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I've seen a few threads about player pet peeves, but what about game stores? What, if anything, does your FLGS do that really gets on your nerves sometimes? I'll start:

My FLGS has a tendency when you place an order to not let you know that it came in and just put it on the shelf for anyone to buy, instead of keeping it behind the counter for you. I nearly had it happen with a Warmachine figure I ordered (I happened to be looking at the shelf and saw it), and my brother's girlfriend ordered something and none of us were ever told it had arrived, so someone else bought it when it was on the display rack with all the other figures - I only found out because the person who bought it mentioned it, and I said she had ordered it two weeks ago and he was like "Uh oh.. I think I may have bought that, it was on the rack earlier this week."

What about you?

For awhile, my FLGS or LGS for that matter, had been pressured by a club to cater to its needs with no return on their end. Seemed like if you wanted to play 40k you had to be part of the club. Stores the were popular with 40k would say this night is 40k presented by so and so. If i want to play I dont want to part of a club. Slowly are the LGS and FLGS learning to not do this anymore.

One of the co-owners at my FGS (It's a bit to far to be Local) is a bit testy sometimes. That's about the worst I can say for the place and, I let it slide because of the awesome selection, large gaming area, general accommodating nature of the staff, great twice annual gaming auctions and otherwise great service. Games Plus Rocks!

There was a game store closer by that we gamed at for a couple years. They grew quite large and popular and their gaming space expanded alot. However, our club's regular gaming night ended up on "boardgame" night. Despite the huge number of tables (20+) and our club's history there we were told if a board game wanted our table we'd have to give it up. We haven't been back since. Sorry "Dice Dojo".

My FLGS was great in pretty much every way. Brilliant stock, great managers and just a beautiful establishment all around.

But it had some of the most useless employees I have ever seen in my life. I can imagine it being their dream job, slacking in a gaming store, drinking energy drinks, talking about God knows what with the fellow nerds that came in. Being retail employees was obviously secondary. And heaven forbid they'd have to pause their Malifaux game for something as trivial as money for the business.

When one of the managers had the register it was an amazing store though. It went bust earlier this year :(

In Belfast, there was a gaming shop near the local GW. It was the size of a cupboard with a couple of tiny tables (2x2' IIRC) and soon it was always swamped by MtG players. It didn't stay open for very long. I heard the owner conned the wrong, quite large, quite violent person out of a fair bit of money, and had to scarper.

Then there was the Arkham Gaming Centre. That palaver can be read about here.

So one of my pet peeves about gaming shops is the underhandedness and nerd drama that causes them to close...

These days most non-GW, non-internet gaming stuff I buy is from a general model shop that stocks some PSC and WG boxes. Though I have to echo the annoyance of people who find their orders on the shelf. I never saw the 1/72 PSC stuff on the shelves and had to order it in. I'd go in every couple of weeks to check, and the order wouldn't be in, but did this so often that the guy knew exactly what I was waiting for. Eventually when I went in to buy something else, I noticed a single box of 1\72 Panzer IIIs sitting on the shelf and no mention of whether it was my order or not. I bought it anyway. I didn't see the Panzer IVs. I expect someone else got those before me.

(Also, not a gaming shop, but the same thing happened to me in Waterstones)

Even before that, I waited many months for an order of numbered dice. That one was cancelled too long after it became ridiculous. So third peeve: Shops that let you order stuff and keep you hanging for months to get it.

 Aesop the God Awful wrote:


But it had some of the most useless employees I have ever seen in my life. I can imagine it being their dream job, slacking in a gaming store, drinking energy drinks, talking about God knows what with the fellow nerds that came in. Being retail employees was obviously secondary. And heaven forbid they'd have to pause their Malifaux game for something as trivial as money for the business.

When one of the managers had the register it was an amazing store though. It went bust earlier this year :(

Pretty much this!
I do not know what store Aesop is talking about, but this is a common problem in many gaming stores I have visited.

