What Will Become of the FLGS?

Role-playing games have always had a curious space in distribution channels ranging from hobby stores to bookstores to toy stores. As geek culture and tabletop gaming increases in popularity, distribution channels are morphing in surprising ways to meet gamer demand.

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[h=3]D&D as Toy?[/h]When Dungeons & Dragons was first sold, it was everywhere, including toy stores. Shannon Appelcline speaks to the game's popularity in Designers & Dragons -- The 80s:

...it’d been on an upward trend since TSR published those first thousand boxes of Dungeons & Dragons in January 1974. Whatever the reason, the result was really big. You could find roleplaying games in mainstream stores like Waldenbooks and Toys “R” Us.

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One of the reasons D&D made it into toy stores was thanks to the release of the Basic D&D set. Appelcline clarifies in Designers & Dragons -- The 70s:

...J. Eric Holmes — a doctor and professor of neurology, and also the author of a Pellucidar pastiche called Mahars of Pellucidar (1976) — approached TSR with an offer to write an introductory version of D&D. The original game targeted the college-age crowd, while Holmes wanted to expand the game’s demographics to younger players — and possibly to get it into the mass market as well.

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It worked. For a time, book stores and toy stores were major distributors for D&D, helped in no small part by the launch of Basic Dungeons & Dragons. The collapse of those chains cut off RPGs from wider audiences.
[h=3]Your FLGS to the Rescue[/h]Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS) picked up the slack and were always a viable source for tabletop role-playing games. They were the original distributors of ancillary markets like tabletop wargames and miniature games, so it was a natural progression for FLGS to carry RPGs too. But then the D20 glut happened. SDLear provides a general outline of the bust cycle:

• Phase 1: Store overbuys on fad product (usually D20)
• Phase 2: Store owner finds that they have product they can't move.
• Phase 3: Store owner cuts out "high risk" product only re-ording backstock occasionally (at our local store its D&D and nWOD almost exclusively).
• Phase 4: Store owner does not realize that his stock is offered for 10% off at Barnes & Nobles.
• Phase 5: Gamers turn to http://Amazon.com for selection, find that they can get a better price online.
• Phase 6: Local gaming community crashes without vibrant local retailer.
• Phase 7: FLGS goes out of business.

The glut hit game stores hard.

There was little review, be it professional or fan based, and purchasing agents for stores had a hard time sorting the good from the bad. This was neither sustainable nor terribly good for the core engine. By 2005, the market was collapsing from too many low quality supplements...The wide variety of low quality supplements resulted in many stores having surpluses of lousy supplements; for many, this was a major hit to their profits, and often, had the effect of damaging all but special orders for 3rd party supplements.

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The final nail in the RPG surge took place in the build up to the Great Recession, effectively pushing game stores that were doing poorly out of business. Wizards of the Coast's experiment in distribution with its chain of Game Keeper stores ended in 2004 when all 85 stores closed. It hurt other distribution channels too: KB Toys closed in 2009; Waldenbooks stopped operating in 2011. But there were still alternative channels to purchase tabletop games.
[h=3]Bookstores Take Over[/h]Bookstores took a hit from the recession too. Barnes & Noble was one of the last bookstore chains still operating. How did it survive? By selling things other than books, including toys and board games. This tactic led to Barnes & Noble holding Casual Game Gatherings in March:

Barnes & Noble will host weekly Casual Game Gatherings, offering demos and space for play, in March, distributor Publisher Services Inc. announced. The events will be held on five Thursday evenings at 57 stores, about 9% of the chain’s 640 stores. Demos will be conducted by Barnes & Noble store employees.

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The events were enough of a success that Barnes & Noble is considering expanding them. Tabletop role-playing games may well be on the horizon. What's behind B&N's sudden interest in gaming? Sales, of course:

Barnes & Noble continued its transition to geek central with continued growth in its Toys & Games and Gift businesses in the results from its third fiscal quarter, reported last week. Toys & Games was up 12.5% and Gifts was up 13.8%, CEO Ronald Boire said the conference call. Vinyl and adult coloring books were the only other categories in which Barnes & Noble reported growth.

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Books-a-Million has also jumped into the geeky fray, dedicating entire sections to themes that encompass all forms of gaming. Geek & Sundry teamed up with Books-a-Million for International Tabletop Day:

They are holding events at many of their stores throughout the nation. They will have free play, plus giveaways, discounts, and the coveted ITTD premium and promo kit items available on-site. So go visit them to score these exclusive items! After International TableTop Day, BAM and Geek & Sundry will continue the partnership to display a whole bunch of recommended games all summer long! Many of which have been featured on TableTop.

