How do they stay in business?

So after the crappy day I had yesterday, Heidi wanted to take me out for a distratction date. We started going to a movie, but we ended up going to GameWorks. For those who aren't familiar with GameWaorks, it's become sort of a trashy attempt at Dave & Buster's. Nobody who works there is happy about it, and in fact every employee who we interacted with at some point gave me a subtle look of frustration/disgust. Most of the games we played didn't work properly, the food tasted good, but gave us nasty stomach aches afterwards. I kept thinking, "It didn't used to be like this."

I remember back in the late 90's going to GameWorks in Ontario Mills Mall (out in Ontario California, between LA and San Bernardino). They had a much more limited menu, but the service was always fun, the food was always good, and the games were high quality and in good repair.

This got me thinking: this was the brainchild of Stephen Spielberg (I don't know if Dave & Buster's was already in existence at the time). It's slowly gone downhill from its inception, much like his previous retail experience, Dive! That was a restaurant which was fun, expensive and good food, but you couldn't really go there frequently. There was one in LA and in Vegas, and you could go there for an expensive but good sandwich or salad or whatever. The whole theme was that the restaurant was inside a big yellow submarine. The one in LA died around 2000, and I don't know how much longer the one in Vegas lasted. In any case, I think GameWorks is going the same way. I'd say it's prime for the taking by Dave & Buster's, but I think they use their semi-inconvenient locations as a tool to keep their rent down, so they don't go the way of GameWorks.

In any case, for future entrepeneurs, don't let a blockbuster filmmaker design your retail business. They're two very different media.