What would you like to see in a new game store?

[broghammerj]

Thank you for all advice. IT will def be taken in and assimilated. Something I have not heard yet is mention of a LAN area. would people be interested in a place to hang out and play evercrack or WoW? I know I am a sucker for blinking lights (sound being pumped through headphones of course) anyone have opinions on this? I know I am opening a can of worms with this question...

That would rock and clearly put your store over the edge compared to others (for me at least). If you had tables with LAN cable and hubs already installed with a nomial usage fee I wouldn't know what to do with myself. You could rent the space for people to come for non RPG gaming as well. I assume you're not planning on investing in computers as that would be a large amount of capital. I would rent space for a few hours of counterstrike/DoD. I'm not sure where this line drawn in the sand has come between computer gamers and RPGers. I think they are a interwoven market.

This may seem rather strange but employees should be helpful, but not annoying. A lot of the stores I've been to seem to always assume my friends and I are going to shoplift and are standing in the aisles watching everything. The "Can I help you?" "No, I'm just looking thank you" and they never leave. Not to sound snooty but I'm a physician with spendable income. I wear a shirt/tie to work everyday. I may come into your store with T-shirt and jeans, but that shouldn't give you any assumption about who I am. That really turns me off and has killed purchases.

 

[exile]

Broghammerj,
That's so cool. I'm a physician-gamer too (general surgery resident). Which field of medicine are you in? Fortunately, I've never really been hassled at a gaming store before, but I was recently given a very cold reception while shopping with my girlfriend at a bead store. They certainly lost our business, so your point should be well-taken...especially since I spend a lot more on games than my fiance does on beads.

Chad

PS Sorry for hijacking the thread

 

[wedgeski]

Thank you for all advice. IT will def be taken in and assimilated. Something I have not heard yet is mention of a LAN area. would people be interested in a place to hang out and play evercrack or WoW? I know I am a sucker for blinking lights (sound being pumped through headphones of course) anyone have opinions on this? I know I am opening a can of worms with this question...

I've always thought this was a bad idea in gaming stores *unless* you're only interested in custom from a particular demographic. If you're looking for your moms and pops to come in and buy stuff for their kid, then it is my experience that they will be intimidated away from the shop if they have to squeeze past a table full of sweaty EQ players. The shop becomes less of 'a place to buy stuff my son/daughter likes' and more of a club which they don't feel like they're qualified to enter.

 

[johnsemlak]

I've always thought this was a bad idea in gaming stores *unless* you're only interested in custom from a particular demographic. If you're looking for your moms and pops to come in and buy stuff for their kid, then it is my experience that they will be intimidated away from the shop if they have to squeeze past a table full of sweaty EQ players. The shop becomes less of 'a place to buy stuff my son/daughter likes' and more of a club which they don't feel like they're qualified to enter.

I wonder, do Moms and Pops (who don't game) often go to Game shops to by RPG gifts for their kids? I don't know; my guess is they would primarily buy such stuff at someplace like Barnes and Nobles.

 

[FoxWander]

There's a ton of VERY useful advice here already, but I have a few tidbits that haven't been mentioned yet.

- For discounts, give a coupon for X% of today's purchase as store credit towards a future purchase- and make sure the coupon has an expiration date! One local store, that I go to regularly to browse, ALWAYS gets me back to BUY at least every six months because of this. With every purchase I get a coupon for 10% of what I spent as store credit to use however I want. And then when I use the credit (and of course, I always spend more than the credit) I get another credit coupon that's good for six months. It's a neverending cycle. So even if I'm temporarily distracted from gaming, I'll see the coupon on my fridge with that expiration date and I'll HAVE to go in- otherwise it's like throwing money away! If anything the store should cut the expiration date shorter, then I'd come in even more often- even though the store is kind of out of the way for me.

- KNOWLEDGEABLE, friendly employees that go above and beyond to make me feel like a valued customer. One poster mentioned an employee that offered to call him back when an item he was looking for came in- that's the kind of service you need. They also mentioned offering someone who's been browsing awhile a drink. That too is the kind of service you need. You have to make people want to give YOU their money rather than Amazon, or any other online option- especially when they will often have to pay more for your books than they'd pay online. Let's face it- you'll probably never be able to beat the deals they can get online. So you have to give them the face-to-face good service no online store can offer.

