[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Art of Building Pt 2- What IS Community

Building community is a long scale endeavor, without any real defined end point. You can't just open your doors and expect things to happen, and you are never "done", either.  You have to have some kind of plan.  I talked about general aspects of the process in my last post (sorry for the two week RL interruption, folks) and sketched out some things I intend to discuss further. 

First among the thoughts and premises I brought up was the meaning of community overall.

This?

Or this?

What is community?

For this one, I'm going back to my trusty dictionary. I love words enough that figuring out what they are supposed to mean is fun. I love comparing the "facts" to reality and figuring out where the discrepancies lie.

Community is defined as-




: a unified body of individuals: as
a : state, commonwealth
b : the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself <the problems of a large community>
c : an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location
d : a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society <a community of retired persons>
e : a group linked by a common policy
f : a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests <the international community>
g : a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society <the academic community>

Even within the definition of community, there are different layers and levels of description, intent and effectiveness in describing what we mention as "community".  Not all of the definitions are appropriate for our purposes- and that's ok. That's the point of the discussion, and I enjoy the deeper looks very much.

Out of all of the choices here, I like the definition given in G the most. While our interests aren't professional, you could easily insert "hobby", "crafting", "sporting", "equine" or any number of various past times into the sentence and get a definition that fits what we're discussing.

So now we know that there's a large group of persons with common and especially hobby interests scattered through the larger society- but those people aren't necessarily unified.

It's my belief that you build a community through finding all the people who share a similar interest and finding a way to bring them together; to unify them. This concept is easier discussed than done. It's been alluded to several times in the comment section here, it comes up in personal conversations, and I've talked to other FLGS owners about it in round about ways off and on many times. It all comes down to finding something-anything- that gives our wacky lot a semblance of unity.

At first blush, that's not so hard. We all love games, right? What else do we need?

Our love of games and gaming is our common interest, but it's something else that unifies us. We have to have something more than just a love of games that brings us together. Because for real, how else are a librarian, pet store manager, electrician, engineer,  banker, academic lecturer and a tax dude all going to hang out together and feel comfortable?

It's the people that identify with and enjoy a particular place, setting or environment that make up the community. It's the folks that are engaged and active that help shape it, and those that are invested that help build it beyond "just a place".

So how do you get them to show up? How do you get the people you're actively seeking to appear inside your virtual/real walls? what makes someone pick up their stuff and head to your place?

1) Have A Definition

Know what community you intend to house. Whether it's competitive Magic: the Gathering or "Fluff Bunnies FTW", know you are hoping to attract to your business. Your stock, staff and events should reflect those that are welcome and encouraged to attend.

If you are a miniatures oriented store, make sure you have staffers that are on point in at least two minis games- maybe three. You could possibly have a person with more knowledge of WarMachine and then a Wyrd specialist, if that's your preference- but have depth and wisdom. Make sure the folks you are hoping to attract have similarly minded people to talk to when they finally show up.

2) Fake It Till You Make It

This is entirely language oriented; but tell folks what they want to hear. If you are growing your WarMachines/Hordes community, tell customers that while your community is still small, it's vibrant and passionate. Having events for the community you intend to draw on a regular basis gives people the chance to come check you out and possibly bring friends. By talking positively and passionately about the environment and scope of your community, you can attract people that want something like what you want to build.

Make sure that you're encouraging what you want in your community in words and in action, even when you're just starting out.  Just because you haven't built your community fully yet doesn't mean you won't.

3) Keep Talking/Advertising 

Don't stop talking about your X community/environment. Mention it - a lot. To everyone, in a casual and non-obnoxious way. you are your own best advertising. you are building a brand and you can't afford NOT to talk to folks about what you offer. Make sure you have a two sentence elevator pitch that is welcoming to your intended audience and offers an invitation.  Put this in the hands of anyone that can help you build your business- your staff, your customers, your website, your Facebook page, anywhere and everywhere.

4) Self Correct

Sometimes things go sideways. You end up with something that isn't quite what you anticipated. You look at your community and see something isn't working. Fix it. Don't let things stagnate too long or you wind up with a community that doesn't care and isn't interested in helping you.

For a viable community to grow, standards, expectations and limits need to be in place (and enforced), or your individual members won't feel valued and "check out". The buy in process happens more than once, and if you want people to value what you offer, you have to value it enough to fix it when it's broken/not working/headed in the wrong direction.

These points are generic- while I have used these and will continue to do so, they are not specific. They don't talk about how MY store works and why the things I am doing are working (or aren't). They don't address my local community and don't help me solve problems endemic to my situation.

I hope to talk a little about what I'm doing at my store, how and why- but not so much that other people in other stores/communities and locales can't use my knowledge to help their own environments thrive.  See you next week!

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner] The Art of Building Pt 1

I've been talking about the 'community building' post as something in the works for a while. I spent a lot of time considering how to address the multitude of concepts and concerns in a way that's engaging and effective, and come to the conclusion that what I've promised is a little too vague.

It's well and good to talk about how to build a community. Everyone wants to hear about it and I have something to say- but I suspected I wasn't being clear enough and my trip to the trade show (see last week's post) only lead to confirm that suspicion.

I like to make sure we're all talking about the same things using the same language, whenever possible. (Maybe someday I'll talk about the difference between dudespeak and ladytalk; but not today.) I'll be talking about several different subjects, possibly over a few weeks. It's very helpful to put our conversations on the same playing field and make the topic and terminology easily understood by all.

Uncomplicated. That's what we need. 

What do we mean by community? That's a critical question we need to ask. my idea of community is vastly different from the community that the folks at Mox Mania want to build, and is just as separate from the community enjoyed by the folks at The Fantasy Shop. None of them are wrong, but they are different, and it's important to know that up front.




