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June 28, 1999
Fifth Runner-Up
Jeff Barr
Powerbarr on the Fool Boards
Planet Hollywood's main problem is that once you've seen one you don't need to or maybe don't want to ever go back. However, being all the same is not the problem. Being boring and catering the same as or worse than other local places is the problem. Their bread and butter should be getting the locals to come to the already existing places on a regular basis.
Look at the theme restaurant chains that are doing well (Hard Rock, House of Blues, and Dave and Buster's). These places cater more towards locals than towards tourists (although they still get tourists). They have activities that get locals to want to go there (concerts, great video arcades, lots of good pool tables, and/or great beer.)
My suggestions are:
- Stop expanding and fix the current problems. If you can't fix what is wrong with your current places, how is more of a bad thing going to improve your results?
- Cut the restaurant parts in half and add more space for bars/meeting areas/entertainment areas. This is what the locals will go to. Make them trendy and the Yuppies will come.
- Large screen movies should be playing all the time for people to sit and watch (headphones provided if you want to drink a beer and watch a movie with friends or by yourself). Arnold, Sly, Bruce, and Demi have enough movies between just them to not repeat one for over a month of weekends.
- Use some of that Hollywood talent to come up with entertainment ideas that could be used. Co-sponsor with Dreamworks, Sony, or one of the movie studios to come up with adult oriented entertainment systems/games that could be related to new or old movies. This would give the studios more advertising to the people they want in the theatres.
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