Why I refuse to support my FLGS

[WayneLigon]

Ahh, I missed that part. But it doesn't change the fact Sam Walton Jr. could decide D&D is evil at any time and stop all distribution of it. Or worse, require "sanitized" D&D. Gack!

For the last, only if Wal-Mart accounted for an unusually large percentage of sales. Wal-Mart and it's subsidiaries is so large and ubiquitous that it can force the hand of some suppliers; if a supplier sees, say, 25% of their total sales through Wal-Mart then that supplier is going to do anything he can to avoid ticking off Wal-Mart or he's not going to be able to pay his rent, pay down his debts, pay his employees, or satisfy his board of directors or investors. I doubt D&D would see the majority of it's sales through them, so Wal-Mart could only ban it. If it bothered in the first place.

Any other chain could do so at any time, or an individual store could do it, depending on the leeway granted to them by the parent corporation. I went to a B. Dalton's in Atlanta once and, upon not finding the normal RPG section, inquired from the manager where it was. She said 'We don't carry that, thank goodness'. I mentioned this to a friend of mine up North, also a B. Dalton manager, and she said that it might well have been because RPG's rarely bring in enough profit to justify the mess (only the childrens section and the remaindered tables require more upkeep than the RPG/Comics section) and number of cheap-o looky-loos the section generates. If Wal-Mart or anyone else doesn't sell RPG's, it's because it doesn't generate enough cash. Niche markets need to expect that.

 

[wingsandsword]

Gamers are a niche market; we do not have the market force to influence any major chain. Small stores are the only ones where we matter.

Ding!

I've never seen any RPG at Wal-Mart. Last Christmas I got a gift card to Wal Mart as a door prize at a company Christmas party. Usually not going to Mal-Wart for dislike of how they treat their workers, hurt small and large businesses (look at what they did to Vlasic pickles!), sue small towns that try to use zoning laws to prevent them from building there, I wasn't too crystal clear on what they had and didn't have, but I didn't have the highest hopes for using that card to buy the newest D&D books. However, since I knew they carried popular CCG's (i.e. Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic), I figured that the mass-marketed D&D and Star Wars minis might be there, no luck. (They did have a very small amount of Star Wars minis, probably just one case, in the initial merchandising for Episode III, but they didn't restock).

"Big box" stores are not our friends in the long run. They cater to the masses, and we are not the masses. We are a niche, a speciality, and there are still a lot of people in the more rural areas of this country who falsely believe our hobby is just thinly veiled devil worship and cult recruiting. As a niche, we need a niche market, and the small, independent retail store is excellent for that. Personally, I'd gag at a starbucks-like gaming chain (I already don't go to starbucks for their overpriced coffee, if I want coffee I know plenty of local coffeehouses to go to).

 

[eris404]

I think the simple fact is that markets change. To stay viable, businesses need to change right along with them. They need to get creative. The RPG hobby, like many other things, has been transformed by the 'Net. The natue of the LGS, if it is to survive, needs to transform as well.

Buzz, your entire post was dead on, but this last paragraph was especially and it's something that a lot of small business (not just book or game stores) need to take to heart. I also think Games Plus has done just that - excellent selection of all kinds of games, a rewards program, gaming space, etc. One of my dreams is to open a game/book store like GP combined with some kind of cafe. I have no idea if it would actually work, but one can still dream.

 

[fredramsey]

But it doesn't matter to me what you do. I choose to support my FLGS for the shelfish reason I want them to be around. Me, not you. I could give half a... what you want.

I'm not trying to get YOU to do it. I just don't want other people telling me it's stupid for me to do so.

Simple, really.

Let me preface my comments by mentioning that I organize the ENWorld Chicago Gameday, which is held at Games Plus in Mt. Prospect, IL, one of the best stores in the US. The event brings anywhere from 30-50 people together for a day of gaming and shopping three times a year. Older gamers sometimes bring their kids. Basically, I do something to support a good store and the hobby.

 

[GlassJaw]

Recently a fulfillment house went out of business (one of the companies that individual game companies use to sell to distributors, because the distributors don't like dealing with small companies).