Worst is the owners/employees who insist on indoor smoking. Just from a stock perspective (as well as the stuff people paint and bring in to play) it's dumb. It's also illegal in the civilised parts of the US, but boy do you get a mouthful if you suggets you don't like breathing in cancer.

I also think Sartre said it best with "Hell is other people." I honestly can't stand a good third of the clientell of any shop I've been in. Between personal hygiene, demenor, and just overall lack of decent humanity, it's a total tossup as to the kind of humanity you have to deal with at the FLGS.

WayneTheGame wrote:
I've seen a few threads about player pet peeves, but what about game stores? What, if anything, does your FLGS do that really gets on your nerves sometimes? I'll start:

My FLGS has a tendency when you place an order to not let you know that it came in and just put it on the shelf for anyone to buy, instead of keeping it behind the counter for you. I nearly had it happen with a Warmachine figure I ordered (I happened to be looking at the shelf and saw it), and my brother's girlfriend ordered something and none of us were ever told it had arrived, so someone else bought it when it was on the display rack with all the other figures - I only found out because the person who bought it mentioned it, and I said she had ordered it two weeks ago and he was like "Uh oh.. I think I may have bought that, it was on the rack earlier this week."

What about you?

Definitely sounds like your store has a disconnect between the special orders and regular vendor orders. Most likely the just lump the special orders into their weekly distributor orders and then throw away the list. The person unpacking the boxes should be given the weekly special order list and separate those orders from the regular restock items, imo.

Employees/owners who don't know or don't care enough to help me out.

No one likes to be stalked and harassed when they shop but that doesn't mean ignore your customers. I walk into a game store to either play a game or buy a product often times both. I am happy to buy my games at a store that I play in. So when I have to hunt down and employee, pry them away from a game or conversation to ask a question and they don't know squat and act annoyed that I bothered them it ticks me off.

A game store is like the only place where I want to give you all my money. Seriously, if you are a FLGS owner and you read this, most of your customers want to spend every penny they can in your store. Often the biggest thing stopping us is you. (and sometimes the wife).

If I ever went to a game store where the owner was a good sales person I would be so broke. (or if they had a good selection). Often I don't buy because their is nothing on the shelf!

hands_miranda wrote:
Worst is the owners/employees who insist on indoor smoking. Just from a stock perspective (as well as the stuff people paint and bring in to play) it's dumb. It's also illegal in the civilised parts of the US, but boy do you get a mouthful if you suggets you don't like breathing in cancer.

I also think Sartre said it best with "Hell is other people." I honestly can't stand a good third of the clientell of any shop I've been in. Between personal hygiene, demenor, and just overall lack of decent humanity, it's a total tossup as to the kind of humanity you have to deal with at the FLGS.

Would that be the same Sartre that said smoking was the most important thing in life?

But yeah, I see your point.


My pet peeve is cliques. I've been to a lot of shops all over the world, and while most of them are friendly and welcoming, some of them made me feel like I had walked into a Klan rally in a Boy George outfit.

I am completely tolerant and open of all religions, but FLGS owners flaunting their religion as being the best, etc is irritating to the extreme.

Also, one of my LGS' owners used to have their regular business meetings in the general gaming area, in clear hearing range of customers....

Store owners who like to play with their "power".
I get along with this guy well enough because he knows I do not need him and I spend the occasional money there.

Anyone he figures out is "dependent" on his store for their gaming clubs or general socialization he likes messing with them.
You could say that his "clique" is treated well enough, as well as strangers, but familiarity breeds contempt in any other instance.

Abuse of being the "boss" can look ugly and a "my way or the highway" policy can make busy times at the store more exciting than it needs to be.

Places that don't have prices on their boxes bug the heck out of me.

hands_miranda wrote:
Worst is the owners/employees who insist on indoor smoking.

Just report them. Problem solved.

Also, hours. If you don't open before noon on weekends, I probably won't be able to buy there. (Kids...)

