[Cornell Fiji]

note: I tried to segment my response but it is rambling and I am too tired to go back and edit.

<u>Market</u>
I don't think you are really going to draw a lot of Cornell kids, they just don't go out to the commons at night given all of the alternatives up the hill. You will be able to draw on IC as well as the local Ithaca rifraff that is looking for something to do. You might also have a draw from shows being let out of Ithaca State Theater if you turn yourself into a cool stoner venue (which seems like a must given your target demo).

There are definitely people looking for something to do when the bars go out which is a plus. I just don't think they are going to be interested in your emporium type venue.

<u>Wait... what are you doing?</u>
Serving alcohol gets expensive with permits and zoning. Do you have any experience with this?

Serving food gets expensive with regulations and storage and a million other things I don't know much about. Do you have any experience with this?

The Hookah bar could definitely fill a need as to my knowledge there isn't one in Ithaca and there is an overlap between your demographic and people who would go to a hookah bar. I think this is the best aspect of your plan.

The video games are doable with little investment.

I think that in order to do all of these things your staff would have to be pretty huge and you would have a lot of variable costs that would be hard to overcome.

<u>Competition</u>

So... you want to be like Pixel on Dryden?

I never went in there nor did any of my friends but there were drunk Asians playing DDR a lot so I would not be surprised if they turned a profit.

They already have a liquor license though and they already have a presence so the Asians at Cornell will go out and get drunk and play DDR at Pixel and not at your place. If you go through with this plan you better spend a lot of time at Pixel analyzing how they do things.

Other competition, it will be hard to draw people away from the bars unless you cater to the IHS/underage IC crowd. Your idea might actually serve better as a kiddie hangout for the Ithaca high schoolers (I envision a mix between the emporium in Dazed and Confused and Pixel) because I am unsure why anyone who can go to the bar would go to your narrow place instead.

Overall, I just don't see the draw. I don't know why anyone would go to your place and I don't really know what your place will have or do. I think at this stage your idea is pretty worthless... but you do have a great location, and you can definitely build a successful venue with a lot more thought.


-Steve