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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rgard" data-source="post: 4287186" data-attributes="member: 4157">Former Game Store Owner's PerspectiveFor the OP:The staff there should have at least stood up and asked you to find something.  Assuming they hadn't recognized you from before, I don't understand why they would continue to play the game.  It goes beyond good business sense...it's plain common courtesy.  As for the shrink wrapped books, I never shrinkwrapped mine except for the ones that arrived already shrinkwrapped; the 40k big black book arrived shrinkwrapped.  As a result of not shrinkwrapping mine, I ended up with 30 or so books that were not sellable (at least nobody wanted them) due to wear and tear from folks reading them in the store.  That wipes out the margin for 35-40 other books that did sell.   For everyone else posting their experiences:1.  Yes there is theft.  Mine was negligible, but it does happen and it does annoy folks.  They aren't stealing from some evil corporate big box store.  They are stealing from the owner of the store.  It can feel just like somebody sneaking into your house and taking your stuff.2.  The (F)LGS can't complete with Amazon and the rest based on price and that will be the death of the FLGS.  It starts with the customer who buys a book from the FLGS at retail price.  The customer then finds the same book on line with a 20% discount and now the customer thinks he or she was ripped off by the FLGS.  The owner can try to mitigate this with frequent customer programs which give a discount, but that just cuts into the money available to buy new stock and pay operating expenses.  It's a vicious downward spiral.  Even when you do offer discounts (which I did) you still have customers who will read the books in the store, complain the book was shelf worn, decide not to buy it and order a shiny untouched one from Amazon.  I know this as some customers will tell you this openly, even show you the book Amazon shipped.I also had flak from a parent when I only gave a 10% discount on the Star Wars mini set that came out when the Revenge of the Sith premiered.  The parent paid $11.69 (10% off the $12.99 retail price) at my store then found the minis at Walmart for $9.87 (or some other prime number weird price Walmart divines).  She was pissed off and went on about how she was on a limited budget.  I was polite, but didn't offer her a rebate.  Didn't see her or her kids for 2 months after that.3.  The FLGS 'Gaming Experience' will keep some stores afloat for awhile but folks will move their shopping on line eventually.  For my store the 'Gaming Experience' included lots of table space to play the games.  I had 2400 square feet and about 1000 of that was devoted to gaming tables.  I also had a paint station where folks could paint their minis.  I provided the paints, they provided the minis and brush.  We held weekly contests for store credit, e.g. build the most cool sorcerer character concept or figure painting contests.  We had D&D fight club, with point buy characters where the winner received store credit as well.  I had Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy and Warmachine completitions.  Also, I was fortunate to have a regular customer who was a fantastic mini painter and he gave painting classes to folks who wanted to learn how to paint.  I personally DM'd D&D and SW D20 in the store after hours.  I was having fun and generating additional sales at the same time.If anybody who owns a LGS reads this, I encourage you to do the paint station.  It brought alot folks in and those same folks who painted their figs with my paint bought their own paint from the store.  You do want to do this in an area that isn't carpeted as your carpet at the station will get trashed.4.  Most customers I had were great, decent people.  You get your ration of jerks, thieves, penniless gamer types looking to cool off in your store on a 90 degree day, folks who are happy to read your stock, then buy it on line and tell other customers about it, but the vast majority were great.I know I pissed some customers off.  I had one kid using an illegal pdf of the 40k Space Marine Codex.  I told him he couldn't bring the illegal copy to the store.  He replied that he couldn't play without it.  I showed him the door.  He took two of his friends with him and I never saw the 3 again.  I had other folks who took store stock books into the gaming area and were actually using the books to play D&D.  I politely took the books from them, but they were angry with me.  After that I had another customer start to copy a prestige class description from splat book by hand in the store part of the shop, so he could play it in the gaming area.  He didn't finish copying it before I put the book back on the shelf.  He then complained that his character concept was ruined. At the end of the day I think the FLGS will die off.  Some will survive who have good deals on their rent and that are already established.  I think I did all the right things with the 'gaming experience', pleasant atmosphere and discounts, but I had to close up shop as after 20 months, I was still losing money and didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel.  It will come down to price.  As long as Amazon and others are offering the discounts they do, the FLGS will get squeezed out of the marketplace.  That's just my humble opinion.Thanks,Rich</blockquote>

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