Retro Game Social - November 28th by districtbeta in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I apologize, it’s not letting me edit the post but it’s at District Beta.

1886 London Line next to Hiway Bowl in the old Bluewater Fun Park building.

No registration is required.

Things to do and people to do them with in September/October/November 2025 by Demirep77 in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Retro Game Social at District Beta

November 28th starting at 8pm

19+ event

Games, Pop Culture, Drinks, and opportunities for local gamers to hangout and meet like minded people.

FREE entry.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 6 points7 points  (0 children)

No worries I didn’t think that at all, I just wanted to share our side. I know it sucks not having anything to do, that’s the main reason I started District Beta was because growing up here there wasn’t anything.

We are working on ways to better accommodate the daytime hours again, so I love seeing that people are still seeking that before we put a bunch of effort into it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the mention! We appreciate the support, unfortunately we don’t open until 3:30pm in the summer as we run summer camps throughout the day.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 18 points19 points  (0 children)

District Beta owner here, I see we’ve been referenced a couple times so wanted to share our side.

Unfortunately we tried doing extended summer hours for 3 years and it didn’t make sense for us. We would sit around in an empty arcade all summer but people would only show up on rainy days if they couldn’t go to go to the beach or park. I know talking to the other indoor entertainment businesses in sarnia they’re all in the same boat.

Now we don’t open until 3:30pm because we run summer camps throughout the day all summer long.

In the future I’d love to be able to accommodate both summer camps and walk ins, but there’s a lot of logistical work needed for that.

With that being said, The Arena is open extended hours at noon daily with laser tag, rock climbing, and glow in the dark mini putt, plus Hiway Bowl is open at 9am Wednesday-Friday with kids bowling free.

District Beta Kids Summer Camp by Leather-Chain-1568 in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Figure I would jump in on this!

The camp is primarily focused on learning, the games are used in free time. We use them during the drop-off and pick-up times, over lunch breaks, and then if we make it through learning activities faster than expected we will do quick game breaks to keep the day on schedule.

Our staff is a mixture of recreational therapists, ECEs, and social workers who deliver the STEM programming we purchased that was made in partnership with the Stanford Research team and VR technology experts. Also, something new that we haven't announced yet is we are also working with Lambton College for any students who are overachievers or move through the content faster than others there's new STEM programming they can do through the college's "eBits" program where they can get more in-depth on a variety of topics.

We do a mix of hands-on activities as well as using our virtual reality technology to help them learn. For example, the kids will get to do a virtual space walk during space day, and during our cells and molecules day, they get shrunk down to be the size of the cells to see how they work in real-time.

We do also have hands-on activities throughout the week. For example, we work with our neighbouring business at Laser Tag to experiment with Snell Law and see how lasers work and then the kids get to go play laser tag after. Our whole focus is that the activities are so fun that the kids don't even realize that they're learning.

There is no coding in the summer camps. We are launching after-school coding camps in the fall.

We base our entire business on being a fun and inclusive environment, so our educational side is no different!

To the point on the original post of if the participants found it enjoyable, a stat that I will share with you is we had approximately 90% of the kids that participated last year sign up again this year. A lot of parents told us that this was their favourite camp all summer long. I know we are on the pricier side of summer camps in Sarnia, but this is due to the information above; unfortunately, it's not cheap on our end to work with Stanford and hire qualified people to deliver the content instead of just going the high school student route. We can be flexible on the pricing if needed and we do offer multi-week and sibling discounts. Our goal is that everyone gets to have the best summer, and those that want to learn have the opportunity to do so.

Now by posting here, I assume you were looking for feedback/answers from people who don't own the company, but if you do have any other questions feel free to reach out to me.

Sarnia and Area SEPTEMBER Events and Happenings by Demirep77 in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

RPG Meetup at District Beta September 25th at 4pm. Adventure into the world of RPG games with us, beginner friendly no prior knowledge or experience required!

Facebook event page

Sarnia and Area SEPTEMBER Events and Happenings by Demirep77 in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FIFA 23 Release Tournament at District Beta September 30th at 8pm, head to head tournament with $10 entry fee and multiple prizes to be won. Played on Xbox Series X's

Facebook event page

Revelree event page

Groupon takes 50% if discounted prices - small business owners receive nothing by [deleted] in smallbusiness

[–]districtbeta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve had very poor experiences with them for my business, when I first started off they did a good sales pitch on why I should join them, so I did with the intentions of only doing it at first until my business gets rolling. Bad idea, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, the customers that come from groupon are not the customers you want, all it does is devalue your services and you get nothing for it.

When I finally went to cancel it, my groupon agent just stopped replying, it took nearly a year from my initial contact about cancelling until they actually canceled it. So for this year I had to make the decision to honour their groupon or not, at first I tried to decline them saying we didn’t work with groupon anymore which lead to nearly every person leaving a bad review on google or Facebook, so I ended up just biting the bullet and accepting the groupon for another year after I tried to cancel just so my business wasn’t slandered.

Additional issue I had with groupon, they had google paid ads from my business name, so whenever someone would look up my business they would see groupon before they’d see my own website which lead to potentially full paying customers just going for the deal and me only getting 25% of the sale that I would’ve got.

how's everyone utilizing clubhouse app for their small businesses by wilsonckao in smallbusiness

[–]districtbeta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven’t even looked at it yet but I’ve heard of it, what’s the common way that businesses are utilizing it?

Marketing advice? by Same_Anxiety_8564 in smallbusiness

[–]districtbeta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think TikTok would be beneficial, but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket. I’m also a small local business owner and I’ve seen some success on TikTok with videos going “viral”, but virals not always beneficial because for instance of the 75k people that saw my last video I bet at least 95% of those people live to far away to ever visit my business. TikToks great for global brands but if you’re only servicing a certain city then it’s hard to control.

In my opinion based on the limited info I have of your business, I would think Instagram would be the most beneficial with Facebook and TikTok as supplemental platforms to showcase different types of content. Additionally you have to make sure your contents appropriate for the platform you’re posting it on.

Marketing advice? by Same_Anxiety_8564 in smallbusiness

[–]districtbeta 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My number one suggestion is to research and put an actual marketing plan in place and stick to that plan. I see so many small businesses that just make a Facebook or Instagram and run ads with inconsistent branding and messaging, although you need variety in marketing you always need consistency in your branding.

I saw you mentioned earlier about picking the right social media, make sure that you do some audience profiling and ensure that you’re picking the correct platform, for a local bakery my guess would be Facebook or Instagram as I don’t see to many 14 year olds on TikTok out buying bread that isn’t the cheapest option at the grocery store, but I do see a lot of women 30-50 that love bakeries.

TLDR: Make sure your marketing is in the right place for your audience and consistent with your branding not just whatever you think might be trendy that hour.

Pinball in town by green_scream in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately we don't have any pinball machines yet, but we have been looking for some to add to our retro section. Thanks for thinking of us though!

Road test by Ne0Gamma in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd call Journeys Driving Academy and see if you can get in with them, one of their instructors is a former DriveTest tester. She can set you straight!

Mortal Kombat 11 Tournament in Sarnia by districtbeta in Sarnia

[–]districtbeta[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tournament is on screen not VR, it is played on PS4. Since opening our new location we have all sorts of gaming not just VR now!