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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dristram" data-source="post: 2403377" data-attributes="member: 1639">From a game store owner and a gamerI’ve debated on chiming in or not, but since Gary did, I guess I will.  I’ve been an RPGer since 1983.  I had fanciful dreams of some day being able to open my own game store and make a living at it.  When I got laid off from my engineering job in 2003, I took that opportunity to do just that.  Since I am a role-player, I wanted my game store to be focused on RPGs.  I filled my store with them as much as I could and got more and more as I could afford to.  As it is, all my love of RPGs hasn’t made them my main product, which is disappointing.  RPGs make up 25% of my inventory, but only 17% of my sales.  On the other hand, CCGs make up only 5% of my inventory, but 21% of my sales!  That is amazing!  I wanted to open a game store mainly to sell RPGs, but found myself quickly turning into a card shop.  As much as I tried to get more sales from RPGs, the competition from mainly on-line stores defeated me.  Instead of me being viewed as someone supporting the hobby and providing RPGs to sell, I’ve been seen by some as “ripping them off” by selling at “full retail”.  This has been very disappointing to me.  And hearing comments by some on this thread has disheartened me.  I believe if it wasn’t for on-line stores, existing game stores would be fully stocked with RPGs, and there would be many more game stores to choose from.   But such is not the case, and it’s looking at getting worse.  In order for game stores to survive, they find themselves grasping onto the big sellers like CCGs, Clix games, and even Comics.  And in some stores like Gary's, the RPGs start getting pushed aside for what makes money.  RPGers get turned off by a lack of focus on RPGs, but it’s either the stores make that change, or close shop.Some say a game store could compete with on-line stores or the Wal-marts of the world, if they offered a discount.  But that’s not as effective as it sounds.  If a store offered a flat 20% discount on RPGs, they’d have to sell over double the number of RPG products, just to make a little more than without the discount.  Just doubling sales with such a discount is unheard of.  Game stores that sell at full retail are not getting rich off of gamers.  They are not ripping gamers off.  They are selling at the price to pay the bills.  Good game stores keep doing what they are doing thinking that gamers want them around.  Game stores that discount are doing so at the risk of putting their store out of business.  For them, I would hasten to guess that RPG sales don’t make up much of their overall sales to begin with so a discount on RPGs doesn’t make much of a difference on their bottom-line.  There is nothing wrong with paying full retail.  It’s a price that is set to make sure the manufacturer gets the money they need to pay the bills, and for the distributor to get what they need to pay the bills, and then finally for the retail store to get what it needs to pay the bills.  When a retail store is forced to discount, *they* are the only ones being hurt.  The manufacturers and distributors got their money.  And the customer got a good deal.  But the retail store then worries about paying their bills.  The “big” stores have the fortune to be able to purchase the product at the cost distributors get it for, thus being able to sell at a much lower price, and still keep the lights on.I am in full agreement that if a game store is not a “Friendly” game store, then by all means, don’t support them.  Let them go away and make room for a good game store to spring up.  Just because it’s a game store doesn’t mean gamers should support them.  But if you’re a gamer that likes going to a store that is dedicated your hobby, support them or they *will* go away.  I don’t want to see that happen, well, I guess because that will mean me loosing my store, but mainly because I absolutely love the feeling I get walking into a store and being surrounded by all kinds of RPGs and other hobby games.  And also knowing I have something in common with every customer in the store.  Shopping for RPGs at Wal-mart, book stores, or on-line, just doesn’t do it for me personally.  So, I for one, do not want to see game stores go away.I appreciated and supported my local game stores before getting laid off, and now after opening my own game store, I have a renewed appreciation for them.(-BradOwner, Gamer's KeepeVacaville, CA</blockquote>

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