Recently my friend “Max” told me him and another friend “Terrence” wanted to open a game store. He’s getting sick of his current job in IT. Terrence worked at Games Workshop for a time, and I guess they have a pie in the sky idea of doing what they love for a living instead of working at jobs they don’t. Good for them.
I’m just a little :dubious: because neither of them have any experience running a business, lack savings, and are the sole breadwinners in their families. I’m not sure how successful game stores are, but I always thought running a storefront business was a big investment in time and money, and even those people with the motivation and funds to get it going have businesses that flop. I know restaurants have a high failure rate for the first two years.
I rarely make purchases at hobby stores anymore because the internet offers a better selection and cheaper prices for hobbies I indulge in. I feel like they would have a hard time competing against that and maintaining a customer base that actually BUYS stuff and doesnt just function as a free babysitter for parents or pokemon CCG tourney site.
A case could be made that gamers need a place to come together to share in their common hobbies and I could maybe see a business as some sort of communal gaming place that facilitates these hobbyists coming together, but I don’t think it’s much of a business.
As you said, the internet can beat your prices and contains essentially infinite inventory.
Plus, gaming has increasingly gone online with World of Warcraft and the like.
I buy at my local game store because I like having a local game store.
That said, it operates on a shoestring and is clearly a labor of love. It’s as much a gaming space as it is a store. About half the store is tables and there’s always some guys sitting around playing something.
Depending on the gaming scene where you live (and what other stores exist) your friends might be able to scrape by. But they’re never going to get rich selling board games.
I have seen many game stores open and close and there are some great resources and blogs out there saying why you should not do it. Some things I remember -
It is a business and you have to treat it as such. It’s great that they love board games, but if they do not understand taxes, local codes, employee obligations, keeping stock fresh, how much to have in stock versus savings, etc, they are going to get in over their head quickly.
I love board games, love them to death, but right now, as has been for a long time, game stores live and breathe on their Magic: the Gathering sales. I think just having the cards in stock is not sufficient. They need to have the space to allow people to play (8-man drafting tournaments = 24 packs of cards sold), not just for daily play, but also hosting tournaments. That’s why people will buy from you, rather than online.
The place needs to be kept spotless, well-lit, and inviting. You will get the occasional sale from Mom looking for something for the family to play over the holidays, but neither they, nor their kids will want to play in a place that’s a dump. On top of that, welcome everyone to your store, and I can’t believe I saw this on a door at a FLGS (friendly local game store), have the expectation people playing be showered, not swearing, and dressed in clothes that do not smell. Those people may bring you business as well, but they will drive many others away.
Honestly think it is a mistake on your friend’s part, but more game stores are a welcome thing.
We had a new game store open up here last year; they lasted about 9 months. The guy seemed to be into it; he had a good Facebook presence, he hosted “game nights” at a local brewery, and he was right on the busiest block of downtown (though he was upstairs, above another store, so not right on the street. He did, however, have one of those sidewalk board things advertising the store and pointing up the staircase.)
Still, I had the same feeling the OP had. In this day and age, you can’t open a game store and expect to make any money. His prices were way above online retailers and his selection wasn’t as good. You can’t compete anymore.
I did buy a few things from him, but was not at all surprised when he went out of business.
I “invested” a couple thousand dollars when a friend wanted to open a game store 15 years ago. It only took 6 months for him to run out of cash and another 3 limping along paying only selected bills before he finally declared bankruptcy.
This is a rich mans hobby not a viable business concern except in special circumstances (perfect location, well qualified owners willing to work for peanuts etc)
The only way to have a game store succeed is to put your foot in every pot. You’ve gotta be on top of D&D, Comics, Magic: The Gathering, Tabletops, Video Games, Sci-fi Books, Anime, Manga, Graphic Novels, figurines, action figures, plushies, hero clix, warhammer, etcetera. The works (a few can be dropped but not many). After that, you have to have a clean inviting store, have open space for tables left, and be willing to host card nights, movie nights, anime clubs, and everything. Only by getting repeat and loyal customers will you succeed. I know of two successful stores using this combo, but they’ve been established for decades now. As Athena said, starting a fresh store doesn’t have a great chance.
Most mom & pops I know started with no prior business experience and muddled through. Sole breadwinners is another thing altogether though. No savings means they’re dead in the water. Probably for two years they will not be making a profit and they will need a savings or other income to feed their families. If they make past two years they’re probably going to be ok, but those two years are very tough going.
What does Max mean by running a games store? What’s his USP? (And if he doesn’t know what a USP is, he’s doomed.) Game which primarily sells console games and accessories and will be his primary competitor isn’t doing too well IIRC.
Now, if he wants to be a LANmeet type place, that might be interesting.
Games’ manufacturers are moving everything online. Removing the middleman from the picture cuts down on piracy and second hand games purchases. Starting up your own business is hard anyway. Starting up a games store when the manufacturers are doing everything they can to kill such stores is foolish. Your friends are about ten years too late.
