Bartertown.com

For several Years now I have been thinking about opening a hobby/gaming store in my hometown of Statesville NC. Just trying to see if there are many B-towners that are near the area or if any other store-owners can give me some advice. Honestly I dont know if a gaming store can even succeed in this area. Would love to have some people help bounce around ideas.

well I lived in Augusta Georgia... for a while at least... and the store there that did the best was one that did comics books and games... they had a trade in system for the regular books because that was what the store started as... a used book store... then added comics then games... including rpg and miniature... the only other one that is in the area now does games... miniature and board and some rig... both have play area... seems to be a must... oh and both also do Magic and Yugio (including running tournaments)

Tournements I have noticed seem to be the big money draw in the stores I have visited. I was thinking of running 40k tournemnet slightly differently. Mainly dude to the length of time it takes to play a single 40k game I was thinking of running it as a Campaign more then a round robin tournment? Have it played of the course of a month or more then award prizes at the end. Any time you want to play a campaign match Its $5 for each player which goes to the prize pool. The used book store Idea has merit as well. To my knowledge there is only 1 bookstore in my town and it is New only.

Generally the problem with campaigns are the time investment. Take someone like me, I can get our once in a while and play in a tourn on a weekend, but would be unable to get out regularly for a campaign or a league.

The solution.....

Is do both! That's way you can serve more players.

Tir McDoul wrote:Tournements I have noticed seem to be the big money draw in the stores I have visited. I was thinking of running 40k tournemnet slightly differently. Mainly dude to the length of time it takes to play a single 40k game I was thinking of running it as a Campaign more then a round robin tournment? Have it played of the course of a month or more then award prizes at the end. Any time you want to play a campaign match Its $5 for each player which goes to the prize pool. The used book store Idea has merit as well. To my knowledge there is only 1 bookstore in my town and it is New only.

Curious, what would you do to keep loyal customers buying from you at MSRP, Instead of going to online stores to buy at 20-30% off retail? As a brick and mortar store your overhead is much higher, on top of that you'd have to have quite the stocked inventory to keep people happy and satisfy those impulse buyers.

here are some suggestions on how to make a store work.

1 sell online. extra stock and stock that you can replenish quickly.
2 offer discounts, either 'regular buyers' get a card, sign up for a mailing or FB list, and then get 10-15% off. Various amounts depending on the items. I know some items cost more and you get less of a discount than others.
or offer discounts for large purchases. ie.Buy a box of CCG, save 20%. Buy a case, save 25-30%. [GW would have to be different since thier base cost is higher] There used to be a store down here that offered 5% on $50, 10% on $100, and 20% on $200. that was back in the 80's when prices were lower, so you could adjust for inflation.
offer a discount on PRE-PAID orders. It literally costs you nothing to get the item.

Barter gaming stuff for stuff you can make good cash on. I've been lucky enough to trade gaming stuff for a lot of cool stuff like gold, silver, chainsaws, tools, solar panel parts, legos especially mini figs, old gijoe toys, old transformers, GUNS and AMMO etc etc not on here of course but there are placesI have Good luck

My hometown store - Dewayne's World - started 20 years ago after the guy had worked for another comic book shop for about 5 to 7 years probably. He started small and gradually over the years built up a store that pretty much has everything for your geekish needs - Warhammer, Flames of War, board games, comics, trade paperbacks, statues, magic packs (not singles), some action figures, plus he has a huge gaming room where people play 40K, Heroclix, etc. He has taken a do-everything kind of approach, but his success lies in having a loyal fanbase of friends/customers and having what you need on the spot, instead of having to wait a week or two by mail.

I'd suggest finding a successful game store and talking with the owner too.

My FLGS actually does more in Board games than all the RPG and Minis.

You would also be surprised how well you can do on food and drinks.

Make the store a destination and youth hang out. You need plenty of play space. make it clean and inviting. There are a lot of game stores out there going out of business due to poor business management skills. You need to know how to work and run a small business. It is not just hanging out with your buds playing games.

The pay to play mechanic is terrible. It will drive people out of your store to play where it is free. You want people there buying your pop chips and product. Paying for tournaments is a different thing. Make it affordable with all or most of the money going to prizes. You want to start arms races amongst you gamers.

Although you may not want it you may have to consider the card gamers as well. We as mini players all hate them but they gotta drop at least $500 on cards every 3 months to stay competitive. That pays a lot of bills.

Check the GAMA website, there's a lot of information there, they do have also a program to match you with an existing owner.

google it there's a lot of infos really interessing about the perception of running a store and the reality of it (mostly how long can you last without a pay before you have to close the store)

the store i worked had to make 1000$ a day to make it even, was easy on week ends and big release day, on a monday afternoon it was quite a different story.
it is all about knowing your market, you have to see bigger than just the games you enjoy. Board games, Comics and CCG are a good market but it takes knowledgeable staff that you trust (i mean trust with your bank account)
miniatures are not sustainable by themselves, i saw a lot of stores opening and focusing on minis and ccg, they all closed within the first 18 months.

Clean, clean and clean... that's what makes the parents come back and spend, the beardy unwashed friend that smells like hell might be nice as a friend but he's the first resaon consumers won't come back. Lightening system is also important, if you can't see a product, you don't buy it...
Everything happens in a store, even the unthinkable like putting to trash the 20 boxes of new D&D minis because staffer doesn't what it looks like

Also you have to consider yourself about pricing: are you offering a service related to gaming products or discount products... one is more viable in the long term than the other.

my 2 cents

J