New game store and employment

[galadgawyn]

I am hoping for some advice in addition to prayer.  Here is the basic situation:

Travis Brown (uthminister
 on the boards) bought a local sports card/comic/game store in Daytion, OH a couple months ago and is in the process of transforming it into a player/game focused store.  I (Jonathan Pequignot) have also been considering a part time job in addition to my full time parenting.  I have been volunteering there for couple months and will begin actual employment there next week.  I believe God has already answered some of our prayers in getting to this point. 

I would like to request prayer that God be glorified there, that we can support our families through our work, that there is opportunity to serve people, and that there is opportunity to spread the gospel there.  In support of those goals can you also pray that God could work through us to make it a successful business.

Since this community might have some experience in what makes a good gaming store, I would appreciate hearing any ideas.  I think there is someone on here (can't remember who) that has experience in running a store like this. 

[katedid]

Congrats! I don't know if this is entirely applicable but the coolest thing I ever saw at a gaming store was this- because it was independently owned the owners would accept other stores giftcards as barter  for more inexpensive things. He would even take like JC Penney giftcards to give to his wife.

[Red Dragon Thorn]

Wow - I'd heard that Travis was considering buying it - I hadn't heard that he actually had - Tell him congratz from me.

[Prof Underwood]

I think there are 5 keys to having a successful game store.

1 - Have an active gaming community at the store itself.  Board Game Saturdays, CCG game Tuesdays, Miniatures Mondays, RPG games Fridays, stuff like that.  Hosting these regular game nights gives your players regular opportunities to play with the stuff they buy at your store, and therefore more incentive to buy more stuff.

2 - Finding a way to reach out to casual gamers.  As much as us SUPERGAMERS love to imagine a world where everyone loves to play games, the reality is that most people have never even heard of Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, much less Fortress America, Diplomacy, and Redemption.  There idea of a game night is playing Monopoly or Chess, so naturally they aren't going to come into your store.  But since this is the majority of people, you NEED them to come into your store.

3 - Having a security set-up that somehow stops massive theft without making your customers feel like they are in a prison camp.  A game store is full of a LOT of small things that easily fit into people's pockets (ie. card packs, dice, miniatures, etc.).  And the typical customer is a teenager wearing a hoodie with pockets.  This is just asking for shoplifting.

4 - Carrying enough of the high-demand merchandise.  There is a GREAT gaming store in the closest real city to me, but they can't seem to ever have Pandemic in stock.  You have to know what games are hot, and make sure that you have them.

5 - Not getting bloated with merchandise that you can't move.  This has to be balanced with #4, because if you get a ton of something in that you think will be hot, and then it turns out to not be, then you just have a lot of money tied up in boxes collecting dust on your shelves and taking space away from what you really want your customers seeing.

Bonus - One other key is getting people to work your store who have the somewhat rare combination of knowing a LOT about a wide variety of rather little-known games, and ALSO have the people skills to NOT make customers run from your store hoping to escape the next zombie apocalypse.  (The good news here is that Travis hired you, so that's one down already)

[Warrior_Monk]

I think there is someone on here (can't remember who) that has experience in running a store like this.

RPGDirector?

Sounds really cool, will prayer (and you should give updates!)

[YourMathTeacher]

Adding to the Prof's post, I can share details about my favorite gaming store here in Florida (Coliseum of Comics):

1 - Have an active gaming community at the store itself.  Board Game Saturdays, CCG game Tuesdays, Miniatures Mondays, RPG games Fridays, stuff like that.  Hosting these regular game nights gives your players regular opportunities to play with the stuff they buy at your store, and therefore more incentive to buy more stuff.

They have regular tournaments and game nights that are clearly posted, but also written in a newsletter that is available at the register. It is also worth noting that they have a large gaming area that includes about ten long folding tables for card/board games, but also (more impressively) about six large wooden tables that are landscaped for miniatures gaming. One table is set up like a castle with a forest and trails around it. One table is set up like a post-apocalypse city. And so on...

2 - Finding a way to reach out to casual gamers.  As much as us SUPERGAMERS love to imagine a world where everyone loves to play games, the reality is that most people have never even heard of Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan, much less Fortress America, Diplomacy, and Redemption.  There idea of a game night is playing Monopoly or Chess, so naturally they aren't going to come into your store.  But since this is the majority of people, you NEED them to come into your store.

