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Message: <blockquote data-quote="evilbob" data-source="post: 6180044" data-attributes="member: 9789">Another fundamental flaw in gaming stores:  your target market is mostly younger people (15-25).  These people don't typically have a lot of money.  They're also very happy to walk out of your store and buy something online for cheaper (who am I kidding - I mean pirate it) if you don't hook them.  And they also tend to be crappy customers (more immature, cliquish, and drive off other customers).  I remember a coffee shop in my home town that tried to attract teenagers that died a horrible death, but when it turned into a bar and drove all the kids away, it did great.Meanwhile, the slightly older folks (25-35) actually have money, but they don't have as much time to game.  So they don't need as much stuff, and they don't come by your store as often.  I am guessing these factors go up as the age goes up as well.Thinking about it more, the only sort of gaming store I can come up with that would make money is sort of a hybrid coffee shop / Barnes and Noble / game store.  And given B&N's recent downsizing and changing business model, even this is probably a bad idea.My thought is that the only thing a gaming store has over its online counterparts is the community aspect - so that's the thing you REALLY have to nail.  You have to have a really inviting store that caters extremely well to new customers and includes women.  I'd imagine a sort of Starbucks with a sitting area and lots of stock and books to look at, except with a bunch of tables for gaming as well.  The table space is premium, but I don't know how else you can encourage involvement.  You also need a friendly staff that are out there demoing games on those tables the whole time you're open, and as many community events and tournaments and whatever that you can feasibly host.  Basically, what I envision is a store that thrives on getting as many feet through that door as possible, because your foot traffic-turning-customer rate will never be very high.  You also need to be able to turn curious people into believers with friendly game demonstrations.  And honestly, you probably make most of your rent off coffee.You also need to determine if hard core gamers help or hurt your business.  In my experience they do more harm than good:  they don't buy more than most people, but they will get cliquish and drive other people away with their attitudes.  They don't typically sing your praises, but they'll let the whole world know when you do something wrong.  Maybe tournaments are a bad idea?  I honestly don't know how much those sorts of things generate.Just to play devil's advocate again, though, "community" in general seems to be getting passe anymore.  People meet online and chat online and game online - but they don't seem to care as much about being somewhere in person, and where ever they are, they seem to want to be somewhere else.  Maybe the thing I don't understand about gaming stores is that I don't understand what most younger people actually want to do with their time anymore.  I don't know.Still wondering if there's any way to help my poor local gaming companies stick around...</blockquote>

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