Open Letter To Local Game Stores

[Thornir Alekeg]

Or maybe I just have to suck it up and open a game store

One of my friends and I have often talked about doing this [checks lottery tickets] but it isn't likely to happen. I don't have the financial security to take on the risks of opening a store and discovering I can't succeed.


That and the repeated warnings about mixing friendship and business.

 

[Stormonu]

I've been to both good and bad stores, and of the three stores I've seen in our local area that failed, the biggest problem always has been a case of that the staff is too engaged in playing games to attend to customers.

I'm probably the odd man out that when I go to a hobby store, I like to peruse the shelves without being interrupted or accosted - almost like I'm visiting a library. Yet, when I do get to the counter, I want to check out right then and there. Not 10 minutes later while the staff gabs with other folks or has to finish his current raid in WoW before he can come help me.

 

[HailToTheThief]

Before the FLGS are lumped up on anymore (and I know that's not the overall intent here, but it seems to be what this smells like),

I would like to point out again that I am in no way attempting to bash every gaming store. On the contrary, I am attempting to create (and, I think, have succeeded in creating) a constructive conversation aimed at improving local game stores and helping them succeed. The other option, of course, would be to complain about a bad experience and publicly commit to buying games online only, which I certainly don't want to do!

 

[redboxrazor]

I find myself to be in roughly the same position as the OP. I've been reading these forums for awhile, and this thread has gotten me passionate enough to post.

I have frequented several gaming stores near my hometown, and have watched as many of them have closed their doors. I have a great gaming group, and have been playing various games (Magic, D&D, and GURPS, to name a few) for quite some time, and yet, despite my regular visits and purchases, I've always felt like a burden - an outsider who was just distracting the guys running the store from having a good time.

Just a year ago, I moved to Maryland, and things didn't get muh better. One of the most competitive and largely-populated gaming stores near Towson is messy, the employees are often distracted, the owner is condescending, and the owner's dogs are left to freely roam the store. There is one employee there who is fun and helpful, but he doesn't know much about running the store, so his kindness alone isn't enough to make me want to keep going back.

Not to mention that some of the employees are usually licking the ketchup off their fingers while ringing me up.

So yes, I'm a little impassioned about this - I'm just glad someone else brought this to light, since it seems like many people have learned to accept and even expect this kind of behavior from their LGS.

I'd like to believe that my experiences weren't typical, but many of the posts on this thread seem to suggest that they are.

Pardon my impassioned response. I mean no offense.

 

[Hazard_53188]

heh....yeah, I was spoiled by a great FLGS when I lived in Milwaukee, adventure Games Plus. Did just about everything the OP described as the right way.

I'm afraid to tell you that AGP has been out of business for a few years now.

As I recall it was sold and the new owner made the mistake of holding onto everything that wasn't selling and eventually couldn't afford to stock new product.

I'd go in there once in a while and see the same numerous and old d20 products on the shelf. By the time he realized his mistake the d20 bubble had popped and he couldn't give the stuff away.

It always amazes me how many stores waste shelf space on unmoving product and are unwilling to clear it out and stock something that does sell.

 

[doctorhook]

Egads...

In every one of the quality game stores I've been in, that would be a fireable offense. You simply don't play games during business hours unless you are running one for the purposes of a demo or other similar in-store event.

If, somehow, that employee were running a computer game demo, he shouldn't have been at the register.

Every once in a while over the past couple years, out of morbid curiosity I visit a card'n'comic store that I used to frequent as a kid. It's in the same location and it still has the same employees, but it's been 15 years.

They used to be well-stocked and busy. Then, at some point, they got four pay-to-play computers along the back wall, opposite the register and the front door.

These days, the walls are empty. What stock they have is piled on the floor in random areas. The owner is older and fatter, and plays WoW on those computers all day with whoever else is there. The last time I went there, I browsed for two minutes, realized that they had almost nothing, and literally could have walked out the door with anything I wanted without having been noticed.

The mysterious part is that it has been in this state for three years now, at least, and still hasn't folded up. ...Drug front?

 

[DragoonLance]

I guess I'm lucky that the biggest problems I've had with the LGS has mostly been quirkyness on the owners part, although one of those was enough that I stopped going there; he was a hardcore tabletop wargamer and refused to stock any game with prepainted minis, cause you should paint everything yourself, apparently in all the free time I had from running a game store?

My current FLGS owner is a great guy, but I really wish he was proactive about promoting games. If you want to demo or run a game he's all for it, but him do anything like that? He's got a store to run, ya know!

 

[HailToTheThief]

They used to be well-stocked and busy. Then, at some point, they got four pay-to-play computers along the back wall, opposite the register and the front door.

I think pay-to-play computers is a terrible idea. Maybe 10 years ago such a thing was a decent idea, but at this point the number of people that don't have a computer (but have enough disposable income to 'rent' one at a game store) is so few that the only thing the computers serve to do is allow regulars and owners to play on them for free, further isolating customers.

So, as an addendum to the original list I will add: "No pay to play computers" for the reasons above

 

[doctorhook]

So, as an addendum to the original list I will add: "No pay to play computers" for the reasons above

Solid.

I would concede that while pay-to-play computers are probably not a solid business investment anymore, on their own they're pretty harmless. The real problem arises when employees are paying more attention to the computers than to the store.

I think we agree that, in other words, employees playing computer games at work is actually even worse than it sounds. Not only are they not accomplishing anything, but they're also scaring customers away.

 

[HailToTheThief]

While I don't feel there is any way anyone could be making money on pay to play computers anymore, I would be ok with it if, and only if, the employees never touched the things AND they were kept in a separate room...it's just one more thing that takes away from the welcoming atmosphere a store is supposed to have, and they really have no purpose being in the retail area.