Your FLGS and You - What's your take?

[Badwe]

there seems to be a heavy focus on PnP RPGs vs. minis/CCGs. This is one PnP is going to lose hands down. minis and CCGs take up way less shelf space, move way more units, and have substantially less danger of being a flop. Every PnP book that comes out risks being one that nobody wants. While the occasional magic specialty product might sit on shelves for a while, all of the expansions are going to fly off for as long as the game as a whole survives.

my FLGS that is near me knows this. They're a teeny tiny store packed to the gills with tables, and it's all magic (or yu-gi-oh) all the time. he makes money hand-over-fist. There's no reason he would want to expand into RPGs, especially when so many people buy these books off the internet.

My other FLGS, which is a bit of a drive (probably 40m-1h depending on weather here in the snowbelt) focuses on Eurogames. Here is where PnP has a chance to co-exist. The store is already working on a scale much different than a CCG-only shop, though they organize magic events and carry the booster packs as well. you'd be crazy not to, it's free money (by gamestore standards, anyway). But they have the space to set aside for a few rows of each RPG. Granted, the RPGs still aren't their bread and butter, but they're at least willing to meet half way, to do the legwork. They register for worldwide D&D gamedays (and give the participants discounts on the book in question), they host LFR events.

The problem is that none of these activities, even the discount, necessitate a purchase. that 10% discount could probably be matched by just going onto amazon, and there's no day-of spending required of an LFR event. The store simply relies on the increased foot traffic and the goodwill of the participants to boost sales. For me, with my entry-level salary, no kids, no car payments (used car), no house (just rent), i figure the extra 4 bucks a month is worth it to keep an environment i enjoy prospering. If you don't like your LGS (or really even if you do) you're under no obligation to buy from them.

Honestly i don't even limit myself to LGS. I used to buy a lot of my books from barnes and noble... sadly to no avail. It seems the clientelle of the mall would rather buy cellphones and expensive clothes/shoes than books, and now i have nowhere to go to page through the latest releases before picking them up without making the 40 minute drive.

 

[Chainsaw]

there seems to be a heavy focus on PnP RPGs vs. minis/CCGs. This is one PnP is going to lose hands down. minis and CCGs take up way less shelf space, move way more units, and have substantially less danger of being a flop. Every PnP book that comes out risks being one that nobody wants. While the occasional magic specialty product might sit on shelves for a while, all of the expansions are going to fly off for as long as the game as a whole survives.

This seems logical. I don't begrudge a FLGS for selling an experience that's profitable, because, honestly, the FLGS is largely irrelevant to me. As I said earlier, I think the internet's ability to connect PnP players for live-gaming and discussion and provide a wide variety of low-cost products is tough to beat. I just don't feel like I have much incentive to go to my FLGS.

 

[Mournblade94]

Depends. My current local gaming shop is called "Orc's Nest" - the running joke is that the orcs in question are the staff. But I've also had a fantastic one - partly because it had masses of space and was open every night for some sort of gaming (minis twice a week, ccgs twice, board games once, and weekends and other stuff). And so built up a community.

Orc's Nest for me too. What's up with those guys? They seriously need to lighten up.

Used to go to Leisure Games in Finchley and still order off their website - prefer them to get my gaming gold.

I've never really plugged into my local FLGS 'community' though.

In the UK, half the time the only LGS is a Games Workshop. I'll go in there for the minis but that creepy sales approach has me heading for the door likely as not within a couple of minutes.

That's pretty sad from what I am hearing. I remember Orc's nest being advertised in old 80's issues of DRAGON. My friend and I made a 'pilgrimage' there. I was underwhelmed. i don't know what I was expecting. They had a faux piece of armour, specifically a Bascinet for sale. It was something like 75 pounds sterling. I was holding it, asked the guy (the orc?) if it was made of steel. (I knew it wasn't, but I was going to negotiate a price because it was a chinsy helmet from Orc's nest) Bragging rights and all.