My case is probably vastly different from many others. There was already a store in town when mine was created, and the other store vastly influenced the attitude and culture at my store from day one. Without disparaging or disrespecting the other store, it was a place many folks didn't feel comfortable, and the original owners of my store wanted their community to be "NOT THAT". That was the entire idea behind their community and culture- simply not to be like the other guy in town.

The original "motto". It's very different now.

Since that time, the idea of community and what our store is about has been refined quite a lot, and TheDude and I have a very serious vision for what we want our place to be. But that's NOW. We didn't always have that vision, and it's easy to overlook when you're just trying to keep the doors open.

If you are a new FLGS or club owner, or person in charge of building stuff, you should probably ask yourself: what do you want it (thing you are building) to DO?

I have no idea what this is. Why would I use it?

What do you want your store to DO in terms of community? Do you want to be a competitive Magic: the Gathering environment? Do you want to foster the tabletop miniature hobby? Do you want to be a place to buy stuff? Examining your end goal and purpose is a pretty crucial part of the design process if you want to be successful.

To think of this in terms most of us might understand, an apartment/flat does something vastly different than a Tudor home. You use different materials and building processes to create these things. Different kinds of people live in them, and they are maintained in very distinct ways.

And ideally, you have PLANS. I mean, you don't just hand tools and lumber to some dude you know and pray for the best, right?

Because the wrong person with these can lead to disaster...

Well, you CAN. But it sure better be someone you trust, and someone that knows how to build what you WANT- or you end up with a big mess and you have to start over again.

"Well yes, technically that IS shelter. No, it is NOT what I wanted."

Just because you have plans doesn't mean there won't be mistakes now and then. My professional sources tell me "sometime plans are wrong", and the guys on the job have to talk to the boss and tell/ask them "hey, what's up?". I mean, you can't build a skyscraper and only put sprinklers on the bottom floor. 

This is a bad thing. You don't want this. 

It's also important to note that your vision is yours. As long as you have ownership of it, you can revise it and mold it to fit your culture and environment. You might discover that certain issues or concerns change over time, and your community reflects those changes without doing anything about it. You might also discover that your community doesn't appreciate anything and complains incessantly. Either way, the community and the vision for it are yours, and YOU get to decide how and what you want to build them into a future you will enjoy. 

This idea is similar to the one regarding plans, but different in execution- it's a lot more like a building inspector visiting your site. If the inspector tells you your two story house is busted, you can check your plans against what you have to know if he is right. If you have a one story house; you know he's on point and you need to fix it. If you have a two story house and you meet code, but he's saying it's busted because it doesn't have a fence, you know he's trying to hijack your vision and can set him straight. 

My dad spent most of his life as a guy that applied the ideas of theoretical physicists. He built colliders for Fermi and Hadron. He tested the cold fusion idea with a ridiculous machine the lab dubbed "Mr. Fusion". All my life, I've been surrounded by the art of building things just to see if they work and then examining how they do it.

It's only now as an adult that I understand the implication of examining how things are made, and can utilize that  information in a way that's helpful. I'll be looking at each aspect of building community over the next few posts so that we can tell if they work, and if so- how. Questions are always encouraged. 

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner] A Word from Our Sponsors

Being a FLGS owner means I have to listen to a lot of information about available items and decide what to carry, and why. It just so happens one of the best ways to get information on products and what's going on in the hobby is to go straight to the source. But hey, I'm just one little store, and I can't afford a trip to Seattle to talk to WotC, or to England to talk to GW.

Wouldn't it be awesome if there was a way to talk to the various companies that I do business with in one place? A place designed for businesses, rather than consumers? I would totally dig that, and go to that. It might be a giant commercial, but it'd be cool to check out what the companies are trying to sell me in person rather than in a magazine or over the phone. I'd really love to do something like that.



I just got back from such an event. A major distributor hosted an open house for FLGS owners at a hotel/convention center in their home city. They held seminars and discussion panels as well as had an exhibit hall and a demo day where owners could talk to reps for various companies in the flesh as well as check out games up close to see how they worked. These hands on experiences are great ways to determine if a game is right for a specific store's environment, as well as gives owners a great tool for selling games.

This event is a pretty big deal for most FLGS in the Midwest region, with most stores attending or sending a rep; if not sending a large number of staff (I saw three stores that sent multiple reps/staff members). There were some stores from out of the area (NJ and SC, along with Florida). All of these folks were FLGS owners, managers or staff, and they were all attending this event to learn new things and better their store and community.

The distributor does a great job of gathering reps from a large number of players to attend the show and put on seminars and demos. Reps from WotC, Fantasy Flight, Looney, Chessex, Privateer Press and many others were on hand to show off their product, show us how their games worked, and to give us helpful information on sales and how to improve them.

Despite knowing in advance that the reps are all going to give the "company line", it's a good environment for getting a feel for the corporate attitude of a specific publisher. It's also an easy way to see how a company partners with the FLGS types and whether owners are a valued part of their business plan.

As an attendee of this event, I noticed a very interesting and obvious dynamic almost immediately. There was a meet & greet with a buffet and booze the first night there (cash bar, but still, there was liquor) and there were quite a few reps from assorted companies on the floor mingling and socializing as we all ate, drank and mellowed out. These reps were friendly, outgoing, interested in our businesses, and visible. They made a point to invite attendees to their seminars and to check out their display booths, as well as to come and play their games during demo night. They were definitely selling, but in a way that was approachable, and I noticed.

Most of the seminars that were offered were pretty good. They offered at least a passing nod to store involvement in building and growing customers for the products they were trying to push- a specific example includes Privateer Press; whose seminar was overflowing and had several examples from the audience on how PressGangers can promote games in store effectively as well as how to build brand awareness past the model games they offer, which often leads to better sales results and higher profits for small stores.