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Bookstore aren't the only chain distributing tabletop games however.
[h=3]What About FLVGS?[/h]There's another kind of store that is expanding to include all things geeky, the Friendly Local Video Game Store (FLVGS). These stores began distributing primarily video games but have since branched out to all sorts of geeky gadgets, including collectibles, wearables, and toys. This makes it appealing as a possible distribution channel for tabletop games:

There are many reasons people come to a FLGS, such as meeting new people, play games they can’t play at home, learn about new products through demos, friendly competition, etc. Many also go to their FLGS to see if they like a game, and then buy it on Amazon at a discounted price. They will now have a new alternative for Cryptozoic games: Game Stop.

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Some consolidation has happened:

What do you do when your primary physical sales channel is drying up? You sell something that your audience loves, preferably online, and if that doesn’t work you buy someone that does. To that end, GameStop, the beleaguered game sales company, has bought ThinkGeek, a beleaguered geek toy company, for $140 million at $20 a share.

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ThinkGeek's brand is particularly friendly to tabletop gamers and even began experimenting with brick-and-mortar stores of its own. GameStop's growth in the game distribution market has turned it into a viable channel for tabletop games, so much so that Cryptozoic Entertainment decided to sell its games through GameStop. Cryptozoic is known for a wide variety of licensed card and board games, including Adventure Time, Batman, DC Comics, and several television and movie franchise brands -- the most recent being the successfully Kickstarted Ghostbusters board game. ICv2 explained:

Cryptozoic has made a number of distribution changes in recent months, expanding its merch relationship with Diamond and its game relationship with PSI, ending its exclusive hobby distribution relationship with Diamond/Alliance for games, and ending direct consumer sales of trading cards on its website (see "Cryptozoic Expands Merch Relationship with Diamond"). Adding a 6,600-store chain brings an important new channel to Cryptozoic’s distribution options.

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[h=3]FLGS Live![/h]There may still be hope for your friendly local game store. A BoardGameGeek poll of 130 voters indicated that 75% still thought there was a role for them in the marketplace. The top three most important attributes for game stores to be successful, beyond being merely the least expensive (and therefore losing out to online competition like Amazon), were knowledgeable staff (54%), playing tables (34%) and gaming sessions/tournaments (34%). Game stores fared well in 2015:

Over 80% of game retailers are experiencing increased sales in 2015, according to the results of a new survey conducted by ICv2 in the run-up to the holiday season. Asked about the 2015 trend for their business, over 30% said sales were up over 10%, and over 50% said sales were up from 1-10%. Only a little over 10% of game retailers reported flat sales, with single digit percentages down 1-10% and none down over 10%.

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In some ways the collapse of the other distribution channels has made FLGS more important than ever. With tabletop board games surging in popularity, larger chains like Target have begun carrying board games too -- and this occasionally causes some fiction when a popular board game like Pandemic gets released in Target before it reaches hobby stores. Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University, expressed his concern about the early release in his Roll for Initiative column:

BTW, I would be remiss if I failed to mention last week's release of Pandemic 2nd Edition by either Z-Man Games or their mass market distributor to the Target chain a week before the official release date, (according to Alliance Distribution's Website), of February 6th. Given that the game has been out of stock since the holidays, finding it on Target's shelves a week before the hobby gets it is annoying to say the least. I would certainly like to see some repercussions, but given that Target will sell more Pandemic in a week than I will in a year, I sincerely doubt it. However, the game store channel is the primary outlet for the rest of Z-Man's catalog and causing them to sell a hot product at more of a disadvantage than usual is not good for the long term channel relationship.

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With tabletop games surging in popularity, distribution woes will likely be an ongoing problem as publishers navigate between the hobby stores dedicated to gaming as a brand and mass market stores that offer access to a broader customer base.
[h=3]The Future[/h]As geek culture thrives, game stores will need to evolve with them, adjusting to multiple gaming formats that help them survive the boom and bust cycle. Geeks and their children have a lot of buying power, but in the highly competitive world of online stores, distributors are still figuring out the best way to reach them. The friendly local game store of tomorrow may well offer a mix of electronic and tabletop games.

Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.