- Atmosphere: The other thing you can't get online. Try to make your store "feel" like the kind of place your customers want to return to. You'll have to judge that for yourself based on your area and the population, but alot of it can be inferred by what you'll sell. If you focus on fantasy games, have a suit of armor on display or mount one of those cool dragon head masks to look like a hunting trophy. Have swords displayed on the walls, and have some for sale. If you have more sci-fi products, have enough spaceships models hanging from your ceiling to re-enact a planetary assault. Or just go for general geek appeal (be honest- that's who many of your customer's will be)- put a large rolling ball sculpture on display in the window, recreate the battle for Helm's Deep in Lego, or display cardboard cutouts of 7-of-9 and "slave girl" Leia. Or do all three and then some. Contract a local SCA armorer to make chain mail items for display/sale. Heck, have him sit in the corner on Thursdays and make chain mail in the store and teach others. Have your employees dress as a movie or book character and give a discount or free mini to whoever can guess who the are. Better still, offer a discount to CUSTOMERS who shop in costume! (but only on special days- you don't want your shop to turn into some creepy Furry hangout! )

In short- be interesting! Be the place I WANT to come back to even though I can get the book cheaper online. Whether it's because my credit coupon is about to expire, or I don't mind the extra cost/bother because I like the service, or just because I want to see what new interesting "whatever" you have displayed in the store- make YOUR shop the place I want to shop.

 

[Imperialus]

My own FLGS (The Sentry Box) has been in buisness for over 20 years now and is still doing really well. As a matter of fact it recently became the only kid on the block precicely because it took the advice of almost everyone here.

It's located in a 2 story wherehouse with about 22,000 sq feet of space, the top floor which you enter though is dedicated to gaming and it forms a sort of L shape overlooking the the lower floor that contains the store. The upper floor also has the bathrooms, a handful of old arcade games (Dungons and Dragons, Joust, Bubble Bobble ext.) and used to have a separate room off of the entrance that had about a dozen LAN computers in it for gaming (the room was removed for profitability reasons). Immidiately to the left of the door is a bulleten board which for a small fee (5 or 6 bucks I think) you can post a one page advertisement on it. The board is also used to announce upcoming tournaments. There is also a back room with a candy machine and a separate entrance that can be rented for use after hours. The furature in the gaming area consists of a number of booths along the long part of the L designed for card players and small role playing groups while the bottom of the L which is wider has folding buffet style tables and chairs set up for the wargamers and roleplayers with larger groups. The actual store has a large selection of sci fi and fantasy novels along the east wall. Directly in front of the cash register at the bottom of the stairs are the Warhammer minis and a little further to the west are a selection of board games with some of the geekier versons of Monopoly along with Settlers of Catan Cathedral and a few others. Not a huge selection but it seems to do pretty brisk buisness praticularly around christmas. To the South and East there is another set of stairs going up which leads to a separate room containing historical wargames and scale models. Directly under the door there is another counter that deals exclusively with CCG's.

The rest of the store to the west streaching the entire length of the long part of the L above is dedicated to RPGs of every variaty. There is a small used section mostly specializing in vintage stuff and is priced accordingly. They carry everything from RoleMaster to GURPS to D20 and although D20 assumes most of the shelf space nearly every game immagineable is represented. Directly under the short part of the L is the stores office and storage rooms.

All and all what I would suggest is finding a wearhouse in a light commercial district bus routs tend to be pretty good around them and rent would be much cheeper per sq foot than a regular storefront. Since it is unlikely to have may normal oppertunities for signage and the like I'd make really good friends with a local sign manufacturing company and get custom vinal on corplast signs to let passers by realize that you are an acutal store not a wearhouse. Advertise like there's no tommorow, try and time your store's opening with a local con and pass out flyers like your life depends on it.

Anyhow that's my advice I realize most of it has been said but everyones suggestions seem to jive with what I have seen work.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Imperialus, your store sounds absolutely awesome!

 

[calimedic911]

Imperialus,
Your store sounds EXACTLY like what I have pictured in mind's eye. Minor theme variations of course but yes my dream store would be an old warehouse. With the bottom (or top floor) having the shadowrun/necromunda look to it.. lots of steel and "hive" style effects to it. The bottom floor would be more of the fantasy highland's feel to it perhaps with some sort of "time portal" over the stairs seperating the two genre's

Sean

 

[was]

-I know that many of the local stores sell CCGs aimed primarily at younger audiences (Pokemon, Yugio..etc...). No offense to older players of these games, but it might be a good idea to have these events during the week if you sell them.
-The local place has these events on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. That has annoyed many of the older (and more regular) customers, myself included. After working all week, it's very annoying to try to wade through crowds of six and seven year-olds, all screaming something about being the master, just to find a new book. The parents just drop them off and leave for a couple of hours. Last week, there was some sort of cold going around. Two kids blew snot on my coat while sneezing and a third puked in the corner. That's the sort of thing that tends to make people want to turn to on-line purchasing....just a thought...

 

[broghammerj]

Exile:

That's so cool. I'm a physician-gamer too (general surgery resident). Which field of medicine are you in? Fortunately, I've never really been hassled at a gaming store before, but I was recently given a very cold reception while shopping with my girlfriend at a bead store. They certainly lost our business, so your point should be well-taken...especially since I spend a lot more on games than my fiance does on beads.

I'm a PGY-3 urology resident, so I did my time in general surgery. The lifestyle is a little more posh for me I would guess. G. Surg works pretty hard. My call is home call thankfully.