I am not a business owner, never have been, probably never will be, but I will share a few things that alienated me from one of the longstanding brick & mortar game stores* near where I live
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[li] No option to special order if they didn’t carry something I wanted[/li][li] The store was super cluttered and not well organized[/li][li] And the most important: the staff were dicks[/li] [LIST]
[li] They’d hover over you and yell at you if you didn’t handle the merchandise really gingerly. God help you if you didn’t put something back precisely how you found it (everything perfectly stacked and arranged)[/li][li] They had a real judgey attitude if you asked if they carried something that they deemed too mainstream for their store (A dismissive “No” is all you’d get for an answer)[/li][/ul]
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What I’d love to see in a brick & mortar game store is the option to special order something that’s not in stock or that they don’t usually carry *and * have it shipped to my house. A lot of clothing and shoe stores will do this and I take advantage of it often. My two favorite local independent bookstores will also do this. Not having wasted a trip makes me feel kindly toward the store.
it would also be lovely if they had a small section devoted to non-nerd games, but I know square footage is expensive.
It went out of business a month or so ago. I won’t pretend I didn’t feel some schadenfreude, though I’m not under the illusion that me taking my business elsewhere was what tanked them - I stopped shopping there a few years ago. OTOH I’ve spent hundreds on games since then, so …
Oh, I’m not a marketing consultant or anything like that.
It’s just kind of amazing to hear people start talking about budgets and advertising and what-not, without even knowing WHO they’re trying to advertise to and what for.
Cart before the horse, and all that.
And Jophiel, that sounds super cool and way beyond what I was getting at, which was to NOT have the neckbeards openly looking at and creeping out about the hentai/manga comics with kids around, or for that matter, even having them out in the open, if you plan to try and get kids into comics. There’s nothing else that will likely prevent suburban mothers from bringing their kids to a comics store than a large display of weird, pervy foreign comic books and odd weirdos enthusiastically checking them out.
I was going to ask, with all the people saying “keep the game rooms full”, are they already currently full? Because you might have to make space for the wider base and look at which groups filling the rooms brings you revenue.
One thing you might want to consider is to take a tour of the major comic and game stores around your state. See what they are doing and how popular they are to get an idea of what successful strategies might be.
Maybe stay open late and have free movie screenings (especially in the run up to big genre event movies like Avengers: Endgame or Star Wars 9)? And sell popcorn and soda. Might have to check the legality of running movies, even for free, in a business, but maybe Disney and companies like that welcome that kind of exposure.
I’d also consider whether you’re a game store or a comics store. My feeling is that in years gone by, they were kind of lumped together more due to the nerd culture overlap, but that outside of that, there wasn’t really any real overlap between the two.
This is probably pretty obvious from your sales records- one or the other either sells a lot more stuff, or (more importantly) makes more money.
You can buy a movie + PPR or just PPR (so you can screen your own personal copy) from vendors like Swank.
Back in the day, in age of film, there were companies you could rent a film from and your rental price covered PPR. I don’t know if those services still exist </creaky-old-person-voice>
You can also buy an “umbrella license” from MPLC but I don’t know how pricey that is. Might be worth it if you want to show a lot content.
There are, literally not figuratively, people playing magic or waiting to play magic during all open hours. Guys come in - almost always guys - when they open the doors and hang out and shop until someone else shows to play MtG. So during real shopping hours there’s usually 10+ people in the gaming space. Evenings and weekends more.
Games sell more right now. But I feel that might be a function of the current owner. I’d like to see if we can experiment with adding more emphasis on comics but for the moment, it’s games.
It’s there, but aging. It’s clear the current owner doesn’t like it. He orders a few statues and such - princesses, birds of prey - and thinks that means he’s appealed to the ladies somehow. More collectibles are called for. There are a lot of action figures on the walls but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone buy them much.
Big complex multi-hour board games are hot right now. Like $150 games. I have a number of friends that are very into the board game trend.
I know of a game store that sells board games on consignment. When I’m in that town, I’ll try to stop in, to see if anything interesting is for sale. The games have labels that state if they are complete, if they were in a smoking house, if there were pets around them, etc. There is a limit on how many games one person can have in consignment at a time, as well as a time limit. Got to keep the inventory turning over.
I have no idea how much the store makes off of used games, but I know that the area around those shelves is always busy, with people looking for out of print games, unusual games, or just a bargain.
I would guess that the profit on used board games is in the store credit they’re probably purchased with.
So far I have:
Podcasts on local nerd culture
Craft meet up
Cosplay design and photo contest
Loyalty cards
Beginner game classes
Make your own comic/game
Jeopardy
Comic trivia
Horror/goth nook for make up, costuming and so forth
Game trading
Accepting game trade ins
Movie night
I’d argue the utility from your perspective of game trading/game trading nights. That doesn’t buy you a damn thing- you’re basically providing space for people to cut you out of the business that’s being transacted. Put another way, you’re paying for power and what-not for people to come in and buy/trade games from each other, and NOT from you.
A better option might be to have trade-ins and sell used games. Or possibly even a game rental option.
Also, any cosplay related stuff is kind of outside your core business model, unless you actually sell cosplay stuff. How is having cosplay contests going to help you sell games? I mean, it would get some nerds into your shop, but it’s an activity not targeted at board gamers or comic collectors.
I bet this is going to be your biggest challenge; why is someone going to want to go into your shop and buy a copy of “Small World”, or an expansion to “Sentinels of the Multiverse” if they can just order them online?
Older comics are often more of a hands-on type thing, but board games/miniature games aren’t so much that way.
One reason would be a welcoming environment where they can ask questions and learn about things before they invest; another would be a chance to hang out with friends and meet new people.
I like to see games before I buy them. I love the idea of demonstrations, and even between demonstrations, having an unwrapped copy that people could look at to understand the game would be neat. It would make me more likely to drop $80 on a game. And the copy could be sold as a used game later.
