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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ichabod" data-source="post: 629526" data-attributes="member: 1257">I ran a local game store in a college town of about 70K for three years. It was a small one man operation, and by the end of it I was making a profit (I  closed down because I wanted out of retail). My location had several problems. All of the following is based on my experiences with that store, so keep those assumptions in mind.Gross profit margins are about 50% of retail, usually a little less.A normal week of sales was about $3500. Keep in mind small store, no employees.Holiday season significantly affects sales, at least of games. Comics I can see it not affecting as much, but I never did comics. The summer convention season affects game sales, as most of the US companies aimed releases for Gencon and Origins. That means a dead zone in late winter and spring.Organized play is extremely important, more so for the more collectible games. With collectible games, organized play stimulates impulse sales. I used to run CCG tournaments for the popular games, with no entry fee, giving away prizes, and I came out ahead because of the increased sales. Even if the games are not collectible, organized play builds customer good will, which will lead to increased sales.Half my store space was devoted to organized play. I would have had more, but it was a small space. In a large store, you could get away with a smaller ratio.I sold only gaming material, but I had a wide selection thereof. Board games, CCGs, miniature games, and RPGs. I was leary of comics, as it is a very different sort of business. I did want to branch out, but didn't have the space. Model builders (trains, RC cars) also have crossover with games, so you might look into that.I don't remember what I had for starting inventory, but my initial business loan was for $40K, and I ran into problems due to undercapitalization.Game store are tough, as it is a niche industry. The reason most of them fail is the same problem most of the industry has on all levels: it's run by gamers, not businessmen. You can be both, but that rarely happens.Advertising: generally overblown. Local newspapers and stuff like that when you open up, sure. But after that stick to the yellow pages, flyers, a good web page, and generating customer goodwill to get that word of mouth. You will live and die by your word of mouth.CCGs: These are tricky. Typical investment to start carrying a CCG is $100, as opposed to $30-40 for a board game or RPG. Warhammer has similar problems, but worse. The inventory you have to carry to really support GW stuff is huge, and you have to have organized play to generate the impulse sales.Inventory: This is huge, because excess inventory is wasted money. You have to find out what your perenial sellers are, and keep those in stock come hell or high water. There are board games and roleplaying games that just sell over and over again. All the RPGs you carry, have the core books in stock. You need to have a sense of the gaming community to know what lines to carry. For your main lines keep a decent inventory of supplementary products, but otherwise do special orders. Be very careful with the special orders. Keep good track, keep the customer up to date on their orders, and do what you can to get the product in. It's often better to buy the product at a competitor and resell it for no gain than to leave a customer hanging. It's that good will thing.I never was able to get a good computerized inventory system, but I would have loved to have one. I think one of those would be a huge asset in getting the knowledge you need to improve your inventory and services. Especially now that I have a statistics background.Another thing: you want to have a good atmosphere. You want your customers to think of it as a cool place to hang out. But for the younger customers, you also want it to be a place their parents are comfortable with them hanging out in.Last thing: used games. I think a lot of game stores really miss out on this, although it is a bit of work. Giving people a way to turn old games into new games is a good way to generate sales and good will. Stocking old games will provide another incentive for people to come to your store, especially if they're looking for something odd. Plus the lower prices turn them into impulse sales.</blockquote>

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