Purely anecdotal. Most of the FLGS around Dallas are ho-hum, and slowly dying...

but there is one that has been growing and growing. It has taken over an entire Albertson's Grocery Store that was vacant in a very busy lot. And that store is *PACKED* every weekend.

They do a TON of outreach. Comics, nerdery, gaming, dedicated gaming area. Separate dedicated card and boardgaming area. Hosts their own mini-conventions. It's called Madness Comics and it's possibly one of the greatest gaming stores I've ever seen. It's fantastic.

http://www.madnessgames.com/

It has to be experienced if you're a gamer/geek and in the region.

Quote from: Marleycat;753502But you play DCC and ACKS as your main games so color me not surprised.

Was that directed at me? Nope... these days the main game I play is Pathfinder (not my first choice...) and the system I normally run is BRP/Magic World... with bits from various siblings.
DCC and LotFP are the OSR games I run occasionally for some friends online.

Quote from: Simlasa;753546Was that directed at me? Nope... these days the main game I play is Pathfinder (not my first choice...) and the system I normally run is BRP/Magic World... with bits from various siblings.
DCC and LotFP are the OSR games I run occasionally for some friends online.

I misunderstood then when you were speaking of them. Sorry about that.

Quote from: Marleycat;753548I misunderstood then when you were speaking of them. Sorry about that.

It's understandable because they're the only games that seemed relevant to me in a thread about OSR/D&D stuff, so they're the only ones I mentioned.
The last RPG thing I bought at an FLGS was a quickstart thingie for the newest version of Mutants and Masterminds... several months back.

For those that didn't know....

The acronym "FLGS" stands for:

Friendly Local Game Store.

The acronym or term has been popularized in the magazine(comic)  "Knights of the Dinner Table".

- Ed C.

Quote from: MonsterSlayer;753304Best: some genius decided to put a cafe in there that serves GOOD food. We'd go there just to eat, seriously good sandwiches, paninis, and breakfast rolls.

Honestly, that's probably the best way to monetize RPG players.  We probably spend less on stuff compared to CCG/etc. players, but the two things we need are space and food.

Quote from: Jacob Marley;753526According to the Wizards Play Network - Store and Event locator there are thirty game stores within 30 miles of downtown Minneapolis/Saint Paul. I have been to most of the stores on the list and, as I recall, many of them do have a decent if not exhaustive selection of RPGs. Expanding the search to include outlying areas like: Saint Cloud, Mankato, and Rochester (90 miles from downtown) brings the FLGS count to just shy of fifty!

The Twin Cities is one of the geekiest areas in the nation, and is one point on the axis between here and Lake Geneva wherein TRPGs still thrive.  We're an outlier.

I honestly think FLGS are more service than retail industries. Monetized space for food and internet is easier than trying to pack the place to the rafters with product, especially in the age of easy online shopping. Granted having representative product, like a sprinkling of each, is useful to keep people coming in, particularly during the holiday rush. But the recurrent cash that keeps the lights on during the summer is gonna be the service, not the retail.

edit: Black Diamond Games has a blog that is really interesting on the skinny of FLGS. Very personal diary, business theory, and general good practices.

I have found that the VAST majority of gaming done at any FLGS has little to do with RPGs.  It's all cards and minis, with boardgames at some being big.  Even though my last game (Tuesday nights) was at an FLGS, when I couldn't show up to that game anymore due to a scheduling conflict and offered to run a game on Thursday-Saturday night, I was politely told, more or less: "Nope, the card/war/board gamers are here on those nights."

The entire space for RPGs at this store is about a yard of shelf, though they will gladly order anything in for you.  If they have it on their shelf, I do buy it from them, but Amazon special orders it to my front door, so sorry FLGS.  

This is a very clean and bright place and the staff are great, but RPGs are absolutely NOT on the list of primary attractions for them.  This has been more or less true for the vast majority of shops I've been in for the last 30+ years (of those that had game space, most were comic/book/toy stores otherwise).

