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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 1628439" data-attributes="member: 158">I LOVE hearing the examples that prove me wrong. The more of those game shops that actually make the effort, the better. However, it's the stories that prove me right that I am always sad to hear.I've found some truly interesting comments from all over, Chris Aylott's reminding me of the important economic lesson that Chain stores aren't total drains from a community (though they do cause other problems in a community), but Dack's statement below I wanted to add to:I'm definitely with you here - it's the crux of what I'm saying. Not just in gaming, but across the entire economic spectrum businesses large and small find the need to globalize their offerings, and take their advertizing to different levels.It's often the stores themselves that need to change the most; simply put, when you start offering the kinds of services your customers want, word of mouth gets around quick. Many store owners would think nothing of dropping a few hundred dollars on a Yellow Pages ad, but don't bother with checking out the pulse of the Internet to see what's HOT and what's NOT in their own stores! ENWorld, RPG.Net, etc. - I would think they are INVALUABLE resources for store owners! So would actually trying the products they sell! Although it would help the store owners, WE are not the ones who should be organizing game demos and showing off product. A store owner should be learning about his products (doesn't take much time to skim product releases), learning what games are selling in his neighborhood, learning what's hot on the internet community, offering online services, and offering game demos in store. A good game store owner shouldn't say to his customers, "Green Ronin? Who's that?" or "Eden Studios? Never heard of them!" I wouldn't fault him for not knowing the Black Dog imprint, but he should know who the heck White Wolf is! Engage that customer, find out what's cool about the game company they are interested in, check out any new publishers they hear about online (Google is your friend!), and don't assume that the store runs itself. Even hardware stores don't run themselves - not if it wants to become effective. There's always new tools, new materials, and new trends in building and repair to learn about. The vendor who knows his customers, keeps his customers.</blockquote>

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