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Hey Dakka, I've been thinking for ages about opening a LGS on and off, and after many brainstorming sessions and late night 40k games, its really got me thinking... what makes a a great LGS? of course good tables, regular events, friendly knowledgeable staff, but what else? I want to hear things that make you love your LGS, or things you WISH your/a LGS had, things that you think would make it super awesome maybe even things you hate and why!

real quick: I am in no way looking for business advice or reasons why i should or shouldn't do it. please leave that out of this topic... if you really feel that you have some golden nugget of truth/experience to shed, please PM me. I'm not opposed to good advice, just don't want people spouting off about money or business ethics here.

- Knowledgeable, friendly staff is important. If they don't know what they're selling they're not going to do a good job convincing you to buy it. If they're not friendly, you won't want to shop there anyway.
- Gaming area is necessary if you want a community. If people can't play there, you miss out on a lot.
- An active gaming group is once again necessary for a community. If people are coming in every Thursday night to game or whatever, the store gets regulars who can suck more players in. Also, you're guaranteed to get a game in.
- Good stock. If you keep popular sellers in stock, they'll move. Taking orders is great too as people are often willing to wait a week to get their order if it means supporting their FLGS.
- Finally, location. My FLGS is at the back of a hallway behind an ATM machine. It's not exactly convenient, and it's made building a group there a struggle.

Staff.

The problem with a lot of LGS I have seen with their staff is that many of the staff are more of the sort who are more interested in the games than the community. You can tell when the staff were not chosen for their social skills, and it shows.

It also shows when the staff cares about the store itself. They need to take the time to keep it clean, welcome new people and make the experience a good one.

Brother SRM wrote:- Finally, location. My FLGS is at the back of a hallway behind an ATM machine. It's not exactly convenient, and it's made building a group there a struggle.

That sounds great, they can escort you around the corner weeping as you hand over your last monies for your final fix of plastic crack.

Another good thing to have: Snacks (like sandwiches, or things like that) and drinks. Its not an absolute must-have, but it can really help.

Tyr13 wrote:Another good thing to have: Snacks (like sandwiches, or things like that) and drinks. Its not an absolute must-have, but it can really help.

Oh god, I can imagine some fat sweaty nerf-herder discarding his bag of crisps and making a bee line for your models, hands outreached sticky with grease and crumbs. The horror.

The thing that makes the best LGS IMO?

No magic. God damn magic players are a PLAGUE upon us.

Horst wrote:The thing that makes the best LGS IMO?

No magic. God damn magic players are a PLAGUE upon us.

Unless you want to stay in business. Almost every store I've been to has made the majority of its profit from Magic. No doubt miniatures, RPGs, and board games make up a very significant portion of a game store's profits, but it's my understanding that for most, Magic outsells everything else combined. I'm sure someone who, you know, actually runs a store can provide more insight than I can.

Horst wrote:The thing that makes the best LGS IMO?

No magic. God damn magic players are a PLAGUE upon us.

Except Magic brings in the money.

For me I'm looking for friendly, knowledgeable, competent staff who are
either willing to stock big or go the extra mile to fulfill special orders.

ok, fine, but then at least segregate them.

Have like 2 drinking fountains, 2 bathrooms, separate but unequal. Make their bathroom full of broken glass, etc.

Horst wrote:ok, fine, but then at least segregate them.

Have like 2 drinking fountains, 2 bathrooms, separate but unequal. Make their bathroom full of broken glass, etc.

Hey, i will not use a bathroom with broken glass. :/

On topic: friendly and knowledgable is is pretty much the biggest thing since the biggest off-put for me is staff that are either arrogant or over-pushy. (I get it, I brought a girl into the store, please do not use this oppurtunity to force hello kitty marines down my throat.)

Second to that comes gaming space. It will benefit you a lot.

Nom

Friendly, knowledgeable staff
Late hours(at least 10pm if not later)
On site snacks/soda.
Good location(my old LGS that I ran was up stairs with no elevator)
Plenty of open gaming space for all games.
Public bathroom.

Howard A Treesong wrote:
That sounds great, they can escort you around the corner weeping as you hand over your last monies for your final fix of plastic crack.

Considering the other entrance is via a sketchy back alley, that sounds about right. It's like 40 feet back from the street and there's no storefront at all.

Horst wrote:The thing that makes the best LGS IMO?

No magic. God damn magic players are a PLAGUE upon us.

Magic players are paying customers too, just like you are. Two of my best buddies are Magic players who started playing 40k. There was an absolutely godawful group of hooping, hollering, screamo-blaring and baby carrying Naruto players at my FLGS, so I just stopped going there on their regular meeting day. They buy things at the store and keep them in business so I can't complain as long as I don't game there on Thursdays.

