What is your local game store situation?

[sckeener]

Houston has several gaming stores, but I only consider one to be local. Houston is such a commuter city that the stores are mostly spread out.

In my end of the city (Clear Lake Area), we have one, Horizon Games. It moved locations to be on the freeway and I haven't visited it since the move.

I was thinking about this issue earlier this week....we really need a new solution beyond the gaming store. I starting thinking about this because I wasn't in a group this year and stopped buying gaming products. I'm about to start up another group and decided to buy all the gaming products I had missed (such as complete scoundrel, critical hit deck, etc) I was able to get my gaming books online for half the cost with free shipping....I like to buy from local stores, but I can't see how they can compete with deals like that.

Chain stores probably can succeed...the Barnes and Nobles. But really the gaming needs to be everywhere....and especially at Toy's R Us....we need young kids seeing it all over the place....

The easiest times I've had with gaming were clubs. There was one in the Clear Lake Area called CLAG or Clear Lake Association of Gamers. It met every 3rd Friday at a Unitarian Church. It cost a $1 to get in...
The next easiest was ARGH....I even ran a college club of ARGH. It took 3 of us to form a club, but then we had free rooms to game in and a small budget. If you are in college, I highly recommend forming a school group....the perks are great!.

 

[Khairn]

One store in my area with a good staff, a separate gaming area and a pretty good collection of all type of games. I've moved a couple of my regular games over to the store from my house as a way to support the store, and I've let the owner know of the games I'm running so he can order additional books for my players. Since starting a new Iron Kingdoms game at the store he told me he's sold over a dozen new books from PP.

 

[Huw]

One (Forbidden Planet) in Southampton. Used to be two, but the other one closed down in dubious circumstances.

There's meant to be one in Portsmouth, which is sort of local, but I've never been able to find it.

 

[Belen]

There are two decent ones in the area but they really aren't very friendly to RPG players. One is a hobby place that really caters to the modeling/gaming/minitaure trifecta, whilst the other actually refuses to let RPG people play there because they want the tables open for CCG players.

Given those options, I usually rely on my good ol' internet connection to purchase gaming materials.

All Fun and Games is located in Apex/Cary on the corner of Hwy 64 and Lake Pine road. They definitely cater to the RPG crowd. Hell, the owner is in my gaming group. They have 3-5 RPG games held there per week.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I have two within a 5 minute drive (the next closest is half an hour away or more).

One is a bookstore with a fair game section. They carry WW, D&D, and some other assorted stuff, plus they have a good used section. A couple of counters of collectible games.

The other is primarily a card and miniature shop, with the most recent 2 or 3 releases from D&D.

Neither carry stuff I am interested in, and to be honest, I generally buy direct from publisher.

Neither one participated in Free RPG day.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

There are two I know of in Gainesville. One smells like an ashtray (at least on the very few visits I have made there), so I generally avoid it. The other one has a much smaller selection (it's part of a College bookstore) and is friendly, but I don't get over there very often.

Neither can compete with amazon or frp games on price and selection, and as I have very little need for service, I don't go very often.

Back in the 80s, there was one a few blocks down from the campus on W. University and 8th or so. Fantastic little combo sci-fi/fantasy book/comic/gamestore. I spent probably 90% of my meager entertainment dollar there. The guy that ran the place was always really friendly and helpful, the place was clean and organized, the selection was fantastic. To this day it epitomizes what I want in a gaming store. Alas, when I returned a few years after graduation to see my brother at a college bowl match, it was gone, along with Skeeters and Lord Munchies and many other of my favorite places.

 

[Doug McCrae]

There are two gaming stores in Glasgow centre, Static and Dragon & George, about 30 minutes travel from where I live in the suburbs. I don't go to either regularly, mostly I buy online cause I'm lazy.

 

[Midknightsun]

The Adventurer's Guild is the local store in Harrisburg, about 10 minutes away. The selection isn't bad, but its set up more for Warhammer. The owners, however . . .lets just say they aren't helping the gamer stereotype any. But like many others, I go Amazon most of the time. Can't beat the price, and the selection is far greater than at any gaming store I've been into.

 

[GreatLemur]

I live in downtown Chicago, and--if you don't count the tiny RPG section of the nearby Borders--I've got one gaming store within pubtrans access. And it's not a particularly good one. It's pretty small, and it stocks crap like electronic dartboards and pewter wizards. The RPG section is barely bigger than the one at Borders, really. So I tend to buy books over the Internet.

(Note: Chicago Gameday is not held in Chicago. It's held in a (from all reports, awesome) game shop in Mt. Prospect. Looks like I'm taking a really long train ride, Sunday.)

 

[Wombat]

In my area there is one fully-dedicated game store and two partially-dedicated (have jigsaw puzzles/comic books as their primary source of income).

I visit the dedicated one as often as my pocketbook allows (a bit more this last half-year than in the previous two and a half), but the store is still in a rocky financial position. The owner pushed Free Game Day and got a bit of extra foot traffic. He is putting in gaming tables and has recently pushed WWII and Star Wars minis at least as much as rpgs (they tend to bring in more income-per-footprint in store) and has branched seriously out into card games (ccgs have always been there) and board games (used to be a more limited selection).

Still, he thinks that within 2 years, unless things change drastically, he'll probably have to shut down. In general, rpgs are, to his eye, a small and shrinking market. Of the rpgs he sells, D&D far outsells all the others because, as he says, the majority of the people coming into his store have never heard of the others, even though he encourages people to branch out; then again, based on the standard customer, most of them have not even heard of D20 Modern and most of them are not sure they can trust 3rd Party publishers -- they only buy WotC products and at that primarily the core books, with a few others.

I hope things improve. Gary is a good guy. I want to support him. He is facing a dangerously shrinking market, however.