Store owner complains about Kickstarter and Twitter and D&D

[FitzTheRuke]

You missed out the first stage. The thing you presumably did 30 years ago.

0) Get some customers.

That's the hard bit. Once you have them, you can cater for them. But getting the word out these days is hard. Whether you're a publisher or a retailer.

Yeah, true. I did that a long time ago. So long ago that it's a self-perpetuating thing now. (I get new customers almost daily and lose people now and then, and I haven't done any advertising in many years. (beyond a light-box sign that you can see from our commuter rail and a pathetic website).

Where's the steps where you tell your customers what they should be buying and then mock them for wanting things you don't think they should be playing?

I remember stores like those. They inspired me to make sure I never did that kind of thing.

The 90s were weird.)

I know! I was in business through the 90's! (Started in '93)

 

[aramis erak]

My FLGS is really good about ordering things... but not so good at finding them in Asmodee's nor Alliance's ordering systems. The move from FFG to Edge, for example, resulted in them not realizing that the L5R RPG was staying in supply... until I pointed out the change in publishing imprint. (I say imprint because, at the end of the day, both FFG and Edge are both subsidiaries of Asmodee. Asmodee is the real publsiher of L5R5, FFG Star Wars, Genesys, and End of the World... despite them not carrying the Asmodee name and being done by formerly autonomous subunits. Asmodee finally decided that FFG's rep was no longer worth the maintenance of an RPG rules team at FFG.)

I only ever hear about 3 distributors - Asmodee, Alliance, and Diamond. (I know a 4th, but Mad Al's is specifically focused upon Alaska.) And diamond does stock some games, but refers people to Alliance for most hobby games.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, true. I did that a long time ago. So long ago that it's a self-perpetuating thing now.

Yup. That's why that first stage is so hard for everybody, retailer, publisher, streamer, whoever. The advice you give for after that stage is fairly obvious and easy to give once you're established, but advice for getting there in the first place would be super useful.

I could easily offer advice for making a TTRPG news site: post the news your audience wants to read. It's not much use though. Doesn't help anybody until they have an audience! Launching a new website is hard. As is launching a game store. Or a publishing company.

People on the internet like to quote the phrase "If you build it, they'll come", but it's not true. In between those two stages, it misses "and then figure out how to market it".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The advice you give for after that stage is fairly obvious and easy to give once you're established

True. Seems from a lot of people's posts that while it might be obvious, a lot of stores have trouble actually doing it. But I get your point.

My FLGS is really good about ordering things... but not so good at finding them in Asmodee's nor Alliance's ordering systems.

Recent distribution has been terrible. Not only has a lot of stock been unavailable (some, but not all of that is down to supply chain problems, of course) but most distributor's websites and ordering systems are truly horrific. The amount of time I waste on those terrible things... I can't even.

We complained about Diamond for decades, but their website is really still the easiest one to use - to quickly find out if they have something and place an order on it. It's a breeze compared to everyone else's. It's not good - I can think of many much-needed improvements. It's just better than the absolute nightmare that is pretty much all the rest of them. Penguin is the worst. Just terrible. Receiving shipments has become awful lately too. Late, incomplete, and expensive, every time.

But I love my job. I do!

 

[billd91]

Sorry, it is hard to feel sorry for my local gaming store when I asked them to order some Call of Cthulhu books for me and they refused. I had even offered to prepay. Only interested in D&D and Pathfinder, plus those books had to be from major publishers. I understanding not wanting to get stuck with inventory that you cannot sell, I was offering cash in advance for produce.

Yeah, that's odd. I've never heard of a problem with special ordering games from my FLGSs.

 

[Baron Opal II]

And nobody's making decent buggy whips any more, either.

Actually, that's not quite true. However, the market has contracted severely. Hanson Wheel & Buggy comes recommended.

(Pedant mode off)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Actually, that's not quite true. However, the market has contracted severely. Hanson Wheel & Buggy comes recommended.

(Pedant mode off)

It's just a wee bit niche, is all. And I suspect you have your choice between beautiful high-end expensive buggy whips and total trash (some of which is also expensive).

 

[fikuvino]

I live in a big metropolitan area, and have only found one store within an hour-drive radius that carries more than D&D, Pathfinder, and a handful of other game lines. There used to be more, but the situation has been that way for at least a decade now. There are some stores that will special order certain games, but it takes weeks to get them and I end up paying a lot more than if I just ordered directly from the small publisher or some other website. I understand WHY they can't afford to use up limited shelf space on low demand items - I certainly don't blame them for it - but there's no point in me ordering through them when I can get the product cheaper and faster myself. It isn't up to me (or any other customer) to prop up a business that doesn't carry the items I want to buy, no matter how big or small that business is.

From a small publisher perspective, why waste a lot of time or effort in a vain attempt to get traditional distribution when there are other means of reaching your customers and selling your product for more money? Small company rpgs are niche products in an already relatively small industry. That is the type of thing that is a perfect fit for online sales.

 

[dragoner]

I live a couple of blocks from a store that carries quite a bit, like I bought Scum and Villainy there. Though they are a "gaming center" with more space to people playing.

The Sage's Shoppe

www.thesagesshoppe.com

I think online sales in general hurt storefront retailers, I don't know what is really to be done about it though.

 

[prabe]

I live a couple of blocks from a store that carries quite a bit, like I bought Scum and Villainy there. Though they are a "gaming center" with more space to people playing.

The Sage's Shoppe

www.thesagesshoppe.com

I think online sales in general hurt storefront retailers, I don't know what is really to be done about it though.

Around me, there are four gaming stores. One is mostly a gaming space, and they serve as something of an art space, as well--though they do stock and sell some gaming stuff. Two of the others have large separate rooms for gaming in. The fourth store (which is affiliated with a local chain of comics stores) at some point over the last year or two converted their gaming space--which was basically part of the sales floor--into, effectively, a record store; that makes sense, since they've always had good music playing when I've been in there.

My point is that the games stores will need to figure out some way to bring customers into the store, or something else they can sell.