Support Your Local Game Store?

[spacecrime.com]

The answer, I suspect, is that it's all about service, offering the things you can't get online -- mainly a meeting place and sense of local community. I don't even know how much product knowledge counts anymore, since there isn't much the average customer can't learn online. I'd be curious to hear from shop owners if this is really true.

I don't know.

What I do know is that I try to figure out what someone who has come into my store really wants. Is it cheap games? Instant gratification? Guidance in choosing products? Something else?

Then I try to figure out if there's some way I can make a profit getting it for them. If the answer to that question is "yes", then we might be able to do business...

 

[KnowTheToe]

I like when local stores offer disount cards that you get stamped for every "x" amount of dollars. For instance, Games Plus, keeps a card in the store, every time you spend $10, they mark a box. When you fill ten, you get a $10 gift certificate for the store. It is actually a little less than 10% off, but the point (for me) is that the store owner is giving a little bit to the customer who is spending money at his shop. The cards don't have an annual fee and they expire a year after the first purchase is marked. I especially like that they store the card, I hate carrying al those stupid discount cards.

 

[BSF]

Boy, so many other people seem to like their local game store. (But not all of you)

I wish I was one of those that liked their local gaming store. Unfortunately, I am not. They are not necessarily very friendly. It is very rare that they have what I am looking for. They have not done a very good job at obtaining new product in a timely manner. Most new books arrive 2-3 weeks after _everyone_ in town has them.

If it isn't a new, or a WotC product, they can offer to special order it to arrive within a few weeks. So, my impulse buy reaction is almost nil. I will usually order it online and I have found a great source now, so I am not really concerned if the local gaming store sticks around, or not.

Yes, you could argue that if I bought more there, if I did my special orders there, etc, then I would be supporting them and maybe they would be able to better increase their service. You might be right. But, over the last several years, their service has been so poor that I no longer care.

Anyway, my experience with a single store (even if it is the only one in the area) shouldn't be that big a reflection on what impact discounts at Cons has on the theoretically good local gaming store. I can understand the frustration, and I worked for a bookstore for 4 years, so I have a bit of a idea what I am talking about. The profit margin from cost to MSRP is 50%, generally. There will probably be shipping costs on top of that. Then there are the other business expenses. And the owner probably wants to be able to support his or her family. Your profit margin can disappear pretty rapidly. So, when the publisher offers big discounts at a Con, the local game store owner probably takes it just a little personally.

(Now, this is more suppostion and probably doesn't hold entirely true with all publishers.)

But, this is a hobby. And it is a tough market. And publishers will be at Cons and will want to give out a discount because many publishers are gamers too. They like to get out there and see the people that are buying their books. They like to drum up interest in their product and a good way to do that is to entice people to buy it at the Con, where new demos are happening and the publisher is there to answer questions ... personally. In short, they get caught up in the hoopla as well!

From the publisher's perspective, a Con is a good way to arouse interest in their product. They want people to pick it up at the Con, read it and come back to ask questions, then take it home and show it off. This helps drum up business for the FLGS.

While I understand the perspective of the FLGS, there is a certain reality that must be accepted as well. IF I had a FLGS (as opposed to a LGS), I would feel guilty about purchasing stuff at a Con. Of course, I would probably encourage the FLGS to get the product in stock and I would probably tell the other patrons how cool it was and thereby improve sales, as the publishers envisioned I would.

 

[astralpwka]

Its the curse of economics. The majority are going to buy from the cheaper source. Some campaigning is going to help to get those who want to be involved in the store, and hopefully enough to keep it open, but superstores are driving plenty of personal stores out of business. I think the game store has gotta do what they've gotta do to stay in business. Win customers any way they can, and keep up the customer service.

When we had a local gaming store, I bought miniatures there, but that was it. He catered to the Magic the Gathering and Mage Knights crowd. He was driven out of business by...

Missionaries!!! Never let your local game store owner find religion!!! You will lose your local game store!!! Walmart and Conventions are not so wickedlly evil as your missionary!!!

 

[Greatwyrm]

I'm very lucky to have a good game store near by. Good selection, no hassles on special orders, and discounts on almost everything still in print. Even with all that, I still buy elsewhere from time to time.

Like everybody, I've got to watch my cash. Sometimes, I find a better deal on ebay or on the net. It's hard to do when the FLGS gives an automatic 15% off anything still in print, but it happens.

 

[Lurch]

My local store (I'm friends with the owners) gets really upset with publishers who offer special deals at Cons. They feel that this undermines the store, and is especially low when they (the store) try to support the games with tournaments and demos of the very games being undersold at GenCon. They point out several examples of $100+ sales lost simply because a customer was able to save a few bucks by purchasing directly from the manufacturer at GenCon.

So how do you guys feel about this?


Y'know, it's never really come up...but then, I'm lucky in that my FLGS always has a booth at Gen Con (Games Plus, Mt. Prospect, IL)

 

[Desdichado]

Games Plus does rock, I'll grant you that.

 

[Henry]

I feel no guilt at all when I buy at a con as opposed to an FLGS.

First, I have no FLGS within a 75 mile radius.

Second, I go to cons to buy things. This is similar to asking someone to go to the rock concert (that they drove 100 miles and paid $100 to see) and ask them to wear earplugs and dark glasses.

Third, I feel even better about giving my money directly to the producer of said merchandise than I do retailers who sell it. I am passing it closer to the individuals who actually spend their creative efforts doing this, than those who sell it.

Finally, I pay MORE at conventions than I would elsewhere. If I bought from Derek at Taloncomics or through Morrus at rpgshop.com, I would more likely get it cheaper than at a convention booth. I payed full price for my Arcana Unearthed copy, for instance, but there is also a price to be put on having Monte personally autograph it, and getting myself a free Ironwind Metals mini.

