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Gamers owning gaming stores is a 50/50 gamble:

On one side, you are going to have the stereo-typical gamer, overweight and smells like rancid blue cheese crumbles, who then runs the shop the same way he takes care of his personal hygiene.

On the other side, you have the serious gamer, no defined characteristics, that runs his shop as he runs his life and gaming. A serious business that is run well the shop reflects it is as well.

In my hometown, I have seen LGS after LGS being run by the gamers that have failed or barely survive. Either people that should never have been given a business loan (over extending themselves financially or using the shop as their own 40k supply depot) or people whose shop is a direct representation of themselves (disgusting stinking pits of despair).

One shop in particular smells absolutely horrible. I am not exaggerating in that the shop smells like old, old food and body odor which you have to seem to swim through when you enter. The owner is not particularly a slob, but his employees have hair that practically shines with grease under the fluorescent lighting.

In addition the shop, whether in laziness or slovenliness, uses the outdoor garbage containers in their gaming area. I am talking about the 4'-5' tall green garbage containers that the garbage trucks lifts up with it's claw to dump into the back. So last week when Joe Schmoe decided that he was done spilling his supreme carne asada and bean burrito all over the gaming tables and threw it away, it is still sitting in the damn garbage can a week later because the huge can is not completely full and therefore not taken out for the garbage truck.

I won't go into detail on the restroom but I will just give a general idea. I was deployed to Haiti in 1996 with the military. The porta-john facilities were cleaner.

Now in comparison, there are three game shops about 2hrs away in another city and the difference is beyond night and day. The professionalism of the owners and employees is reflected upon the cleanliness and appearance of the store. There are rules for eating, but the customers truly take a vested pride in their shop so really not needed. At the end of the night, customers help the employees clean up the store, including the restrooms and taking trash out to the dumpster. Each time I have gone to these stores early in the morning prior to opening and when the doors are opened, you are entering a store that is clean and professional looking, not looking like the gaming area of a basement gamer who has had friends over all night.

I know we have some store owners on the boards here. I would ask that those of you that take pride in their shop and present a professional and fun atmosphere keep up the great work. There are plenty of customers like myself that will choose your store every time over a pig sty of a shop.

To those of you running a crap hole, you are losing customers. I have no qualms about taking my business to a better run shop and spending my cash there instead of local and I am sure there are others like me.