Why I refuse to support my FLGS

[Chaldfont]

This kills me. I suffer tons of guilt everytime I buy my game books on Amazon.com. Well not tons, the profit from a sale of Amazon stock paid for my mortgage down payment. But still, I'd like to keep my local gaming store in business.

But my hobby allowance is limited. For every $10 bucks I save on a gaming book I bought from Amazon (with points earned from my credit card no less), I can spend $10 bucks on my daughter, or put it in her college saving account, or buy a bottle of wine to drink with my wife. Or save it for Gencon

I love browsing at my LGS and talking to the folks that work and shop there. But its way out of my way and it costs more. That's why I haven't been there in over six months. If everybody acted like me, there would be no more game stores.

 

[wingsandsword]

I support one of my FLGS because they are right next to where I live, have a great selection, fair prices, and good service. They know me by name when I come in, and are even good about special orders.

I don't support one of the FLGS in town because they've treated me and the people I know like dirt. The owner likes to buy potentially collectable junk & old toys from yard sales, and he knew I was a fan of a line of toys he'd bought a huge load of. He wanted me to come in and spend a few days cleaning, repairing and sorting these toys so he can sell them, and got offended when I asked how much would I be paid. He wanted me to do about 20 hours of work for him as a "friend". When I don't know you out of a retail context and you're always trying to sell me something, you're not a friend. That and they have the worst deals on special orders I've ever seen. When we were still engaged, my ex-fiancee special ordered something, which didn't come in for over 6 months (each week saying it will be in the next Tuesday), she gets fed up, buys it on eBay, and doesn't go back. When she randomly stops in a year later, he says it finally came in and demands she buy it, when she refuses saying she put the order in over a year ago and hasn't even been to the store in a year, he says in no uncertain terms to buy the product she special ordered or to leave the store and never come back. She didn't go back.

A third FLGS is mostly a comic book store, but they have a shelf of gaming stuff, but get very little new stuff in, and very little that you couldn't get at a mainstream mass-market bookstore. They do sell loose Star Wars & D&D Minis though, and since they are near where I get my hair cut, I stop by there when I'm on that end of town to look around.

I'll support a FLGS if they treat me nice and are a decent business, I like having a store dedicated to my hobby I can go in and browse around, and have staff who know their stuff well, and meet other gamers. You can't get that online. Buying from my FLGS might be slightly more expensive than buying online, but once you factor in shipping and time (I hate having to wait for books) it's all effectively the same. If they treat me poorly, do a poor job of keeping up with the field, I won't give them my money, simple as that.

 

[Ozmar]

You do not have a clue. Attack! probably cost the FLGS $35.00 because they cannot order in bulk. The toy store chain probably bought 20,000 copies and decided to sell it below cost in order to get people to visit them rather than store like the FLGS.

This is why you could get the D&D Basic Game at Walmart for $16.00 when it retailed for $25.00. Walmart paid $16.50 for them, the sold them at a lower price in order to shut down their competition.

Let's not even discuss the fact that as more gamestores die, so does our hobby. WOTC acknowledges that the PRIMARY factor for recruiting new gamers are FLGS.

Why don't FLGS owners work together to pool their buying power and get these kinds of deals, and then sell at reduced prices to more favorably compete with the online and non-niche marketers?

If 1000 FLGS each ordered 20 units, then they, too, could sell at lower prices, and combined with the insane levels of customer loyalty that they routinely receive, they should be able to knock off the Big Corporate competetion.

Ozmar the Amateur Economist

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

The rumor floating around the industry goes something like this: A lot of struggling retailers hung on through the holiday shopping season, hoping against hope that the increased sales would pull them through a difficult time. This didn't happen, in most cases, and the number floating around the floor of Origins and in the halls of game companies says that something like 400 FLGS's closed up shop in January and February.

This has dealt a major blow to many publishers. Speaking as one of them, the sales numbers for Dragon and Dungeon in that market segment saw a significant fall-off during that period, even while things like subscriptions and general newsstand sales have been hitting three-year highs.

