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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Queen_Dopplepopolis" data-source="post: 3394643" data-attributes="member: 14323">A clean, presentable store is a must.  Knowing your product - ALL OF YOUR PRODUCT - is also a must.  When I worked at Wizards, I spent weeks reading the rules of essentially all games.  On slow days, I'd crack open something that I had never played and grab a few customers to learn with me.  More often than not, they bought the game AND I learned how to play it so I could recommend it later.Owning a game store is hard because there is a fine line between an awesome game store and a niche shop that is doomed to failure... and, far too often, game store owners end up on the "niche shop" side of things and have no appeal to the non-gamer.  I suggest carrying a variety of board and party games in order to avoid being too cut off from the typical consumer.The uniform is a great suggestion.  A nice polo with your store's name/logo on it is fantastic.  Be sure that all of your employees have at least two - if not more - of them to prevent people from come in in dirty work clothes.As for the way the industry is going... geez.  It's hard to say.  FLGSs are floundering because you can buy your products for SO MUCH cheaper at Amazon.  You need to give your shoppers a reason to buy... and a reason to keep coming back.  With each purchase of $50, give your shoppers a 10% discount of their next $50 purchase - so long as it is made in the next 30 days.  Give away computer-game time for a purchase of so much.  Promote your events!  Put fliers in every bag.  Have signs up that advertise.  Don't make the next 40k tourney information for those "in the know."Demo! Demo! Demo!  The "next big thing" will only be "the next big thing" if people get a chance to play it.  Always have a nice, neat demo table ready to go... and change the game often!Always greet your customers, but don't be forceful.  "Hi and welcome!  My name is [insert name here] - is there anything I can help you find?" is all you need... if they say "Yes!" Help them find it!  If they say "No!" let them know that you'll be happy to help if they need it and let them go about their business.Have good hours.  That means being open in the evening.  Sucks, but if you're open banker's hours, no one is going to come (you laugh, but I've seen a store do just that).Employees should be friendly with the customers, but should not allow the customers that are friends to break the rules.  Professionalism is essential.  This means, if there's a no eatting at the computers rule, that rule needs to be followed regardless of your relationship with the person working at that time.  If there's no holding of new releases, there's no holding of new releases despite the fact that you're BFF with an employee.  (that really pushes my buttons!)Also - if you hire your friends to work the store - make sure they can handle shifting in and out of their professional roles with you.  Don't hire friends that will make crappy employees/won't respect you as a boss.  That only causes trouble.And I'm done rambling for now.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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