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Recently I've been toying with the idea of opening my own game store. This may end up being nothing more than a fleeting thought, but at the very least I want to ask a few questions. To those Dakka members who either own or operate a store, how did you establish your store? When you first opened your store, how long was it before you saw profits? The last two and most important questions, did you leave/give up a lucrative job/position to open said store? If yes, do you regret giving up that job?

It has to be said that opening a store in the current financial climate is definitely to be thought about very seriously. I myself owned store about two years ago, it was very small renting premises from the local council. I must admit looking back I really did enjoy it, on till it changes into a job most people start out thinking that they can extend their hobby by opening up a store this is not the case, as time goes on the day-to-day grind soon becomes apparent. And all you will think about in the back of your mind when someone walks in what are they going to buy How much are they going to spend, and how can I make them come back to spend in the future, that is all as a retailer you think and that should never change getting wrapped in chit chat is what your consumer will want you to do and if that makes them buy something then keep doing it if not focus on those that it will work on.

The biggest concern of opening the store is the expense involved stock rent are only two of many expenses which in time seem endless. And you will not be able to afford anyone working for you as the expense isn't worth it most parts you be working by yourself on your own with friends and family helping. Think about this your spare time will disappear and it needs to for this to become a success.

Think about it like this just as you are turning the key to the lock whilst opening the door you need to say that this business owns me money and it needs to pay you back your investment today tomorrow forever the minute it stops doing that, stopped doing it
businesses are not loyal to you and it's easy for you to be the fall guy it has to pay its own way from day one you are not there to plug the gaps quite simply put it's a business that pays its own way and is going to pay back the money that you could into the business to get up and running

The biggest lesson that I learned is everything that you sell needs to be bought again by yourself to resell, all though it seems a very stupid question it becomes all too apparent that the middleman the distributor is the real winner you are nearly at the end of the line,

Having to pick up a lot of the expense even GW at the minute isn't exactly making millions and you need to consider this if for example you give up your job which I highly recommend you do not at least to start with that is money you're all ready automatically losing.

Other bit, I would recommend you need to dominate the local gaming population no competition should be anywhere near yourself you need to be a one-stop shop that fits all needs, I save a shop dedicated to wargaming or gaming in general is doomed to fail, the computer game industry is a growing market online lan centers is definitely the way you want to go and have your shop as a sideline.

Overall when it works it can be very rewarding but to get to in work is always the hard but personally I find it didn't work for me. You simply are not making that much money to make it justified and the expense is endless.

There's a good series on rpg.net about this topic you might want to read... I've read a few of the articles and the author seems very honest about the good and bad points.

Don't. Not right now, at least. Save up for another year and let this economy blow over and get in on the resurgence.

http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/OpeningAGameStore.shtml

oni wrote:Recently I've been toying with the idea of opening my own game store. This may end up being nothing more than a fleeting thought, but at the very least I want to ask a few questions. To those Dakka members who either own or operate a store, how did you establish your store? When you first opened your store, how long was it before you saw profits? The last two and most important questions, did you leave/give up a lucrative job/position to open said store? If yes, do you regret giving up that job?

There are several ways to gain information about opening a game store:

1) Games Resource Forum. This is for would be game store owners. You can ask questions, get answers and have your business plans (and lots of other things) ripped to shreds and analyzed by people in the industry.

2) Your local to me. It's less than an hour from Bethlehem to the outskirts of Philly where I'm at. Take the turnpike to 476, keep going south on 476 to rt 1, then 5 miles on rt 1. Turn into the mall, walk in the big doors, look for Superman up top, and a huge LOTR display in the window. I can give you quite a bit of hard info on what you would need to open a gaming store, especially as I know your local area.

Mike at Showcase Comics

You're in Philly? I used to date a girl who lived on Broad St. back when I lived at the shore, Wildwood. Is Jim's Steaks still around? What about Zipperhead's? Ahhh Philly. Never had a stromboli to top yours.



Ghidorah


*edited- typo*

Ghidorah wrote: Ahhh Philly. Never head a stromboli to top yours.

I...don't know what to think about that...

Showcase comics? At the GRM? HAHA, I used to work at that mall and was in there all the time on my lunch breaks. Great place, great staff. You always had 2 or three gaming table and ran tourneys and stuff. I used to get my comics and GW from there before I moved back to Bethlehem. Glad to see that your store is still going strong.

When i was growing up in Bethlehem in the 90s, Cap's Comic Cavalcade was the best shop for gaming. What ever happened to them? Last I saw, one of the former owners was working at Spencer's gifts in the Lehigh Valley Mall. Now there's the Encounter in Allentown(but they don't do GW) and some other small one (I don't know the name) in Hellertown maybe? Also surprising was that Hobbie Town at the LVM has a table and a large stock of GW.