Besides game nights that are not tournament-related, this particular store has "Free Comic Wednesday" where every person that comes in can get a free comic book (from older releases). About one-fourth of the store is comics, one-fourth CCGs, one-fourth board games, and one-fourth miniatures/RPGs.

3 - Having a security set-up that somehow stops massive theft without making your customers feel like they are in a prison camp.  A game store is full of a LOT of small things that easily fit into people's pockets (ie. card packs, dice, miniatures, etc.).  And the typical customer is a teenager wearing a hoodie with pockets.  This is just asking for shoplifting.

This store has all shelves angled diagonally so that the cashier can see every row from the register. Now is not a good time to talk about teenagers wearing hoodies in Florida.

4 - Carrying enough of the high-demand merchandise.  There is a GREAT gaming store in the closest real city to me, but they can't seem to ever have Pandemic in stock.  You have to know what games are hot, and make sure that you have them.

This store is well-stocked with both new and resale items.

5 - Not getting bloated with merchandise that you can't move.  This has to be balanced with #4, because if you get a ton of something in that you think will be hot, and then it turns out to not be, then you just have a lot of money tied up in boxes collecting dust on your shelves and taking space away from what you really want your customers seeing.

They have a clearance section for the games that do not move. This has to be balanced with possible financial loss, but as a casual gamer, I am more likely to buy the clearance specialized board game for $10 than the brand new $80 one on the regular shelf.

[galadgawyn]

A little more info: 

The name of the store is Gem City Games which I like a lot more than the original Centerville Gaming Company.  For those that don't know, Centerville is a suburb of Dayton, OH and Gem City is the nickname of Dayton, OH.  Also, Travis said it references the New Jerusalem that will literally be a gem city. 

There are a lot of things that we know that could be done to improve the store but the money simply isn't available yet.  For example:  hire more people, extend hours, replace worn carpet, paint walls, get better chairs/tables, move to a better, larger location that has a bathroom in it, etc.

1.  It seems (I haven't seen all the sales numbers) that the majority of the business is centered around fairly active Yugioh and MTG players.  We have tournaments for those every Fri. and Sat. with about 12 people playing per event.  Including open game nights, this is going to be expanded to Sun, Mon?, Tues, and Wed.  There are also other things scattered in: Redemption, Board games, WoW card game, RPG (pathfinder?), and maybe a couple others.  We sell some heroclix and star wars miniatures but we don't really have any miniatures players or tables for it.  It is a small store.  We have 7 tables set up for games which can accomodate about 40 card players and that takes up about half the store.

2.  My guess is that the store right now is about 95% CCGs.  Travis got rid of the sports and comics because there just wan't much demand for it and the store was losing money a lot of the time on those.  Personally I'm glad to see the comics leave and I'm a big fan of x-men, spiderman, hulk, etc.  The current comics are nothing like the movies or the comics my dad had from the 60's/ 70's.  I will not be letting my son read the current trash.  They have become highly sexualized and get into a lot of paganism and philisophical junk.  I'm familiar with the complaints against the CCG's and other games but the content of the comics is far worse imo.

He does have 1 shelf with a moderate selection of board games.  Not really sure how to better reach out to the casual gamers or even more of the groups we do have coming here.  Other stores in the area have more money and are able to offer more prizes; one store gets anywhere from 30-60 MTG players and once up to 100.  They have a much larger location and also have a dozen miniatures tables, a network of online computers that are pay to play, 7x the space for board game product, etc.  I think our place offers a more personal, friendly enviroment. 

3.  We have a fairly consistent, loyal customer base (including me until recently) and lot of things have been based on trust.  Most people there really do seem to be honest.  It seems that if we start to be more successful and draw in new people, then this could be more of an issue.  The singles and booster packs are behind glass cases.  Probably the biggest opportunity for shoplifting is when a customer asks to look through a box or binder of cards.  There is not money available for video surveillance.  Not sure what else we could do without really hindering the customer friendly atmosphere. 

