Hatchet throwing, rage rooms and escape rooms were booming before COVID. How are they doing now?

Rosa Shaefer and Faith Ortiz needed to find an outlet for their frustration after two years of COVID — and a glass of wine or a weekend away weren't going to cut it.

"Some people were concerned for their health, others couldn’t keep the masks on all the time, and then they threw in the mandate, which made even more people leave," said Shaefer, a social worker who lives in Colonia. "That just made it harder on those that did stay."

In April, they saw an ad for Break Stuff NJ, a three-year-old New Brunswick rage room where people can break objects like glassware, televisions and plates in a secure setting.

"We just needed to go smash some things," Shaefer said. "At this point it had been two years so we were like, 'OK, we think we deserve this.' "

Three of the women's coworkers and friends joined them for the session — and it probably won't be their last.

"I didn’t even realize how much frustration I had to let out due to everything I was holding in," said Ortiz, an Elizabeth resident. "It felt great to let it all out after holding it in for two years and smashing something. Now that I know something like this is available, I would probably do it once a quarter. If I need to destress, I can just go there and break stuff."

And the social workers are not the only ones who want to break stuff.

“During the pandemic, we had doctors and nurses calling us and saying, ‘When are you guys going to reopen? I’m working in the ER or doing testing, and it’s so stressful and I need some relief,’ “ recalled Andrew Powers, Break Stuff NJ owner. “We’re entertainment like escape rooms and hatchet throwing, but we also have a therapeutic element.”

That element of stress relief is partly why Break Stuff NJ is just as busy now as it was before the pandemic. Here, visitors also have the rage rooms to themselves, just as they’ve always had.

Now, things are mostly the same as they were pre-pandemic, Powers said. Break Stuff seems to be great for date night, girls’ night or bachelor parties. The only difference, Powers said, is they are more careful with disinfecting and sanitizing the break rooms and protective gear.

Looking backNew Jersey's second rage room is open for destruction in North Brunswick

However, not all indoor entertainment activities are thriving. Some people are still wary of being indoors, or touching items that strangers have used.

Pre-pandemic, businesses such as escape rooms, hatchet throwing and rage rooms were growing increasingly popular. Stumpy’s Hatchet House began offering franchise opportunities in 2018. That same year, New Jersey welcomed its first rage room.

But when the pandemic hit, everything changed for these semi-novel businesses.

It hasn't been easy for Stumpy’s Hatchet House in Fairfield, where business is still down more than 30% compared to pre-COVID. Corporate demand is still low, although it’s beginning to return. One of the axe-throwing pits was removed to accommodate social distancing, meaning that even at 100% capacity, profit will still be lower than before.

“We figured Stumpy’s would bounce back eventually,” said Armando DiRienzo, co-owner. “What we didn’t anticipate was the long-lasting psychological effects on people. Even now, you have people who don’t want to be near those they don’t know. We knew we would take a hit from it, we just didn’t know how severe it would be.”

While DiRienzo’s Stumpy’s Hatchet House location isn’t doing as well as it once was, Tac Ops in Fairfield, the tactical laser tag venue that he co-owns, is doing great.

It's doing so well, in fact, that he opened a Florham Park location in February. He expects to sign a lease on a third location soon.

“We were worried we were going to lose everything that we just built,” said DiRienzo, who opened Tac Ops just days before the onset of the pandemic. “When we re-opened in July (2020), we opened to crickets. We weren’t sure we were going to make it. We struggled for a couple of months, but then we really started to take off.”

Now, they’re booked up for six weeks. Part of that is because anyone can make a laser tag game a private event (with 10 people, the price is the same as it would be per person as a 30-person public game).

Sixty percent of booked weekend games are private.

“We have a low threshold for a private game, which contributed to the rapid growth of the place,” DiRienzo said. “You can essentially have a birthday party where you don’t have to share the venue with anyone else. I think people are very comfortable, and that really helped Tac Ops take off.”

COVIDIs the labor shortage another new normal? Experts weigh in

Amazing Escape Room, which opened its first spot in 2015 and now has locations in Freehold, Cherry Hill, Green Brook, King of Prussia, Bloomfield, Edison and Princeton, is trying a similar method to combat their 20% COVID loss. The company is also pairing escape room and hatchet throwing experiences in combination deals.

In December, Amazing Escape Room changed their pricing structure so that a maximum of four people in a single group can book a room for $120. They can add on additional people for $30 each.

“We rode it out for a very long time and finally we just said, ‘We can’t keep at this pace having rooms for two people,’ " said chief operating officer Heidi Neufeld. “The new pricing has been a help ... Sometimes you feel bad, but the price hasn’t gotten so much pushback. People are understanding of it.”

In the future, they hope to be able to mix groups again.

“It’s something that we revisit every month. We hope to be able to do that,” Neufeld said. “Our owner keeps reaching out to other escape rooms and he’s feeling them out. Right now, the consensus is we’re not quite ready yet.”

Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA Today Network New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Contact: JIntersimone@Gannett.com co@JIntersimone.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: How COVID affects NJ hatchet throwing, escape and rage rooms