Page 4 - Monster Bubbles

inch layer of air surrounding it. “Each custom 8-foot bubble takes two men one day to make,” Leo says.
The busy couple worked 12-16 festi- vals and fairs a year, mostly from spring through fall, setting up and tearing down the ride at each event. The events lasted anywhere from two to five days.
“It was a lot of traveling,” Sharon says. “So we decided to see what we could do at a permanent location. “We had a mu- ral business in Arizona back in the 1980s and we did very well, so we looked at the demographics and said let’s go back and see if we can do it again.”
The Vincent’s opened the mall attrac- tion with two bubbles in a 400-square- foot space less than a year ago, in No- vember 2014. It included monitors featuring real footage of European fairs and festivals to enhance the fun and cre- ative ambiance.
“Europeans are very innovative,” Sha- ron adds. “They go far out on the limb. In Switzerland especially, they are so cre- ative and imaginative.”
Because of Sharon’s marketing and advertising efforts – at the store lo- cation, on social media and through word-of-mouth – the business quick- ly grew from eight visitors a day to a couple of thousand a month, with two- hour waits on weekends. In May, the at- traction moved to a 5,500-square-foot location in the mall and added an ar- cade. It now has six bubbles for rolling and tumbling in a 30 x 140 foot-long artificial-turf-carpeted space. Flashing lights, glow-in-the dark features and monster graphics add to the fun. And with the additional space, there is more staging and production to come.
“I had put us out on Groupon, Liv- ing Social and Amazon when we first
started,” Sharon says. “And in 6 months we have received a total of 600,000 hits between the three of them.”
She comments that the attraction’s word-of-mouth success increased be- cause of the generous policy of letting riders play until they are tired, without an additional charge if there is no line.
“The ride is $8 for 10 minutes,” Sha- ron says. “But, if there is no line, we don’t stop the ride every 10 minutes to ask for more money. We just let the riders keep playing. So we have been letting the kids know if they come here on our slower days and there is no line, they can get ex- tra time for free. They love that!”
The typical ages of riders is prob- ably in the 6-14 range, Sharon says, but they do get adults and can even handle corporate parties. Recently, four grand- mothers came from Newfoundland and said when they saw us they put us on
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