Arcades to Carney: Give us a fighting chance

Zelky’s Beach Arcades General Manager Matt Weiner was one of roughly a dozen people who spoke during the Reopen Delaware rally at the Bandstand in Rehoboth Beach May 16.

Weiner talked about a petition asking Gov. John Carney to reopen Delaware in full.

Three days, and more than 750 signatures later, Weiner penned a letter to Carney on behalf of the state’s arcades, calling for the governor to allow arcades to reopen with restrictions defined by the arcades, based on how arcades operate.

Weiner wrote that arcades have been “wrongfully singled out and being legislated towards our own destruction.”

Weiner said arcade operators are responsible, experienced and able to create a safety plan that will keep patrons safe. 

“We have been wrongfully included with the restrictions set upon exercise facilities, a membership-based business model which is entirely different from an arcade,” Weiner wrote. “Most of these exercise facilities have continued to collect membership dues and were able to continue providing services for their members online throughout this mandatory shutdown. Additionally, exercise facilities are year-round businesses that are not dependent on the seasonal tourism within our city, county and state.”

Weiner’s letter included a detailed plan for arcades, including measures used in other businesses permitted to remain open and a restriction to 30 percent of permitted occupancy. He also said the governor’s plan, requiring spacing machines at least 6 feet apart, “is practically, logistically and economically unfeasible and impossible to accommodate.”

He note the order “would reduce the number of machines by over 80 percent. This would essentially cut revenue by a minimum of 80 percent and mandate businesses to incur additional expenses to comply,” including costs for storing equipment that would have to be removed. He also cited high license fees, already paid on an annual basis.

“In most of the stores that were deemed essential, and have remained open throughout this mandatory shutdown, we would like to note that no products have been spaced apart on store shelves,” Weiner wrote.

“Our businesses also employ countless people within the state. By allowing us to re-open we could potentially put hundreds of Delawareans back to work. Given the circumstances, most of us don’t expect this to be a profitable year. In order to reopen and survive, our businesses must be able to operate in a way that is economically viable and won’t continue to drive arcades toward bankruptcy,” he wrote.

As of the Cape Gazette press time, Gov. Carney had not responded to a request for comment.