Here is what irritates me the most and should be avoided. I travel alot for the army, often i get bored so I check out the LGS sometimes for something to assemble in the evenings or maybe something to read...whatever. Anyway often I have my wife with me. We walk in and I am not bragging..ok maybe a little, but my wife is beautiful. I mean long red hair, 34c-26-34 (damn near a perfect hourglass) at 115 lbs. So point is she attracts attention, especially from gamers. Now we are obviously not regulars, we dress nice and begin to browse the store. However, often, not a single person will ask us if we need help or if they can direct us to a product. Most often this is a result of the employee who is supposed to be working the counter is engaged in one of the following:
a) some epic (at least in his eyes) story about some WoW adventure from last night
b) sitting at a table playing MTG or warhammer or whatever
c) watching his regulars do one of the above.

This drives me crazy. I can tell you if I owned an LGS, first rule would be you are not permitted to game while on the clock. If you want to do demos, have them at scheduled times and have extra bodies there to help with the counter. Anyway thats my

No doubt ..RPGs make up a very significant portion of bittorrents downloads

There you go, I fixed it for you in relation to RPGs!

Ive been to many game stores for a very long time, and MOST of the crappy stores have one big thing in common
..
.
owners who want games played THEIR way. IMO the most important thing to a game store are owners who let people who follow the rules play games their own way. Also, hours are a big deal. If the store isnt open then not much else matters

I can't believe the # of stores that have been RUINED by the owner being super self righteous and forcing everyone to do things his way in relation to playing casual games (Atleast 3 in Pittsburgh area alone)

Aerethan wrote:Friendly, knowledgeable staff
Late hours(at least 10pm if not later)
On site snacks/soda.
Good location(my old LGS that I ran was up stairs with no elevator)
Plenty of open gaming space for all games.
Public bathroom.

For me, this post nails it. Remember that the FLGS becomes the focal point for the gaming community. Foster that community and your chances for success will increase markedly.

Thanks Dakka, there is some great stuff here and a lot of thought out well said posts, and that's appreciated. But id also like to hear some more creative ideas if people are willing about what would be standout/different/awesome. now im not talking gimmicky like a bouncy house in the store omg /gasp. but like what kind of cool fun events have you seen/heard of or dreamt up, what sort of neat game day draws etc, i was thinking like a terrain day once in a blue moon where we lay out tarps and you can come in and buy or bring your materials and maybe use our tools/equipment to make cool terrain, for people who don't have a giant basement or garage to work in or workshops etc etc, liability waivers assumed you get the idea!
also would what do you think of a game store that has no traditional stock, maybe some sheets of polystyrene or gallons of pva glue. obviously this is just spitballing etc but you get what im saying (i hope)

keep the great posts coming, any helpful/useful info is very very appreciated.

quickfuze wrote:This drives me crazy. I can tell you if I owned an LGS, first rule would be you are not permitted to game while on the clock. If you want to do demos, have them at scheduled times and have extra bodies there to help with the counter. Anyway thats my

I gotta agree with this. At one point, we had a gaming table set up in the front of the store (normally all the gaming tables were in the back) so that the one staffer on duty could play in the weekly league and run the store at the same time. It got to be a problem because it was hard for him to keep an eye out for customers AND focus on a game at the same time, and his games could very well go on for a while if he had to keep getting up to help a customer.

Other than that:
Can't be stressed enough, friendly and knowledgeable staff, having good stock (I recommend having a lot of different types of stock, not just a 1-2 systems. Our FLGS sells models for nearly a dozen different systems.)

Good gaming areas - and to expand on this, I heartily recommend having gaming leagues if you can. Our store pulls in a lot of money by running a weekly league for about 5 different games (40k, WHFB, a few others), $10 to join in, with store credit prizes at the end of it for the top players. One thing that I see fairly often is people saying that they would start playing a game, but they have no one/nowhere to play it. Having a store-run league can really help bring in customers who might be hesitant to play a game that's expensive if they don't know whether they can find games or not.

I do recommend having some sort of refreshments for sale. If your gamers are there for hours at a time playing 40k, they'll want to eat/drink while they do so.

As someone else mentioned, having late hours. It's often unpredictable how long games will go on - my FLGS hours run until midnight for members.

Host events such as 'Ard Boyz or other tournaments. It could really be a boost to have people come in from elsewhere, find a decent store, and if not buy things, tell others about it. If it's feasible, host tutorial nights on occasion as well. Our FLGS once had a night off from the league to bring in an airbrush and someone who would take the time to prime everyone's models (with their own primer). Have a tactica night, teaching new players basic tactics for winning games. There are a number of players who got really discouraged from the game because our longtime group of gamers had way more experience and trounced them every time.

Best of luck with the game store! Hope it all works out!

