[The Little Raven]

Originally Posted by Cergorach

If they stocked that much material they couldn't sell, then they have an expertise problem. You don't need to order a dozen copies, one or two is more than enough for most products unless your pretty sure they'll sell (such as most WotC/WW titles). If they sell you can always reorder (most game stores order once or twice a week).

We're not just talking about what they normally ordered. We're talking about returns (in the second week after 3e was released, there was a huge amount of d20 returns as people realized they had purchased trash), specific orders that people never picked up after reading reviews online (I remember a few copies of Foundation collecting dust because of exactly this issue), and trade-ins for store credit as well (which this store has a long history of, because they support their gamers wanting to try new things and receive compensation for old things)... now, he could have refused returns and trade-ins in order to prevent from losing that money (since he couldn't return a single thing to the distributors), but it would have definitely had a negative effect on our local gaming community. A company shouldn't have to choose between keeping customers happy and making money... those two things should go hand-in-hand. And finally, after the urging of many long-time customers, they've now posted a clear policy of "No d20 products can be returned, except WotC D&D books."

There are far to many game stores started by game enthusiasts, they dive in deep, the problem is that a lot of them don't have much of a business sense. Then it's easier to blame a product or a market for their own failures.

The owner of this store is more business savvy than most non-gamers I know. He turned a small, hole-in-the-wall store (which he was an employee at, until he bought out the owner) into a thriving game shop, moving locations twice to larger locations and opening up a second branch. This isn't a matter of him failing to understand the market, it's more a matter of the d20 brand having been poisoned early on.