There was a particular company that acted completely differently. Their reps were non-existent at the meet and greet. The seminar they held was labeled as a way to increase sales in store; but was in actuality an aggressive sales pitch for their new revised (again) direct sales program and a "painting tutorial". The painting tutorial didn't involve any actual painting instruction- they handed out a model and five little dabs of basic colors and left the seminar attendees to their own devices. The premise behind the painting session was that if you can paint, you can sell more of their product; but they didn't offer any cues on how to make that leap. In short, the seminar totally ignored the needs of the FLGS owner.

Even before this event, the contrary company had raised our ire with the sales of its newest release. We had spoken to our sales rep the week prior to a highly anticipated new release and mentioned the numbers of items for the line we wanted. We believed this conversation entailed a pre-order and reserved copies of the items in question, and had no worries about supply. Orders opened on Monday, and when we spoke to our rep on wednesday, we were suddenly not getting the items we had "pre-ordered" the week prior and nothing was available to us as the company had sold through their very limited print run on the first day.

It's been a very long time since I have seen TheDude lose his temper in such a vitriolic and abusive way. I do feel bad for the rep, who is very green and hasn't dealt with TheDude and his fits of pique before this encounter. However, the entire issue was over the way this company treats the FLGS operators in comparison to the way they treat regular consumers. We simply don't appear to be part of their business model at first blush. It's frustrating to operate as the third tier (or even lower than that) of their customer building operation when every other company in the industry treats owners as the first rung of their growth strategy.

When it came time to hit the exhibition hall, TheDude and I took a "divide and conquer" approach. We went our separate ways, and I looked at a lot of games I had almost no experience with. I checked out Level 7 [Escape] from Privateer Press (a game that has a lot of potential for fun, but is just a little bit fiddly), talked to reps from Fantasy Flight (core rulebook for Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG coming "soon", and guys in the factory figuring out ways to produce X-Wing faster), played a fantastically fun game called Attraction (check it out- you won't regret it!) and saw a lot of games that were interesting, but not right for our store or culture.

The expo hall was an interesting dynamic. There are two "big" companies that work as both publishers and distributors, and their displays could not have been more different. One company had a MASSIVE display (at least 5 tables, taking up a corner at the ENTRY of the exhibit hall) with several staff members, including a VP on hand to discuss releases, products and services. The other had one table that was set up in such a way that it was easy to miss, and only one staffer.

The big company with a huge display? WotC.

The folks from Seattle are genuinely interested in building a working relationship with store owners, and do incredible amounts of work to make buying from and dealing with them as easy as possible. One of their seminars talked about how getting more games into stores will increase sales, and the shortened version of the talk was "more play = more $". WotC WANTS owners to know what's going on with their products and services so they can effectively sell all of their offerings. They gave information on much anticipated releases and has an announced schedule for upcoming product all the way into SEPTEMBER. They are giving owners a six month window to prepare for new product, to talk up different formats and options, and INVEST in developing new customers.

The company with the one table display was also the company that gave the seminar with the "painting demonstration" and whose reps were barely visible throughout the event. The company that effectively gave a giant finger to owners?

Games Workshop.

I walked past the GW display at the exhibit hall multiple times. Every time I did, the rep was busy trying to fend off angry owners (TheDude was among them) who wanted SOMEONE- ANYONE to listen to the frustration and aggravation they felt at dealing with GW, especially in light of the "great Tau shortage", combined with new terms and conditions that limit purchases and purchase amounts, how owners can sell and how many shipments a store can get.  (Just an FYI, if your local store doesn't have any Tau to sell to you; it's not because they didn't want them. It's most likely because GW sold them on the internet before they sold them to FLGS owners.)

The vast difference in how GW operates and treats owners compared to WotC, PP, Fantasy Flight or even Wyrd was impossible to miss or ignore. I've always been somewhat aware that to GW, the FLGS owner is something of the ugly stepchild in priority and balance, but I'd never seen it so blatantly or obviously shown. The very limited contact I had with this company at this event made me realize that they don't want or need our business. They deal with us because they HAVE to, and effectively make doing business with them as distasteful as possible because they CAN.

TheDude and I happened to be in the elevator with a gentleman who over heard us talking about a seminar that was mediocre. He asked which one, and why we felt that way. When he discovered the seminar was one that his company ran, he THANKED us for our opinions and invited us to leave notes or even drop by his booth later. The gentleman was a VP for WotC. In comparison, the GW rep was stuck with repeating that there wasn't anything he could do about our concerns, but he would pass them along.

The difference is staggering.

The problem as an owner is that GW offers a product our customers want. The company has a lock on a profitable line, and no matter how difficult or unpleasant they are to do business with, they make us money- and lots of it. Simply not carrying their product is not a smart business move, no matter how infuriating it is do be stuck in that position.

They not only offer a product that is in demand, but the discount for dealing directly with them is large enough that it's pretty stupid not to do so. It might be different if the discount was just a few points and I could get all of the product line through a distributor. But the discount is HUGE and they throttle what I can buy through the company that put on this shin dig. So I deal directly with GW, even though it aggravates me to no end.

Stores continue to carry GW because customers continue to buy. The tournament scene, 'Ardboys, the Riders program and many other community building events and ideas are gone because GW does not want to build community- they want to build customers. It's up to the FLGS to develop a consumer from a wet haired kid into a smart and considerate adult player.

I'll address whether and how to take that on in the weeks to come with my community building series. I hope you'll join in, and let me know what you're interested in hearing.

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Risks

Kellvyn asked about the risks I'm taking in the expansion I've been discussing for my store. There are tons of choices involved in everything we are doing.