4.  We have lost some sales because we didn't have the expansion in stock.  I know Travis wants to expand the stock available but this is limited because of money.  There has been a push to expand the singles we have available.  Travis has one of the experienced Yugioh players as the point man on buying/trading those cards.  This has expanded the volume of trade the store does and increased our selection.  The values and demand for Yugioh/MTG cards seems to fluctuate a lot more than Redemption so this is tough to predict what to stock up on.  In the past, the store has had a lot of money tied up in 30 extra boxes of cards sitting there and we don't want to repeat that.

5.  He already has his miniatures/board games marked down.  The store did not previously sell this stuff so I'm guessing it is going to take some time for word to get out to customers about the changes.  When Jonathan Greeson stopped in a month ago, he bought some of the Star Wars stuff because it was a better price than what is generally available.  It doesn't seem like there is much of a need to do this with the CCG's except maybe for extra stock of old commons and rares that people rarely want.  They have been selling stuff on E-bay to help move more product.

Thats the update on the business side of things. 

P.S.  We are working on what kind of customer loyalty rewards program to offer. 

[galadgawyn]

I know there are differences of opinion on the other card games.  I do not want to get sidetracked with debating that.  PM if you want to talk about it. 

I can't speak for Travis but I see it as being in the world but not of the world.  That is tough one for all Christians, I think. 

Working there has provided the opportunity to interact with people that have never gone to church or consider stepping into one.  I recently had a conversation with a guy named Matt, that doesn't believe in God, has a family that doesn't believe, and told me that he really gave up on the idea when he prayed for God to help a friend that tried to commit suicide 6 times and then did right after he prayed.  There is another Matt that I think does believe in God but has talked about the church being just a bunch of hypocrites.  I met another guy there who was very friendly, and then found out that he is with another guy.  Another guy seemed very knowledgeable about historical and religious things but is caught up with various ideas like the gnostic gospels. 

All of these situations have reminded me that people may be laughing and having fun outwardly but that inwardly they are hurting and lost without Christ.  Please pray for them and our witness to them.  I hope the truth and love of Christ will shine into their lives and they will be set free.

I have also been hoping that our Redemption playgroup could get going again.  We lost several members for various reasons in the last couple years.

[irapaul]

Dear Lord, I pray that your light shines in the new Store and that more people come to know your Love Lord.  Thank you Lord for putting into in our hearts to do work for your Glory!

[Master KChief]

Rpgdirector (Nathanial Pearson) is indeed the one that has run a brick and mortar gaming store in the past. It would be wise to seek advise from him.

[uthminister [BR]]

I just now found this thread. Thanks for all the good advice and prayers!

[Prof Underwood]

the majority of the business is centered around fairly active Yugioh and MTG players.  We have tournaments for those every Fri. and Sat. with about 12 people playing per event.  Including open game nights, this is going to be expanded to Sun, Mon?, Tues, and Wed.

I'm not sure this is a good idea long-term.  It seems like back when ABC didn't have any successful shows, and then discovered the mega-hit "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".  They expanded it to be on just about every day of the week.  It was popular at first, but soon wore off due to overexposure, and there were no other shows to fill the void after that.

I think it's better to pick some other games to do on those other nights even if they start really small, and let them build.  You're players who are big into YuGiOh and MTG will look more forward to the days when their game happens, and they might even decide to pick up something else that's happening on a different day.

[uthminister [BR]]

Yeah, that wasn't represented correctly. MTG is on Friday and Saturday, YGO is on Wednesday and Saturday, Card Fight Vanguard is on Mondays, Open Gaming including Redemption is on Tuesdays, and Board Game night is on Thursdays. Basically JP was saying that we were expanding our committed play nights to have something every day of the week.

[irapaul]

Dear Father, I pray that the game store will be blessed exceedingly abundantly above all that we could as or think, in Jesus Name, Amen!

[galadgawyn]

Basically JP was saying that we were expanding our committed play nights to have something every day of the week.

Yes, that is what I meant; sorry for the confusion.  Although that is not quite true anymore since we'll be closed on Sunday.

[jbeers285]

Just saying I will be going to school in circleville, an hour and 1/2 from Your shop and would def be interested in playing in some redemption nights/tournaments if they would come to pass.

[uthminister [BR]]

You are attending Ohio Christian University?

[Jmbeers]

He isn't me and he is transferring into OCU This upcoming year.

[jbeers285]

Yes OCU and I am Jmbeers older brother just to clarify