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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2390660" data-attributes="member: 14159">I don't think it's all gloom and doom personally.  The owner/manager FLGS I go to most told me that they did enough sales in just the first few months of 2005 to keep them open all year.  They do great business, and I see gamers come in there from all over the state.  There are other LGS, but they are all comic book stores that just happen to sell gaming stuff, or they are more a Collectable Card & Mini store than an RPG place, so other stuff is their Bread & Butter.I think there may be less room for FLGS than there used to be, since the internet will cut down on their market share, but I don't think they'll go away, far from it.What can FLGS offer if not price?:Socialization:  Y'know, there are gamers who interact in places other than internet message boards.  You can have fascinating conversations (like a thread, but with spoken words) with other gamers at a FLGS.  You can meet new gamers, even find new games, and they're probably going to be local, instead of a message board posting that seems cool but then you realize it's on the other side of the continent.Look Before You Buy: The ultimate review in a way.  It's neato to be able to buy something on Amazon for dirt cheap, but it kinda sucks if it turns out to be awful.  It's really good to be able to walk into a store, pick up a book, read through it, and pay *gasp* cash for something, instead of buying something based on a name, a sales blurb, and maybe somebody elses reviews, and then waiting for it to arrive.Used Books:  One of the things I really like about a good FLGS is their used book shelf.  They buy old and used books for cheap, and resell them for cheap.  Now, you never know what you'll find, and you can find some nifty surprises there too.  That's how I got my copy of the Imperial Sourcebook for the old d6 SWRPG.Minis: Not the collectable plastic stuff, the metal stuff.  I can't imagine ordering them sight unseen from the web piecemeal.  Plastic is nice, but a lot of monsters WotC keeps as rares in the plastic stuff, it would be a lot cheaper to buy a metal mini and paint it (and if you can't paint, I'll bet you can find somebody at a good FLGS who can).  For some odd reason, a lot of people who have no problem sinking $30 or $40 for a rare WotC mini for RPG purposes only never think to buy a metal mini for $5 and get it painted for a few more dollars, saving a lot of money.  That's service online places aren't likely to give.Appeal to a wider audience:  The funny thing about web sites is, you have to go to them.  Not everybody is online, not even gamers, and many people are still a lot more comfortable going into a "brick & mortar" store and paying good old greenbacks for something instead of getting online and using a credit card.  People can drive by a FLGS and go inside, wondering what it is, people who would never go online (occasionally at the FLGS I go to, I see confused parents and grandparents who only have the name of a book that their kid wants, and the salesman helps them find it, would they get that service online, or would they even be able to go online, find the right product, and buy it?)</blockquote>

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