 

[Umbran]

But by 80-82, so "only" 35 years ago, towns ranging from say 8000-30000 people started to get gaming stores

Yes, but if it *started* in 80-82, that means they had probably only become really common-to-ubiquitous by late in the decade.

....and the big money maker for those was definitely D&D, though they did also sell avalon hill type wargames, minis, and the small but growing number of non-TSR RPGs.

I'm going to guess that, overall, Warhammer was a bigger moneymaker, with some regional variation. The 80s were big for D&D, but there just weren't *that* many products you needed to play.

 

[amerigoV]

Another factor for me that keeps me away from the FLGS is PDFs. For Savage Worlds, many of their offerings and preorders are buy the print and the PDF is free/highly discounted. I have come to want the material in both formats these days (I like to pleasure read the book and use the PDF for searches and practical use). Not sure that really impacts the D&Ders of the world at this point, but its my impression that more of the hobby is either that model or the PDF is primary and POD if you want the dead tree version.

Heck, that wonderful Conan kickstarter that just closed I did all PDF mainly to get the old d20 PDFs (I have a couple of the books I picked up at 1/2 price books - nice to match them up with PDF).

At this point, unless the store was truly local (like within a couple of miles where I shop for other stuff) its rare that I venture out to one. And Columbus OH does have a couple of very good ones.

 

[JeffB]

My biggest complaint with the FLGS is mainly one of price. If I'm going to drop 30% to 40% more than buying on Amazon I expect to have a store that is clean, smells nice, and isn't a cheap hole in the wall in a bad part of town. I'm not the Ritz here, but too many people that run a gaming store are enthusiasts and not professional retailers. All too often they just don't get how to have an attractive store that is easy to find product in, let alone how to actually manage stock.

As it stands I don't make a lot of money, so online purchases at heavy discounts are my preferred method of buying, and I quite frankly don't worry if a local retailer closes because I'm not shopping their to start with. As it stands I don't buy that much anyways due to escalating costs of products, so online is my preferred method.

Amen.


Edit- I would also add that most often in my experience, the local game store employees are too busy playing Warhammer or talking with their friends to be helping customers.

 

[Celebrim]

The same thing that happened to the video game arcade.

In the future, if you want to make money off the geek market, you'll have to do more than distribute a product. Your brick and mortar will have to monetize successfully something that is inherent to brick and mortar. It can't simply be a distribution pathway or a middle man because the internet basically monopolizes the store as source of information and communication that any sort of retail store in any market used to serve in by making that information freely available without specialized knowledge, tools, or business relations.

Barnes & Noble survived for example by making its brick and mortar feel like a café.

I expect that in the future brick and mortars are going to have to monetize play space.

One possible route here is turning your game store into a themed bar or restaurant. One model I've been thinking of is that you pay a cover charge to enter the play space, and that cover charge acts as a voucher for buying snacks and so forth. This ensures that anyone uses your play space is a paying customer, but doesn't raise a barrier to entry so high as to make the play space undesirable. You could also offer monthy or annual membership fees that allow you to get in without paying the cover charge. I'd also ideally 'gamify' the membership model, offering a rewards program similar to what many grocery stores use. This also serves as a cover for a means of tracking which customers are being destructive and harming the store, since damage and theft to rented gaming materials is a potential large source of loses. Shoplifting traditionally is one of the things that helps kill the FLGS.

And I'm not kidding about this. I'd been thinking about this model for a while, but someone else has figured out the basics of it already. There is a bar in town that rescued the arcade in the same fashion to create a nerd themed hip meeting place for adults, and the same is planning to open up an adult gaming space. The biggest obstacle to going that route in most cases is dealing with the fact that most gaming stores are serving both an adult market and a children's market. Also they tend to lack capital, and often an owner with real business acumen.

 

[SerHogan]

Brooklyn and New York have a bunch of game stores that have popped up. I can think of at least six off the top of my head. They tend to be cafe/bar/card game/boardgame/table-top hybrid places. They are populated by a wide range of ages and both male and female. Always running tons of games, and packed on the weekends.

New York is always going to be an outlier though.

 

[innerdude]

All that being said to survive I think most "gaming" store need to move from the comic book/games model into a diversified set of products that cater to the geek market: t-shirts, gifts, toys, etc.

This. It's crazy to me that FLGS's haven't figured out that they really need to be some kind of combination of what they already are + carrying the kind of stock that your typical Hot Topic and/or Spencer's Gift store would carry.

