Waldorf said:
If game store owners want to bellyache about the bigboys like Walmart, Barnes and Nobles, and Amazon and why people prefer to shop there, maybe they should consider the fact that limiting themselves to a niche product is precisely the reason they will never be able to grow beyond mom and pop status. Furthermore, writing long guilt trips to the gaming community about why people should support you isn't going to keep you afloat, gaming store man; appealing to the broader base will. But I sincerely doubt these owners will see the reason in that. I think they just want a place to keep out of the sun and meet gamers.
Did you ever think that most gaming stores want to be "Mom & Pop" stores, not everybody gets into business to become a big nationwide chain. Just like nobody gets into being a game writer/designer to get rich, nobody (sensibly) goes into selling gaming materials to get rich, people sell and make the games largely for the love of the game. Gaming stores are more than bookstores, far more than just a place that sells books. Let's look at two successful FLGS in my home city and how they succeed despite Amazon.com and big-box stores:
The Rusty Scabbard. It's been around for about 20 years, so I think it's safe to say whatever it's doing it's doing well. About 30% of it's internal volume is devoted to gaming books, with a very large selection of books, including minor d20 publishers, an entire bookcase of GURPS, all kinds of small press/minor games, and the obligatory Wall o' WotC in the back (along with d20 Fantasy stuff). An entire wall of reaper minis (as well as old Ral Partha minis, special minis lines like the Arcana Evolved and Elmore minis series, and the Mongoose Babylon 5, Judge Dredd and Starship Troopers minis games), a bookcase of used games for sale also finish out the tabletop area. Another ~30% of the store is devoted to miniatures games, and this includes those expensive Games Workshop games that people come in and dutifully buy several hundred dollars worth at a time every time I'm in there, as well as loads of painting/terrain stuff (including the neato MasterMaze stuff from Dwarven Forge), and of course all the Wizkids and WotC collectable minis. Then there is an entire wall devoted to current and popular CCG's, and a wall devoted to out-of-print or less popular CCG's (and a buck-a-piece bin of low-interest CCG's), not to mention loads of non-collectable card games and board games (Catan, Axis & Allies, Fluxx, Lunch Money et al). Under glass at the counter are some rare books (like the 1e D&DG with Cthuhlu mythos) and other special merchandise, like the fancy precious stone/metal dice, and some hand-painted metal minis. A display selling dice on it's own about the size of the gaming displays in chain bookstores selling d3's to d100's tops it out, with big displays of card sleeves and storage boxes too. Then there is the icing on the cake of three gaming tables, with almost always somebody playing miniatures games on them and a library of terrain in the back. It also has very nice service about special orders, and very knowledgeable and friendly staff who are certainly experts on their subject matter and quickly learn the preferences of regular customers. Even the biggest "big box" bookstore or website couldn't provide all this, it is a "full service" FLGS and does good business based on that.
A+ Comics and Collectables. It's been around for about 5 years, and has been growing steadily, so it's looking pretty good. In terms of gaming materials, it has a large bookcase with all the up to date WotC and White Wolf publications on it (and a relatively small amount of odds & ends older books, mostly old WoD stuff and AD&D 2e materials), as well as ample supplies of collectable miniatures games and a wall of popular and mainstream CCG's. This is probably about a quarter of it's business, although it does have large tables in the back that are often host to CCG or CMG tournaments (which seem to always be going on when I go there). Most of the rest of the store is dedicated to comic books, comic related merchandise, and collectors toys (old Star Wars, GI Joe and similar toys up for sale and resale). It's gaming aspects are secondary to the comic/collector aspects of the store, but it still stocks much more gaming books and materials than the Barnes & Noble on the outskirts of town.
Ah... the proctologist viewpoint of retail health. They specialize in looking at quality and quantity of what gets ... put out... there can't be any other perspective worth looking from, could there?
