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Author Topic: Support Your FLGS  (Read 9941 times)

myleftnut

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #45 on: January 15, 2021, 01:35:48 AM »
I order from a local FLGS because they give me a 20% discount on anything not in stock.  They are the only respectful store in town as far as I’m concerned so I support them.  We have game store market saturation where I live.  Some other stores have employee so douchee I don’t buy shit from them.

Anyone else experience this?  Seems the game store employee twat ratio is higher than other businesses. 
« Last Edit: January 15, 2021, 01:39:01 AM by myleftnut »

Mishihari

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #46 on: January 15, 2021, 04:11:06 AM »
Part of the problem (probably a major part) is that most people who run gaming stores have fuck all idea of how to conduct a business. Most lack simple financial skills vital to ensure cash flow and keep the business running; they won't do things like just accept the fact that they will NOT make any money for a year or two if they're remotely interested in being open, and thus won't buy stock or even do crap like turn the fucking heat on in the dead of winter (not making up that last part).

I wonder if there's a more causal mechanism.  Maybe people who do know how to make money see that having a game store is not a good way to do it.  There are easier and surer ways to make money.  I have business skills, but I wouldn't consider opening a game store unless that was my dream (which it isn't).

Marchand

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #47 on: January 15, 2021, 05:02:19 AM »
I remember dropping into a place called Games Paradise or something in Sydney, back when I had a job where I travelled a lot in Asia-Pac. It was a great store with a fantastic range of stock (OSR stuff etc.). Except for the older lady working there, who downloaded to me how much she hated it because the customers were all weirdos. I guess because I was between meetings and wearing a suit, she thought I wasn't "one of them". Can't remember if I bought anything on that occasion although I definitely did at some time.

Anyway, bricks and mortar retail was in plenty of trouble (by no means just games stores) before COVID, although COVID has accelerated it.

I think the discussion about supporting LGSs, F or not, is moot (not denying stores could benefit from a few extra dollars to get them over this recession). They will eventually have to find a viable business model.

I'll throw this out as a contrarian view - we could be on the brink of the golden age for the FLGS. They will be able to ride a wave of more mainstream acceptance of gaming, and cheaper city centre commercial real estate as downtowns progressively become a place we go to socialise rather than shop and work.

That's so long as the SJWs don't fuck it all up by scaring off the punters, of course.
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Abraxus

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #48 on: January 15, 2021, 08:25:33 AM »
Part of the problem (probably a major part) is that most people who run gaming stores have fuck all idea of how to conduct a business. Most lack simple financial skills vital to ensure cash flow and keep the business running; they won't do things like just accept the fact that they will NOT make any money for a year or two if they're remotely interested in being open, and thus won't buy stock or even do crap like turn the fucking heat on in the dead of winter (not making up that last part).

Second though I will also say that gamers are part of the problem as well in that they think a store can carry lots of product even if it just sits on their shelves gathering dust and not being sold. It's all well for them to say "they should carry more stuff than the popular stuff" when it's not the gamers own money being spent. One can damn well bet if they owned and they would be spending their own money they would likely do the same imo.

Store owners need to be run by those who have an idea towards making money and making their clients happy. While also not losing money. Gamers can't expect a store owner to take a financial loss for them because they are and their buddies want to play obscure and unknown rpg XYZ either. Expect the owner to buy the rpg and possibly play that rpg on a rainy day. It's easy to point the finger at the store owners when many gamers either have high expectations simply for buying product or equally clueless about how a store should be run .
« Last Edit: January 15, 2021, 08:27:39 AM by sureshot »

Razor 007

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #49 on: January 15, 2021, 09:39:27 PM »
I understand that stores can only afford to stock what sells.  A store can't afford to be a museum.

However, it gets old having to pay full retail for every single item.  Every item is cheaper online.
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Charon's Little Helper

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #50 on: January 15, 2021, 10:05:04 PM »
I understand that stores can only afford to stock what sells.  A store can't afford to be a museum.

However, it gets old having to pay full retail for every single item.  Every item is cheaper online.

Yeah, I don't think that a lot of game stores realize that they're competing with online shopping. Some people will buy from them anyway to support the local FLGS, but many won't.

In college there was a shop that has a yearly membership fee to get 15% off everything. They didn't make as much per item, but that's assuming that they didn't have more turnaround due to lower prices and being semi-competitive with online shopping.