Many choices I make are easy- as Kellvyn pointed out, putting more butts in seats on Friday for Friday Night Magic is a no-brainer. It's stupid NOT to do so. More people practically throwing money at me for the privilege of sitting in my store? Yes, please.

The risk comes in deciding whether to have open play space, and if so when? How many new product lines can I support, and do I have the customers to buy the new products?



There's a beautiful new display available from a certain model company that changes my stock requirements for their product line- it lessens it overall. The display is GORGEOUS; just drool worthy. However, it requires product from two lines that I don't carry. I don't carry them because I don't see any players for the lines; and I don't want to carry something I can't sell. However, lowering my overall stock requirements and gives me more space on my walls for other products is a big, juicy carrot. In deciding whether to buy the display, it's a huge balancing act. Do I value display over revenue? Can I generate sales for these lines despite not having a history of customers inquiring on the products? Does the lowered stock requirement beat out the investment? (You better believe I have to pay for this display, and it is NOT cheap. But MAN, it is beautiful!)

It's sort of like deciding whether to put this in the middle of my store. It's nice to look at, but will I SELL anything because of it? What if my customers like redheads instead of brunettes?

For us, our risks are more concentrated in the community area than anywhere else. While new product lines, more events and more tournaments are certainly things we want to add, our biggest concern is building all of this while keeping our sense of community. We value ALL of our customers equally; and despite many players feeling that the MtG crowd gets treated "better", we do our best to offer an environment where everyone feels welcome and appreciated by offering discrete days or slots for different types of gaming, as well as demos and giveaways for most  kinds of games.

More space CAN mean more players for many things- but sometimes that might not be wise. Throwing in a roleplaying table on the side while FNM goes on is probably just going to make everyone involved frustrated. (Our FNM crowd is rowdy and has a lot of fun. They are certainly loud enough to annoy even a lighthearted RPG group.) However, offering tables for the Star Wars miniatures game on the same night as Malifaux is probably a safe bet (except many of our players enjoy both games and don't want to have to pick!). Creating an environment where the community can flourish and enjoy gaming is not just about putting butts in seats, it's about managing how people interact with each other.

While this issue has been shorter than I like, it's a prelude to an article I hope to write very soon about how to grow and keep a community, and what that means to us vs what it might mean to another store. I don't know if I will be back next week as we open at the new store on Monday and then I go out of town Wednesday (yes, I am crazy!) but I'll have something very good for you when I return.

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Ack!

For the past few weeks, I've been answering questions from readers (thanks SnaleKing and Bushcraft!). I've also been talking about things that "work" for FLGS type places- in business parlance, these things are called "best practices".

What they are in reality is tips one guy found, tried and discovered that they worked. So the dude tells his buddy, and these things work for the buddy. The buddy passes these tips on to another store operator, who finds the ideas have merit and so on.

Despite any ideas to the contrary, FLGS owners and operators are usually very friendly and willing to share ideas with each other. I know pretty much every owner of a FLGS in the state at least by name, and some are pretty close friends. I'm friendly with quite a few owners outside my area- either by email or Facebook. We try to do right by each other, while still making money as much as possible. For the most part, there's very little animosity or serious contentiousness. (There are some notable exceptions, but those people are jerks all around. It has nothing to do with owning a store.)

Don't be that person!

There comes a time when a store operator has to decide to break from the pack and do something outside of the best practices his friends and colleagues have passed on. Sometimes, you have to take a risk.

That's what we are about to do at the Gopher. I talked in the past about possibly expanding, and every time we looked before, something wasn't quite right. Either the space was too junky, or too nice; or the space was great but the location was terrible, or the location was fabulous and the space was ridiculously overpriced. In short, we never found the right mix for us and our needs. 

That changed very recently. We were approached by our current landlord (who is absolutely awesome in every way) recently because a space in our complex was coming open. He knew we were looking for a bigger space, so he wanted to see if we were interested in the opportunity to move. It took us less than 10 seconds to reply- absolutely YES. 

The new space is in the same complex we are in. We won't have to change our marquis sign. We won't have to get a truck to haul stuff. We won't have to change very much in terms of our address - one number will change, and we will have a different suite number. Our customers will continue to have TONS of free parking. We will continue to be easily accessible by the nearby highway exit (literally two stop lights north of us), and we will still offer great bus access. We will actually be closer to the bus drop off- a huge plus in many regards, as customers have to cross our ENORMOUS parking lot currently, but with the new location they will almost be dropped off at our door. We will continue to have the same fantastic landlord. Our space will be larger and will allow us to offer more product lines, more seating and more events. 

The long awaited "open play" tables will be a reality! At the moment there are many nights where every table is full due to league or tournament play, and we desperately want to change that. So we told the landlord yes. We signed the lease and initially gave ourselves a full month to move to the new space. 

And then we changed our minds. 

We are moving into our new space effective April 1, and it is NOT a joke.

We're also doing it with 24 hours from the close at the old location and the open at the new one. (HINT: THIS IS NOT A BEST PRACTICE.)

Better hope you can make that!

TheDude and I looked over all the things that need to be done, and most of it is administrative. I've already changed phone and trash, insurance and gotten a press release written. Power, water and post office will be later this week. TheDude has started the process of transferring the distributor accounts, new business cards, letting the bank know and has worked out a nice deal with the current tenant to purchase some helpful fixtures. 

I'm arranging the moving crew- yet again, it is made up of awesome customers who are more like family than people that buy stuff from us. The people that we hawk shiny things to are so excited to buy stuff from us, they are taking time out of their lives on a holiday weekend (yeah, Easter Sunday is when we are doing a lot of moving stuff) and helping us for FREE. 

A move of any sort is usually something you announce MONTHS in advance. Most often, you want some lead time to train your customers about the change and why it's a plus. When we made the announcement, our customers quite literally applauded- and offers of help and congratulations started rolling in faster than we could reply. 

