D&D General The Disappearance of D&D from Mainstream Retailers

[GreyLord]

In my area 3rd edition was NEVER in the big box stores or even retail stores for the most part. Even AD&D was in more retail stores than 3e was in my area of the world and where I visited.

Retailers that had held the late AD&D 2e stuff (such as the now extinct Mediaplay or other locales) carried it, but none of the big retailers.

I only started to see D&D in the big retailers over the past 10 years with 5e stuff. Even then, they normally will only carry the Starter sets (essentials as well at Target), and perhaps the core books in general (though, the PHB is more often seen than the others). I have seen some of the more diverse stuff (Planescape for example) at Walmart and other retailers a few weeks after general release.

In that light I'd say it's bigger these days and a better seller, putting it on the retailers target lists.

It fell off in the mid to late 90s due to lagging sales. If it won't sell well enough, than it won't make the big retailers shelves.

 

[Stormonu]

I don't ever remember seeing D&D products in Sears, but they were certainly in the local toy stores and book stores. Kay-bee, Toys-R-Us, Waldenbooks, Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble are the ones I remember. Strangely, in both California and Mississippi - though in the latter you didn't admit you bought it to anyone and there were certain evangelists that would purposely hang around that section to harangue anyone picking up a book in that section (I remember bringing it to the attention of the store staff one time after a particularly unpleasant interaction).

Spoiler

The jerk actually pulled the book out of my hand and put it back on the shelf.

As I said before, it was a real shock to see D&D books at Walmart and Target down here in the Deep South. I've not seen them in the local Walmart of late, and only non-WotC 5E books/items in Target lately (Just picked up The Gamemaster's Book of Villians this weekend, in fact). I don't know if it had anything to do with them dropping Penguin Publishing or not, but it was around the time that partnership ended was when I last saw those books in the two.

 

[aramis erak]

I don't ever remember seeing D&D products in Sears, but they were certainly in the local toy stores and book stores.

Because the D&D boxed sets for BECMI were special order only in most cases. A buddy's mom got him the BX boxes via Sears... saved about $4. He picked them up after church.

Kay-bee, Toys-R-Us, Waldenbooks, Books-a-Million, Barnes & Noble are the ones I remember.

In Anchorage, Kay-Bee (BECMI), Waldenbooks (AD&D 2 and BECMI), B&N (D&D 3E/4E/5E, and FFG's WFRP/40K games), Borders (D&D 3E). The Book Cache (BX/BECMI, TFT).

Strangely, in both California and Mississippi - though in the latter you didn't admit you bought it to anyone and there were certain evangelists that would purposely hang around that section to harangue anyone picking up a book in that section (I remember bringing it to the attention of the store staff one time after a particularly unpleasant interaction).

Spoiler

The jerk actually pulled the book out of my hand and put it back on the shelf.

There were folks like that in Anchorage, too. And store managers willing to order them out, and if they didn't leave, to have them arrested. Folk like that as recently as 2013...

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

In my area 3rd edition was NEVER in the big box stores or even retail stores for the most part. Even AD&D was in more retail stores than 3e was in my area of the world and where I visited.

I remember the 3rd starters (both of them, I think; the ones with the set of painted minis) at TRU, but nothing else during the 3rd-3.5 Era. 4th edition I remember exclusively at Borders and Barnes & Noble, nothing in at general retail. (This is in addition to FLGS/FLCS/FLHS, obviously).

 

[ValamirCleaver]

I was one of those ones that found out about D&D due to the Satanic Panic (namely, a blurb on the nightly news when that guy vanished into the pipes under a College - I've forgotten the name).

James Dallas Egbert III

 

[nevin]

I'm no Ben Riggs, so I don't have any numbers to back me up. But it sounds like the time frame you're describing generally corresponds with the downfall of TSR. Moving into the 90s, TTRPGs sales were generally going downhill. And, to make matters worse, sales were decentralizing; there were more and more books from TSR fracturing the D&D market, as well as other games like Vampire and Palladium taking market share. This meant retailers couldn't just stock the core D&D books, they had to diversify. And that's not really a thing the big retailers wanted to do in the face of shrinking sales.

Noting that basic trend, the shift to boutique stores seems pretty natural. I'm fairly sure you could tell a similar story about comics, as well. They were also a boutique item in the 90s.

3e, of course, revitalized the market. It also focused sales on the core books and brought randomized minis. But if you want to start really getting into retail sales of D&D post 3e, you're going to quickly get into discussion of the rapidly changing brick-and-mortar existence in a post-internet landscape, where factors like the rise of Amazon and the fall of Borders and Toys-R-Us write the story and D&D is just along for the ride.

It was also a time when they experimented with making revenue off of supplements and magazines and adventure modules which requires a lot of space and as poined ot above there were a lot of competitors for that space and large retail stores don't like inventory heavy models which was necessary draw in the people whi wantedo browse many options. Unfortunately the large stores stole enough customers from local gaming store's, that between them selling the more profitable big books cheaper and then internet sales came along that most small gaming stores went out of business or started selling magic the gathering and pokemon cards which for awhile had more eyespace in the surviving stores than of games did. They were a lot more profitable for the stores.

 

[bedir than]

IIRC they're supposed to be back in for Q4 (holidays and the new Starter Set)

 

[Koloth]

Back in the late 70s~early 80s, in my area we had a chain of stores called The Game Store. That was the primary place you bought your gaming stuff. D&D, Traveller, Star Fleet Battles, Squad Leader, etc. They carried a fairly deep selection and could order stuff not on the shelf. If you saw 'gaming' stuff in other more mainstream retail, it was at best the leading title for the game. Think PHB for D&D, The Traveller Book, SFB main book. But no expansions. Maybe a D&D module, maybe. You still went to The Game Store for most of your stuff. In the 'Big City', there was also Game Headquarters. Bigger then Game Store with a lot of space to play. Game Store faded away. Game HQ is still there but even bigger. Other FLGS also popped up. Many died off. Some remain.

Of course, since where I live is often considered the buckle of the Bible Belt in the US, that probably played into retailer's stocking decisions.