"Exclusive deals suck!" - James Mathe's rant about the tabletop industry

[timASW]

I think any attempt by an FLGS to match big box and online on pricepoint is always doomed to failure. Complaining about it is not worth the effort because its simply never going to change.

The big problem and 3catcircus brought it up already is that the industry is not as a whole run like businesses. They're run like grown up hangout places. Thats a doomed proposition at best.

FLGS stores have exactly 2 advantages, neither one of which is generally used well.

1. Customer service could be a big advantage. It generally isnt though because they are low paying jobs and the stores generally staffed by smelly jerks who somehow manage to come off as elitist while working for minimum wage and seeming like they have never heard of soap or a razor..... how they do this is something that should be studied at length but not by me.

So in order for 1 to work the answer is again, think like a business for once. Dont only hire gamers. Hire pleasant people with customer service experience and TEACH them about the games you have. Thats called job training. Then pay them enough that they stick around rather then constantly having a revolving door of faces.

and 2. Location.

Lots of games have a hard time getting off the ground because of not having a place to play at. Just between meetup.com and my local online gamers forum theres at least 5 games full of people who want to play but have been stymied for weeks because of not having a good place to play.

How does a game store take advantage of this?

A. Get involved in social media. If you run an FLGS in an area you had better have your butt on meetup.com, warhorn, facebook and anyplace else where local gamers go to chat about stuff. When people are looking for a place to play YOU should immediately be popping saying "hey guys i have a place". With pictures.

B. Have your game space not suck. Does this mean you might need more square footage? Almost certainly. But lots of people dont want to sit at a table in the middle of a public store gaming. Its often not a comfortable experience for a lot of people. So have at least 1 good private area for gaming. Try for 2.

Thats just basics that would help their existing model.

Growing would involve thinking outside the box and finding sources of actual revenue besides books.

If i were to open one of these things I would try to focus on the club style nature and use pool halls as an example, because I think its a good one.

pretty much every city has several good pool halls. Their business model is focusing on one hobby, like gaming, and then going the extra mile of meeting ALL the needs associated with that hobby. Which FLGS's do not do.

I would have a very small library of books, lots of game aids, and several private gaming rooms coming off a larger open room for congregating. This room would have comfortable places to sit and look at things and meet and hell a pool table. AND it would have the following 3 things.

1. Coffee and tea bar. Reasonably priced but heres one of your money makers

2. Slurpee's and soda. Sans copyright infringing name. But those soda machines are a huge money
maker for stores. I used to run a 7-11 years and years ago and trust me, the profit on those
things per cup is through the roof.

3. Snack bar, with a few fryers and a pizza oven. Why?
Because every single game I've ever seen has people buying food and snacks to bring to the
game and often either ordering more food to the house or leaving mid game for grub. Give them
that food AT THE GAME and charge for it.

This doesnt have to be anything complicated, a pizza as good as the retail chains, french fries and chicken fingers, maybe nachos, hamburgers and sausage etc.

4. A nice comfortable dining area. Hell if you actually have GOOD food you might just make enough
that way to do very well anyway, but let people sit down and have lunch or something and
then ask you about the other games and the people hanging out, then tell them about the
gaming. Profit wont be huge but every avenue of money counts and it might bring new people
into trying gaming at your place.

5. Beer. No you dont need a bartender and the full set up. Just a couple of kegs with common
beers that you serve on tap. Also a fairly high profit item although hard liquor mixed drinks are
better.

You set up the private rooms with nice tables, comfy chairs, put a stereo system that hooks up to something like pandora's movie soundtracks station and maybe you get crazy and have a small projector or white board in each one. Make it a really, really good gaming enviroment. The sort of place that people might actually prefer to gaming at a private home.

Then you charge a dollar a head to use the room. Why? because all this costs money and some people (not many) wont want food, coffee, soda or beer. And because it gets the money spigot flowing.

I know I would personally love a FLGS like that and would hang out there a lot, and buy stuff. Which is something I havent done at an existing FLGS for about 5 years.

 

[ggroy]

FLGS's are often touted as being the core of the RPG community. I'd love to see some statistics on that; they played no part in my RPG background, but then there isn't an FLGS any nearer to me than, I think, London. I would suspect that there are many, many like me who have never had access to an FLGS and who grew up with RPGs just fine anyway.

When I was a kid/teenager, I was completely ignorant of the existence of the dedicated FLGS in the areas I lived in. The few rpg books I had in those days, were mostly purchased from various department stores or bookstores.

We got by with making up our own stuff, using B2 "Keep on the Borderlands" as a rough guideline.

 

[Umbran]

1. Customer service could be a big advantage. It generally isnt though because they are low paying jobs and the stores generally staffed by smelly jerks who somehow manage to come off as elitist while working for minimum wage and seeming like they have never heard of soap or a razor..... how they do this is something that should be studied at length but not by me.

So in order for 1 to work the answer is again, think like a business for once. Dont only hire gamers. Hire pleasant people with customer service experience and TEACH them about the games you have. Thats called job training. Then pay them enough that they stick around rather then constantly having a revolving door of faces.

This isn't a failure to "run it like a business". Generally, small businesses simply cannot afford to do what you suggest.

 

[timASW]

This isn't a failure to "run it like a business". Generally, small businesses simply cannot afford to do what you suggest.

I'm sorry but thats completely false. Every small business in the world that succeeds does exactly what I said. Its basically business 101.

The pay might be a challenge but I'm not saying pay them 40k a year. I'm saying pay them 10$ an hour. Will it keep them for 20 years? no. But it might keep them for 2 or 3 while they finish college. And even that would be a vast improvement.

