Death of the LGS

[ProfessorCirno]

For what it's worth, I still shop at my FLGS. Fifteen bucks isn't as important to me as a robust gaming community.

 

[Corjay]

As harsh as some of these posts sound, they have a valid point.

FLGS need to compete. If the current model you are using isn't working, then get a new business model.

Here are things customers are willing to pay for:

• Knowledgeable staff
• Great customer service
• Gaming tables (I would actually rent out tables for RPG's at reasonable prices, like a pool hall)
• Have the special order book within arm's reach at all times.
• Wireless Internet
• Food & Drinks (Typically in the form of vending machines)
• Tournaments
• Local Gaming Scene Information (Particularly if it's carefully monitored and organized)
• Free Demonstrations
• Cork Boards for local games kept clean and up to date
• The latest Gaming Posters (Both on the walls and for sale)
• Good lighting
• Exciting Atmosphere
• Family Friendly
• Diverse Products
• Available Products
• Information on where to find the product if you don't have it available and the customer needs it NOW. (Don't underestimate the value of information. If you have the info, guess where they're going to come for it.)

These are creative ways to diversify your FLGS:

• Gift cards for your store
• Credit accounts (Credit cards if you can. See a bank for small business needs.)
• Special Events with giveaways.
• Discount Cards available with memberships in special store events
• Teaming up with other FLGS to hold events and help mitigate the costs for the above-mentioned cards and deals.
• Have a relay system and open communication with other FLGS
• Increase the speed by which you get products by knowing where local Amazon (and other distributors) wearhouses are.
• Give sneak peaks and insider information to customers who buy similar products.
• Get a consultant to advise on how to improve the appearance and efficiency in your store. You can even go to other stores in a 60 mile radius to see how they do things and how well it does for them. Heck, you should even ask them what works for them and what doesn't.
• Sell Espresso/Lattes
• Get a small business loan to carry out any of these things.
• Sell common board games
• Have flier campaigns distributed to middle income and upper middle income families.
• Create ways for helping those in lower income brackets to maintain their hobby.

It is not the customer's responsibility to buy from the FLGS. It is the responsibility of the FLGS to make it attractive for the customer to buy from the FLGS.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

On the other hand, your FLGS--me, people like me--are the cradle of the gaming population. It is through us, and the locations we provide for players to come and play--valuable retail space we pay rent on and which could easily be retasked for more retail space--that provides the continuing growth of new D&D players and roleplayers in general.

This is true in a great many places, but it's not true in all of them. In Sydney, I would easily nominate university gaming societies as the largest driving force. None of the stores in the city are "community centres", as far as I can tell, and of the two in the suburbs that I can think of which do provide gaming space, one of them has recently changed ownership, suggesting that it wasn't hugely successful for whatever reason.

 

[Rhianni32]

The most successful ones in my town have embraced the gaming mentality. They dont just sell RPG books.
RPGs, CCGs, minis, comic books, anime, used versions of all of the above. They have wotc sanctioned tournaments for rankings and in seperate rooms not just a darkened corner. Cold soda, chips and snacks are for sale. Not many go down to a lgs looking for a rpg game to play these days. But a pick up game of Magic and making friends that can expand out into RPGs does happen more often. OP you make it sound like you are selling out to the man because you sell CCGs.

I support a FLGS. As others have posted I dont support a LGS.
I dont want to get into a conversation about anyone's campaign. I dont want to know what your favorite anime movie is. I would like to flip through a book to decide if its what I want.

One advantage a LGS has over the internet is that you can read a book and get a good idea of the book. I can understand about not overstocking useless items but a store has to have a good variety.

 

[Mercule]

I bought my red box at Walgreens. My next several purchases were from Kay-Bee Toys. I never set foot in a hobby store until I was already a hobbyist. With the exception of when I was in college and the game store was pretty much right on campus (which is more an argument for location), I'm not sure I've ever met someone who started gaming because they just happened to walk into a shop.

Today, my local Barnes and Noble is darn friendly toward people who want to plan an event there. I'm pretty sure they'd love to arrange furniture for a game day. I could probably get a club set up there, just like the board gamers or the manga fans. And, it'd be on a main drag, with plenty of traffic, so new people might actually stop by.