You'd be better off with a hot dog cart, at least then when your fan bases brags about all the cool gaming supplies they got from the War store you wont be pissed that they are playing on your gaming tables telling these stories of grand savings......

Listen to Mikhaila! He has been in business with the same hobby-comic store for over 20 years now. Considering the failure rate of game stores he is probably in the top 1% of successful game store owners out there.

Ghidorah -- Zipperhead is "changed"... moved arround the corner from South St and changed its name. Has a website: http://www.crashbangboomonline.com/

Saint Anuman wrote:You'd be better off with a hot dog cart, at least then when your fan bases brags about all the cool gaming supplies they got from the War store you wont be pissed that they are playing on your gaming tables telling these stories of grand savings......

This is the main reason why I wouldn't focus too much on new miniatures if I owned a game store . I'd stock the stuff but I'd also have a big sign behind the counter that said "I buy used armies". Just working out of my basement I make pretty good money on the side by buying armies from people getting out of the game, breaking them up and putting them back up on ebay. Some dude just wants his figs gone, the store owners won't buy them and they end up in the back room trying to find someone that will. I'm usually the only guy with cash in hand so I get the stuff for next to nothing. Do store owners sign agreements with GW or something that says that they're not allowed to buy used stuff or do they just think that they'll be competing with their new product too much? I very rarely spend any time in game stores anymore and it still happens to me all the time. I have to wonder how often store owners turn down people who offer to sell them their used armies for next to nothing without even thinking about it. Even if you don't put the stuff on your shelf you can still put it on ebay and make a killing.

Alpharius wrote:

Ghidorah wrote: Ahhh Philly. Never head a stromboli to top yours.

I...don't know what to think about that...

What? You've never had a stromboli?

stecal wrote:Ghidorah -- Zipperhead is "changed"... moved arround the corner from South St and changed its name. Has a website: http://www.crashbangboomonline.com/

What about Jim's Steaks on South St.? Home of the cheesesteak...



Ghidorah

Jim's steaks is still there. But the comic shop on Southstreet is a shell of its former self.

Sadly, yeah. I sold my South Street store about a decade ago, and they don't do gaming anymore. I just get fed up with being bled by the city. Taxes, fines, and having to pay people off to not tax and fine you. Nothing computerized, and hell to deal with. About the only thing I miss is the South Philly food. I'd hit Jim's Steaks everytime I was down. Luckily, I can still just zip down from Media and make it to either Jim's or Pat's in about 25 minutes if it's late at night. 24/7 cheesesteaks is great. You can hit them at 4 am.

Answering other questions:

Caps' Comics closed up a few years ago. The original owner sold it to Dean, he ran it for a few years, then closed it up. Was a great store.

Do store owners sign agreements with GW or something that says that they're not allowed to buy used stuff or do they just think that they'll be competing with their new product too much? Nope, no such agreements. Stores buy what they can sell. If they don't want to sell used miniatures, then they don't buy them. Not to hard to figure that one out. I don't buy used sofas, records, or baseball cards, as I don't sell those in my shops. I do buy and trade for a hell of a lot of used GW figures. We recondition armies, sell them on ebay, break them up, and hold our own live auctions. Other stores don't, we're all different. One of the things about being 'independent'.

Yes, the stromboli are excellant. I never even had one when I grew up on the west coast. I was unaware of thebeauty of good stromboli and cheesesteaks. It was a dark period in my life.

its going to be a rough ride.

Le Grognard wrote:Don't. Not right now, at least. Save up for another year and let this economy blow over and get in on the resurgence.

It's not going to blow over. Not in a year, anyway.

Pharaphrasing from Vegas Vacation:

"Why don't you give me half the money your were gonna to put into the store, then we'll go out back, I'll kick you in the nuts, and we'll call it a day!"

In general any start up business will not see a profit for at least 13 months.

The biggest problem is that you have all your overhead that you have to pay for.

There are reasons that gaming stores tend to fail, and it isn't because people don't have the passion or work ethic.

Just think of it this way:

How much is rent?

How much is other business costs (Liscence, interest on the loan, power, water, shipping of product, website design, people working other then you, benefits for you or the employees)?

Decent Healthcare costs $300+ per month for a young person in perfect health.

Lets just say you have a 40% mark up on your goods. If you have $30,000 worth of business expenses (not unheard of for a good location in terms of rent, insurance, ext.) you would need to pull in $150,000 worth of sales each year so you could take home $30,000.

Or in other words you would need to average more then $410 a DAY in sales if you were open 365 days a year.

And that is only for $30,000 per year in salary.

Solution: Marry someone who can provide your healthcare for work.

300 dollars saved, time away from home.

Divorce lawyers are going to love you.

haha.. can't benefit your employees however.. unless you tell them that excuse too.