If you cant afford 10$ an hour then follow the other steps laid out, get a loan, and then pay them. The profit will increase. But when you try to run a business on shoe strings then all you get is shoestrings. And THATS back to running it like a business.

 

[Umbran]

I'm sorry but thats completely false. Every small business in the world that succeeds does exactly what I said. Its basically business 101.

Beware of absolutes like "completely" - it means that if can find a *single* counter-argument, you're the one who is wrong.

Oh, and now you're in the realm of the subjective definition of "success". What are the success criteria? Is a successful small business one that remains open so long as its owner is alive? One that makes enough for the owner to retire on? One that grows to the point of no longer being "small"? Note also that, at least to many portions of the US government, "small business" is one with under 500 employees - the Small Business Administration often calls a business with under $7 million in receipts a "small business". Your typical gaming store, then, isn't so much a small business as a tiny business, Mom-and-Pop caliber stuff.

In my area, there are tons of "successful" small businesses that run on college-student labor - unskilled and transient. So, I reject your assertion that I am completely wrong.

The pay might be a challenge but I'm not saying pay them 40k a year. I'm saying pay them 10$ an hour. Will it keep them for 20 years? no. But it might keep them for 2 or 3 while they finish college. And even that would be a vast improvement.

Perhaps you and I have different ideas of what constitutes "customer service experience". Given that minimum wage in the US is already $7.25 an hour, I don't see as you're actually buying much experience there. Recall that $10/hr ends up being under $20K a year. Anyone with what I consider to be real, significant customer service experience is going to be looking for higher than that.

If you cant afford 10$ an hour then follow the other steps laid out, get a loan, and then pay them. The profit will increase.

Eh, no. There are no guarantees that profit will increase for businesses of this size. It may be more likely, in a general sense, but there are no guarantees. That makes the expenditure a risk, and we aren't in a position to measure the risks for all small businesses.

 

[Bagpuss]

5. Beer. No you dont need a bartender and the full set up. Just a couple of kegs with common
beers that you serve on tap. Also a fairly high profit item although hard liquor mixed drinks are
better.

You usually need a license to sell food and drink and certainly for alcoholic drinks. So if you don't shift a certain volume of each it isn't worth the price of the license.

Also I know it is different in the US to some degree (at least outside cities), but retail space isn't cheap. If your shop is somewhere where it is going to get footfall of passing people then you probably don't have enough space for more than one or two tables, perhaps not even that. Most of the games shops I've visited seem pretty cramped and dedicate most of the space to actual product.

 

[Umbran]

You usually need a license to sell food and drink and certainly for alcoholic drinks. So if you don't shift a certain volume of each it isn't worth the price of the license.

And, don't forget the liability issues there - you now have a place where you really want underage players, but have to manage them with alcohol in the same space?

 

[Krensky]

Also, in most jurisdictions liquor licenses are limited in number and ludicrously valuable. Five or six figures valuable. They're the single most valuable asset of almost every restaurant that has one in my neck of the woods.

 

[timASW]

You usually need a license to sell food and drink and certainly for alcoholic drinks. So if you don't shift a certain volume of each it isn't worth the price of the license.

Also I know it is different in the US to some degree (at least outside cities), but retail space isn't cheap. If your shop is somewhere where it is going to get footfall of passing people then you probably don't have enough space for more than one or two tables, perhaps not even that. Most of the games shops I've visited seem pretty cramped and dedicate most of the space to actual product.

Yeah but generally speaking those licenses are cheap and easy to get. At least for beer. Hard liquor can be very difficult depending on where in the country you are but beer's pretty easy. Its definitely worth the cost and hassle.

If you happen to be in one of those areas where it is difficult ( i know theres a few) you just focus on the soda and coffee.

On the liability issue, i wouldnt be too concerned. Its something pool halls all deal with and so do most small concert venues and 18+ clubs, of which theres a few in every town. Most places employees need to be licensed to sell beer (its called a TAM card here in southern NV and costs 25$ and a 2 hour class).

You make sure your employees are appropriately licensed and fire anyone who screws up. Unless you get repeated offenses in a short time frame the worst thing that happens if there is a screw up is you lose promotional points with the beer distributors. Although those can be extremely valuable its not the end of the world.

And even repeated offenses usually just get your liquor license pulled. Which is terrible for a restaurant, death for a convenience store, but not that horrible for a place like this would be anyway.

 

[timASW]

Perhaps you and I have different ideas of what constitutes "customer service experience". Given that minimum wage in the US is already $7.25 an hour, I don't see as you're actually buying much experience there. Recall that $10/hr ends up being under $20K a year. Anyone with what I consider to be real, significant customer service experience is going to be looking for higher than that.

Actually thats pretty standard. When you pick up the phone and call customer service or tech support somewhere your probably talking to someone making 9 or 10 an hour. Lots of retail customer service positions are flat out minimum wage, with a minuscule commission amount.

We dont need customer service lifers here, thats not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about finding one of those employees at wallmart who doesnt run for the hills when they see someone who needs help and paying him a little more. (wally world starts at 8.25 in most places and goes up extremely slowly). You pay one of them 10$ and their pretty happy with it.

Eh, no. There are no guarantees that profit will increase for businesses of this size. It may be more likely, in a general sense, but there are no guarantees. That makes the expenditure a risk, and we aren't in a position to measure the risks for all small businesses.

All business is a risk. If your not willing to take risks you shouldnt open a small business. But as risks go a small investment ( 1$ an hour more, 40 hours a week for 4 employees= 160 weekly, 640 monthly) in better trained, friendlier customer service employees is a damn good risk.

Much better then doing something like buying a bunch of 3rd party books that might sit on the shelf and gather dust for years until you have to sell them at half off. As a for instance.