We wrote:
Employees/owners who don't know or don't care enough to help me out.

This. Unbelievable how keen some people are to not make a sale.

Just moved and going to be around for several months at least, so I go in to check out the FLGS for some new infinity. I check out the infinity shelf which didn't have everything I wanted. No problem, I'll make an order and look around for one of the FOUR salespeople. Two of them are playing some new game with a rep from the game company One guy looked right at me only to continue with his game a second later. The other two are by the cash shooting the gak with a big group of kids. Waited around for 5 minutes and just left. When I go into a store I expect the staff to acknowledge me and ask if I need any help. If it's busy I don't mind waiting, but the staff clearly weren't interested. Haven't been back.

I went home and placed my £400 order with Element Games. Got it two days later.

All of this makes the high open/close rate of hobby stores far less surprising. My local store is a disappointment, too. Rarely ever anything in stock outside of new GW releases, and unable to get in special orders. The first time I tried, they got in the wrong Malifaux item, after nearly a month. The second time, I waited a month, only to get the wrong Infinity blister. Waited another month for them to get in the right kit, only for them to tell me that it was impossible to get Infinity in the United States! After that, never again.

Special orders at my LGS are a joke, as is requesting merchandise to be held at the counter. I have made multiple attempts over the last 5 years to special order items and either the items aren't ordered or if they were ordered I am not notified. It has gotten to the point where I'll order online instead of wasting time making a special order request.

Getting in-stock items held for pick up is also difficult. Just this last Friday I called to hold a special edition of Monopoly at the counter until I got off work and had time to pick up the set, and when I arrived not only was the set not behind the counter, it was left on the sales floor. It was the only copy available and luckily I arrived before someone else nabbed it, because I would have been livid if the game had sold out despite my having a copy "held" for me. Friday wasn't the first time a hold wasn't honored, either.

Overall the LGS is great, and their customer service is superb, but in the specific areas of special orders and holds they are amateur hour.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
Special orders at my LGS are a joke, as is requesting merchandise to be held at the counter. I have made multiple attempts over the last 5 years to special order items and either the items aren't ordered or if they were ordered I am not notified. It has gotten to the point where I'll order online instead of wasting time making a special order request.

Getting in-stock items held for pick up is also difficult. Just this last Friday I called to hold a special edition of Monopoly at the counter until I got off work and had time to pick up the set, and when I arrived not only was the set not behind the counter, it was left on the sales floor. It was the only copy available and luckily I arrived before someone else nabbed it, because I would have been livid if the game had sold out despite my having a copy "held" for me. Friday wasn't the first time a hold wasn't honored, either.

Overall the LGS is great, and their customer service is superb, but in the specific areas of special orders and holds they are amateur hour.

I can see putting it out on the floor if it's been like a month or whatever and nobody has come in. But when things tend to be out of stock and have to be backordered, and I'm not informed that it's even arrived, I would be more than a little miffed at it just being placed out there without even being notified that it came in so I can buy it.

I don't mind supporting my FLGS but its things like that which make me prefer ordering online; I get a large discount and have it guaranteed rather than order it, wait 2+ weeks and either have it be sold to someone else or just never arrive, without being none the wiser that it ever was in the shop at all.

WayneTheGame wrote:
I don't mind supporting my FLGS but its things like that which make me prefer ordering online; I get a large discount and have it guaranteed rather than order it, wait 2+ weeks and either have it be sold to someone else or just never arrive, without being none the wiser that it ever was in the shop at all.

Same here. I mainly play at home, but like having a large, well-stocked LGS nearby so I make it a point to buy things there "just because" so I can help the local gaming community stay active, and well, local. It is hard not to feel like a sucker, though, when those good intentions lead to delays and paying full retail plus sales tax for an item I could have easily gotten faster and cheaper online.

For my particular LGS they do so many things right it is surprising that special orders are such a stumbling block for them, especially given how important it is to handle those requests accurately and efficiently to keep customers happy and spending money within the store.