Bloodfist wrote:Hey Dakka, I've been thinking for ages about opening a LGS on and off, and after many brainstorming sessions and late night 40k games, its really got me thinking... what makes a a great LGS? of course good tables, regular events, friendly knowledgeable staff, but what else? I want to hear things that make you love your LGS, or things you WISH your/a LGS had, things that you think would make it super awesome maybe even things you hate and why!

real quick: I am in no way looking for business advice or reasons why i should or shouldn't do it. please leave that out of this topic... if you really feel that you have some golden nugget of truth/experience to shed, please PM me. I'm not opposed to good advice, just don't want people spouting off about money or business ethics here.

A great game store has good selections of product, sprinkled with a knowledgeable base of staff, with a good crowd of gamers.

Great selection of scenery, a good crowd that supports the store, and takes time to show thier knowledge with the new guy, while being able to support gamers requests for orders and get them in on time helps to cultivate the game community, and in so they want to play more games there.

snacks are an after thought, when your staring down a first edition boxed set of D and D or Gamma World. This card thing isn't going away, the old saying is adapt or die. Gamers both P and P and table top minis can coexist if the right amount of supervision and interaction exists.

Truly legendary game stores are memorable for thier selection, crowd and how a customer is treated when they walk in.

Just my opinion.

Our FLGS has "kids night" every Friday just for kids to play 40k against each other. It's become a huge event filling the entire store. They hire a couple of der boys (teens) to help out with rules and such. Talk about building your customer base... Wow!

- Clean
- Well stocked
- The staff should be doing it for the hobby, not just doing it for a job if you see what I mean.
- Good organisation
- Wide variety of events for all ages and skills.
- Good gaming tables/terrain
- Also, a lounge area would also serve well, where people can eat and chat, where parents can have a tea while waiting for their kids etc. Obviously it would only be for larger stores, but certainly a good idea nonethesless.

I agree that a lounge area with a couch and tv would be nice for people waiting for friends to arrive, eat some food etc.

Also, my LGS has coasters for things like soda on their gaming tables which are mandatory, as resurfacing a table isn't cheap or easy.

I wish my LGS was closer so I could spend more time there. 45 minutes away makes me a sad panda.

One of the biggest things that's unique and cool about my hobby store is that it has a room with windows on three sides of it. The room is also isolated and over looks a busy street so it feels like us 40k

players are the M.V.P. Also, the woman that runs the store lets us order from a variety of diffrent resturants using the shop's phone that she gives us. Do your best to not give the store a clausterphobic and crowded feeling, and

always have at least four tables around.

One thing we did when I ran my LGS was do spur of the moment drafts for MTG. If we had 5 or 6 people who were down we'd do a store draft with a few packs as prize support. An easy way to get a few bucks in the store and keep players happy with prizes.

Location. It has to serve a large player base. Near a highway or big road is fantastic. If I get confused looking at the mapquest, it's in a bad place.

Prices. If I know I can get something for cheaper, you're not getting my money, unless it's something that's rare (like vallejo paints, for instance). Rare, or difficult to obtain items draw me in.

Good Workspace. I like to paint socially. If I have no place to do that, I'm not going to come in as much.

Staff that know what to say. I don't care if you don't know every privy of fantasy. As long as you can make an educated guess or admit that you don't know, I'm happy. Modesty is important, something not all GW red gaks/ black shirts have.

Events and such.Make it fun, and encourage participation with perks

Have sales whenever you deem it worthy

Let people paint models to go up on display! I love painting something that everyone will see and admire. GWs do this, which I like.

That's about it for me

Either open gaming or a convienient open gaming night. My old FLGS did gaming on Thursday nights only. Having one night for open gaming tables isn't a good way to build a community, and eve one or two tables open all the time would be better, since that way you can have people come in all the time.

I think what makes my LGS a great place is the atmosphere the owner creates there, he makes it a very friendly open place to play or even just hang out & BS w/ each other. He stays up to date on the various systems he supports & maintains a good amount of store armies/figures plus it's ok to use his books as reference (when he hosts an apocalypse game he provides all his apoc books & templates for us to use/peruse as needed). Layout is another very very important thing to me. The store has to look inviting when you walk in the door. In my mind this means maximizing every inch of space to display product but also provide gaming space at about equal amounts IOW no huge open spaces that make it feel... empty or awkward but not so crammed w/ shelves & displays it's impossible to walk thru w/out knocking something off the shelf.

First thing. Natural Light. Windows. The more windows the better. Especially in the gaming rooms. I know alot of hobby stores don't have this option as they're inside a mall or something, but if you get the chance, windows. It really makes a difference for me.

Secondly, rules. You need to be strict and consistent with them. A good LGS is a fair LGS. If someone breaks the rules, make sure they are "punished" for it in an equal manner, be it your favorite person, or your most disliked person. The rules themselves are arbitrary and completely up to you, but you need to be fair and just.

Thirdly, contact. Set up something like a facebook page, and if possible, constantly update (like everyday.) The GW Hobbystore I go to does this and its a nice and simple communication tool from between customers/the store. Something out of stock? