Thinking of opening a game store...
July 31, 2006 11:41 PM
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Thinking of opening a Gaming store...help...So me and the wife are seriously considering opening a gaming store, (roughly half board/casual type games and half "hobby" type games). I've read a bunch of stuff on opening a retail store in general, including some threads on here, but not much on anything gaming specific.
So, two broad questions, 1. first off, any great general resources to read/get involved with for opening a retail store i may have missed?
2. We'd especially like to hear from people who might be customers of such a shop, any suggestions you have about really any aspect of the store would be most appriciated.
Little background, we're both long time gamers, I've been playing D&D since the mid 80's, so we both know most of the basics having been customers at many a gaming shop ourselves over the years (our personal fav is game towne in San Diego), but neither of us have much retail experience at all so who knows what little details we might be completely oblivious to. We're speaking with GAMA (trade organization) so thats been, and is going to be, a huge help. We currently plan to carry only gaming and gaming related accosories. There is a great long standing comic shop in town, so no reason to compete with him. We would ideally like to see the store become something of a community, with lots of regular events and special events and things like that.
More than anything, what we're looking for right now is as much input as possible from different perspectives on what people would like out of such a shop.
posted by teishu to work & money (27 comments total)
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They sell miniatures, CCG's, german board/card games, classic board/card games, RPGs, jigsaw puzzles, and the occasional obligatory plush Cthulu.
Most of their money comes from miniatures and CCGs. This is despite the fact that the founder (not really sole owner; he's turned it into an employee-owned thing) is primarily a board gamer and german board games get much of the prime display space of the store.
The way they get people in the store is by having gaming events. Every wednesday night people come by and bring their board games (or buy some) and play there. He hosts tournaments for CCGs and blood bowl and whatever, and they have mini painting workshops now and then.
For board games, they can't compete with funagain on price or selection, but they have some loyal customers because we've all had a lot of fun at the store, and building up a community of people come in on wednesdays and play each other's games is much more useful than a web site where I can read people's reviews.
Good luck with your store! If I'm ever in Stamford I'll check it out.
posted by aubilenon at 12:13 AM on August 1, 2006