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<blockquote data-quote="RabidBob" data-source="post: 4342718" data-attributes="member: 3839">Not necessarily.&nbsp; In the UK at least Amazon have a lot of competition.&nbsp; Heck, half the stuff I buy off Amazon I buy not from Amazon but from someone using their storefront.&nbsp; We also have Play.com for movies, computer games and who also have started stocking books at a competitive rate.&nbsp; My &quot;FLGS&quot; (which is not so friendly, have no gaming space at all, but have a very nice owner) has been in business since before I moved to the UK.&nbsp; However, LGS generally are a dying breed, off the top of my head I only know of three dedicated gaming stores in the London metropolitan area (Games Workshop stores don't count).&nbsp; Lots of great points in this thread.&nbsp; I'd like to add my 2cp for the &quot;clean and respectable&quot; part of the LGS offering.&nbsp; I think also that where the LGS can win 100% of the time is in service.&nbsp; My LGS offer a mail order service and when I recently had a problem with an item I bought through the post they replaced it with out any hassle at all; if I'd bought from Amazon I'd have no end of problems.&nbsp; Hire friendly staff, make sure they don't sit there playing WoW or browsing 4chan when there are customers in the shop.&nbsp; Maintain order; gamers can be, uh, &quot;exuberant&quot; at times and sometimes that can be inappropriate and this'll put potential customers off.&nbsp; Make your store a place people want to be and they'll be there and be spending money they otherwise would not have.&nbsp; Ensure that your store is easy to locate, not just in physical terms but if someone was new to the area they'd find you easily via search engine, phone book, whatever.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="RabidBob, post: 4342718, member: 3839"] Not necessarily. In the UK at least Amazon have a lot of competition. Heck, half the stuff I buy off Amazon I buy not from Amazon but from someone using their storefront. We also have Play.com for movies, computer games and who also have started stocking books at a competitive rate. My "FLGS" (which is not so friendly, have no gaming space at all, but have a very nice owner) has been in business since before I moved to the UK. However, LGS generally are a dying breed, off the top of my head I only know of three dedicated gaming stores in the London metropolitan area (Games Workshop stores don't count). Lots of great points in this thread. I'd like to add my 2cp for the "clean and respectable" part of the LGS offering. I think also that where the LGS can win 100% of the time is in service. My LGS offer a mail order service and when I recently had a problem with an item I bought through the post they replaced it with out any hassle at all; if I'd bought from Amazon I'd have no end of problems. Hire friendly staff, make sure they don't sit there playing WoW or browsing 4chan when there are customers in the shop. Maintain order; gamers can be, uh, "exuberant" at times and sometimes that can be inappropriate and this'll put potential customers off. Make your store a place people [b]want[/b] to be and they'll be there and be spending money they otherwise would not have. Ensure that your store is easy to locate, not just in physical terms but if someone was new to the area they'd find you easily via search engine, phone book, whatever. [/QUOTE]

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