RE: [Net Epic ML] Re: The Discount Wars

From: Peter Ramos <pramos2_at_...>
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2000 23:41:32 -0500

Hi!


Amen to that Peter. I can only heartily agree with you. Too many gaming
stores are opened by people only because they love the hobby and not
because they are going to treat it as a business as well. These tend to be
the stores that go down the tubes before the others. I've contemplated
opening a gaming store here in Brisbane for a while now and intend to run
my business exactly as you described.

That's one of my long term goals as well. I love the hobby and love
retailing, its a lot of fun, but its best done when you are economically
solvent via other means. Its too stressful to depend on it as a sole means
of income.

Sure, I love gaming and sure, I'm pretty darned anti-GW but that wouldn't
stop me stocking their stuff and promoting it if it sells. If I ever got
around to it, I'd set up my store to MAKE MONEY, not just cause I love the
hobby. If GW junkies come into the store, I won't push them away and tell
them that GW sucks. If they like the game, I'll sell it to them. I'll
hold gaming and/or painting nights (like GW's gaming nights) and have demo
tables with various game systems ready to go at a moment's notice (space
permitting of course). I'd promote the games as they come in by running
demos once a week. Sure an on-line store can sell for less, but I'll make
up the short-fall by providing a place to play, painted miniatures to fawn
over and a face to talk to. In the end I'll play to the strengths of what
having a store-front means (as Peter pointed out).

You Kelvin I find it utterly exasperating the many store owners I have come
across that cannot grasp these simple means of bettering their business.
Most are content to sell one well recognized product and that's all. they
fail to realize the market is very fickle, today's fad company may not be
tomorrows money maker. Stimulating interest is so simple (although time
consuming), you can make a schedule to demo games every week from different
manufacturers and discount that line to further increase interest. The
customer learns to expect and anticipate this and creates a good buzz for
business. Heck I used to get other regulars to run these demos and I would
"pay" them with a good discount. A lot of store owners fail to tap their
local gamers as a resource because they think it will cost them. It doesn't
it pays for itself and far beyond expectation.

A gaming store is to be an exciting place, the store owner can make it so by
shrewd advertisement. Gaming leagues with free entry and prizes were one
good one for me, expensive for the store owner? No. Whatever I laid out was
easily made up by the drove of people who came to participate and buy. But
you must make your own hype, excitement is contagious you must learn as a
store owner how to spread that around.

Owning a store is not for the lazy, the above things are very labor intense
and require a lot of attention, but the payoff can be quite good.

I too have read the On-line vs Real Store argument and have gotten quite
sick of the knee-jerk reaction many of the store owners have against the
on-line stores. "I'm losing money therefore it must be the on-line stores"
is getting old. In some cases, yes, that might be happening. But if
you're losing money, look closer to home first. See if there's anything
you can change at your local level to improve sales before you go blaming
someone else. That's how the bigger stores operate (and how the bigger
stores got to be bigger stores in the first place).

Whets funny is that this will only strengthen the resolve of people who
support online sources. As you pointed out its far more likely the fault of
the store owner that his business is stale than it is from outside
influence. Of course it is a sign of our time that its always easier to
point the finger at others than at oneself.

Peter
Received on Mon Jul 03 2000 - 04:41:32 UTC