So far as I can tell, the truth is that the LGS has never been relevent to the growth of the hobby. In it's day, it did wonders for sustaining of the hobby -- by making a broader array of products available -- but not growing it. Amazon, et al., have taken that service and improved it. I can get more products, cheaper, at Amazon than at my LGS.

So, what reason do I have to support the LGS? Give me a reason to stop in, and I will. If I want to do charity, I'll give to the United Way.

Anyone supporting their LGS "for the community" is fooling themselves. The hobby isn't benefiting from it one bit.

Oh, and, as odd as it may seem, I'm not anti-LGS. I'd love to see a good store devoted to games. I'm just opposed to the notion that some stripped-down hole-in-the-wall store is going to accomplish anything. If you want to do business, act like a business person.

 

[carmachu]

On the other hand, your FLGS--me, people like me--are the cradle of the gaming population. It is through us, and the locations we provide for players to come and play--valuable retail space we pay rent on and which could easily be retasked for more retail space--that provides the continuing growth of new D&D players and roleplayers in general. I often find myself migrating Magic players and boardgame players on to D&D as a fun and exciting new game, and in order to do this, I run demo games for them and provide them a place to play.

But the sales of the books decrease every time someone decides that they prefer the discount from a website or big box store. I've resorted to sending people out to the local BB stores to put my business cards in their copies of 4.0 books and elsewhere as advertising.

When the sales of the books decrease, I get more and more tempted to convert all that nice gaming space into space for more retail products. Spending the space to display my D&D books in an attractive manner rather than spine-out like the big box stores do becomes less attractive, too, which would continue to lower my sales.

So I put it to you: Support your LGS. It's the birthplace of the next generation of gamers, unless you really WANT 5.0 and 6.0 to become *completely* focused on duplicating MMORPGS because the only market left becomes people who play online.

Scott

Sorry no, cant support you. Or at the least the ones near me.

Why? Becuase your not worth supporting. There's no F in front of FLAGS and the support tended to be one way. Got tired of dealing with it.

So....folks like me dont bother anymore much. We rent out our own space or play home. Its not worth the hassle dealing with you anymore.

So go ahead, change over the sapce to more reatil items. That threat doesnt hold water much anymore.

 

[gamersgambit]

First--thanks to everyone; I appreciate the replies (even if they're not in agreement with me). Ultimately, feedback is important.

My store, by the by, is The Gamer's Gambit; 26-13 Broadway, Fair Lawn, NJ, 07410. Website: Gamer's Gambit Online.

All that being said, some replies.

To all of those people who (a) don't have an LGS; or (b) never had an LGS: Obviously, this can't be about you. Frankly, I think the "L" is best defined as "within a 30 minute drive".

For those who state that there's no "F" in their FLGS:

I think that friendliness is highly important, or to put it a better way, providing customer service is very important. Moreover, if you're going to be in the business of being an FLGS (as opposed, say, to being a comic book shop that happens to sell games), you're pretty much obligated to provide playspace.

For those of you who pointed out means by which an LGS can improve its customer service:

Personally, I've implemented many of the suggestions mentioned. I'm well aware that there's an obligation on the part of the FLGS to work to retain customers. The mere fact that a retailer *has a product* is no reason to buy from them if their price isn't the lowest; they must provide something that instills a sense of loyalty in the customer.

There were several creative ideas I hadn't considered (thanks, Corjay!). I really appreciate those, and perhaps I should've titled this post: what can I, as an FLGS, do to retain/grasp your business from Amazon and Barnes and Noble?

For those of you who were distinctly more negative:

First of all, I'm not looking for charity. Nor am I making any threats. I'm simply making people aware of what is happening, in my eyes, to the business. I got into this because I was an RPG player for many years. I'm also a businessman; I was a corporate customer service manager for many years before getting into this.

Second of all, I beg to differ with those of you who are stating that the FLGS isn't relevant anymore or isn't important to the gaming community. It is in places like mine that people who wouldn't consider RPGs become RPG players (by watching others play); it is here that CCG players discover RPGs; it is here that people who are tomorrow's game designers come to associate with others. We are the physical gathering place for gamers. It is at stores like this that game designers are born and inspired.

