgolf in El Segundo, Calif. MAGGIE SHANNON FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Dave & Buster’s in the fall brought back its all-you-can-eat wings offer on Mondays and Thursdays. Topgolf is experimenting with additional midweek discounts beyond its half-off golf deal on Tuesdays. Bowlero now offers unlimited late-night bowling during the middle of the week and half-priced arcade games on Wednesdays.
The changes aim to protect what has become a booming business for entertainment chains and restaurants in recent years: the midweek outing. Americans, armed with more free time and flexible schedules in the remote-work era, ventured out for dinner and entertainment more often to get through the week. Higher prices also helped propel double-digit growth across the “eatertainment” space for much of the past three years.
Now consumers’ appetite for going out on weeknights is slowing. Higher prices have consumers scrutinizing their discretionary spending. The return of after-school activities such as sports and music lessons are keeping families busy. In-person work obligations and trips are filling up schedules.
“Any part of the week was a reason to go out,” says Eric Wold, an analyst at investment bank B. Riley Financial. “Now we’re getting back to where we were, where people have jobs and it may be tougher to go out during the week.”
Weekends are still busy for many dinner-and-entertainment chains. Whether companies are able to keep customers coming during the off-peak days will likely shape their 2024 performance, says Joshua Long, an analyst at Stephens.
“The battle for traffic is real,” he says.
The midweek slowdown could be an early crack forming in consumers’ willingness to spend on experiences—a key corner of the economy that has helped offset slowing spending on goods. Stressed consumers typically pullback on midweek spending to protect their weekend splurges before making other budget cuts, Long says.
Bowlero, the owner of the Lucky Strike, Bowlmor Lanes and AMF Bowling chains, tried raising prices last summer. The company increased its efforts to upsell add-ons such as a third game of bowling and food during the weekend and scrapped most of its midweek discounts. That hurt traffic, especially in the Midwest.
Chief Executive Tom Shannon said in November that the company hadn’t fully appreciated how sensitive its family-oriented midweek customers were to prices. At the same time, he said, the company had discounted its weekend customers’ willingness to spend.
The company has since reinstated most of its midweek promotions, though it tweaked some and scrapped others, including its college night on Thursdays, which executives said turned off a subset of customers.
The lack of midweek promotions weighed on traffic from July through September. Same-store sales, which include sales in locations open at least a year, slipped nearly 6% in those three months. Bowlero said traffic turned positive in October after the company reversed course and reinstated many of its deals. Investors cheered the news, sending shares higher in December. The stock ended 2023 up 5%, lagging behind the roughly 24% gain for the S&P 500.
At Topgolf Callaway Brands, which owns the chain of simulator-equipped driving ranges, Chief Executive Chip Brewer blamed a recent slowdown in business on fewer corporate events as well as slow traffic on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Business on Tuesdays has held up, he said, thanks to the popular half-off golf deal offered that day.
“In the current environment, consumers are being offered and are probably looking for greater value to tempt them out during the week,” he said in November. Topgolf recently started experimenting with new discounts in test markets on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Brewer noted the company is being careful to make sure those new offers don’t eat into weekend traffic.
Dave & Buster’s, which offers a mix of food, drinks and arcade games, is in the midst of a turnaround led by CEO Chris Morris, who took over in 2022. The company’s shares finished 2023 about 52% higher, lifted by a rally after customer traffic came in better than expected by investors last fall.
John Harley, a 38-year-old personal trainer from St. Louis, used to go out frequently with friends to bars and restaurants during the middle of the week, but he has cut back to focus on growing his business. Still, he regularly goes with friends and clients to Topgolf on Tuesday evenings for its half-off golf special.
“I’m a big bang-for-my-buck kind of guy,” he says, adding that he would only consider going on the weekends, when a bay rental at the St. Louis Topgolf can cost $58 an hour, for a special occasion. “Topgolf is not cheap.”
Puttshack, a chain of tech-infused minigolf venues started by Topgolf founders Steve and Dave Jolliffe, is seeing the midweek business hold up at its downtown locations, such as those in Boston and London, Chief Marketing Officer Susan Walmesley says. The chain’s suburban locations, which tend to draw more families, are getting stung by the midweek lull.
“People are starting to think about what they’re spending,” she says. “The fact that the kids are back in every after-school activity and there’s pressure to do so many things, there’s just no time.”
Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
