Death of the LGS

[pg13]

Despite your scoffing, Aria, gamersgambit has an advantage relative to Amazon when it comes to customer service. Customers can see gg; customers can talk directly to gg; customers can ask any question about any product in the store and get an immediate answer; customers can buy a soda from gg; customers can play in gg's game if he runs one. All of those things can help create a real relationship between gg and the customer, something that one-click-shopping cannot do.

That's the arena were he can compete. He establishes relationships and generates "brand loyalty" and he can be successful.

That's how it's supposed to work, yes.

I agree with you...except, here's where gg finds himself on the losing end of the trend = gg will have to spend far more money fighting harder for fewer and fewer sales of the impossibly broad range of products that gg would have to have pay to have available at any given moment in order to take advantage of the specialized nature of service that is the main competitive advantage for the FLGS.

The high-volume items will be sold by the low overhead, limitless storage and shelf-life, internet convenient, on-line discounter. And nothing, other than the temporary shift of convenience, stops someone from coming to the FLGS for the knowledge and the hands-on inspection and then choosing to go home and buy it on-line at the best available price.

That's the scary truth of it...and until a new business model is found, the best that the FLGS can hope for is to hold on until the next trend appears...or until it can no longer hold on.

Been there, done that.
pg--seattle

PS--The US music industry belatedly recognized the value of the independent retailers and the struggle they faced against the Big Box discount stores and they self-imposed restrictions known as "Minimum Advertisable Prices." Basically, it restricted co-op advertising (ads that are partially paid for by the record labels in partnership with a retailer, a major source of advertising budgets) to those retailers who agreed not to advertise certain products for less than pre-arranged minimums. You could be Best Buy and still sell the new Coldplay for $5 less than most stores could buy it wholesale--but you couldn't use the record labels money to advertise that... And it helped. Until Congress struck the practice down as being unfair to consumers (and consumers were convinced by the media coverage of this action that they'd won a great victory against the high cost of cds--but all they did was quicken the demise of their friendly local record store...)

There's not going to be anyone stepping in and telling Amazon.com that they can't sell you what you want for the best price they can. Independent retails can't hold their breath and wait to be rescued--they have to simply do what they can to offer something that people will choose to buy from them...and hope that'll be enough.

Use your lucky dice!

 

[Korgoth]

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

Great. So the vaunted LGS can only survive if I'm deprived of fiscal liberty.

I am going to become the anti-LGS Lech Walesa. Solidarnosc!

 

[Corjay]

More power too ya.

 

[pogminky]

As many have already mentioned.... the only way for FLGSs to really compete is to become a service industry not retail. Somewhere to go and play, talk, eat & drink, meet likeminded people etc. - and maybe, maybe - buy some stuff.

Trouble is, gamers are not the most socially adventerous of people - nor are they in large numbers - and they can enjoy there hobby for free in their own home rather than pay to enjoy it at a store.

Answer? Don't know - maybe offer a play experience that can't be had in a home: interesting decor (the fantasy room, the horror section etc. for diff games)
controllable mood lighting and music
pro-quality dice/DM screens/minis and mats for hire
etc.

In the end though, I think that time is running out on FLGSs and TTs. I wonder what the hobby will be like in 10 years, or twenty years?

 

[PetriWessman]

Well, I usually try to support our FLGS (which is very "F", and excellent in many ways). However, it's not always economically feasible.

As the most blatant example, take 4e. The FLGS is selling the set at a price of 105 euros (that's about $160, at current rates). Amazon has it at $63, and shipping here to Finland is about $8, so it's about $70.

So that's $160 vs $70 (!). It's a complete no-brainer. There's no way I'm paying over double price, no matter how much I like the shop. Amazon wins.

Usually the difference isn't that extreme, and in those cases I buy locally. But whenever I start getting 50% or more off by getting it from Amazon (including shipping costs in calculations), that's where I go. I'm sorry for the store owners out there, but that's the bottom line.

 

[jdrakeh]

Actually, I know several game stores that make a killing in retail (or at least turn enough profit to stay open for decades at a time). The primary difference that I see between these stores and failed game stores is stock diversity. Specifically, the long-standing stores that I know of cater to several hobbies (e.g., scale model building, card collectors, boardgamers, roleplayers, wargamers, etc). The 'gone in short' order stores seem to fixate on one or two tiny niche demographics to the exclusion of all others.

Then there are certain game stores that explore outre realms of the bizarre in order to keep their doors open. . .

Some friends and I were driving through Liberal, KS back in 2001 on our way to California and decided to check out the FLGS to take a break from driving. Well, turns out that the FLGS was a game/porno store. Seriously. They had the Forgotten Realms product on the shelf right next to the. . . bad stuff. I bought some TWERPS books. My friend bought some. . . really bad stuff. It was the most surreal RPG shopping experience of my life.

 

[Corjay]

The more successful of the two FLGS in my area is VERY diverse in similar ways. They have art books, manga books, comics and graphic novels, board games, huge variety of RPG's, huge variety of TCG's, minis games, walls of peuter miniatures, a table of previously owned or outdated materials, and lots of space for gaming smack dab in middle of the store with product on all sides in a space you wouldn't normally look at and say "sure, we can do that". Their use of space is phenomenal. 70% of their product lines the walls.

 

[JDJblatherings]

Thank goodness us 1962ers fall into the Baby Boomer category.

Gen Y doesn't control more wealth...they spend more money. Big difference there.

In the U.S. 35 - 54 earned over 2400 Billion Dollars in 2005, under 35 earned under 1400 Billion Dollars. In that same year 70%+ of 34-54 were home owners, under 35 had about 45% home owners.

 

[Heselbine]

Support your LGS.

As a previous poster said, the onus is on retailers to provide added-value services. If you don't, why shouldn't I buy from Amazon?

I speak as one who DOES support their FLGS because it

a) Provides gaming space
b) Runs special events
c) Is run by people who can talk knowledgeably about D&D
d) Give me free stuff every now and then
e) Painted a special figure for me for free once when I had a really important game coming up

So I say: support your LGS if it deserves it.

 

[Shazman]

Unfortunately, the reality is that books are getting increasingly expensive and gas is ridiculous. The only way I can buy anything anymore is to get it at the huge discount online retailers offer. I simply can't justify going out of my way to use up a lot of my free time and expensive gas getting to my LGS and paying 15 to 20 dollars more for the same book I can get delivered to my door at a fraction of the price. That's just the way things are with the outrageous price jumps and lack of appropriate cost of living raises most Americans are dealing with right now.