We're beyond thrilled, but equally terrified. Our continual attitude of not really ever being ready for the changes upcoming has suited us well in this situation, and we're doing our best not to freak out, and trust that everything will get done in time. 

ACK. 

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[Musing of a Game Store Owner] Tips and other Tidbits

As the voice for the FLGS Owners hanging around, I have been talking about the realities of owning and running a store for the past couple weeks. I got some great comments and questions, and I have really enjoyed writing the posts to answer them.

Porky's comment last week is the subject for today:


I enjoyed reading that. I have a question, but it's a big one. What's the one thing, possibly the few things, that you think would do most to stimulate game store creation and/or help existing game stores thrive? It could be anything. I'd love to know where the pressure needs to be exerted.


He's right. That is a big question. He was right to assume the possibility that there wasn't ONE answer, but there might be several things that would apply here. There's no "magic answer" to helping FLGS be more successful  It's a combination of things that we'll talk about. Even if a store has or does all the things I will mention, it's possible that they won't flourish, because retail is a funny thing. There are a lot of variables that go into making a business work, and there are no promises, just a lot of hopes. 



Opening a FLGS takes a lot more than a location and a small amount of stock. I've alluded to some of the things I'll mention over the years I've been writing at the House, but today I'll spell them out to the best of my ability. 

The first and most important thing for a potential FLGS owner to know is: 

you can't be "nobody". 

Any person can get a storefront, slap a sign on it and open their doors. The problem comes in customers. Who does this "anybody" know that will shop there? And not just shop ONCE, but become a regular, if not a loyal customer? 

You need a large personal network- friends, family, coworkers, and gaming community that know you, trust you, and are willing to refer you to THEIR friends, family, coworkers and gaming community. The need for a personal network is pretty serious in order to stay open over the course of several years. 

Being a FLGS owner is something like being a real estate agent, an insurance salesperson, or a drug dealer. You're effectively becoming an independent contractor and you are solely responsible for bringing in customers, sales and profit. You have to START out with a reputation based on YOU as a person and some kind of "cushion" (people you can depend on to purchase from you while you get your feet under you) and then BUILD from it through being reliable and easy to do business with. Being easy to do business with can be any number of things- it includes having set hours, offering hassle free special orders, being pleasant to customers, having a nice location; and much more. 

But none of those things matter if no one knows who you are. Sure, you'll get customers who will check you out due to curiosity, but without a personal connection of "hey, I played D&D with that guy" or something similar, there's very little reason for them to co come back. 

The next factor for a starting FLGS owner to know is that it's a BUSINESS. It can't be your personal clubhouse if you want anything resembling success down the road. The store has to be a place where people OTHER than your network are welcome and even encouraged to come in, shop, check out games and otherwise feel like they are valued. 

This particular factor is probably the hardest one for owners to get into their heads. Changing minds, hearts and attitudes on this front is exceptionally difficult and it's a huge part of why so many stores have failed in the past. There comes a time when the owner looks at the receipts at the end of the day, week, month or whatever, and says "hey, I'm paying the bills with just my buddies. I'm doing ok, I don't need to do any more". 

It's an unfortunate and discouraging reality, but the "buddies" flake. They lose jobs. They move. They get married. They find a new hobby. They get pissed at the owner over something dumb. They get pissed at each other. Any number of things can happen, and then the customer base is dwindled or gone, and your shop is out of business. 

It's also tough because it means being social and meeting people outside your comfort zone, which is a talent most gamers don't have or want. Being an extrovert and wanting to meet new people, loving the thrill of finding new friends and being willing to put yourself "out there" all the time are things most gamers find more terrifying than a beholder. 

The fact that you're a BUSINESS is essential when it comes to discounts. In short: DON'T GIVE THEM. Every discount you give is money out of your pocket, and when you're paying yourself (see above), that isn't smart. Discounts are a large part of why so many little stores go belly up so fast. By giving a discount to customers, owners are effectively giving away the rent, the power, the water bill or the next order of ships that go "vroom". evenif you are "making it" with on the backs of the orders your buddies make and you have no reason to think that will change anytime soon, if you give discounts; you don't have 'EXTRA'.

It's 'extra' that helps buy terrain. New tables. More stock. It's extra that allows you to (eventually) hire employees. Extra helps you rough the lean months a lot more easily, and extra gives you the ability to try new things. It's all the stuff that extra helps pay for that leads to the next tip.

Have a community.

Have an environment that is welcoming to ALL gamers, that fosters friendships and hanging out, and that grows a community. The community is very likely going to be based off your personal network at first, but make sure you are welcoming to people outside of it, too. You want to make sure your business isn't an elitist clubhouse -because it's a business, and everyone should like shopping at your place, and hanging out there too,

An important point to mention on community: it's one thing to say you are welcoming, and another entirely to BE welcoming. it's not just what you do or say, it's how your customers act. Make sure your customers know that they don't get to decide who is or isn't welcome, who is or isn't "inner circle", or who is or isn't "cool enough". YOU, as the owner, are the arbiter of who you want in your store. If you want to be successful; it should be as many people as possible.

The community aspect of your store will help lead into this next point, but for the most part, this is all on you- your personality, your ability with names or faces, your drive, your hustle, your sourcing abilities; whatever makes you special.

Give your customers a reason to be loyal.

Whether it's a great community, an owner that remembers your name after just one meeting, a fantastic special order program, awesome minuatures tables and terrain, a painting club, or something else; give your customers a reason to come back over and over again.

Be something more than "a place to buy stuff"; be a place that will engender regulars and loyal shoppers. You want your personal network to flourish and find new people to add to it so that it can continue to sustain you and your business.

Lastly, you need to love games.

