COVER STORY
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COVER STORY By Robert Sax
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hen Steve Uphoff visited China for the first Mall in the city of Changzhou and it is the time in 2004, building a chain of bowling largest bowling and entertainment venue centers there was the furthest thing from in the People’s Republic of China. his mind. As owner of the Uppy’s Changzhou is located approximately 110 convenience store chain, Uphoff was Exxon-Mobil’s largest miles from Shanghai and has a population of distributor of fuel in the United States. The company invited more than 4.6 million residents. That’s big by him to China to advise them on their partnership with American standards but in China it’s Sinopec, that country’s largest oil and gas company. But considered the boondocks. that visit also planted the seed of another business Global Harbor is China’s largest mall, with opportunity that came to fruition years later with the opening 1,000 retail and leisure vendors occupying last December of the first Uptown Alley bowling and more than 5,000,000 square feet over six entertainment center in China. levels. The $10 million, 58,000 square-foot In the intervening years Uphoff created the Uptown Alley Uptown Alley features 37 Brunswick concept and opened three locations in the United States. regulation-sized bowling lanes, four bars, As he recalled the lack of American-style sports and billiards, a sports theater with 50 HDTVs, a entertainment venues in China, he realized that perhaps he professional sound stage for live had something that could fill that void in the marketplace. entertainment, 60 arcade games with a “So we started to explore that. We studied the market and redemption center and two full-service we had a lot of false starts, but we just kept pursuing the restaurants offering casual Western cuisine opportunity because we wanted to be McDonald's coming as well as traditional Chinese dishes. in to the marketplace where there was no McDonald's Uptown Alley China is a huge bowling before,” says Uphoff. center for China at 37 lanes, much bigger than Gary Smith, vice president of international sales for Brunswick the typical 12 or 16-lane centers built during Bowling Products, supplier to Uptown Alley, knows the Chinese the 1990s or the newer centers that offer 20bowling scene well. “It’s kind of a slow-to-adapt culture,” 25 lanes. When Ding asked Uphoff why they says Smith. “Back in the bowling boom in the 90s, it was so were building so many lanes, the latter said much driven by government. It was quick and easy for them "Mr. Ding, I don't know how to build furniture. to spend their money. But now that you are dealing with Don't tell us how many lanes we need to build investors and business people, they are much more cautious.” because I guarantee you, you will walk in this It took until 2014 for Uphoff to find the right partner in facility on a Friday and Saturday night and Ding Zoulong, a Chinese businessman who operated successful you will say to me, ‘We didn't build enough retail furniture stores in 68 markets in China. “He had also lanes, Steve.’” Which is exactly what happened, built several mega malls and so we decided that we could work with Uptown Alley partners meet in China. L-R Steve Uphoff, Ding Zoulong and Mike Auger. him,” says Uphoff. “We recognized it was an opportunity to put our product and our brands into his mall.” Ding was cautious at the outset. “He first just said ‘I will rent you space,’ and then when he came to the United States and toured our facilities, he saw what we were all about and how successful we were,” says Uphoff. “He said ‘I want to be a partner with you, I want to develop this concept in China.’ “ The first Uptown Alley China is located in Ding’s Global Harbor IBI
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COVER STORY says Uphoff, when Ding learned that people were waiting several hours to bowl on a weekend night. Brunswick’s Smith sees Uptown Alley as a continuation of the growing Western cultural influence in China and says it’s the first venue to go all out in terms of an Americanstyle entertainment center. “The bowling is hands down the driver there,” says Smith. Gary Smith “When the Chinese walk in the door, it’s just amazing watching the look on people’s faces when they look at something like Uptown Alley. It’s something they just literally have never, ever seen before.” Uphoff says the reaction of Chinese customers to Uptown Alley China has been very positive. Most of the Chinese who have visited the center have fallen in love with it, even if they are still getting used to the American-style eatertainment experience. “We had a hard time getting the Chinese to understand that they could eat and drink at the same time they bowled,” he says. Customers would eat dinner in the restaurant and they would have a bottle of wine but they were reluctant to drink or eat at laneside. To overcome that challenge and boost
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laneside revenue, management had bartenders go up and down the lanes selling beer and sampling pizza from rolling carts. “So they started to get the sense that it's okay and that actually we encourage it… so we're getting there,” says Uphoff. “There’s going to be absolutely some cultural challenges,” says Smith. “Similar to Japan, people over there don’t quite grab onto the combination of eating, drinking and bowling. That’s one of the biggest challenges.”
COVER STORY
Restaurant consultant Mike Auger of Trifecta Management, Uphoff’s partners and the operators of the Uptown Alleys, also faced challenges in adapting the concept to the Chinese market. “Conceptually, what are the look, feel and elements that fit the Chinese culture and what do they like that would give us that instant attraction?” wondered Auger and his team. From a design standpoint that turned out to be easy. “They really like anything American. We did [lots of] things along the Hollywood theme. We have booths running video of the stars. Parts of the lanes have [images of] Hollywood movie stars,” says Auger. Adapting the food and beverage offerings to Chinese tastes was more complicated. “The menu is very different from what we would have in the U.S., with a whole Chinese section of traditional food,” says Auger. For the American classics side of the menu, they had to translate training materials and recipes into Chinese and painstakingly source authentic ingredients like ground beef and tortillas. They also had to find Chinese chefs who were familiar with Western food to teach other cooks how to make it. To the surprise and delight of the owners, 95% of the food orders at Uptown Alley come from the American menu. “Even though we offer a palate of Chinese foods, the top items we sell in China are exactly the same
UPTOWN CHINA AND THEIR INDUSTRY PARTNERS Ó Bowling Equipment by Brunswick Ó Furniture by Yuexing Furniture Company Ó Sync Scoring software by Brunswick Ó Debit Card system for arcade by EMBED Ó Top five grossing games in arcade: 1. Jurassic Park by Raw Thills 2. Shining Crane by Paokai Electronics 3. Sweetland by Namco 4. Crossy Roads by Adrenaline Amusements 5. Snapshot by LAI Games Ó POS system for food and beverage by Micros 38
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top items we sell in America,” says Uphoff. (French fries, chicken wings and the chain’s signature Uppy burger are one-two-three on the list.) Although business is good and positive media coverage has been plentiful, Uptown Alley China is deliberately flying under the radar as Uphoff and Auger fine-tune the concept. “The reason we built in Changzhou was we didn't want to build in a tier one city like Shanghai with 23 and a half million people, and everyone watching us as we make mistakes,” says Uphoff. “Figure out what products people like, what hours we should be open, what drinks we should have, what food we should be offering.” His current plan is to build 15 locations over the next five years and then go public in China. Meanwhile, Uphoff is having fun getting there,
Uphoff is all smiles at the redemption store.
especially when he watches his customers discover the joy of bowling. “Americans [throw] a strike or a spare, they give each other a high-five and sit down, no big deal right? You've seen it a thousand times. But when you see it in China, it's totally different. You see Chinese people run up to each other and give each other bear hugs, and Chinese are not typically emotional,” says Uphoff. “To see a 50-year-old man who has never bowled in his life, give him a bowling ball and have him throw it down the lane and watch his face is just an astounding opportunity for me.” ❖
Robert Sax is a writer and PR consultant in Los Angeles. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, the home of five-pin bowling.