@Celebrim is also on to something with monetizing space --- Most patrons go to an FLGS to do one of two things, buy product or actually play. For the right kind of place, with management that knows how to market that, it's absolutely something I would get behind.

Unfortunately, I personally have zero desire to ever play in one of our local FLGS's for the simple fact that the play spaces are abysmal. I wouldn't pay $2 to use their space, even if it did come with a 32 oz. fountain drink.

Two of the local FLGS's in my county are run by the same ownership group. They're the classic "hole in the wall" places that basically exist to exist. The people who run the store aren't friendly, don't interact with customers, are absolutely terrible at catering the store experience to better fit their customers, continue to doggedly put old war gaming material and Palladium RPG material on display that has literally been on their shelves for two decades when it's OBVIOUS that it's not going to sell. (At some point you just have to pull that crap off the shelf, box it up, and sell it to some insane collector on eBay just so it's no longer taking up space against stuff that's actually making you money.)

They don't stay up on stock for the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game, which is one of the few products that it's basically more feasible to buy in the store than online. To their credit, one of the stores does generally stock most of the Savage Worlds campaign settings after they've been kickstarted, and they'll generally have one or two Savage Worlds core rulebooks in stock.

Other than that, it's basically the exact experience you'd never want to have going to an FLGS.

There's one other FLGS in the county, but it's a good 20 miles from my house, and in talking to the owner he's basically disavowed RPGs entirely. He basically carries a small stock of D&D (whatever the current edition is), Pathfinder, and the current Star Wars RPG.

But the evolution of the FLGS is simple --- it will go from a place to primarily buy gaming material to a place to play games. When physical product becomes a commodity, the only real value for the FLGS becomes the social networking​ component.

 

[Koloth]

The main FLGS I know recently moved to a better larger location. I still wonder what is more profitable, the games they sell or the soda and snack vending machines in the game rooms.

One thing that hurts local retailers is version churn by the game makers. The moment WOTC announces D&D+1, the current inventory becomes bargain bin material. On-line retailers have much less problem clearing older inventory while charging near normal prices due to a much larger customer base.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

In Houston, game stores were wiped out by collectible card games and they still haven't recovered. Nowadays there is basically only a handful of game stores and most of them sell RPG games as a tertiary product over comics and card games.

I've always been under the impression CCG's are what keep the lights on in game stores. MTG tournaments and booster drafts paid the bills at the store I worked at in the 90's, and that was before cheap online stores tanked in-store RPG sales.

At least we still have Nan's, with their insane old stock. I cleared out their 2nd edition Darksun stuff like 2-3 years ago.... buying sealed box sets for 90's cover prices was sweet.

 

[Fergurg]

I'm not sure that it's possible for the FLGS to monetize their playing space anymore. Thanks to the Internet, you don't need a store to buy games, but you can use the Internet to find games and places to play those games, taking the store out of the equation entirely; I found my gaming group through Meetup.com.

I have fond memories of the FLGS I frequented in my younger days (which was originally a computer store that went into RPGs on the side because the owners liked them), but I think those days have passed.

 

[epithet]

There's definitely a growing number of boardgames cafes, though. They seem to be popping up everywhere.

I think the cafe is probably the best idea for the FLGS to embrace. In our internet economy, retailers need to switch their thinking from a product based model to one that focusses on providing a service.

One of the realities that probably doesn't get enough attention is that many tabletop gamers who embraced the hobby as kids are now OFWM. (Older folks, with money.) We can afford premium stuff - we buy coffee at coffee houses, tea at places like Teavania, and drink craft beer from local microbreweries. We buy overpriced burgers with premium beef and smoked gouda cheese.

Another factor that really should be emphasized is that too many "friendly" local gaming stores aren't that friendly. You walk in and get ignored, unless you're a regular. The stores themselves are often unattractive, dingy and dusty. One I remember always smelled like feet. It's just not a place that people actually want to be. If the store was clean and attractive, with cheerful and friendly staff, I'd be a lot more likely to stop in on a regular basis. If I could get a good cup of coffee there in the morning, or a pint of good beer in the evening, I'd definitely be motivated to stop in.

There's just no way for a gaming store to compete with an internet retailer on price, and gimmicks like WotC giving their network of stores a week-long exclusive on new products just annoys people like me. The way to survive - and thrive - is to offer a premium experience to match the premium price tag.