Scaring up business

I’m was talking with my wife about how Taiwan doesn’t have any haunted houses. This seems like a great way to make a quick buck: lease a huge building for one month and pump it full of fog and chainsaws. Charge $200 a head and you’ll make a killing. What do you think? Anyone in NTC want to entrepreneur?

Oh, you mean that kind of haunted house. For a moment I thought you meant the kind with real ghosts, and I was about to look for some old threads… :ghost: :ghost: :ghost:

Maybe, but a lot of people think that evil ‘sticks’ to them and avoid anything slightly scary. Also, lawsuits for psychological damage come to mind.

Wouldn’t work. As noted above, people actually believe in haunted houses. You must have heard of those properties that just don’t sell because “everyone knows” they’re haunted?

In fact, if you’re still young, a better idea might be to buy up some of those as a long-term investment. 20-30 years down the line everyone will have forgotten about the “haunting” and you’ll be able to flip them (or rent them) at market rates. Nice retirement plan, I reckon.

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Taipei Xinyi area had a haunted house this year .

And there were few haunted parades. And then the dress up ghosts and monsters that hang around Ximenting.

Marketed correctly there could be some market potential .

I paid low rent on a huge house not far the Xindian MRT because it was near a graveyard. Before I moved, I worked at a branch of a company that had bought a cheap property nearby. I was told at my office that the workers in that office sometimes got to go home before dark because it was too scary.

War movies aren’t as cool if you’ve been in combat, slasher movies aren’t fun if you’ve been attacked, and haunted houses aren’t interesting if you put food outside the door and set of fireworks because you think there are already ghosts where you live.

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Nice idea, since people are curious and looking for new experiences, it could definetly work.

They’re a typical Halloween activity at my university. They seem mildly popular with the young ‘uns.

Rent one of those permanently unrentable because someone was murdered there places, they rent them out short-term to cheap clothing sellers and the like. Will add that extra touch of reality.

I wasn’t aware that there was an established haunted house scene. I do think that setting up close to a university is super important and obviously we would need to be near the MRT. Set up a media blitz so that everyone knows about it and you could have a line along the block.

I don’t think most young people actually believe in ghosts but perhaps that lingering doubt would add to the fear factor. I could have a lot of fun imagining ways to terrify these poor kids.

I would get a lot of insurance for when they sue you for mental damage or accidents on the way.

I mean , they have ceremonies before breaking ground or starting a business and put special bagua on doors and stuff. Even if kids do not believe their parents do, and anything that happens to their precious baby they will blame on you.

BTW the scary time here, where they play scary movies and believe weird stuff happens, is Ghost Month.

There are quite a few tourist haunted houses already. Some even have cool old colonial heritage buildings for their scary ghost music. It seems already getting old, but was interesting when they got popular as like you say we are a superstitious group here!

The real money is telling people you will make their house not haunted. Don’t think 200 a head, think 2 million a family :wink: Learn Taiwanese, grow your pinky nail long and get a killer beard growing from a facial mole. Money.

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