To shrink wrap or not to shrink wrap...

[Tetsubo]

I made a special trip today to a gaming store I'd never visited before. It had a great selection of miniatures and support materials. It had an above average but not great selection of RPG's. But every single one of them was shrink wrapped. Which really annoyed me. I like to browse when I shop. I want to see the inside art, lay-out and content. I rarely, hardly ever, buy a game sight unseen. Which means I will never visit this store again. And I drop a fair percentage ofmy entertainment dollars on gaming materials.

Is anyone else annoyed by shrink wrapped games?

 

[Crothian]

I am. REading the content, looking at layout and art is really a big deal for me. It's hard enough to judge a RPG even when you can glance through it, it's impossible without it.

 

[LrdApoc]

I think I have to read at least some of the contnets to detemine the value of the purchase.. marketing teasers on the outside never cut it for me.

I would have to mention that to the store owner before giving up.. after all it costs him/her time, labor and materials to shrinkwrap products that are not already packaged that way. However they may have a valid reason..

 

[CmdrSam]

Yes. I wouldn't buy any book I couldn't page through before hand, or at least view samples out of a la amazon.com, unless I had heard absolutely ringing endorsements or uniformly positive reviews.

It would certainly cut down on my purchases greatly.

If any of you reading this own such a business, keep this in mind

--Sam L-L

 

[JacktheRabbit]

If you shrinkwrap it then you guaruntee that I will not be buying it.

 

[AereonBlaze]

Yes! I thought I was the only one annoyed at the shrinkwrapping of gaming books.

My FLGS shrinkwraps a lot of their stuff...and it bugs the heck out of me when I can't examine a product before I buy it. I usually have to rely solely on reviews (which has proven quite helpful though) rather than being able to thumb through the pages. Even worse...some of the softcovered adventures, etc. are shrinkwrapped while bent, and the book comes out bent when you remove it.

*sigh* Oh well, I'm done ranting.

 

[Eternalknight]

My FLGS started out by not shrink wrapping their products. When they held their weekly D&D session though, people would use the books to play with, often getting them dirty, and putting them back on the shelf. So the owner started shrink-wrapping them. Let's just say that D&D rarely gets played their anymore, and I have not boght from them since.

 

[Tetsubo]

Yes! I thought I was the only one annoyed at the shrinkwrapping of gaming books.

My FLGS shrinkwraps a lot of their stuff...and it bugs the heck out of me when I can't examine a product before I buy it. I usually have to rely solely on reviews (which has proven quite helpful though) rather than being able to thumb through the pages. Even worse...some of the softcovered adventures, etc. are shrinkwrapped while bent, and the book comes out bent when you remove it.

*sigh* Oh well, I'm done ranting.

You aren't ranting. You and everyone else in this thread is a consumer. And pissing off your consumers is bad business. I just can't figure out why a store would actively annoy the people that buy it's products.

 

[LrdApoc]

Not every merchant understands that fundimental truth.. even in an industry as small as the game store. If they don't build and support a loyal user base they won't stay in business long.

 

[Glyfair]

In defense of shrinkwrapping (I'm not taking a stand here as I see the positive and negative reasons):

1) I've heard groups of D&D players who commented that they never bought any modules. If they needed ideas they'd just go to their local game store & look through the adventures for ideas. No need to buy anything when it's free to look at.

1a) Cheating players would leaf through the adventure they are running through at the store to find out what was happening. Admittedly, this is a minor reason. However, it adds to some people's temptation.

2). I've personally bought gaming materials at a store where someone was obviously going through the books while eating a chocolate bar in their hands (I hope). Large smears of brown material in sections of some of the products. This wasn't just an isolated occurance, either. Needless to say, after something like this, you'll be pissed at the store for some reason...plus you'll look thoroughly through any product you buy that isn't shrinkwrapped. I'm sure stores lose a lot of salable prodcut because of things like this.

3) I know of another case where there was a store that made sure they had non-shrinkwrapped material. Much of the product on the shelf had that "used" look from all the leafing through that was done. If they had no copies in good condition, people would look through it & go to their competition and buy the pristine shrink-wrapped copies.

Glyfair of Glamis