Having knowledge of, passion for and interest in games is huge. Being a vital part of the community and encouraging others to enjoy their passion is going to be a major portion of your success and accomplishments. Be enthusiastic! Smile! HAVE FUN. Let peopleknow that your heart is right along with theirs, and give people a reason to enjoy what you're doing.

These are just some of the ideas I came up with. I'm sure there are more, but that's a good start.  I'd love to answer more questions!

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner} More Reality

So Bushcraft did it again- he asked questions, and I'm answering.

How has your experience with distributors forcing your store to stock certain items, dedicate specific frontage of shelf space, etc...? I won't name names, but you know the kinds of folks I mean. 

These guys?

There's only one company that has any sort of stock requirement, and the requirement is in exchange for a discount with them.  This particular company DOES have specific requirements for displaying parts of their line; and my opinion on that is mixed. The plus is that they provide lovely racks and such for the display. The minus is that the FLGS has to pay for the lovely racks, and those things are NOT cheap. I'm not always sure the stock requirement balances out the discount, but it's part of doing business.




Have you ever considered offering services beyond retail, for example some painting/modelling classes?

We've tried classes off and on with mixed results. I think if our store was bigger, we could dedicate space to something like that with less concern for breakage or disrupting other patrons and it might go over better. I also think a dedicated "time" for classes would help a lot. At the moment, we just throw them in whenever we feel like it, and we haven't really cultivated a brand as "experts" with that sort of thing.

If we were to offer classes, I think we would do something a little different, with each of our staffers offering a class or ongoing series of classes on a topic that matches their knowledge base. For example, I am much more into writing and networking than modeling, and offering a class on painting tiny dudesmen would be a disservice to my customers. My son would be great at offering a class on putting dudesmen together (he's fantastic at modeling and converting), and one of our other staffers would be great for a class on CCG's like M:tG and so on. I'd want to know that there was a base for something like this, but it's something to think about.

What about tournaments and organized events?

We do these all the time. We set aside Saturdays for tournaments and special events,  and we've had great luck with that approach. One of our more popular Saturday activities is "Damn It, I Bought This Game And I Am Going To Play It Day", which brings out some fabulous games and even more fun times.

We have special roleplaying days on Saturday at least once every 2 months or so (Free RPG Day, "dry runs" for the local convention, demos of lesser-known games, one-offs for local authors, etc) as well as events for games like Android: Netrunner, Star Wars' X Wing, and a miniatures tournament or two.

Because our focus is a community and family environment, we make a concentrated effort to bring in a variety of games for the diverse folks that enjoy our hobby. It's been working out so far, and we want to keep with that approach.

What successful "nontraditional" approaches have you seen work successfully (or fail)? For example, my FLGS outside Ft. Bragg is fortuitously located next to a bingo hall and they rent it out for peanuts from 10-4 on Saturdays as a game room. Cover charge is a 200 cent donation to the local SPCA, which has started the local nerd slang of meeting up to "feed the puppies" being a euphemism for Saturday gaming.

Something a guy we know does is offer "Magic Camp" for kids 8 or 9+ in the summer. It's roughly a week long of class from like 10-12 or something, where he teaches the basics of Magic to younger kids for a set fee. He provides basic cards and snacks and instruction, and he gets paid and is generating a stream of future customers to continue bringing revenue to his store.

We do something called "Afterdraft", which is for the folks that play MtG. After we do our booster draft on Friday, we do another draft. You buy 3 packs for the draft, and they all have to be different, with one pack for prize. It has to be different from all the rest of the packs as well. For a while we had a GREAT selection of older Magic sets, and we would see Odyssey, Tempest and Dark Ascension in one guy's pool and Ice Age, Mirage and M12 in another's. This is a ridiculously STUPIDLY SILLY draft, with a lot of guys bringing packs they won from other tournaments (including foreign language) and crazy antics ensue. It's also pretty lucrative, with 8-12 guys buying older, crazy packs just for shits & giggles.

We've seen a lot of variations of "pay to play", and in our area, they have all failed. Many of these variations were combined with bad management and even worse accommodations, but we have decided that asking our customers to pay for space in our store isn't something we're going to do on a regular basis.

Of course, people pay to play in tournaments or special events to help support prizes.  But regular, everyday gaming? We have no interest in charging. It just doesn't work in this area.

And of course, there was the last pot shot about beer.

It would be great to offer beer at the store. We'd love it, and we know we could make a killing while doing it. We've joked about doing an adults only afterdraft with beer, and it's fun until you look at the headaches that go with a liquor license.

The buzzkill is that having a liquor license means a MUCH higher level of accountability and oversight, a lot more regulations and a lot more trouble. If even ONE guy is "overserved", it could kill our business (and our family livelihood) forever. If even ONE guy is underage and we serve, same story. The amount of training and insurance required is insane, and we'd have to fire our son - he's not old enough to serve.

Lastly, we want our store to be welcoming. We want everyone to feel they can come in and not be accosted, treated like an outsider or badly in any way. It's an unfortunate fact that alcohol can and does bring out the worst in people, and we don't want to intentionally create a situation where we bring out jerk behavior. We have to put out enough interpersonal fires as it is, and liquor of any kind would just make that worse. We don't the headache (or the hangover, LOL).

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[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Reality Behind the Daydream

Last week, BushCraft talked about a daydream of owning a game store someday. 

I thought I'd talk about the reality of owning a store, point by point. 

BushCraft says:

Well retirement's still about 11 years out...I'd be 42, so it's a viable option for me to dedicate years to as a job/hobby. Don't need to turn a huge profit, just break even.

Let’s break down what it really costs to operate a store. We’ll use imaginary- but possible- costs to help illustrate the point of how a retail business can run, and what it takes to break even.