 

[MUKid]

More specifically

Okay, let's take a specific example, like WoTC and 3.5. Now, at my FLGS (great acronym, took me a second to figure it out) they rely a lot on their D&D sales, and 3.5 is a big boost for them. At GenCon, you could buy all three books for retail and get a free book bag. There were people in my group who said, "Well, we're gonna buy this stuff anyway, might as well buy them here and get a bookbag." If the 3 people in my group alone that bought 3.5 had waited, our game store would have made $270 more.

I asked the store's owner what he thought about this, and he was p'ed. His point was that $270 isn't much to WoTC, who gets a few more bucks per book by selling it at GenCon. But to him, $270 is a pretty darn good sale. He wanted to know why WoTC couldn't send those book bags to retailers, so they could offer the same deal.

Even worse, there were companies at the convention that were selling product that won't be available in stores at all for another month or two. Now this *really* made the owner mad, because in this case, he felt that the game in question was one that he supported quite a bit locally with few to no rewards. To him, his efforts could be spent supporting some other game with a publisher that gave him better perks.

Truthfully, the publishers need the stores in order to stay in business, so I don't think it's wise to anger the store owners by stealing sales from them. My local store could easily stop carrying many products and most gamers would never notice (not true with WoTC stuff of course, but smaller press companies would be easy to boycott).

At the same time, I'm not convinced that the amount of product sold at GenCon makes a hill of beans worth of difference to my local store when all is said and done. After all, I spent maybe $200 at GenCon on various stuff, but I probably spend $1000 a year at the store. Would I spend more, or less, if I didn't go to GenCon and buy stuff?

By the way, my FLGS rocks, and is easily the best store I've ever seen (and I've been to many). The staff is all very friendly and encouraged to play lots of games so they know what to recommend to customers. There are toys in the store for little kids to play with while parents shop (my son is 3 and loves going there, he's a little geek like me...) There is tons of gaming space, and even a big dining room table where you can go and take your lunch if you're out and about, and the owners will chat with you while you munch. They carry TONS of product -- all things d20, almost all the in-print GURPS books, Shadowrun, L5R, White Wolf (all the lines), plus German board games, minis, and strategic board games. They sponsor probably ten events a week, with prize support for most, and demo board games on weekends. I've seen as many as 50-60 people in the store at once, playing D&D, Void, 40k, Heroclix, Mechwarrior, and board games. It's cool.

So of course I want to support them, but I also like buying stuff at GenCon after shopping... oh what's a gamer to do?

 

[Harlock]

When we had a local gaming store, I bought miniatures there, but that was it. He catered to the Magic the Gathering and Mage Knights crowd. He was driven out of business by...

Missionaries!!! Never let your local game store owner find religion!!! You will lose your local game store!!! Walmart and Conventions are not so wickedlly evil as your missionary!!!

As one of the numerous Mormon gamers on these boards I have to ask, what religion did this guy find?

Back to topic: I used to buy all of my gaming products from the FLGS. I spent a ton of money in there since 3e came out. I paid cover price for everything. It's a decent store. I generally like the owner. He can be a bit pushy when he wants to make a sale, but it's his livelihood, so I understood. He even has a nice sized backroom for people to paint, game, and hang out. I used the backroom a handful of times so didn't mind the price, even though I game mostly at my house. I felt the service I was getting was satisfactory. Then, I made a special order. Firstly, he never wrote it down. I would drop back in every week and ask if he'd ordered/received it but to no avail. About 3 months later I was in for my weekly shopping spree when I casually asked if he had it in. He had gotten 3 books in, in fact. One for hmi, one for me, and one for the shelf. Didn't I get mine, he asked. No, you never called, I said. Oh, he says as he walks over to the new arrivals shelf, digs behind a few magazines and books and produces my book. Meh, I got it, albeit late and with no call and if I had not have asked then I may not have. Overall a bad taste in my mouth, but no big deal.

Fast Forward to 6 months later. I ask for another special order. I urge him to write it down. He does... on a little scrap of paper he tears off of an invoice. He'll have it in Monday he says (thi is Thursday but he needs to put in an order tomorrow anyway). Great, I say. Come Monday I go in and he says the distributor didn't know the book. (It's a friggin S&SS book, not too uncommon) So, he asks the name again and writes it on a real, honest to God special order form. Yeah, I think, I may actually get my book. Come back Friday, he says. So, I go in Friday and ask if it's in. He is unloading a box that just arrived and say he thinks it's in here. He digs around a bit and produces: The WRONG book. Not even the same Campaign world. I sigh, he says, go home, look up the ISBN on the internet, then come back in and give it to me, then you'll get it. I know he has 'net access at the shop so I say I can find it in about 20 seconds, maybe 60 on dial-up because I know where to look. He says his internet is "down" although the phone is working because it rang while I was in there. Is "Scarred Lands Campaign Setting: Ghelspad, the hardcover that is priced at $29.95" not a decent description? To test my theory that it wasn't, I went to the Local Hastings store. I find a girl in the books section. She doesn't game. She's never even heard of the book. I ask her if they can order it and give her that exact description from above. She types a few things on the computer and says not at that price, but 20% less. It'll be here in 2 weeks and we'll call when it arrives. Order it, I said.

So, now my FLGS (and the F isn't for friendly) gets a token purchase from me about once a quarter. Otherwise I order from Amazon, the Local Hastings (hey, they employ local people so I am still supporting the local economy) or from an out of state Game Shop with a web storefront so I can avoid Sales taxes (8.75%). If my FLGS goes under I'll squeel with delight as I open my own and do it the right way.