Having a terrible website.

I know, kind of a lame thing to complain about. However I think almost every major LGS in my area has a very poorly made and maintained website. Webstores that have been implemented but never filled with items, just plain ugly design, and even outdated stock information. One local store stopped stocking Flames of War months ago but you'd never be able to tell that from their website.

 robam45 wrote:
Having a terrible website.

I know, kind of a lame thing to complain about. However I think almost every major LGS in my area has a very poorly made and maintained website. Webstores that have been implemented but never filled with items, just plain ugly design, and even outdated stock information. One local store stopped stocking Flames of War months ago but you'd never be able to tell that from their website.

That is actually really annoying. I don't mind the ugliness of it all but when items have obviously been out of stock forever the site should be updated. My experience with that was looking for a very hard to find Coryphee metal miniature for Malifaux. After looking high and low for it I went to an old site I used to go to back in the day where I found some in stock. I bought,two of them, but I had a feeling that I'd be out of luck as the website hadn't changed one iota in six years. Long story short I got a call from them about 3 weeks later, they were out of stock. No big, I was kind of expecting it. It would have been nice, but it was just annoying.

 Eilif wrote:
However, our club's regular gaming night ended up on "boardgame" night. Despite the huge number of tables (20+) and our club's history there we were told if a board game wanted our table we'd have to give it up. We haven't been back since. Sorry "Dice Dojo".

This is perhaps the single biggest thing that would turn me away from a store. If, for example, I can only get out to play 40K on Thursday nights, but Thursday nights have been declared to be some-other-game's night, then I clearly won't be able to be a customer of that store.

Sure, I get the idea of having special nights/days for specific games to drum up interest and sales, but still leave some space for the others.

I hate LGS owners/empoyees who don't try to even make a sale because they are too busy playing their own games. That is just stupid!

Regarding Holds. I own a bakery business and get calls to "hold" items in our case all the time. Our policy is "First Come, First Serve" for anything in our baked case. The reason is, if we hold it and you forget to come by an dpick it up or get too busy... we just lost money.

We do have special ordered items be made and picked up, but we make it that day just for them. We don't put that in the case. If these people don't show up, we sell or donate their stuff and then they go on the "Pre-Pay Only List". I.E, no baking until money has been exchanged.

Holds and Pre-orders can be a risky thing.

 Easy E wrote:
I hate LGS owners/empoyees who don't try to even make a sale because they are too busy playing their own games. That is just stupid!

Regarding Holds. I own a bakery business and get calls to "hold" items in our case all the time. Our policy is "First Come, First Serve" for anything in our baked case. The reason is, if we hold it and you forget to come by an dpick it up or get too busy... we just lost money.

We do have special ordered items be made and picked up, but we make it that day just for them. We don't put that in the case. If these people don't show up, we sell or donate their stuff and then they go on the "Pre-Pay Only List". I.E, no baking until money has been exchanged.

Holds and Pre-orders can be a risky thing.

While I can see that, at the same time though if I go to a store and ask "Can you order me X model?" I would assume that you'd let me know "Hey that model came in" so I can come down to buy it, since I have no idea what day it might arrive, or if it will even arrive at all. If I order something and when it comes in it just goes up on the shelf, I have no idea if it ever came in or if someone else happened to buy it. I shouldn't be expected to follow up every day asking "Did my figure arrive yet" just to make sure that someone else doesn't grab it.

A quick tale, to illustrate a point.
Until about 3 or so months ago, the relatively small town I live in had two LGSs.
One was a FLGS, and the other was, well, just a LGS.

Every time I go to the FLGS, the owners are awesome, they know the products they sell because they're gamers, and they have no problem with pre-orders and holding them for their customers. They also give a fair discount for GW products.
Every time I went to the LGS, the owner and his creepy sidekick would just sit behind the counter and not even acknowledge I had come in the store. If I bought something, 99% of the time they still said nothing. Not a thing. It was weird. Even when the effort was made on my part, I'd get some grunts and maybe a sound bite or two.

