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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thondor" data-source="post: 5989995" data-attributes="member: 31955">The "destination store" debate is one that is very important to have. In my research when discussing location decisions with owners over 50% mentioned that they considered there shop a "destination store" and that affected their location decision. We like to categorize things as a dichotomy. Putting things in nice buckets. Sometimes its better to realize that something is in between. For the purposes of this discussion I am proposing three types of store achetypes: 1. Destination Stores, 2. Shopping District Stores, 3. Stores of Convenience  1. Destination StoresAn example of a true destination store is a furniture store like IKEA. People will travel long distances to visit IKEA if they need to purchase a piece of furniture. The primary purpose of their shopping trip is to visit IKEA, any other shopping is ancillary. For a true destination store, location is almost irrelevant. What matters is space, rent, parking etc. Other stores benefit from locating near destination stores. Clearly hobby shops don't have the same level of of pull as IKEA, but customers are willing to travel specifically to visit a hobby store. 2. Shopping District StoresTheir are "shopping district stores". These are stores which benefit from grouping together in a Mall or downtown area. A good example is a small-sized shoe store. The customer heads to the shopping district because he needs new shoes, and knows he has a broad selection at the shopping district. There are several shoe stores in the area and some larger retailers which carry shoes and other products. A "Shopping District Store" needs to locate near other stores. In my research I discovered that their used to be such a district in Toronto where hobby stores clustered together. But there has been a dispersion over time, with stores deliberately moving away from each other. (A major reason for this is increased ease of finding such stores because of the advent of the internet.)You might find benefit in locating your store in close proximity to a store which shares some interests. But not in close proximity to an store which carries identical product types. For example, here in Toronto, a Comic Focussed store and a Games Workshop store have happily located within a block of each other. 3. Store of ConvenienceThere is a third store type, which is a Store of Convenience. This store needs to locate where people are going to be. And will do better if closer to the concentration of people.They get a lot of walk-ins who did not plan on coming to (specifically) their store when they left. In short, for this store the location of people matters most. Being a block closer than the nearest competitor can make a big difference. A good example would be a news & tobacco shop. Would a hobby shop benefit from being close to a population hub such as a major transit node, downtown offices, a university or a major mall? Sure, but would it be worth the higher rent - not as much as it would to a true store of convenience. Games Workshop initiallly had a policy of opening in Major Mallls in North America. They have abandoned this an begun moving to more ancillary locations, the initial awareness has been achieved and the higher rents are not viable for the extra traffic.  Where you perceive hobby stores in relation to the about achetypes should effect your location decision. Your connections to the market, how you plan on marketing to your customers and your location all play a role with each other. If you have strong connections to the existing gaming community, perhaps through leveraging a "Meetup" or organization to hold events at your store, then being highly visible is less important. Here's a quick chart that should help illustrate the "continum" I was speaking about:</blockquote>

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