I’m pretty sure he means tabletop and collectable card games. He had fond memories of going to a game store with me every Saturday morning to play warhammer 40k and MTG. But honestly, we didnt spend much there, we only played.
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Now, if he wants to be a LANmeet type place, that might be interesting.
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In the early 2000’s some friends of mine and I thought about doing something like this, but we could never work out a decent business model that would show us actually making money (despite the fact we are all IT engineers and could build out the infrastructure ourselves). I always thought it would be cool though, but sadly it wouldn’t be a big money maker.
I think the OPs friend is nuts and is doomed to spending a lot of time and money only to have to go back to IT at some point. Hope he doesn’t completely give up the day job and burn his bridges.
I agree that this is nuts unless the CCG will be able to support the store nearly alone. Sure, branch out into everything else because you don’t wanna be a one trick pony and you can make some money on it on the side, but Friday Night Magic alone can bring in hundreds of dollars a month.
I say this as someone who doesn’t even like CCGs (where “C” stands for Collectible rather than Constructible, I don’t mind regular deck building games.)
Where is he located? He should do some market research and find if there are some hobbyist groups nearby who would move to his store for games.
From my observation over the years, the only way to win is to get lucky and catch a fad, like Magic or DND or Trivial Pursuit when they started. Then you’ll get lots of people coming in to buy stuff, much of which will sit in the closet before long. If there are no fads (and I haven’t read of any recent ones) you’re in trouble.
We had one big game store - I think they owned the building - which got torn down for a supermarket project which never happened, then a big one in a shopping center which lasted for a few year and did a lot of kids stuff and model railroads as well as games and puzzles, and now just a small one.
How many card decks do you have to sell to make rent? Probably a lot.
Max is a little more pragmatic of the two. He enjoys geeky hobbies, but even he is going to balk about something that involves a lot of money and little payoff. He’s gotten sucked into hobbies and stuff before then gotten mad because the hobby was a dead end (nobody to play ___ game with, cost prohibitive, bored too quick, etc). He’s pretty nostalgic, though.
Terrance is very “pie in the sky” type of guy. He comes up with these dreams/schemes and gets incredibly obsessed with them. He often reminds me of Mr. Toad from Wind in the Willows- incredibly obsessed about a singluar thing, then something else comes along and he practically abandons the old thing.
Terrance kind of eggs Max on by encouraging him to pursue things Max previously didn’t have the time/money/interest to do in the past. Because Max is nostalgic, this gets Max excited about the prospect of it. For instance, all of us are into Battletech the tabletop board game. A while back, due to a copyright lawsuit, the company that makes Battletech lost the rights to make some of their ‘classic’ Mech designs.
Terrance got the bright idea to ‘copy’ the models, using [resin? epoxy? idunno:confused: ]. He’d take an old model, pour this gunk on it, make a mold, then use resin to make a ‘copy’. They got it in their heads they could do a side job making ‘duplicates’ of miniatures no longer available because Harmony Gold has the rights to the mech designs. Aside from being a copyright violation, ironically it turned out their Garage Method wasn’t really cost-effective; the cost of materials outstripped what people would realistically be willing to pay. In addition, they never got the ‘copy’ process down enough to actually build a duplicate battlemech- they only managed to duplicate blocky, simple shapes (like rocks/buildings). A nifty concept, but not a money-maker (nor legal, for what they had in mind).
I kind of wonder if this venture is going to end up the same way- a lot of time and money spent for comparitively little in return.
There was a place like this in a bedroom community near my city, and it also had a small used bookstore and a lunch counter (which adds a few other dimensions to the business plan). It closed abruptly late last year; I met the owner’s husband once, and I think he was massively coked up :eek: and if I was right, that might explain why it went under.
By all accounts, it was very popular and well patronized.
I am old enough to remember when game/hobby shops were a common neighborhood fixture right next to the independent video rental store, the TV repair shop and the comic book store.
You don’t see a lot of them anymore. This isn’t because people got bored of running game shops. Even in their heyday, they were a niche product serving a small customer base that mostly acted to drain the wallets of people starting them as hobby businesses. Combine that with the fact that small brick and mortars have a tough time even when they are selling things that people actually want, and you’ve got a recipe for failure. I promise that wherever he is thinking of setting up shop, there was not long ago a game shop that failed.
Nor will he be doing what he loves, unless he loves haggling with suppliers, filling out forms, and dealing with a bunch of bullshit. It’s not like he’s going to be playing games all day-- it’s ultimately about moving boxes, which might as well be anything. While he might get to be on the forefront of the industry, he has to realize that forefront is made up of whatever kids do these days instead of Pokeman. In other words, he’s going to have to peddle the cheesiest adolescent crap out there in volume, and the games that he love will sit on the shelf costing him money.
A much smarter plan would be to open a successful business with a real business plan, and use the money you earn to buy all the games you could ask for.