(Image: The Garage)
The high price of bowling on Capitol Hill is at the center of a new federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
If you bowled at the Garage bowling lanes on Capitol Hill, you might have a case, too.
The possible class action lawsuit seeks to prove national chain Lucky Strike Entertainment has violated antitrust and consumer protection laws by scooping up independent bowling lanes like the Garage and twisting the profit margin wider than a 7-10 split.
One key piece of evidence? A $284.36 bill for a two-hour lane reservation for three people at Broadway’s Garage Billiards & Bowl including mandatory food and beverage credits.
The lawsuit filed last week on behalf of a group of consumers from across the country including Seattle bowler Benjamin Doehr by Tacoma-based antitrust firm Simonsen Sussman LLP says Lucky Strike, formerly known as Bowlero, acquired bowling alleys and implemented a strategy of systematically raising prices as it grew its market share in the Seattle area to approximately 42%, substantially reducing competition in the region.
Equally egregious, the league bowlers contend, Lucky Strike degraded the quality of the facilities, replacing traditional pins with string pins at the Garage — and failing to consistently oil the lanes. The lawsuit also claims league play at the Garage was canceled so the venue could host parties and paid events.
CHS reported here in 2019 as Bowlero acquired The Garage bowling alley and pool hall.
Following the acquisition, CHS talked with Bowlero representatives about the deal as existing employees had to re-interview for jobs at the Garage. A spokesperson said the company had no concerns about doing business in Seattle as it was implementing a higher minimum wage noting it already operated 300 centers “in some of the highest minimum wage markets” in the country.
Mike Bitondo and business partner Alex Rosenast founded the Garage two decades prior to the sale after a chance run-in with the property’s original owner at a Mariner’s game. It was home to a wholesale fish tank business before the partners overhauled the building and built The Garage. “A lot of people want to say congratulations, but it’s bittersweet,” Bitondo told CHS at the time of the sale.
Rosenast, meanwhile, continued to own the building and became Bowlero’s landlord.
The lawsuit adds an even more bittersweet note to the Garage’s changes in recent years.
“As its dominance grew, Bowlero’s end-game strategy—lucrative extraction— grabbed the attention of investors: in Bowlero’s own words, ‘[w]e’re raising price on everything,’” the complaint reads. “This predatory approach has led to increased prices for America’s bowlers, including through the use of algorithmic dynamic pricing to squeeze every possible dollar out of families hoping to bowl at popular times, as well as for shoe rentals, food and drinks, and league play.”
The lawsuit says competitors also raised prices in response to the Bowlero changes and says the company used its size to force better deals with suppliers while independent lanes suffered.
The plaintiffs from states including Washington, New York, Illinois, Virginia, and several in California are seeking damages to be determined and are asking the court to order the “unwinding of Bowlero’s acquisitions of bowling centers.”
The legal process could also establish a class for other bowlers to join the lawsuit.
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