Quote from: Jacob Marley;753526According to the Wizards Play Network - Store and Event locator there are thirty game stores within 30 miles of downtown Minneapolis/Saint Paul. I have been to most of the stores on the list and, as I recall, many of them do have a decent if not exhaustive selection of RPGs. Expanding the search to include outlying areas like: Saint Cloud, Mankato, and Rochester (90 miles from downtown) brings the FLGS count to just shy of fifty!

I know there are other stores, but whenever I pay a visit to the Twin Cities, like last Friday, I pay a visit to The Source Comics and Games, and find something worth a purchase.

Humble Fargo has a couple nice FLGS, but only one is particularly thriving, and it is primarily about card/board/mini gaming.

Quote from: Opaopajr;753641. Granted having representative product, like a sprinkling of each, is useful to keep people coming in, particularly during the holiday rush. But the recurrent cash that keeps the lights on during the summer is gonna be the service, not the retail.

As an aside my FLGS owner says that December is easily one of his worst months. He blames it on geeks being hard to shop for and his customers spending money on everyone else's (nongeek) gifts.

He assumes they get money though because January is one of his stronger months.

Quote from: Piestrio;753664As an aside my FLGS owner says that December is easily one of his worst months. He blames it on geeks being hard to shop for and his customers spending money on everyone else's (nongeek) gifts.

He assumes they get money though because January is one of his stronger months.

I've spoken with the owner of one of my local FLGS recently (no, not the one that Koltar works at), and he says the same thing.  December is hard because of the people wanting mass market games for relatives, but January is great because of the people buying games with their Christmas money.

Quote from: Spinachcat;753346I am no fan of Paizo, but hot damn their books look GREAT. I look at the 4e or 5e books in comparison and they just don't compare to the look of the Pathfinder books. Gotta give them kudos.

Certainly the quality of their interior art is the best the hobby's ever seen -- a lot of the artists have devART accounts where they've liberally posted their Pathfinder works, and I've happily stolen them for NPC sheet clipart, en masse.

Quote from: Spinachcat;753340BTW, the FLGS is far from dead. The good ones have become gaming community hubs and can do quite nicely.

Like my FLGS, for instance.  It's right in the downtown, on the main drag.  Large, brightly lit, friendly atmosphere, kids feel welcome.  Three large gaming tables in the back, CCG and Warhammer tournaments more than anything else, snacks and drinks sold.  But the wares?  A lot of Eurogames, a lot of traditional board games, a good sized dart section for the area's dart enthusiasts.  There's a RPG section, and it's not bad, but it's no more than a percentage of sales.  And that's cool.

I think it is more accurate from what I have seen both in the US and Finland that the old FLGS is dead.

The poorly stocked, barely staffed dingy yellow dive full of sweaty neckbeards glaring like morlocks at any who dare enter their self-appointed exile space, that place is gone or dying. The one where the F part of FLGS was always more ironic jest than literal descriptor, because if you weren't male and into exactly the game the owner or the residents were into you were more or less made explicitly unwelcome.

The new FLGS though? The ones that are built to be gaming and nerd Meccas, accepting to all who seek the faith, regardless of taste, experience, interest, or gender, those seem to be doing quite well. Booming in fact.

Imagine that: if you don't make your business hostile to perceived 'outsiders', people will want to go to your place just for the experience of it.

There were never stores that survived dedicating themselves solely to one interest, but bringing it all under one roof and making it a welcoming space to any of those interests can create a pretty great thing, and people respond to that.

The FLGS was always about creating a social space. It is never gonna compete with Amazon, but that's not really the point, anymore than the point of a bar is to compete with the liquor store, or the point of a restaurant is to compete with the grocery store. They're never going to win on value, but they will win by being a place people go to in order to have experiences they can't have at home.

What I have seen is that there's a new generation that gets that, and an old generation who doesn't, and still thinks its good enough to keep milking the same dwindling assortment of social malcontents.

The latter is dead. The former gives me hope there's a future.

I think by the exceedingly strict definitions some are operating under here, I have never actually in my entire life been in an "FLGS".  Even 25 years ago, almost all gaming stores I recall were likely to do more sales in Comic Books and merchandise than actual RPGs.

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