Well if this is the company/story that I've heard about, they didn't just go out of business, they took some publishers's money and RAN. They flat-out didn't pay people.

there is also the factor that the Amazons of the world simply have more economic power, and can discount the games and still make profits.

This is exactly the case. They can buy a ton of books in bulk on the cheap and then sell them at a lower profit margin per book. Whereas your LGS may need to recoup $5-10 per book sold, Amazon only needs to make $1.

If those books are never produced, then you cannot buy them in the first place.

The sky is falling!!

 

[GlassJaw]

I choose to support my FLGS for the shelfish reason I want them to be around.

Your LGS serves shellfish? Wow, that's definitely a unique idea!

I'm not trying to get YOU to do it. I just don't want other people telling me it's stupid for me to do so.

I don't think anyone said supporting or not supporting your LGS is or isn't stupid. However, I've gotten a tone from some of the "supporters" that those who don't support their LGS are killing the hobby or some nonsense. Some of the posts sound a little "holier than thou" is all (IMO).

 

[buzz]

One of my dreams is to open a game/book store like GP combined with some kind of cafe. I have no idea if it would actually work, but one can still dream.

When my wife and I talk about opening a game store, our imagined location always has a cafe attached (as well as lots of play space). You need to give people a reason to hang out. Not to mention, you never know when someone will come to the palce for the coffee, and then notice all these game products.

"What the heck is dee and dee?"

Bingo! Potential covert.

 

[Belen]

I don't think anyone said supporting or not supporting your LGS is or isn't stupid. However, I've gotten a tone from some of the "supporters" that those who don't support their LGS are killing the hobby or some nonsense. Some of the posts sound a little "holier than thou" is all (IMO).

Really, that it how it sounds on the other end of the spectrum. Some guys starts a thread bashing game stores and some people defend them. Then a bunch of people who buy online defend online sales, as if they felt guilty about it and needed to justify it to themselves.

 

[Belen]

When my wife and I talk about opening a game store, our imagined location always has a cafe attached (as well as lots of play space). You need to give people a reason to hang out. Not to mention, you never know when someone will come to the palce for the coffee, and then notice all these game products.

"What the heck is dee and dee?"

Bingo! Potential covert.

See, my friends have a coffee pot and will brew stuff for their gamers. I keep trying to get them to invest in a SBA loan, move to a larger location and sell PC games, have a lan/console room, large gameroom, and a reading room.

Plus coffee.

 

[buzz]

But it doesn't matter to me what you do. I choose to support my FLGS for the shelfish reason I want them to be around. Me, not you. I could give half a... what you want.

I'm not telling you what to do. The paragraph of yours that I quoted just summed up the common selling points attributed to LGSs, and I wanted to address them. As I said in my post, if your FLGS is giving you what you want for a price you feel is reasonable, by all means patronize them.

I don't get to Games Plus much more often than Gamedays, as I don't live all that close. Even when I'm there, my brain is telling me "You can get all this cheaper online!" Nonetheless, thalmin and co. have a wonderful store, with all kinds of cool products, great service, offer a frequent-buyer program, and provide a huge amount of gaming space. They host all sorts of events, too (such as Gameday). Ergo, I make a point to buy stuff when I'm there. I may seek out items that I know I can't get any (or much) cheaper online, but I still buy stuff. Heck, I usually manage to fill up my "frequent" buyer card with one purchase.

My LGS is a Gamer's Paradise. No one who works there knows anything about the product (they had to ask *me* to help a customer one time). Everything is full price, they have no frequent buyer program that I know of, and their selection is okay. Sometimes they put product they can't move on sale, which is about the only time I buy anything from them. I see no reason to go out of my way to support them.

The old adage with good and services is that there's three qualities: fast, good, and cheap. You can never have more than two of these qualities.

Online stores can give me good and cheap, but not fast, as I need to wait for something to be shipped.

(I'm not sure if PDFs conquer the "fast" problem, seeing as you lose some "good", either due to not getting a printed product, or due to the PDF market not yet having the same consistent quality as the print market.)

BnM stores can potentially give me fast and good, but they can't compete on cheap. Ergo, they need to concentrate on the former, particularly the "good".