Death of the LGS

[Korgoth]

Dude. You should read a little or at least turn the channel to CNN from time to time.

Don't tell me to read a little. It's an insult. Do we have to trot out and compare degrees now? Mine are probably bigger than yours, so don't go there.

Second, let me make sure I'm perfectly clear on what you and Aria think should be done: you think that the government should effectively enforce a minimum price on gaming products by outlawing discounts which are too favorable to the consumer? That is in fact what you are suggesting, right?

 

[philreed]

In such a future, games 'stores' will be primarily for playing games in, with any games orders as special or mail orders.

Which is exactly why I think game store owners should start thinking of their stores as "mini-conventions" and not just stores. Make the store a fun place to hang out, and earn income on the extras.

Hell, a game store could do a lot worse than to grab six or seven classic arcade machines and set them up in the gaming room. A Gauntlet machine (Gauntlet II, please) should eat any quarters that don't make it to the snacks or drinks.

 

[Corjay]

Don't tell me to read a little. It's an insult. Do we have to trot out and compare degrees now? Mine are probably bigger than yours, so don't go there.

Second, let me make sure I'm perfectly clear on what you and Aria think should be done: you think that the government should effectively enforce a minimum price on gaming products by outlawing discounts which are too favorable to the consumer? That is in fact what you are suggesting, right?

No. Absolutely not. That's far too narrow and neither of us mentioned anything about minimum prices. That would be impossible to regulate. We said to affect only "discounts". I don't know about Aria, but I never said to limit it to gaming products. I was speaking of general discount caps, particularly on non-clearance products. Reducing undercutting by internet vendors.

EDIT: By the way, by "discount" I mean discount percentages, not fixed discount dollar amounts.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hell, a game store could do a lot worse than to grab six or seven classic arcade machines and set them up in the gaming room. A Gauntlet machine (Gauntlet II, please) should eat any quarters that don't make it to the snacks or drinks.

A few different chains in D/FW have tried that- either with mini-arcades or mini-LANs- with mixed success.

I suspect one location that closed was simply in a bad spot- well off the mall's center.

One of the ones that ran the LAN did OK, but eventually had to dismantle it to make space for more profitable CCGs and CMGs. The pace of development for software and hardware probably also played a major factor in that as well.

The real problem with the arcade games is their noise. Some may find repeated blurts of "OOOOoooh- Barbarian shot the food!" or "FINISH HIM!" to be somewhat distracting.

 

[Mercutio01]

I just wish I had an FLGS. I've got an LGS, but it is far from friendly and I will never darken it's door again!

QFT. My LGS (which is local by distance [<10 miles], but not by time and/or cost and/or public transportation [>25 minutes and >$15 parking or >45 minutes and >$10 bus and subway fare]) is never friendly. They were a bunch of elitist bastards who sneered and were rude the one time I bought items there. They were fairly nice to me, but not to my wife (who isn't a gamer and spent a lot of time looking at the fiction books) and were so significantly loud about criticizing some people who came into the store, that they lost a few sales, including mine when I had about $400 to spend (tax return).

Quite frankly, I don't feel bad in steering people I know away from there and into the local bookstores. There I've been treated nicely, even by the people who think gaming is odd, and I get the books for a much better price. So, until I find a Friendly truly Local Gaming Store, I'll save my loyalty for my FLComic Book Shop and my FL Barnes and Noble.

(I swear, those guys though Comic Book Guy was a great role model and decided to base a game store around insulting anyone who entered their doors. Eff them.)

 

[Korgoth]

No. Absolutely not. That's far too narrow and neither of us mentioned anything about minimum prices. That would be impossible to regulate. We said to affect only "discounts". I don't know about Aria, but I never said to limit it to gaming products. I was speaking of general discount caps, particularly on non-clearance products. Reducing undercutting by internet vendors.

EDIT: By the way, by "discount" I mean discount percentages, not fixed discount dollar amounts.

I understand that, but if you say (to take a page from Games Workshop) that it's illegal to give more than a 20% on internet merchandise, you are enforcing an effective minimum of $28 for a 4E Player's Handbook. That's my point... you are putting an effective minimum price by limiting the percentage of discount.

An online retailer ought to be allowed to sell 4E gift sets for $1 if they want. I don't want you regulating how cheaply they're allowed to sell, how often they may have "blowout sales" and how much they're allowed to sell, etc. Why waste all that tax money putting a squad of bureaucrats in charge of each retailers sales department, just to put the squeeze on the taxpaying consumer? If you want to pee away my tax dollars, then do it by giving subsidies to game shops, not by making it illegal for Amazon to give me a good deal.

 

[Corjay]

I understand that, but if you say (to take a page from Games Workshop) that it's illegal to give more than a 20% on internet merchandise, you are enforcing an effective minimum of $28 for a 4E Player's Handbook. That's my point... you are putting an effective minimum price by limiting the percentage of discount.

An online retailer ought to be allowed to sell 4E gift sets for $1 if they want. I don't want you regulating how cheaply they're allowed to sell, how often they may have "blowout sales" and how much they're allowed to sell, etc. Why waste all that tax money putting a squad of bureaucrats in charge of each retailers sales department, just to put the squeeze on the taxpaying consumer? If you want to pee away my tax dollars, then do it by giving subsidies to game shops, not by making it illegal for Amazon to give me a good deal.

Again, I don't believe I specified online vendors as the only ones affected by the cap, though my focus was indeed online vendors, but the law should apply to all, not just online vendors. It's not like online vendors should be picked on. It's just that their undercutting is exactly what inspired the idea.

