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On the pulse of the table-top community...
Verse
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...or at least I hope.
The city and area I live in, is totally devoid of fun. I'm a huge tabletop fan... and in a city that is over 900 square miles in size (Jacksonville, FL... I live in a town, 15 min outside of Jacksonville, which is nothing but a stretch of suburbs and strip malls to the city line, where the suburbs and strip malls continue), we only have TWO dedicated tabletop gaming stores... both on the opposite side of town. The rest are just comic shops with a small box of Magic cards and a tiny stand of Warhammer figurines in a corner.
So, after realizing that my 30th year is creeping up on me, real fast, and that I want to get out of my cubicle, analyzing boring data in poorly designed databases all day... I'm going for the American Dream and be my own boss and open a tabletop/hobby store.
I'm already talking with a bank, vendors and a commercial real estate agent, to start moving forward... to either crash and burn or rise above the challenge.
I know I'm hitting tl;dr territory, but what would your dream shop contain? Of course, the standard Warhammer, 40k, Warmachine/Hordes, D&D and all the accessories (paints, books, etc). Magic and the WoW CCG of course. Even games like Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, Vampire: The Masquerade and if Crimson Skies and Battletech are still around... (are they still around in tabletop form?) and even board games.
I know some vendors, like Game Workshop, has officially sponsored events for stores around the country, but what would be great incentives to get the gamers into the store for just store sponsored tournaments? Would gamers like places to play their D&D games rather then the table at their breakfast nook? How do I get them to come in and to keep coming back in? What would you want?
The city and area I live in, is totally devoid of fun. I'm a huge tabletop fan... and in a city that is over 900 square miles in size (Jacksonville, FL... I live in a town, 15 min outside of Jacksonville, which is nothing but a stretch of suburbs and strip malls to the city line, where the suburbs and strip malls continue), we only have TWO dedicated tabletop gaming stores... both on the opposite side of town. The rest are just comic shops with a small box of Magic cards and a tiny stand of Warhammer figurines in a corner.
So, after realizing that my 30th year is creeping up on me, real fast, and that I want to get out of my cubicle, analyzing boring data in poorly designed databases all day... I'm going for the American Dream and be my own boss and open a tabletop/hobby store.
I'm already talking with a bank, vendors and a commercial real estate agent, to start moving forward... to either crash and burn or rise above the challenge.
I know I'm hitting tl;dr territory, but what would your dream shop contain? Of course, the standard Warhammer, 40k, Warmachine/Hordes, D&D and all the accessories (paints, books, etc). Magic and the WoW CCG of course. Even games like Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, Vampire: The Masquerade and if Crimson Skies and Battletech are still around... (are they still around in tabletop form?) and even board games.
I know some vendors, like Game Workshop, has officially sponsored events for stores around the country, but what would be great incentives to get the gamers into the store for just store sponsored tournaments? Would gamers like places to play their D&D games rather then the table at their breakfast nook? How do I get them to come in and to keep coming back in? What would you want?
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Also do not neglect one game, for example the old game store in Western Maryland (since closed down) had a huge warhammer 40k following, but decided that regular warhammer wasn't selling and stopped carrying any stock. Well with the new store in town Warhammer is easily as big as 40k if not larger, simply because the owner knows how to play and is willing to help people.
Demo tables are also a necessity, its a great way to get people into the miniature games and I can't see a reason not to have them.
On the money side I don't know much about your savings but maybe keep your job when you first open, maybe work fewer hours at your store, my friend is open thursday friday and saturday from 6-11 on the weekdays and 3-11 on saturday. Everyone would like more hours but he seems to do well on business and I know he made a profit in the past 3 months he has been open. But keeping his job allowed him to have the business with no real threat to his lifestyle.
Edit: I have more to add actually, be as friendly as possible to your clients and try and develop friendships with them, this will keep them coming back. Have a rule against trading in your store where trading models is fine, but if they want to sell inside the store it will have to be in store credit, reasonable people don't have a problem following this rule. A prize for tournaments is a very easy way to get people in, I think GW gives each store a certain amount of prize support but I could be wrong, its fairly easy to charge an entry fee and then give half of the total amount you get back to the winner in store credit.
I actually have a neighbor of mine, down the road, who owns his own private video game store and his business has been better then the GameStop down the road from him. He kept his day job (he is in the US Navy actually), but his wife works there in the afternoons... I'm still enjoying bachelorhood, so I'm not in the same boat as he is. I'm keeping my job, but I have some friends, that are still in college, who are willing to help out. Despite my complaints of being a corporate peon, I actually have a good career, so I don't want to loose that on something that could utterly fail.
Since he sells video games, I'm thinking of partnering up with him in some fashion, like people who shop at his store gets discounts at mine and vice versa, using receipts or something. Help each other out. I'm actually going to have a full wall dedicated to just Warhammer, Warhammer 40k and their Lord of the Rings line. For the space I'm looking to fill, my cost is around $8,000 bucks on just the Warhammer inventory alone... so, I'm still toying with the idea of smaller wallspace for it and expand it later, if needed.
