Death of the LGS

[Miyaa]

There were two gaming shoppes in Columbia, MO when I first started into gaming in college. One had just moved to a new location underneath a Mexican restaurant, had ample space to host up to three small tournaments in a row, and immediately started doing customer cards where after so many dollars of purchases, you get a $5 certificate. The second one was basically a hole in the wall with a basement so you could do some gaming, but it also had a considerable comic business.

To make a long-story short, the first one, Valhalla's Gate, is the only one now. The other guy couldn't make either work, and he was only too happy to leave the business when the local United Methodist church decided not to offer him rent in the hole in the wall. (Well, because they thought of RPG as inherently evil. But that's probably another subject for another thread.)

But Valhalla's continues to do fairly well, and I think actually made a profit off of 4.0. Also, because of the location, it's now part the booming part of town, and often will get customers in by the scores. (Most nights, especially during the school year, they have roughly fifty people mulling around, at any one time.) They don't do everything that I've seen suggested, but they do it fairly well. (It also helps to have a really stringent and trained staff, too.)

I think the other thing to keep in mind that Wizards, while the biggest, isn't the only large gaming company around. You have your White Wolf, Steven Jackson Games, etc. They don't make D&D their only egg, nor anything else Wizards makes (Magic, Pokemon, etc.) It's equally divided between board games and RPG. I also think they have interest in the computer/console arcade place that has done really well (opened a second site), so I think the diversity is important.

 

[Victim]

The idea that someone now would drive around to a specialty shop for something that they're potentially interested in seems really strange. 15 years ago, yeah - I remember having my Mom drive us around doing exactly that. But now? How many potential new players are going to go out of their way to check out a specialty shop as opposed looking for information online or looking at products in a large bookstore?

 

[carmachu]

The impetus for this post was primarily to convince those of you who *USED* to shop at FLGSes and were lured away by online and big-box pricing to remember where the game community that fostered you came from, and to support them so that the next generation of gamers like you can have the same experience.

The delusion is that you think that the FLAGS was the center of gaming community and fostered us.

for many thats just not the case.

 

[Spinachcat]

GAMA should have organized all the gaming retailers into a bloc and asked WotC as a unified group to please put a 15% discount cap on the D&D books. WotC doesn't make a dime extra when Amazon sells books at 40% off. There was NO need for discounts that steep in this niche industry.

The only way I can see a LGS make money today is by becoming a mini-con location every weekend and most weeknights. It has to become a social hub. Think an English Pub instead of a bookstore. Charge a cover fee and give me a raffle ticket for a door prize and I'm happy.

If I ever smoked enough crack to open a game store, it would definitely be 1/2 shelves, 1/4 pub and 1/4 game lounge. Gamers don't need gourmet food. They need good food that's cheap and readily available. You don't need a kitchen or a cook. You need two microwaves, a freezer and a fridge. You don't make food, you reheat premade stuff that you buy in bulk.

I am always stunned by game stores with game space and they stand there watching everyone go out for food and drinks. And let's be honest - we are talking about a hobby full of middle class male teenagers and male adults who have no nutrition sense and big appetites with wallets that are always open for some snackage. The same guy who never has money for his own copy of the PHB always has money for fast food on demand.

BTW, every game store needs more impulse buys. I am taking $1 bins that get people to drop a few bucks for stuff they don't need.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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

While its true that older folks earn more money, I'll stand by my assertion.

The "controls more wealth" language came from statistical analysis of spending habits, and the key language was "direct or indirect control" of wealth.

While Gen Y still hasn't fully entered the job market, they are already making a measurable shift in patterns of consumption completely out of proportion to their actual incomes.
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or your store has a "No outside food & drinks" policy.

I hate these policies and refuse to eat anything in places that have them (unless they're a restaurant, corner store, etc and their business is to sell food rather then to sell gaming material).

Sometimes they have those restrictions for a reason that may not be self-evident. One I know of is located in a mall in which NO business allows outside food or drink- its part of the conditions of everyone's leases. They are, however, allowed to sell food or drink.

Well, turns out that the FLGS was a game/porno store.

I think I know what the "F" in "FLGS" stands for in THAT store!

The conclusion of all this is, if you have a lot of money, and are willing to take a huge loss, you can do loss leaders until such time as you drive competition out of the market, then raise your prices and/or have so much volume sales that you can make up for your crappy margin with numbers.

That is pretty much a definition of "predatory pricing" and is illegal in the USA...if you're caught!

 

[Mercurius]

Secondly, the fact is that for all the blather about helping out small business and capital gains tax and investment and the whole nine yards you'll hear from fiscal conservatives and libertarians alike, when small business gets replaced by large conglomerates, you wind up with a shortage of options and a seriously underemployed population. Town main streets become wastelands, anyone who wants to venture out of the corporate model of working for someone else winds up with limited options, fewer jobs are created for the young, tax rates decline in general for local communities as small businesses go out of business, which leads to dead communities. What we're seeing the start of is the phenomenon of mining towns when the mine runs dry or one-industry-towns when the logging plant/factory/military base moves overseas or goes out of business, only on a much broader scale.

I think this is already a reality, unfortunately. Or at least we are beyond "the start of" this phenomena.

For example, Barnes & Noble and Borders have a large selection, right? Wrong. Go into a Powells in Portland, OR, and browse the aisles and you realize just how limited the selection at the corporate stores. It isn't only B&N's fault, it also has to do with publishing houses and the erasing of the "mid-range" book. All publishers want to put out now is best-sellers and new authors, as well as the usual classics (read: perennial sellers). The profit margin on the mid-range authors is just too slim.

So if you go into a Powells you see all the authors that are no longer published, and the wealth of previously published literature--and information, period--that is lacking in the corporate stores.

This huge problem is endemic in media culture. Look at the cable news channels: all they talk about is what sells. Peak oil, for example, is only just beginning to hit mainstream press, and only now because it is costing everyone money. But alt press like Democracy Now! have been talking about it for years...

Need I go on?

Oh yeah, and you need to employ Corjay!

 

[JoeGKushner]

What's happening with music pricing models in light of the disappearance of independent music retailers?

I probably buy more music from eMusic and iTunes than I do in the store.

The music industry's complete failure to move into the 21st century probably isn't quite the same as Amazon/Buy/online book pricing.

 

[gamersgambit]

The problem with using a database is that, not only are you not making a profit from it, you're essentially losing profit through time spent and program cost. However, you do maintain a small aspect of customer loyalty, which can assist in long term sales so long as your current profits remain lucrative.

Oh--Quickbooks POS is our register. We're not spending any extra to keep track of it that way; all our customers have records that I can add money to as part of this. So what I'm doing is cost-neutral.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[tangent]Call me a luddite if you wish, but I buy almost all of my music in music stores, in CD form.

I prefer having the cover art and liner notes you don't get with downloads.[/tangent]

 

[Corjay]

Oh yeah, and you need to employ Corjay!

Hehe. Did someone say money?!

Oh--Quickbooks POS is our register. We're not spending any extra to keep track of it that way; all our customers have records that I can add money to as part of this. So what I'm doing is cost-neutral.

Ah. Cool. In that case there could also be other benefits to both you and the customer by having it at your fingertips.