What SHOULD FLGS do?

[Firebeetle]

As a former manager of a comic shop (w/ games) in CO, I really like and appreciate Phil Thompson's store in Warrensburg, Missouri (college town, go mules!) Phil has moved his way up from a tiny half of a storefront to a much larger space. He always keeps himself in the black while still managing to compete with online stores. Many of you know Phil from midwestern cons of all sorts.

Things Phil does:

Always friendly

Game days and card tournaments

diverse stock, inc. D&D, comics, board games, 40K, etc.

miniatures & supplies

paint & take every Wednesday

knowledgeable staff

VERY clean and organized storefront. Not modern by anymeans (the old hardwood floors are awesome) but nobody puzzles a display like Phil.

Always tries to accommodate you

Aggressively tries to provide competitive prices w/out breaking the rules (he gets frustrated that other stores do it)

I love Phil, he's great.

I know some folks want to order everything online, but I find it really important to support my FLGS. I drive half an hour to get there, but it is worth it. I've seen two other stores close in the last few years and another stopped carrying gaming stuff. If we don't support our FLGS, these stores will be GONE. We've lost over half of these stores in the last ten years. Amazon can't host a gameday, let you learn how to paint a mini, or demo a new board game.

 

[Ruslanchik]

There are already lots of good ideas here, but I thought I would add my own.

1. Used books at reasonable prices. RPG books can be really expensive and I often can't justify spending $40 on one book. I will, however, happily spend that on two or three books over the course of a month or two. That is only possible with used books. My local used bookstore has an awesome RPG section so they get most of my business. I would drive the 20 minutes to my FLGS and spend my money there if they had a comparable used section (as far as I know, they don't even have used books).

2. Expertise on more esoteric or indy products. I can read about DnD and Warhammer all day on the internets. I don't need a store for that. However, if I want to do something different and unique, I want to talk to someone about it first. This is where visiting a store really is worth the effort.

3. Meetups. This is self-explanatory. My FLGS has a website with boards for meeting gamers, but there aren't many users there so it is hard to find people. It is better to use ENWorld. They need a physical bulletin board and shuold encourage people to start groups that game in-store. A good way to do this would be to let people have trial game sessions using the store's books. A group try out a new game without buying the books, meanwhile consuming the store's drinks, food, etc.

 

[arscott]

It's not just about 'space to play'. It has to be about 'opportunity to play'.

Stuff like in-store tables and looking-for-game bulletin boards are a necessity. But if you want to stand out, then be more proactive. Personally organize and advertise game events, rather than just letting folks use your tables. Get in touch with local gaming clubs (or start some, if there aren't any). Take advantage of organized play programs, such as the RPGA and the DCI. If you're not participating in things like World-Wide D&D Game Day or Free RPG Day, then you're just shooting yourself in the foot.

In the other thread, I was pretty harsh on my local game store. But there's a game store in a nearby city that I like a lot more.

This other game store has a very good relationship with the local college gaming club I belong to. He buys ads in our newsletters. Three times a year, we hold game days in the mall where the game store is located, and the owner arranges for us to have access to the mall's community room and recruits GMs for many of the games. When the gaming club has our yearly three-day convention, he rents the largest space in the dealer room.

That's in addition to being a clean store with friendly service, etc. etc. etc. I buy as much gaming stuff from that game store as I do from my LGS, and I only visit it three times a year.

 

[roguerouge]

Send an employee to see if the big box stores have 4e out on the shelves and, if they do, put theirs out. Fight fire with fire, man.

 

[mara]

No apparent Bias. Nothing turns off a customer more than "Oh you play D&D... I played that for a while but I grew into more advanced games" or "Vampire?!? we don't do goth games." When I was in the industry I might say "That game doesn't fit my playstyle, but it did this interestingly, and people that like it tell me this..." Always be positive, no matter what your personal opinions of a particular game or line are.

Take that beyond games. I'm still dumbfounded by the LGS employee who is known for being able to blather on for hours about the most obscure and inane trivia possible being seemingly unable to explain the rules or appeal of his inventory when some Black kids stopped in. "They weren't going to buy anything anyway." Hmm, wonder why...

 

[Holy Bovine]

Be like the store I now frequent all of the time.

1) Know your customers by name and greet them as such when they walk in.
2) Sell all of your books for the US cover price even though you live in Canada. (You have no idea how satisfying it is to pay the same price for a book here in Canada as most of you pay in the US - that is often 30% off right there)
3) Then discount that price by 10% through a frequent buyer card (by 10 things and get 10% of their combined value in store credit)
4) Have a good stock and the ability to find out the availability of new or hard to find items quickly through your computer (the store that tells me 'I'll have to call the distributor tomorrow' is the store I haven't been in in 2 years)
5) Ordering things isn't bad - just be up front about it and give and honest answer to when it will arrive

Oh and one other that I won't bother listing - bathe regularly.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

unable to explain the rules or appeal of his inventory when some Black kids stopped in. "They weren't going to buy anything anyway." Hmm, wonder why...

That was assumed under the concept of human being, but I guess that would be asking too much.

I agree with you completely there. I was mostly focusing on the game thing, just because I've personally seen it way too much. I've not seen the stuff you mentioned.

One of the nifty things games can do is illustrated by the following event I saw while working for 7-11 during the pokemon craze...

I had in the course of about 15 minutes 4 different groups of kids come in and buy Pokemon cards. One group was mixed White and Black, the second was Hispanic, the third was Asian, and the fourth was Hispanic again.
The kids just sat outside and talked about the cards they got, traded a bit, and talked the game. No racism. No problems from which group they were in... they were all Game Players.

We need more of that.

 

[pogminky]

Of course the big question is, if all this is so obvious (and let's face it - it is), then why are so many game shops fausty, unfriendly and overpriced?

 

[smootrk]

Of course the big question is, if all this is so obvious (and let's face it - it is), then why are so many game shops fausty, unfriendly and overpriced?

generally I would say that this is because many of these stores are run by folks who are gamers first (with all the stereotypes involved with that tag) and business people secondarily (or customer service oriented people). Lets face it, many gamer types are not exactly the most socially adept, even if they have the personal funds to setup a shop somewhere. Overpricing (from the consumer point of view) might be a necessary evil, but the storefront should look for ways to build value into their store through other methods (like many examples listed above). It is just poor business skills to not build these values into their stores.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

generally I would say that this is because many of these stores are run by folks who are gamers first (with all the stereotypes involved with that tag) and business people secondarily (or customer service oriented people). Lets face it, many gamer types are not exactly the most socially adept, even if they have the personal funds to setup a shop somewhere.

Seconded whole heartedly.

I worked part time at a game/comic shop for 5 years. I basically did the comic order, and handled RPGs. The bulk of the store was in Cards and Minis so it wasn't a high pressure thing. I worked for three different owners of the place (it changed every 2 years or so).
I had been in retail most of my working life, half of that in management. I ended up teaching basic retail theory to each set of owners.
One never wanted to mark anything down, even months (or a year in one case) after it stopped selling. Another was a huge fan of Vs and talked down Magic to the Magic players (he's the reason the store went out of business).
All of them were hobbyists, who thought it would be fun to run a game shop. Now most of them were fairly intelligent, and had a basic business sense (understood labor, rent, cash flow, that sort of thing) but none of them understood retail.