With fewer game stores, game distributors are less likely to put in large orders for new RPG products. Even "sure thing" products are unlikely to get preorders above 1,000 copies these days, because distributors are leery of carrying a big inventory risk on what is essentially a shrinking market.

It's true that internet sales can make up for some of this slack, but right now RPG publishing for anyone but the biggest kids on the block is a riskier venture than it's been since I came to the industry in 1999, and I don't see it getting much better in the short term. Gamers not supporting their local game store certainly isn't going to help the situation.

It won't hurt the tiny guys, who would sell the same number of products out of their trunk as they would ordinarily sell through hobby store distribution. It won't hurt the giant companies with distribution deals with major book distributors and retailers. But the "middle guys" are really feeling the pinch these days, and those companies produce many of the d20 products popular with the members of this community.

I'm not trying to tell anyone how to do their business, but I thought my perspective might be of value to the discussion at hand.

--Erik Mona

That's terrible news, Erik; I never imagined it was that bad.

I'm happy to say that, in spite of the short-sighted 'price is right' attitude of too many gamers (or perhaps because it's not as prevalent here), all seven of the FLGSes in my region are still open for business. Or perhaps it's because many of them offer substantial intangibles to their customers.

 

[reveal]

Why don't FLGS owners work together to pool their buying power and get these kinds of deals, and then sell at reduced prices to more favorably compete with the online and non-niche marketers?

If 1000 FLGS each ordered 20 units, then they, too, could sell at lower prices, and combined with the insane levels of customer loyalty that they routinely receive, they should be able to knock off the Big Corporate competetion.

Ozmar the Amateur Economist

For the same reason Shell and BP Amoco don't pool their resources to buy more oil, thereby lowering gas prices in America: They're competitors. Screw the other guy!

 

[Joshua Randall]

Joshua Randall:

How much of a price markup dose your FLGS have? I'm sorry but there is a price on the back of the book; I can think of about 10 places in the city i live in that i could buy said book.

I'm not sure I understand the question. Also, I haven't (recently) comparison shopped at the small-business game store.

But let's say I want to buy the DMG II, and the small store was selling it at MSRP ($39.95) while Walmart.com had it for 15% less. What incentive could the small store offer me that is worth $6? And just appealing to my love of D&D is not enough.

Some local game stores apparently offer frequent shopper discounts, or free gaming space, or other loyalty programs (to use the retailing lingo) -- for whatever reason, mine doesn't. Perhaps we can agree it is not being run very well? Because without those loyalty incentives, I have no reason to pay the higher prices when it is trivially easy for me to save money on the Internet.

 

[reveal]

I'm not sure I understand the question. Also, I haven't (recently) comparison shopped at the small-business game store.

But let's say I want to buy the DMG II, and the small store was selling it at MSRP ($39.95) while Walmart.com had it for 15% less. What incentive could the small store offer me that is worth $6? And just appealing to my love of D&D is not enough.

Some local game stores apparently offer frequent shopper discounts, or free gaming space, or other loyalty programs (to use the retailing lingo) -- for whatever reason, mine doesn't. Perhaps we can agree it is not being run very well? Because without those loyalty incentives, I have no reason to pay the higher prices when it is trivially easy for me to save money on the Internet.

For every $10 you spend at both of my FLGS, they punch a hole in a card for you. Once you get 10 punches, you can get 20% off of your next purchase.

 

[smootrk]

You can still be involved in Co-Op's yet be competitors. Forming even small co-ops help to reduce the prices (for increased volume) and those small stores could/should use every weapon possible to try to level the playing field against the big corps.

and the big oil companies do a multitude of things to control prices and ensure profitability.

 

[GMSkarka]

Most gamers on this board are probably too young to remember when Video Stores used to be all small-business Mom & Pop operations. Now, it's all UberMegaBusterWood franchise stores, with the same selection everywhere you go.


But, hey, you got your "Attack!" for cheap, so hurrah.

 

[amazingshafeman]

I refuse to shop at the big LGS in the area (mentioned above along with a few game companies). They wobble between good service and absolutely horrid service about 1:2. I drew the line when they dropped both Dungeon and Dragon mags because "those magazines advertise competitors online." I'd go to the other major store in Minneapolis if it wasn't such a drive.