Episode 325: Bang Back Pinball Lounge
"Funky Fresh" Fred Richardson opened this Columbia, South Carolina hot spot during the pandemic, and has watched pinball grow and grow in the community. Find out about this large pinball location...
Highlights
- Bang Back Pinball Lounge in Columbia, South Carolina opened during the COVID-19 pandemic after three years of planning and preparation
- Bells and Chimes women's pinball program has grown to over 100 names on email list and has had two consecutive sold-out leagues
- Bang Back runs a Little Flippers youth program for 4- to 12-year-olds on the third Saturday of every month
- Columbia, South Carolina markets itself as 'the pinball capital of the world' and the search result appears first when looking up the term
- Bang Back is planning a tournament event for January 14-16, with about 20 people already committed
- The machines at Bang Back are arranged in a circular 'pinwheel' layout with 60-degree spacing between each game
- Richardson estimates less than 10% market penetration in Columbia for pinball awareness among the city's population
Notable quotes
“pinball's therapy. And so, you know, like I said, we started with the women. We got a little flippers program going on for kids.”
“my best friends in my life are people I've met through pinball. And, you know, these are people that were in my wedding.”
“What I want to do is eliminate the veto vote. Okay. So what I mean by that is if you've got a party of four, they're driving around in their car and they want to, Hey, we should go over to bang back. And one person in the car says, well, I'm vegan.”
“we're celebrating pinball. I want you to see the art on the cabinet. I want you to be able to stand on the side while your kids or your significant others playing and really enjoy that social interaction.”
“the ones that weren't as good were ones that people didn't work together”
“rising tides, lift all ships”
Entities
- Bang Back Pinball Lounge· company
- Brunswick Zone· company
- Marco Pinball / Marco Specialties· company
- Free Play Florida· event
- Indisc· event
- MAGFest· event
- Southern Pride· event
- Stern Pro Circuit· event
- Columbia, South Carolina· location
- Bells and Chimes· organization
- Little Flippers· organization
- Stern Army· organization
- Crystal· person
- Emoto· person
- Fred Richardson· person
- Jason Wordrick· person
- Jeff Teolis· person
- Kevin Stone· person
- Kim Martinez· person
- Kyle Spitteri· person
- Mark Mandeltort· person
- Ray Day· person
- Steve Bowden· person
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