Estimated general operating cost of store: $2000/mo.

That estimate is based on very reasonable rent, utilities, insurance and bare bones supplies.  $2000 is the absolute minimum per month cost in this imaginary scenario, but it is definitely possible to pay this amount in real life. A breakdown of costs would look like this:

Rent- 1000

Power- 400

Water -100

Trash- 50

Cable/phone- 125

Insurance- 50

Office supplies- 50

(paper, pens, tape, staplers, toner/ink, receipt paper etc)

Maintenance supplies- 50

(paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, trash bags)

Soda/candy/snacks- 125

Misc expenses (licensing, parking, bank fees, local ordinance fees- you never know)- 50

Note that I put soda and candy into operating expenses and not under merchandise or stock. I do this with the assumption or idea that the intent is to be a FLGS and not just a place to buy stuff. The soda and candy is an important part of the inviting aspect to a FLGS. Opening a soda and hanging out while drinking it, or sitting and eating a candy bar while “wasting time” is an essential part of the FLGS experience- at least to me. You may think differently and put these costs into your stock costs, and that’s ok. I would still expect your minimum operating costs to be in the $1500-$2000 range unless you have some spectacular cost of living and/or real advantage I’m not considering.

These are operating costs- startup is going to be much higher. Starting up will require a deposit for almost all of these services- expect at least a month’s worth, if not higher. Purchasing tables, chairs, shelves, displays, cash registers, bags, signs and anything else you may need to open the doors are additional expenses to consider for startup as well.

All of this has to be covered and paid for regardless of customers, sales and actual business.  Most commercial leases are no less than 2 years, and almost all service agreements for utilities are on similar terms.  You may never have a customer walk through your door, but you’ll be on the hook for many of these expenses for a few years. I wasn’t kidding when I suggested that you have no less than 6 months’ rent  in reserve in case you don’t have any customers.  

This is not what you want to see. 

All of these are costs borne by the operator before a single item of stock is purchased. Stock costs vary according to discount levels with various distributors- but consider the following example:

“Entry level” with Distributor A: $400 order minimum for free shipping, with a discount of 40%. That means you pay 60% of MSRP for your items. You order $400 of stuff to get free shipping.  The MSRP of those items will work out to be $667.  That gives you $267 “profit” that needs to be directed towards operating costs.

Obviously, this example shows that a single minimum order isn’t enough to cover expenses- not by a long shot. I “cheated” by making the discount very low- MOST distributors have a higher discount, even for entry level customers.  As you do more business with a distributor, you can “earn” higher discounts by promising to order certain dollar amounts with that distributor in each quarter; but most starting FLGS cannot afford the levels of commitment required to gain a higher discount right away. Every distributor’s discount structure is different, even among product lines, and comparing costs and margins for orders becomes an incredibly important part of the business.  Here’s an example of why:

Distributor B: $350 order minimum for free shipping, with 45% discount on all product lines except Product Line Y.  Product line Y is offered at 43% discount.

Distributor M: $400 order minimum for free shipping, with 45 % discount on entire product line.

It becomes up to the person ordering and responsible for the money to decide if the extra 2% discount on ANY product line will “pay” for the higher required order amount, and if Product Line Y sells well enough in their “meta” to order through Distributor M instead of Distributor B in order to get a better discount.

It takes a minimum of $2000 in sales of product at MSRP per month to break even, using the above numbers as our example.  That’s roughly $500 a week, or $72 per day.

That may not seem like very much to need to sell to an outsider, and it’s not always that tough. The big issue is how you do it. Most of the folks on this site are miniatures players, and in it for hobby. Selling miniatures and hobby accessories is fine and dandy- if there are a LOT of miniatures players in your area and the meta will support buying miniatures, paints, modeling tools, glue, primer, basing materials, foam, bags and other accessories to the tune of $2000 a month. 

It’s my experience that miniatures will sell, but it sells in cycles, and not reliably enough to support a store as a sole business line month in and month out. That's why we have other product lines-to help support the business, and the community as well. 

Wal-Mart sells more than pens, right? 

My pension pays the bills, my wife's job stacks with that. Maybe sell a child or two to wipe out the mortgage (i kid! I kid!) and as long as the store keeps itself afloat I'd be good.

The mention of kids and a wife is what makes the reality of a store much tougher.  

The numbers I gave above are all imaginary- but possible- and I never once mentioned labor. These numbers presume that YOU are working the store, and you aren’t paying yourself.  The hours a store needs to be open to make the minimum to keep afloat are mainly evening and weekend hours. When you’re a family man with a wife, working those hours is going to do serious damage to your family coherency. Working those hours for no pay for at least three years will destroy almost any family, especially if the wife or kids aren’t “on board”.  

Which leads us to the next part of BushCraft’s question:

I doubt anyone gets filthy rich in the nerd business (at least not the mom and pop stuff) but that's not what I want. It'd be for love. Do you and Mr. Gopher find time to enjoy yourselves or is it 100% all about keeping the business running? That's really my biggest concern.

For no less than three years of the business being in operation, it was 100% all about keeping the business running.  I've mentioned before that we only close 3 days a year, but a lot of people don’t catch on to what that really means: no time off.  Mr. Gopher (mostly referred to here as TheDude) worked the store until 11pm every day, for pretty much 3 years straight.  We didn't go on vacation. We didn't go to parties. We didn't go to movies. We didn't have people over. We ran the business.

It was either TheDude or I working at the store every day. Our kids had birthday parties and did homework there. Their Christmas presents were from the store.  Our son worked at our store (and still does). We were the store at all times. There was no real family time or separation from the store. It wasn't until our fourth year of operation that we were able to hire someone. It wasn't until after several months of training the employee that TheDude felt comfortable enough to leave the store and let our employee handle things, because TheDude has control issues. 

