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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 1633821" data-attributes="member: 13966">Yeah, if your area is fairly barren of gamestores, make sure your store is family-friendly, without any posters or the like that would scare off parents.  If you sell RPG products that include stuff like the Book Of Vile Darkness, make sure it's in a corner where it won't go noticed by folks who are offended by such material (like myself; I missed out on the Polyhedron issue with Mecha Crusade entirely because the store had those mags with the Dungeon side exposed, proclaiming "Vile Content Within!" which totally disgusted me and caused me to miss out on what I hear is a great d20 mecha game). Try and include something at the store to keep the interest of parents while their kids are playing CCGs or whatnot, though I'm not quite certain what would work.......maybe a very visible shelf of kid- and family-oriented movies for sale, or assorted board games, or the like.  Don't devote too much stuff to that though, the bulk of the customers would still be children and teens, and adult gamers.  As was mentioned, have a few gaming tables near the back of the store, with comfortable chairs (ones that don't make you sore after only an hour or so of gaming).  Hold a few occasional CCG tournaments, mindful of the time of day, but don't have constant tournaments going; you want there to usually be a table open for roleplayers or drop-ins that decide to play a game or two while they're around.If you get some of your CCG tournaments sanctioned, be sure to leave some tournaments unsanctioned and more or less free to play in (I don't visit gamestores where I have to pay $5 just to play in one tournament, with no options for playing in a cheaper or free tournament; it's hard to find people to just play a few games with if they're all constantly playing tournaments for cash).  Also, the cash-prize aspect of tournaments often makes them no fun for some folks, because others will just play to win as absolutely as possible and will so throroughly annoy the casual players that they'll drive off those customers.  So if you do run CCG tournaments, make sure that at least some of them are free or cheap ($1 per person for instance) to play in, with any meager charge going to the winner as a prize (or at least half of the charge, since you may want to be making at least a little money off the gaming tables being used a lot). Keep the place clean and well-lit, but not blindingly so, and make sure the layout leaves plenty of room for people to stand around watching games while others pass through.  As for merchandise, I think selling RPGs, CCGs, and miniatures stuff (maybe a bit of Warhammer and such as well as regular minis for roleplayers) would be good, and also sell a few related magazines like Dragon, Dungeon, Inquest Gamer, and such.  Also sell a few boardgames like others have said, stuff like Settlers of Cataan and Risk.  Maybe sell some MageKnight, HeroClix, and MechWarrior: Dark Ages stuff, as well (I hear HeroClix is fairly popular currently).  If you carry miniatures wargaming stuff, it might be good to sell some basic accessories for that hobby, like miniatures painting stuff and miniatures terrain stuff, and perhaps host a weekly miniatures night to encourage those folks to come in and play, as it can draw in more players to the hobby if they see there's actually an interest. I don't know if you should sell any anime or the like, but if you do, be mindful of what I said at the beginning (make sure anything that could offend parents or gentlemen is not in plain sight).  If you sell comic books, be mindful that it's best to carry a good and consistent selection from two or three publishers; people don't like missing several issues of their favorite series just because the store doesn't carry that comic book every month, they'd rather just know the store doesn't have that particular series and to go out of town to get it.  Keep a decent selection of Marvel and DC comics if you do sell the stuff, and keep a few particular comic books series from another publisher maybe (a few from Image, Dark Horse, or McFarlane perhaps, but be consistent; don't alternate the comics unless you find the current ones aren't selling).</blockquote>

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