David Johansen

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #51 on: January 15, 2021, 11:16:24 PM »
Well, I've been running a game store for nine years.  If there's any mistakes left to make I haven't found them :D

I strongly believe the future of gaming retail is in house print on demand and 3d printing.  Imagine being able to have everything, ever, in stock, all the time.  Just push a button and wait five minutes.  Sadly, the infrastructure doesn't really exist on the publishing end of things.
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Thondor

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #52 on: January 16, 2021, 03:48:44 PM »
Well, I've been running a game store for nine years.  If there's any mistakes left to make I haven't found them :D

I strongly believe the future of gaming retail is in house print on demand and 3d printing.  Imagine being able to have everything, ever, in stock, all the time.  Just push a button and wait five minutes.  Sadly, the infrastructure doesn't really exist on the publishing end of things.

There's certainly something to that idea.

I'm working to integrate with a POD service sometime this year, and I do want to find someway to make that a viable resource for FLGS. They'd still be getting shipped from somewhere of course. Policy wise, I still don't know what that looks like though.

Garry G

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #53 on: January 16, 2021, 06:42:36 PM »
I need to get back to my FLGS when it's open again. I really dropped off after having kids and that's a shame as the owner always remembers me and has given me great discounts over the years just because.

Abraxus

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #54 on: January 16, 2021, 08:29:32 PM »
The only saving grace with my FLGS was the used section then the new owners came in and priced most of the desired stuff out of existence. I could understand say a 1E Oriental adventures in mint to very good condition selling for 40$. When it's a beaten up copy tied together with yellowed scotch tape they can go to hell.I don't care if the OSR has taken off I might as well buy a copy from Drivethrurpg or a seller from Amazon for that price in that condition. As well the Frecnh co-owner suddenly developed a national conscience and wants a certain percentage of the used material to be in French. Unless it's D&D that material lasts even longer on the used shelves. Most French gamers tend to buy in English simply because one core book can be 50-60$ more than the English one. As well their online site sucks balls as everything seems to be temporary unavailable with their useless suppliers. I do not want them to go under. They sure as hell ain't helping themselves to stay in business.

Arnwolf666

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #55 on: January 17, 2021, 09:59:53 AM »
The big problem my LGS has is lots of people go their to play. But few of them spend money there.

Abraxus

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #56 on: January 17, 2021, 10:39:19 AM »
The big problem my LGS has is lots of people go their to play. But few of them spend money there.

Exactly a LGS is a business not library of personal home gaming room. My advice if you want to give it to tje owner is to have him charge a fee to those who play regularly 5$ per person for a four man group and 3$ to 5+ gaming group per session or they can pay a lump sum ahead of time.

finarvyn

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #57 on: January 17, 2021, 11:45:43 AM »
The big problem my LGS has is lots of people go there to play. But few of them spend money there.
I have two nice game stores near me, but one of them is a lot friendlier than the other.

The "bad one" is run by really nice people, but their policies are bad for business. If you want to play a game at their store they have excellent back rooms you can go to (maybe a half dozen separate rooms with doors and walls and such) and they charge something like $5 per person to play there. One bad thing is that they only let you eat (overpriced) snacks that they sell and can't bring in anything from the outside. I understand that, but it's sometimes frustrating if you only drink half of your water and want to bring it back the next time ... you need to buy a new one. Another is that they demand that any rulebooks you use have to be bought from their store, so I could spend $100 there on board games but if I want to play 5E at the store I need to have bought the 5E player's handbook from them. One guy ran a demo of a Conan board game and it was so neat that I bought a copy, and later I found out that he got in trouble because some of the stuff he was using was from a kickstart instead of from the store so he was told not to run demos any more if he couldn't follow the rules. I thought that was so unfair because the demo did lead me to buy a copy of the game, and I would have bought the KS stuff if they had been able to stock it. This same store used to have a thriving Savage Worlds group who ran all sorts of games, but the "buy it here" policy drove them all away. Again, these are really nice folks who have no idea how to run a game store. :(
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David Johansen

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #58 on: January 17, 2021, 11:55:03 AM »
Well, in store gaming has mostly been a mistake, I spend too much time gaming and not doing things I need to be doing.  Worse still, it's generally not what I need to be running to make money.  There was too much competition to charge for table space.  You just can't make a dollar at it when everyone else is giving it away for free.  Nine years and I still can't get a stable Rolemaster group going, what a waste!  ;)
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Brad

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Re: Support Your FLGS
« Reply #59 on: January 18, 2021, 10:14:30 AM »
One guy ran a demo of a Conan board game and it was so neat that I bought a copy, and later I found out that he got in trouble because some of the stuff he was using was from a kickstart instead of from the store so he was told not to run demos any more if he couldn't follow the rules.

If true, this is probably one of the dumbest things I've heard of a store doing. Please, don't run games at our store that results in direct sales if you use something literally unattainable from the store itself.
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