Owen Sound bowlers will have to drive to Meaford or Port Elgin now.
The lone bowling alley in the Scenic City has announced it is closing up shop.
In a posting on its Facebook page, Westside Bowl says “all good things must come to an end at some point.”
The owners said thank you to its regulars, the kids and service groups that helped them since 2007.
They also said in the statement that they made a few mistakes as newbie bowling proprietors but if it was only about the money — they would have left in 2008.
They say the business never fully recovered after the recession hit.
Full Statement from Westside Bowl
Well Everyone,
All good things must come to an end at some point, and today our good try at running the bowling alley in Owen Sound came to an end.
We purchased the alley in January 2007, just after the height of the busy season, and, unfortunately, no one advised us that nobody goes bowling as soon as it gets warm outside. That first summer was a hard lesson learned for us, and, truth be told, we’ve never really been able to fully recover from four long months with no customers whilst still having to pay 5 digits worth of monthly expenses. Maybe if we had purchased the alley in September and had been able to save up during the most profitable nights of the year things might have been different. But at the end of the day there’s no sense playing the game of regrets and “What-if’s.”
We made our decisions to stay, trying to make things work many times, out of our love for the bowling community. There were so many things that we wanted to do in order to improve our customers experience at the alley, but it seemed like every time we’d get one step ahead something would come up and we’d find ourselves twenty steps back. But that’s life, and that’s business. We gave it our best, we made a few mistakes as newbie bowling proprietors, and if it had only been about money for us we’d have left in 2008. But truth is, for us our bottom line has always been people. For the love of our league bowlers, our loyal breakfast crowd, our cosmic bowling regulars, the smiles on kids faces during birthday parties, and the enjoyment of friends company over drinks with a game of pool, it was our joy to serve you all.
So, this is our fond farewell to everyone who has come out and had a good time at our establishment over these last seven years. We’re going to miss you all.
Love,
Westside Bowl.