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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thondor" data-source="post: 9565293" data-attributes="member: 31955">Distributor of indie rpgs in Canada and the UK here (<a href="https://composedreamgames.com" target="_blank">Compose Dream Games</a>). Figured I'd chime in.I also did my masters in retail geography and studied comic and game stores for my thesis, that was just over a decade ago, and Canada is a different market. Grain of salt.As Compose Dream Games we do 40% off for FLGS. In Canada we offset that a bit with a cheap flat shipping rate for retailers, because as Fitz said, it can get pretty costly. (UK shipping tends to be more reasonable, but then distances are far less.)We do ship to the USA and internationally, but you may be better off working with Indie Press Revolution, Studio2Publishing and others. That being said sometimes like now, the exchange rate is strongly in your favour so ordering from us makes more sense.Zines can be very strong as long as you display them on a spinner so folks can see the covers. They are easy impulse pick ups, lots of folks will look for something new every month, and you can add new ones regularly for low cost.Map drawing and solo play are quite popular in general and in indie zines. One of our perennial titles that lots of boardgame cafe's pick up (one for the store, one for the retail shelf) is The Quiet Year. This ain't a zine, it is a set. Something in a similar format like For The Queen tends to be good too. Get some OSR titles -- don't think you necessarily have to have core book(s) for these. People will run them will rules they've had for decades.Location:Game stores are destination shops. Meaning people mostly plan to make a trip to see you, convenient location and traffic is less important than many other businesses. Because you are also a cafe, that could make convenience a little more important to you. Competitors and differentiation:You should have some idea who and where other game stores and boardgame cafe's are.Get ideas from visiting a few and make a goal to do some things a little different. Your tables are a neat idea especially if no one else around is doing that. Be prepared to respond and adapt to what customers are telling you.There are both pro's and con's to being close to other "similar" stores. As long as you have some differentiation it doesn't matter that much if Bob's store is around the corner.Those are my 2 cents. Best of luck with the business plan and all the best in your efforts to execute it!-- edit: grammar and such. Wrote most on my phone. </blockquote>

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