It’s only been in the past year that we've had any real opportunity to have dates, to enjoy birthdays, to go to movies and go on vacation. TheDude, who has serious control issues, took a vacation! We’re planning on going to GenCon as a family this year. 

We will of course get an updated map. 

It took us five years to get here, and it was a ton of sacrifice.  Our family decided (for better or worse) that we were behind the store, and we were willing to make choices that other families probably wouldn't make.

So what about the alternative?

Alternate to that would be to build a gaming hall on my property and start a club with negligible membership/drop-in fees to have a slush fund for stuff like terrain building. My concern there (besides the logistics) would be that I might inadvertently take business away from stores by drawing away customers who would otherwise be gaming at the store. I was thinking (which explains the ozone smell in here) that I could offset this with free advertising or satellite sales displays. That sort of formalized club thing is big overseas but not something I've ever seen here in the states. What's your take on this as a store owner?

Believe it or not, this is not a concern or issue at all for a store owner- not in the long run.   After five years in the business and 30 or more years gaming, there’s a fact we can’t get around. People game at home, in their buddy’s garage, or the basement. The fact that they game elsewhere doesn't change the fact that they game, and we sell what they like to buy.

Clubs and gaming garages with small/negligible fees designed to purchase terrain and other gaming supplies are pretty chill in respects to our store.  Usually, the guys that play in garages and basements come to our place and buy models or things to play with at their clubhouse. They take them back and play with them, and all is well.  There are a few guys that strictly buy on the internet and play at home, but we rarely hear about those guys because they generally don’t come to our store.

In the late 90’s, early 2000’s, there was this upswing of the kind of thing you’re mentioning- the “home store” or “club store”. 

The idea behind these was that a group of guys would all sign up as a “store” and promise to spend so many dollars a month to get a discount on games. Based on the numbers from before, if you got 4 guys splitting a minimum order of $400, that’s $100 each every time they ordered. The big drawback on these club stores was that invariably one of two things would happen: at least one of the guys in the club would flake, or a distributor would figure out the club wasn't an actual business and would yank their account.

The fad kind of petered out after a few years of every club I’ve heard of disbanding due to the reasons mentioned above, and it’s become much less of a concern for actual brick and mortar stores than you fear.

And that’s what it ultimately comes to- we’re a business.

And SnaleKing’s comments are worth addressing, too.

Honestly, I hadn't even thought about it until you brought it up. Now I'm thinking a mile a minute. Work where you love, never work a day in your life. Even min wage, it just sounds so fun.

If none of the above was any kind of clue as to what a FLGS owner goes through, let me put it right out there: it’s a fucking lot of work. It’s certainly in an environment where you are surrounded with things you love and are passionate about, but you work every damn day.

The work that goes into waiting on customers can’t be overstated.  Most of the time, transactions with customers are wonderful and we truly enjoy them.  But the fact remains, it takes a lot of work to give every customer the attention they deserve. Customers can and do require a level of patience that a lot of nerds just don’t possess. From stories about their character, to list discussion, tactical dissertations, requests for painting advice, to general pop culture observations; customers invariably want to talk about any and all of these.

Without fail, they want to talk about these topics at incredibly inconvenient times. Just as you think you've given them adequate attention and move on to side work, your customer will pipe up with something else he wants to say. Many times, they aren't even talking TO you; you just happen to be the person in the room that they are directing their jabber towards. They just want to be heard, and you’re the nearest set of ears.

We hear this kind of stuff all the time. WTF?

These interruptions take place whether you’re busy or absolutely dead- and there are customers that are notorious about doing this sort of thing. I have a specific customer that NEVER wants anything when I am at the counter, facing him. It’s not until I’m dealing with someone or something else that he finally decides he wants a soda- and he doesn’t nod his head or say anything to get my attention. He just stands at the register, waiting. Of course I have to interrupt whatever I was working on or whomever I was helping, and his track record of doing this has lead me to ask “hey, do you want to grab anything before I [do X] ?”. It helps, but it’s frustrating to have to remember to do it with that guy. It’s frustrating to feel like I can’t get anything done because of customers and their need for attention. Being interrupted a lot will do that to you.

We have customers that call to see if we have a product- which we generally appreciate. It saves them time and gives us a better sense of what customers want. We ask if the customer wants us to hold it for them, so that they don’t drive over for something that might be sold. We enjoy these conversations a ton and encourage them. It’s the customers that want us to look for an entire deck’s worth of Magic cards over the phone that are more than infuriating. There are other kinds of inconsiderate behavior that make us want to scream, but the ultimate thing we have to keep in mind is that these folks pay our bills. 

I have moments like this. 

Honestly, it is guys like you that think that what we do isn’t work that makes us insane at times. We don’t just open the doors and wait for customers. There’s so much more to do- from receiving, pricing, labeling and stocking shipments to cleaning the bathroom (used by dozens of gamers every day of the year)  and everything in between that there are times when we don’t see the trees for the forest. 

A prime example of “too much work, not enough time” can be seen behind our cash register/display case at the entrance to the store.  For us, it’s where we stick a million random things “for just a minute”. Our best intentions are that those things will be put away where they really belong; but we get distracted and those million things stay on the table right behind the counter stay there for a whole lot longer than we intend.

It's clean in this picture- shocker!

This kind of situation might be why so many FLGS look less than tidy. We do try our very best to keep the stock and customer areas super clean. We clean tables, sweep floors, take out trash and spot clean pretty much every day, with a deeper clean once a week.  It's a lot of work cleaning up after guys who sit less than five feet from a trash can but leave their crap all over, and not going crazy doing it. 

I hope this gave you guys a look at what it's really like at the FLGS without crushing your dreams too badly. It's incredible and rewarding, but it's work. 

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