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General Tabletop Discussion
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how do FLGSs make money?
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<blockquote data-quote="Gareman" data-source="post: 6183167" data-attributes="member: 4918"><p>Bottom line is it's brick and mortar retail. You have to embrace being a retailer and what that means for your business and your life. Retail is slow to change, resistant to progress, and resource poor. The money is bad and the hours long. It's often feast or famine (right now it's feast). Game retail is rife with whack-a-mole competitors, partners that compete directly with you for sales (publishers and distributors!), and a bar to entry so low that you could be selling games tomorrow with no minimum order. The majority of publishers in the game trade work from home, have day jobs, or otherwise act in a less than professional manner. The customers are fickle, incredibly price sensitive, not of particularly strong means, and new release driven. All the money is in CCGs, the most fickle customer base of all. It's a pretty hostile market.</p><p></p><p>It takes tremendous skill just to survive, yet luck can propel you forward or sink you like a rock. Very, very few game store owners start their business as retailers or wanting to be retailers. They start their business because they love games, which surprisingly, isn't even a requirement to succeed. It's often just an anchor that keeps you in the trade. And I'm told a lot of the skills are not transferable.</p><p></p><p>But it's kind of awesome anyway. You get to be your own boss, even though you work like a dog. You can get up late. You're surrounded by the coolest product ever and get to talk to people who share your interests all day long. If you like gaming, your vacations will likely be gaming vacations at GenCon and GTS. Taking home games is now "research." All your wage slave friends will be envious.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gareman, post: 6183167, member: 4918"] Bottom line is it's brick and mortar retail. You have to embrace being a retailer and what that means for your business and your life. Retail is slow to change, resistant to progress, and resource poor. The money is bad and the hours long. It's often feast or famine (right now it's feast). Game retail is rife with whack-a-mole competitors, partners that compete directly with you for sales (publishers and distributors!), and a bar to entry so low that you could be selling games tomorrow with no minimum order. The majority of publishers in the game trade work from home, have day jobs, or otherwise act in a less than professional manner. The customers are fickle, incredibly price sensitive, not of particularly strong means, and new release driven. All the money is in CCGs, the most fickle customer base of all. It's a pretty hostile market. It takes tremendous skill just to survive, yet luck can propel you forward or sink you like a rock. Very, very few game store owners start their business as retailers or wanting to be retailers. They start their business because they love games, which surprisingly, isn't even a requirement to succeed. It's often just an anchor that keeps you in the trade. And I'm told a lot of the skills are not transferable. But it's kind of awesome anyway. You get to be your own boss, even though you work like a dog. You can get up late. You're surrounded by the coolest product ever and get to talk to people who share your interests all day long. If you like gaming, your vacations will likely be gaming vacations at GenCon and GTS. Taking home games is now "research." All your wage slave friends will be envious. [/QUOTE]
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