Notice how I referred to these in different tenses? That's right, because the LGS went out of business. Everyone had the same experience as I did, their business suffered, and they packed up and left.
But not before they had to liquidate their stock of everything in the store. Picking up 3 entire Warmachine armies at 80% off was pretty badass.

Meanwhile, the FLGS thrives, and people couldn't be happier.

When the employees focus on their friends when you are tryin to make a purchase.

 Easy E wrote:

Regarding Holds. I own a bakery business and get calls to "hold" items in our case all the time. Our policy is "First Come, First Serve" for anything in our baked case. The reason is, if we hold it and you forget to come by an dpick it up or get too busy... we just lost money.

We do have special ordered items be made and picked up, but we make it that day just for them. We don't put that in the case. If these people don't show up, we sell or donate their stuff and then they go on the "Pre-Pay Only List". I.E, no baking until money has been exchanged.

Holds and Pre-orders can be a risky thing.

They're not risky if the FLGS makes the effort to do it right. It's pretty simple.
-Get Name and Number
-Set a solid date for how long it will be held (A couple days should be enough)
-Hold it that long then put it back out.

FLGS's need to be willing to accommodate gamers in this kind of way if they want to compete with online shopping.

As for stores putting special orders out on the sales floor and/or not calling the customer, I've never heard of this and it is worse than bad salesmanship it's downright insulting. When a special order comes in I always get a call from my FGS and it's always waiting for me behind the desk with my name stuck on it.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
However, our club's regular gaming night ended up on "boardgame" night. Despite the huge number of tables (20+) and our club's history there we were told if a board game wanted our table we'd have to give it up. We haven't been back since. Sorry "Dice Dojo".

This is perhaps the single biggest thing that would turn me away from a store. If, for example, I can only get out to play 40K on Thursday nights, but Thursday nights have been declared to be some-other-game's night, then I clearly won't be able to be a customer of that store.

Sure, I get the idea of having special nights/days for specific games to drum up interest and sales, but still leave some space for the others.

It was pretty frustrating. We didn't all spend alot of $ there, but two of us lived near by and were regular customers, and the same 4-6 club members had been meeting there every other week for some time. In the end though I guess they decided that there bread was buttered somewhere else. Shortly thereafter the member closest to the LGS moved away. We probably would have continued to game up there anyway, but not with their this-day-only policy.

Really though, while I like "Games Plus" alot (a different store where we still game occasionally) and it's fun to play at the a game store once in a while, I prefer to game at club member's homes. I don't game often enough at the Games Plus to be part of the community so when home gaming is really laid back, less driving, we can drink, only folks we like are there, and the terrain is great why go anywhere else?

Regarding special orders, the worst I've seen is when my friend paid in advance for something, gave them my contact details to pick it up (he lived quite far away), and then nothing.

I went in when I knew they were expecting their Infinity order, told them I was picking something up and produced the receipt, and they went and got it off the shelf. A paid for product, no contact made to pick it up when it had clearly arrived, then put it out for general sale.

The same store also ran me around on a Battlefoam order for roughly 6 months, telling me Battlefoam hadn't sent them their ordered product. I made my own separate order and received it long before htey got the order I made. I actually had a tiff with a Battlefoam employee on Dakka talking about it, and they said they had no outstanding order with that store. The store just plain forgot to actually order my foam.

I really like the store. The staff are super friendly (with possibly one exception), they have an amazing gaming hall and a great hot food service right in the store so you can game over lunch. But their special order practices are terrible.

The owner at my LGS is horrible with stock. If you want something special in 40k he will either have 20 boxes in stock or none for months. Same goes for Flames of War, if its something that is fairly common to a lot of lists he will never order it, but if its uncommon there will be piles of them.

When store owners get pissy about you going to other FLGS. You don't own me or my business, good sir.