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Yeah it’s starting to feel like it’s something that would need a local community in place first. I’ve tried posting on a few local Facebook groups and the idea was well received, but they don’t have a whole lot of members. I know that’s probably just a small percentage of the amount of gamers that would go, but still. I think it would have to be an added feature of another business, like that bar in Florida.

But I think going the coffee route it would probably be best to start off as just a coffee shop specializing in blended drinks and light pre-made snacks or easy to make sandwiches and wraps. Then we could possibly have a few Xboxes connected just for free for customers to hang out and play, if they are buying stuff. And give the whole place a video game theme with drinks named after video game characters or whatever. Just make it a fun place to hang out.

If things go well enough we can slowly expand the gaming area with more stations, and then have special events we charge for. So going that direction, I wouldn’t even do the PCs at all until much later. Would probably have to wait and see how successful it is and would probably need to move to a bigger location too since all those desks would take up a lot of space. I’d really love to have it chock full of PCs, but they’re not gonna make any money unless there’s butts in seats all the time and it will likely take a long time to build up a big enough following for that.

But then, with a “real” coffee shop, I’d have to be open early for morning commuters and I’m really not a morning person I’d probably have to hire morning staff, and I’d be the night time boss. But I think that could work, making the coffee shop the primary business and the games are like extra entertainment hopefully to entice people to stick around and keep ordering stuff, and then grow the gaming side slowly and more cautiously.

Throw it in blue bell near the school, and you might have a winner if you the coffee shop route.

We’re currently looking into the coffee shop idea now. Not in any kind of rush, taking it slow, looking into suppliers and coming up with menu ideas besides just coffee. Very long way to go and a lot of numbers to crunch to see if we can even do it.

Another idea popped into my head today.. not like it’s something we could afford, and I’m kinda thinking the margins would be too low for it to be profitable, but for wishlisthing fun.. what do ya’ll think about a place that’s more of a high end PC gaming component store? Like a PC Speed Shop. We would stock the latest and greatest gadgets from companies like Steelseries or Razer, you can test out the fancy keyboards and mice and VR goggles before you buy them. Unlike places like Best Buy where they just have a few generic cheapy things on display.

We could also build custom PCs with all the bells and whistles and blinky lights, and the PCs in the gaming area would be examples of systems we can build for you, so you can try before you buy, or just come in and play. And the gaming area would have refreshments, but probably less of a focus on restaurant things, and more on the retail side. Maybe just vending machines? So it’s a place to hang out and play, but also a place where you can try and buy the coolest newest gear, rather than just ordering it from amazon and hoping you like it.

I think it could be cool, but likely wouldn’t make much money.. pretty sure margins are fairly low on electronics in general, so the majority of the money would have to come from PC building... We could sell systems online of course too, but still.. I think you need really high volume for something like that to work. Just kicking around more ideas though...

 Necros wrote:
what do ya’ll think about a place that’s more of a high end PC gaming component store?

It's too many simultaneous ideas. You're talking about food, and gaming space, and events, and now selling PC hardware, and there's no focus. If you try to do a little of everything the most likely outcome is that you do none of it well and go bankrupt. And the lack of focus in the ideas you keep coming up with should be a giant red flag that you're nowhere near a point where you have enough of a plan in place to commit any money to an idea.

As a separate business specializing in the custom PC concept it might be viable. The "try before you buy" element probably isn't going to give much return on your investment because there's such a small number of potential customers within reasonable driving distance, but building ready-to-play gaming systems is a valid business concept IF (and this is a huge 'if') you can do an amazing job of it and sell at a favorable price compared to online stores. At least, unlike the "try before you buy" concept, that's something you can sell through the internet if you're good enough. But if you aren't already building custom PCs right now it's unlikely that you're going to get the skills required to do it as a full-time business. Getting there is a huge time and effort investment, not something you can do on impulse because you thought it might be a good business idea.

Sorry, I meant selling PCs as a completely different idea.. not a cafe at all. Basically a shop that has extra space in back or a small warehouse or office area converted to have PCs set up for gaming. There wouldn’t be any food sold except maybe for a couple of vending machines if customers wanted that. But other than that, similar concept, you pay to play and we would run special events & tournaments on weekends.

I’ve been building PCs for the last 20 years or so. I usually build a couple of systems a year either for myself or for family and friends. When it comes to more high end gaming systems it can be a lot cheaper to build yourself.. I built a pretty big system for a friend recently, all the parts came out to around $1700, but all the same guts in a Dell/Alienware system was $2500. I was expecting to build all of the systems in the cafe too, also to cut costs a little.

I thought about trying to set up a gaming pc building online biz before, but the only way I’d really make money at it is if I was able to do like 10 systems a week or more and I was afraid doing that much would get too monotonous and stop being fun real fast. But as an actual store it would be different, I’d be able to buy parts wholesale (not like there’s a big margin though) and have a few employees to help build too.

Anyway, just kinda thinking aloud and throwing ideas around to see what sounds good. Overall I’m starting to feel like a game center really won’t work unless it’s offered as part of another successful biz, and that’s where the real money would have to come from.