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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pg13" data-source="post: 4336386" data-attributes="member: 71410">I have sympathy.  Little good it'll do, but I do have sympathy.There's no point in counting on loyalty to an outdated business model.  It didn't work for independent book stores, it didn't work for independent music retailers...it won't work in the hobby/game industry.But, like I said...I have sympathy--as I was a manager at a very cool independent music retailer in Seattle for ten years...and we recognized that there were areas in which we simply could not compete with the Big Box stores or the on-line behemoths.Tout as we might our superior service and product knowledge, there's no way to make someone buy something that is more expensive from you, and certainly not based on any sense of assumed loyalty or inherent obligation.  The only useful product purchasing decision you might have an edge on, against the dominant factor of price, is convenience--and that's assuming that you actually have the product that a customer wants at the exact moment that they want it.  No one is going to special order something from you that they could order from Amazon at a discount.That doesn't mean that there isn't value in service or product knowledge--the key to any independent retailer is in using your superior product knowledge to help an indecisive consumer make decisions...to suggest additional or alternate products that no program could make a similar connection.  ...but the simple truth is that this is a war of attrition that the independent retailer is unlikely to survive.  The larger truth is that as a business owner, you aren't entitled to be a profitable enterprise.  You, like every business, have to figure out if there is something that you can offer that enough people want to pay you for...(and specifically you...not someone else...and certainly not "no one".)  If there is, and you let them know you have it and you make it available to them in a way that they can, in fact, pay you for it...then you're good for the moment--but it's a Sisyphean struggle that will NEVER end.pg--Happy to have joined enworld, sorry for the lengthy first post.--seattlePS--I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin.  We didn't have a game store when I was in junior high and the D&D thing happened.  We had a hobby/craft store that stocked the OD&D pamphlets...and then the blue box...and then the AD&D books.  No product knowledge, no suggestive sales...just a box full of stuff that the people buying pipe cleaners, styrofoam balls and yarn happened to have in their store.I don't visit my home town often, but the last time I did, I noticed that the hobby/craft store is still there...but they haven't sold gaming supplies in over twenty years.PPS--The music retailer that I helped manage eventually did give up a couple of years ago.  They gave it a good run...and, I think that with a couple of tweaks, could still be in business today...but you need to have the enthusiasm to enter the battle...and willing to adapt to an ever shifting battlefield.  Long gone are the days when an independent retailer could even dream of just sitting back, getting fat and raking in the money...  Barring another Magic-esque cash cow, profit margins are going to be thin and frightening.  Time to min/max your adventuring attributes, retailers!</blockquote>

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