As far as using the entry fee towards prizes... not a bad idea. I might also see if I can get my video game buddy and maybe we can organize some tournaments. He had a pretty successful Madden and Smash Bros. one at his store last year. I haven't really talked to GW yet about my role in the tournaments yet. I'm still getting the trade account set up and worrying about inventory. Nothing finalized yet. I'm definitely interested in expanding beyond just the GW tournaments though.
I do think it's a great idea to set up tray tables to allow people to work on the models there. I didn't even think of that.
My only thing, is that I want to get people in, to play, stuff beyond just the CCGs and Warhammer. If I can keep them inside, the long, the better. I know shops are attractive to the board gaming, CCG and war gaming crowd, but what about D&D, in terms of giving them space to play? Would they rather venture outside of the comfort of their home or their friend's home to play at a store? I guess that all depends on the set up.
Also, if you're selling miniatures I'd recommend keeping some kind of index that's newbie friendly along with organizing it for experienced people. It might just be my location but I have yet to see a place that doesn't require standing there for 30 minutes looking at every single figurine trying to find the stuff you want as a newbie ("I just want a tiefling bard! I can't even find anything that looks like a tiefling!").
I would be against making the Miniature gaming tables private, Roleplaying yes but a big part of getting a good group is for other players to be able to interact with people doing games or just hanging around. Selling at least drinks is almost necessary since a lot of these games go on for hours.
Actually, that's a great idea! Have like a wall space stocked with starter sets for various games and dedicated for the beginning gamer, so they have a good place to start.
Yeah, I had planned on having food there I can sell. The buddy of mine with his own video game store, he sells candy at the counter and he was even surprised by how much that sold.
Clean toilets are important, too.
My vision is like sliding curtains or something, so groups who want privacy can have it, while others can be open if they wish.
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Don't forget to put stuff on sale sometimes too. I'm a sale-shopper... if it's on sale (and not just like 5% off) it's soooo much harder for me to resist
I am of course MASSIVELY biased, so I would wait to hear thread consensus before thinking this is a good idea.
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I had a friend who owned a gaming store and he told me that if you are not an official Rogue Trader with GW you have a limit to the sales you can do with their merchandise. Like when GW was doing 20% off he was only allowed to do 15%. This was 10 years ago or so, so I may be fuzzy on that. I know my other buddy that was official had GW outriders in the store weekly doing demos and that brought in good trade.
Also - bits boxes and loose figures. If all you need is an arm to mod a guy, it's great to dig through a bit box and pay a quarter or whatever. And if you are doing CCG's, get a card guy. It'll help a lot.
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Yeah, board gaming is something I found lacking in the few other stores around town. I would be interested in selling stuff like Settlers of Catan and Twilight Imperium and other board games that the standard Monopoly or Risk player can graduate to.
Treat your business like a business.
Yes, this is your hobby and you love it and that will help you when trying to sell to customers as your enthusiasm for your product will be genuine, but remember that you are a business first. Make a business plan and follow it. Be open to changing your plan if it is not working. Know what you want to do a year from now, two years, five years and update your plan as you accomplish your goals.
Don't ignore your customers.
Too many times I have seen game stores suffer from what I call the Friend Syndrome. The owner gets a set of regulars/friends who spend lots of time, and maybe some money, at the store. The owner spends time talking to these regulars about the games they like and meanwhile that first time, walk-in customer that has a question about a game is ignored/overlooked. New customer gets tired of waiting for the owner to finish his conversation and leaves. Store misses a sale and the customer lets his friends know all about the crappy game store and not to go there. Learn to tell your friends/regulars to hold on while you deal with another customer, if they aren't complete asses they will understand that you have a job to do.
Reach out to game companies.
Network. Contact companies and ask questions about upcoming releases. Ask if demo sets are available. Ask about promos for pre-orders (and don't sell the sweet promos on eBay, give them to people who actually pre-order through you). Find out if game companies will be in your area for some reason (convention, game day, etc) and offer to host them/see if they can stop by for some demos. Invite game companies to your store if you have a customer base for that company. One of the neatest things about my FLGS is that game companies will plan outings to the store to demo new/pre-release products.
Special ordering is a must.
Obviously you need to keep a stock of games/game supplies on hand to sell, but be sure to have a system to place and track custom orders. Make sure your customers know that if you don't have something on hand, you can get it for them.
Weekly/Monthly events.
Every Wednesday is board game night at my FLGS. On board game night people come to the store expecting to meet other board gamers and play those games. However, the thing that makes board game night successful is that the owner will break out a game and run it for the table. He will explain the rules, run a round or two of demo, then turn the group loose and then do the same thing for another game/group. If you get stuck or have a question, you can flag him down and ask, no problem. Some weeks it's even a brand new game that gets opened up and run.
Game library on hand.
My FLGS has an in store game library. There are DnD books that you can borrow to look up rules and a full selection of board games that you can check out and play. This has proved to be a great sales tool as people can try that $80 game, find that they love it, and then buy it. It's a lot easier to sell someone an expensive game right after they finish playing a fun round with their friends/fellow patrons.
Tournaments
Have a group of people who play MtG? Start hosting MtG tourneys with official prize support. This goes for any game that has sufficient interest.
I'm sure there's more stuff I can think of, but I'm running out of steam and this post is probably long enough as it is.
But if you do, you can do internet sales as well. Also, people who want a book "this instant" because they cannot wait, can find you have it and drive to your store.