What do you look for in a Gaming Store?

[Telgian]

My favorite store carries a good selection of books and minis, as well as board games, et al.

I only tend to buy gaming stuff, but it is fun to look at the nice chess sets, tarot cards, puzzles and generally saunter about the store.

Since they carry a wide variety of games, it isn't just the RPG crowd there, so it is always busy.

This is nice because I do not get gawked at the entire time that I am in the store. (Something that tends to happen in a store devoted just to RPG's in my experience.) There are usually at least three people on staff, so getting help if you want it is not an issue, but you don't have anyone breathing down your neck as you try to leisurely browse.
(ie. 1-1.5 hours worth)

The place is well lit, but not department store/hobby store over-lit, so the atmosphere is nicer.

Only one table towards the back of the store, near the back counter, nice for sitting down and looking at a couple of books while trying to decide which one I'll spend my gaming budget for the month on.

No aisles per se. Shelves, displays, cabinets, but no aisles.

Enough for now.
Telgian.

 

[Tetsubo]

Selection. A good selection will keep me coming back.

Getting new games the week they are released. I drive 40 miles to a shop that does this. My local shop doesn't get the latest WotC releases for two to three weeks late. It's very annoying.

Discount Bin. This alone will bring me back to a store. The one 40 miles from my home I mentioned above has a great discount bin. The owner puts anything that doesn't move off the regular shelf after two months or so in the bin. I picked up the Shaman's handbook, After The Bomb, Hammer & Helm and the Quintessential Dwarf all on discount within the past month. Rarely do I look in the discount selection and not buy something.

Customer Service. I don't ask for much. Just people that know their store and can get me what I want. That's it. I don't care if their friendly though it's nice. I just want them to be competent. My local shop is full of nice and friendly people that don't have a @#$%& clue what they are doing. This is also annoying.

Good organization of gaming products is also a boon. Decent lighting is nice.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

The number one thing I look for in a gaming store is customer service. I hate being told something I am buying is crap just because the people that run the store don't like it. I don't mind the staff offering an opinion, but when said opinion is stated as fact... it just pisses me off. It's the main reason I don't guy to my only not so local gaming store.

Second is selection. I love a store with a good variety of stuff. Especially a good selection of old gaming books. I love browsing through older books because everyone once in a while I find a gem. Either something useful in my current game or a good game on its own.

I love a store that gets new books in very quickly. Back when my local gaming store seemed to be a friendly place I loved going there on Fridays because they always had the latest new stuff in.

I like a place that is layed out well and has room for multiple people to fit down an aisle. I hate it when the shelves are so close together that it is almost impossible for two people to fit through.

Nowadays most of my purchases are made online for a few reasons. First is my friendly local gaming store is neither local nor friendly. Also near the end of when I was going there they were starting to be slower at getting new stuff in.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Someone who will remove shrinkwraps so that I can take a look at the books.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The ability to actually look at the merchandise. The best game store (at least that I know of) in terms of selection in my area shrink-wraps the hell out of everything, and is generally obnoxius about opening stuff up. This despite the fact that my friend and I spend big bucks on miniatures and paints and stuff every time we're in there.

I'd like to support the local gaming store, but I've taken to ordering almost everything off of the web rather than go to this place. If I'm basically going to have to purchase something blind, I may as well get the best price I can.

 

[Grifter86]

What do I look for in a gaming store?

thalmin

 

[WayneLigon]

...shrink-wraps the hell out of everything...

We have two gaming stores nearby; one in the city I live, which is very nice about doing special things, hosting games, having a place to play and everything.

There is one in a small town nearby, though, that has a large in-store gaming area, as in five or six whole rooms worth so I can play and not trip over the hated CCG people. At least two rooms are reserved for just the RPGers, something the in-city store only recently started doing (and they only have two rooms, so one is perputually in Warhammer mode while the other remaining one is used for RPG's; CCG people play out front.

BUT they shrinkwrap everything they can get their hands on. I understand why. Once you have some 12-yo's with filthy hands or wet hands ruin over $100 worth of books that you can't return and now cannot sell in all likelihood, it makes you cautious. They have a lot of younger kids in all the time, so it makes sense to them.

 

[Tetsubo]

Shrink wrapping is an issue. If I can't see the contents of a book I'm not going to buy it. I want to know what the print density is like, internal art and lay-out. Internal art alone can dictate if I buy a book or not. I'm very visual and require the art to receive as much attention as the text. A store that prevents me from seeing the inside of a game is going to lose my business.

 

[ladyofdragons]

boy I feel lucky. everything listed here in a good store is what my local gaming store is like.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Shrinkwrapping bugs me too and I'll travel an extra 20 miles to the store w/o shrinkwrapping.

ladyofdragons: what's the name and location of that gaming store? I'm in Jersey and always on the lookout for another good shop?