What I am pointing out here is not "support the horse and carriage, cars are the work of the devil!" It is quite simply that when you take that extra $5 discount on a product over what I am charging, you are neglecting what we as FLGSes do for the community as a whole. It may well be you don't care about the community of gamers and the tone that it takes, which is fine. In that case, there's nothing I can do. However, those of you on ENWorld are probably the sorts of folks who DO care.

You wonder where the designers at Wizards get their feedback for creating their new versions and products...well, a lot of it comes from the RPGA, which is often based in or around an FLGS. More comes from the retailers themselves--our impressions of what we see and report after Game Day events and other events, and our constant communication with Wizards. It is to retailers like us that Wizards go when they want to know what is selling and what isn't. When you decide to not patronize our stores, you're shooting yourselves in the foot when it comes to the future of game design.

Buying products from Amazon provides very little feedback to Wizards. Posting to their boards provides some, but let's face it, they'd be utter fools to base many decisions on the ranting and arguing that occur on those boards. Gaming stores--which provide a location for gamers to formulate opinions and retailers to provide feedback--are where it's at.

That, plus the steady stream of new players I draw into RPGs who come into my store, are what the community gets from supporting their FLGSes.

********************************

It is likely that none of you are going to buy anything from my store. This post isn't about my store personally. I'm just seeking your thoughts on things, and maybe convincing you to think about returning to your FLGS.

 

[chriton227]

But the sales of the books decrease every time someone decides that they prefer the discount from a website or big box store. I've resorted to sending people out to the local BB stores to put my business cards in their copies of 4.0 books and elsewhere as advertising.

I've worked in the retail industry for well over a decade. This statement alone tells me something important about your business - your customers don't value the additional services you offer enough to balance the price difference. If you can't compete on price, you have to find something that your customers find valuable enough to be willing to pay the additional price. Convenience stores like 7-Eleven have just as great a price disparity when compared to grocery stores, but they still manage to stay afloat because they have found that their customers value the convenient location and quick shopping experience enough to be willing to pay the higher price. The hard part is finding out what your customers value.

Currently you are fighting against not only the base price difference, but also the difference in sales tax and free shipping vs. gas to get to the store. One thing that you might consider is offering drinks and snacks. My local FLGS was offering a card that was good for 10 drinks that was a discount off buying them individually, it worked well for them as people tended to get more drinks over the same period of time using the card, and it was much less labor intensive to ring up the card once and then just punch the card for each drink than it was to ring up the 10 drinks individually. CMG and CCG sealed deck and draft tournaments can be great for income. A successful miniatures game like Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40k can generate a lot of sales, especially if you have tables with 3d terrain available for use and/or offer painting demos. I would be willing to pay to rent time in a semi-private gaming area (like a back room) as long as it was clean and well maintained. I'd even be willing to pay for wireless internet access in the store. If you can find add-on services that the customers are willing to pay for, it may allow you to offer more of a discount on the normal merchandise, which will hopefully drive sales and get more people into the store where they can spend more money on your other services, creating a nice feedback loop. You might even find that offering a small discount increases sales volume enough to make up for the lower margins on its own.

But no matter what you come up with, it will all come down to whether the customer thinks what you are offering is worth the price you are charging, and if not, no amount of begging, pleading, or complaining here or anywhere else will save your business. Sometimes the most important decision regarding running a business is knowing when to stop before you end up in too deep of a hole.

 

[Aristotle]

If the current model you are using isn't working, then get a new business model.

Excellent stuff in this post. I suggested, in a less specific way, the same thing last time a store owner came in arguing their case against the big stores. You can't compete in retail. You have to compete in service.

I'm a gamer feeling the pinch. I'd much rather spend my money in a game store. I'd rather see my money go to someone who cares about the hobby, but given how deep the discounts have been recently I just can justify it.

 

[Corjay]

Thanks for the callout, gamersgambit.

There's one more thing you said that made me think. You mentioned doing things for the community. While you were speaking of the "community of gamers", it occurred to me that one of the best ways to get people to notice your store is to do community service and charities in whatever way your store can afford. Not only does it provide tax breaks, but it makes your store and its name visible. Just another idea.