They should not be able to sell the gift set for $1. Undercutting is like price gouging, just on a different end of the scale. Instead of affecting the customer, it affects small businesses who can't afford to provide the same discounts.

 

[bobacus]

Some suggestions:

THINGS NOT TO DO TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL GAME STORE

1. DO not hire crappy,just wanna play games, blare my Slipknot music, low IQ'd people. If I walk into a store and the guy is to busy talking to another employee about Brittney Spears or some crap, And I am just standing there to be helped. Fire those people. Have some friends come in secretly and have them rate your employees.

2. For all that is holy. Don't play games during company time. And then get pissed when I ask for help cause I interrupted your Warhammer game.

3. Clean up your shop. I am not a big minis fan, but do we have to have 50 square miles of Mini terrains blocking the way to the bathrooms, chairs, fire exits, etc??? Also Take down the TNA posters. It may be cool for the teen boys, but isnt family friendly.

4. Get rid of the Yu-GI_OH crowd. Teens have nowhere to hang out in this day and age, but unfortunately they dont pay. They just want a place to hang. They curse, are loud and are bad for business. I find alot of stores who need revenue start running tournaments for certain games and the rowdy bunch just takes over. I may be a old fuddy dud (36) but when a store I liked put in a Dance Dance revolution game and had it on during MTG tournies..... YEAH,I aint coming back. Family gamers will be more loyal, spend more money and easier to deal with. Have a tournament once and awhile.

5. Sell some stuff so I can walk around in the store. Why do you still have that Spawn Resin figure from 1998 still sitting on a shelf that could be holding new product? You are a business to sell things, not collect stuff. If it doesnt sell there, there is always ebay. Gotta keep the merchandise flowing (If I see one more place with MTG: Homelands packs on the shelf I am gonna scream)

6. Provide perks for your LOYAL customers. See a guy come in more than once a month? Offer him a discount card. Offer extras. whatever. Like they say, "A happy customer will tell 3 of his friends about you. A unhappy one will tell 10"

7. Actually talk to each customer. From the guy "just looking" To the person who just buys a book once and awhile. TALK TO THEM. Talk up the store. Tell them about events. Tell them about products. Listen to what they are into.You have to actually sell things to make money! And you won't know what to sell if you dont ask your customers. Dont just slap some product on a shelf and hope it gets bought.

8. Be a gentleman to woman. Pretty. Ugly. Whatever. I believe the success to a game store is getting the ladies involved. But if a cute girl comes in and just wants to look at some books dont HIT ON HER! DON"T OOGLE HER! And don't let anyone else in the store do that. These women have brothers, husbands, kids, boyfriends other girlfriends that will listen to them. They are a huge avenue into bringing more business in. Most women learn about gaming from guys. Be respectful.

9. Your gonna have to discount stuff close to online. If your distributor is giving you a bad deal. Drop em. you may have to lower your profit, but you can make it up elsewhere. This is what Amazon does. Heck buy a bunch off Amazon. Heck the makers do this to you guys. They sell a ton to AMAZON at way cheap prices and make up the losses inflating the price to Stores like you. You have to manage your inventory way better. How many Rifts books do you REALLY need? you can always order more. Alot of Distributors take advantage of retailers. WHY? Cause they need to make money off of YOU the Retailer. They dont care about the store. You have to be more aggresive these days.

Hope that gives you some insight from a person who has gone to over a hundred game stores in my life. Out of all of them I still go to one. And they are still in business today. (over 15 years).

 

[Aria Silverhands]

Don't tell me to read a little. It's an insult. Do we have to trot out and compare degrees now? Mine are probably bigger than yours, so don't go there.

Second, let me make sure I'm perfectly clear on what you and Aria think should be done: you think that the government should effectively enforce a minimum price on gaming products by outlawing discounts which are too favorable to the consumer? That is in fact what you are suggesting, right?

I'm all for a minimum discount for online retail and big businesses. It's ridiculous how much they hurt the small businesses.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

An online retailer ought to be allowed to sell 4E gift sets for $1 if they want.

and

They should not be able to sell the gift set for $1. Undercutting is like price gouging, just on a different end of the scale. Instead of affecting the customer, it affects small businesses who can't afford to provide the same discounts.

While I firmly believe that free market economics is generally the way to go, it has long been a point of both law and ethics that if the free market is unfettered in some ways, you can get some nasty and undesirable results (like monopolies or monopsonies).

Whether a retailer- ANY retailer- should be able to sell the gift set for $1 depends upon

1) the length of the sale;

2) the amount of product to be sold; and

3) whether said sale meets the conditions for being "Predatory"

4. Get rid of the Yu-GI_OH crowd. Teens have nowhere to hang out in this day and age, but unfortunately they dont pay. They just want a place to hang. They curse, are loud and are bad for business. I find alot of stores who need revenue start running tournaments for certain games and the rowdy bunch just takes over. I may be a old fuddy dud (36) but when a store I liked put in a Dance Dance revolution game and had it on during MTG tournies..... YEAH,I aint coming back. Family gamers will be more loyal, spend more money and easier to deal with. Have a tournament once and awhile.

It is an unfortunate fact of life that Generation Y (those born between 1980 and 1994) already control more wealth (directly or indirectly) than Generation X...and they don't even have all of their members in the work force yet.

You may not like them, but they're the key to the long term success of business.

The retailer's key is to get them in the store but don't let them disrupt it. That may involve talking to parents or even a few select bannings.