He Rolled his eyes, and in perfect cockney said "No its made of CHEESE!"

I smiled, and as squeezing the obviously tin helmet at the bottom, substantially depressing the sides, I said "Oh that is why I can push the sides in like this!"

We left. Sad that our overseas gaming mecca was anything but.

On a better note, that same trip we went to Nottingham. We went to find Gamesworkshop. This was in 1998 before GW stores were common. It was a sunday in that industrial city, and after a night in the oldest pub "Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem" we decided to seek out GW. We found a store, got excited, then realized... it was just a store. The friendly clerk however, pointed us in the direction to find the HQ, in an industrial park o nthe edge of the city.

We walked there for about an hour (No taxi knew what the hell we were looking for), and wound up in an industrial park. We wandered for about another 20 minutes and just as we were about to give up... there it was. A few wee cars in a parking lot beneath this giant granite statue of a SPACE MARINE.

We knocked on the door, this was the GW headquarters mind you on a sunday, and the people were shocked to see us. We explained our story, of how we were fanboy americans, and they laughed, gave us a tour of the facility, and gave us parting gifts. It made the trip to Nottingham worth it.

 

[tyrlaan]

Don't really have a local FLGS these days. What used to qualify has become, I'll dub an AFLGS (Anti-Friendly).

For one, like many places, the amount of gaming material they actually sell has drastically dwindled.

This one is worse though. The owner of the store is blatantly anti 4e. Now, of course he's entitled to hate 4th edition. I don't begrudge him of that. But when I, a paying customer, i.e. his livelihood, go to the register with a 4e book in hand, the absolute WORST thing to do is berate me about my pending purchase. Yet that was exactly what he did. Seriously, if you've got such a strong opinion about a product that you can't be silent while you sell it to someone, maybe you should just skip having it on your shelves.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

My FLGS is owned by a good friend of mine, so I am somewhat biased.

They have a decent selection of RPGs - mostly D&D4E and Pathfinder stuff, but a smattering of other things, and they will special order anything (and are good about getting it in).

They have a large space for gaming - they host regional M:tG tourneys, and on normal days that space is open to any kind of gaming, and they do have RPG groups there.

They do a lot with collectible games - cards and minis, and the atmophere is good - no smoking (that being a law in the state I live in - no smoking in stores), no swearing (dropping the F bomb twice in one day will get you kicked out).

The staff is knowledgeable about their products - all of them. It's a great place to shop.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

My (recent) experience has mostly been bad. All good FLGS have already been killed by online shops, I guess. The ones that survived focus on collectible games and seem to be full of Magic players all the time.

Regarding RPGs the staff is either clueless ("Yeah, I guess, we also have rpg books somewhere, uh, maybe in that dark corner over there, behind the stack of crates...") or opinionated ("D&D 4e? Forget about it! Here, have a look at our out-of-print section of xyz books, that's the real thing!").

The last time I visited a game store that had reopened after being closed for a couple of years I asked for D&D minis and were basically told that they didn't sell plasticrap...

I'm not inclined to repeat the experience.

Sadly that's my experience everywhere I go

 

[Glyfair]

I have to FLGS in my area now. The main one, The Days of Knights, has been in business since Thanksgiving '81. I have been friends with most of the people responsible for getting it started since before it opened, some later. The other was a book store, Between Books has been in business longer, but is less focused on gaming.

I have found my stores to be invaluable. The owner of Between Books is one of the most gregious game store owners I have ever met. His store is a mix of book store (with heavy emphasis on science fiction and fantasy), comic book store, new age store and game store. There is a smallish gaming area in the rear with room for about 2 rpg tables at a time (3 if you don't have personal space issues). The disadvantage is that the game area is pretty much limited to store hours, which can be limiting (no chance for a real RPG on weekday, unless the owner stays late).

