GoodTimes

GoodTimes sits on East Glenn Avenue in Auburn, a few minutes from the Auburn University campus, and it was built around a simple family idea. Owner Scott Good opened GoodTimes to give Auburn a locally owned entertainment venue that blends bowling, arcade games, and escape rooms under one roof rather than sending residents out of town for a night of family fun. The business describes itself plainly on its own site as having been “formed with family in mind,” and that mission shows up in the way the space is laid out, with sightlines between the lanes, the arcade floor, and the dining area so that a parent watching one child bowl can still keep an eye on another playing games nearby.

The heart of the building is sixteen modern bowling lanes finished with updated scoring displays and lane-side seating, giving the space a more contemporary feel than a traditional bowling alley. Surrounding the lanes is a floor of roughly forty arcade games, ranging from classic redemption games to newer interactive machines, so that non-bowlers in a group still have something to do. GoodTimes also built a set of escape rooms into the facility, letting a birthday party or a group of friends split up between bowling, arcade play, and a timed puzzle room over the course of a single visit. That combination has made the venue a popular stop for kids’ birthday parties, corporate outings, and casual weekend hangouts alike.

Pricing at GoodTimes is built around bowling packages rather than a flat per-game fee, with weekday specials starting around eleven dollars per person per hour and standard rates climbing into the high twenties and thirties per lane per hour depending on the day and time. Shoe rental is billed separately at a flat rate per pair. The pricing structure rewards groups who plan ahead for a weeknight visit, while weekend evenings run at premium rates to match demand from Auburn students and families alike. Food and drink service is available throughout the space, so a party can settle in at a lane or a table and stay for the evening without needing to leave for a meal elsewhere.

Because GoodTimes was designed from the start as an event space as much as a walk-in entertainment center, the venue regularly hosts birthday parties, school groups, church youth events, and company gatherings, with staff able to reserve blocks of lanes and arcade time for private functions. The mix of bowling, dozens of arcade games, and escape rooms under a single roof means a group with a wide range of ages and interests can still spend an afternoon together without splitting up across town. For Auburn families and Auburn University students looking for an indoor activity on a rainy afternoon or a way to fill out a birthday celebration, GoodTimes has become one of the city’s go-to indoor entertainment destinations.

GoodTimes is open Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday from noon to 11 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 10 p.m. The venue is located at 750 East Glenn Avenue in Auburn, close to shopping and restaurants along the Glenn Avenue corridor, making it an easy stop before or after a meal out. Whether the plan is a full evening of bowling, a quick round in the arcade, or an escape room challenge with friends, GoodTimes offers a locally run alternative to the big national entertainment chains found in larger cities nearby.

The layout of the building, with its mix of lanes, arcade floor, escape rooms, and semi-private party and dining areas, gives a group of mixed ages room to spread out without splitting up across separate venues. A parent booking a party for a lane or two can let older members of the group split off into the arcade or an escape room while younger kids stick closer to the bowling area, all inside the same building. That flexibility, paired with on-site food and drink service, is part of why GoodTimes has become a regular stop for birthday parties and casual get-togethers rather than a once-a-year novelty outing.

What sets GoodTimes apart from a typical bowling alley is its ownership structure. Rather than operating as one outpost of a larger regional or national bowling company, GoodTimes remains a single, independently run venue built specifically for Auburn, with owner Scott Good shaping how the space was designed and how it operates day to day. For a college town whose entertainment options otherwise lean heavily on university facilities and national retail chains along its commercial corridors, a locally owned venue combining bowling, an arcade, and escape rooms in one building fills a specific niche that Auburn residents had not had before it opened.