Should FLGS have Edition Bias?

[brainstorm]

Just came back from my FLGS where I had an interesting experience. There were some guys in there that were apparently shopping around for a gaming system. I didn't catch the entire conversation, so I may have a few facts wrong, but what I gathered was that they had been 3.5 D&D players at some point and were looking into the current options. The guy in the FLGS that was helping them pretty much went straight for Pathfinder and tried to sell that to them, going into the strengths of the game, the changes they made from 3.5 and how it was such an improvement, yada yada yada. He barely talked about 4E, only mentioning that he'd tried it for a few months and lost interest in running it. I really had to bite my tongue to keep from speaking my mind, and maybe I should have, but it's not my store and really none of my business what they want to push off their shelves. But I thought the whole scene odd, given their stock of 4E material was much larger than their Pathfinder stock. I got the impression that they weren't trying to sell a product, they were trying to sell a version of D&D that they preferred.

Now, I've only played Pathfinder once and didn't really enjoy the experience, not because of the game, but because of the guy running it, so I don't necessarily have anything against Pathfinder. But as a 4E DM, I kinda felt, at that moment, that my FLGS wasn't there for me.

Anyway, taking personal feelings out of the equation, I think that a better approach might have been to discuss the benefits of both systems, ask the customers what they liked about 3.5 and what they were looking for in a current game and then tout the pros/cons of each of the systems. Heck, they carry Dragon Age, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and a few other fantasy systems, but none of those were mentioned either.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Thanks for listening.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Unless there's some major moral or ethical reason to do so--and no, "I think version x of D&D sucks" is not a reason--a store clerk should be as neutral as possible and should work to provide his or her customer with as much information as possible to make an informed decision. That includes finding out what the customer's tastes are as well as what the market is currently doing and the aggregate opinions on prior customers.

That being said, if the store sold more pathfinder than 4e he should be honest about it, and vice versa.

 

[IronWolf]

I don't think a store should have a strong bias if they want to remain in business. However, if they have a preference I can certainly see them leading with that system when asked about different systems out there. And then depending on the customer's comments and reaction decide whether he should go into covering some of the other systems.

If the people he was talking to seemed to *like* 3.5 and didn't have a lot of issues with it then Pathfinder might be a great fit for them. If they had major problems with 3.5 or weren't really liking the description of Pathfinder and voiced those concerns then I think the shopkeep would have done well to roll into describing some other system, 4e or what have you.

 

[Raven Crowking]

When I was running Golden City Comics, and people asked for comic recommendations, I would tell them what I thought was good. I would also ask what they liked, and point out things that were similar. My eye was always to two things:

(1) Making a sale; i.e., find a product that the person would be sufficiently interested in to buy now, and

(2) Making my recommendation valuable; i.e., not pushing crap just so that I could make that sale now. It is in the best interests of the establishment that solicited opinions are honest, but tempered by knowing the customer, so that the customer can learn to value those opinions.​

When 4e was still a few months out, and although I did not care for the direction the design was going in, I advised several parents/grandparents to wait before buying D&D so that they wouldn't get stuck having to buy it all over again. It might not have pushed product off the shelves at the moment, but it helped make my opinion valuable.

Of course, we were largely off RPG sales at that time, except by special order, so there wasn't too much immediate lost opportunity to consider.

There is a difference between a "What do you recommend?" enquiry and a "Tell us our options" enquiry. Without knowing the enquiry, it is impossible to know whether or not the store reps did the "best case" thing in this particular instance.

All IMHO, of course. YMMV.



RC


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When someone asks

 

[Ahnehnois]

Working in non-rpg retail, my observation has been that the nature of retail is that first the companies sell stuff to the store, and then the store sells it. You can't carry everything out there, so you have to be picky. You do, however, have to understand that customers are diverse and that even if you don't like something, they might like it, and catering to their needs is good business.

All that said, if I was a game store I'd stock everything, but give my edition of choice a little TLC; carry more stuff and try to push games for that edition.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I don't know about edition bias, but I imagine they would have sales bias... they want to direct people to what sells.

 

[Chainsaw]

Same thing happens to me in all kinds of stores that sell variations on the same products. Go to the gunstore - maybe the guy's pushing Glocks over H&K, S&W, Sig, etc. Go to another, the guy's pushing Sig. Maybe bias drives it, maybe inventory drives it, maybe profit drives it. Same thing at shoe stores, sporting goods stores, electronics stores, etc etc etc. Anyone with half a brain should know to take sales "advice" with a grain of salt.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Even big stores have their bias. Barnes And Noble tends to sell only the most popular RPGS that are also tied to the novels they sell.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Anyone with half a brain should know to take sales "advice" with a grain of salt.

You should probably take any advice with a grain of salt. No one is objective and unbiased, the difference is some people pretend to be and some don't. I certainly don't, even when I'm selling things, and neither does a good gaming store. Good salespeople, however, serve their customers well even if they disagree with them.

 

[Chainsaw]

You should probably take any advice with a grain of salt. No one is objective and unbiased, the difference is some people pretend to be and some don't. I certainly don't, even when I'm selling things, and neither does a good gaming store. Good salespeople, however, serve their customers well even if they disagree with them.

Good call - didn't set out to dog salespeople in particular, just kind of unfolded that way in the context of the thread. Apologies to all of you decent sales people out there.