The Days of Knights is much better for actual gaming. They have moved several times during the years. It seemed every year they were moving within the mini-mall they started at in the beginning. They have always had gaming space available. After one move within the mall they kept the old area and used it as a gaming club. They allowed gaming at all hours (quite a number of trusted people had keys to keep things open and an eye in things) and several times I played from noon to morning of the next day (with breaks in between). Much better than contacting people and trusting unknown people into your homes (especially with the large number of college students with limited space).

Even now they have a separate gaming area. They have taken over a garage adjacent of their store and use that as the gaming club. It has it's disdvantages (it still was a garage and their are side issues). Still, they actively support all sorts of games from CCGs (Friday night Magic takes up all but a small private area every week), miniature games, board games and RPGs. Indeed, last time I spoke to the owner he was looking for DMs for weekday 4E games. Apparently he has a huge number of players interested, but not enough DMs willing to run those games.

 

[hewligan]

Orcs Nest for me too. I went there last week to pick up a few things. It is an okay store, a bit "metal" looking inside, but they have started to add a fair bit of Pathfinder material, and that has made it worth a visit for me.

Previously, I preferred Playin' Games on Museum Street. A Board Game shop that had about half the downstairs dedicated to RPG books of all systems, with a nice friendly atmosphere.

Orcs Nest has never felt unfriendly to me, although it has also never felt friendly. It is not the sort of 'community' gaming store that people perhaps want, but in dead-central London having the space to do that would cost a fortune. It is just a store. A clean, reasonably well stocked one, but just a store.

 

[catsclaw227]

I just wanted to chime in that we have some really good ones in the area. It helps that my closest one (All Fun n Games) is owned by someone we knew from the gaming community for many years. The store is clean, decently stocked in RPGs, minis, cards, and a large stock of board games. Staff is very helpful and knowledgeable about the hobbies. Over the years, they've switched locations to make more room for tables, and they always have people using the space for wargames, cards, rpgs, etc.

I'll second my relief at having All Fun N Games nearby. I haven't had a good, close FLGS for a very, very long time. AFnG is clean, well staffed by friendly, knowledgeable gamers and there is lots of space for gaming. They also run some specials that help offset the sting of paying retail when Amazon is just a click away. I enjoy going in there, and as a matter of fact, I am running a one-shot there this Sunday to try to find another player for our home game. They are active in the game days, there are LFR and Pathfinder Society games going on and there's no "edition war" attitude by the staff. They are very kid-friendly as well, with rules for swearing (a swear jar ) and they encouraged new gamers to join in the fun.

Back in SoCal, I used to go to Last Grenadier in Pasadena (then Burbank) and it was a disgusting hole. They had TONS of stuff, but it was poorly organized, like moving through a labyrinth, it was dirty and the guys that worked there seemed ambivalent about customers coming in and browsing around. They never asked what I might be interested in, instead worked on their miniatures and stuffing their faces. As a bonus, the one or two staffers that were there almost NEVER had a clean shirt on. Ugh...

I am glad for my FLGS now.

 

[Glyfair]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the one big failure of a game store in the area. In theory, it was an ideal area. It was conceived as a gaming mecca. An large building was taken over and was sort of several stores within one. There was a coffeehouse area, costume shop area, and a gaming store area. They also had a large gaming area, probably about the size of a decent sized high school gym. I would love to have supported a store like that. Unfortunately, they started with critical mistakes.

The first, and in my opinion the biggest, was they opened directly across the street from one of the existing gaming stores. They immediately alienated a significant portion of their customer base. If they had opened across town many of us would have dropped by on occasion and certainly spent money. However, we weren't going to turn our backs on the person who had been supporting us and our hobbies for a couple of decades. When you are starting a huge store based on niche hobbies like ours you can't afford to cut out large parts of your customer base.

The second mistake, as I understand it, is that a significant portion of their regulars were "hangers on." They hung around, used the areas, but didn't spend money. Not a recipe for success.

I am sure there must have been other factors as well. I didn't see them as I only dropped by once or twice. Still, to me that was an area that seemed like it could have been a gaming example for the agea that was just horribly handled. Some much potential wasted.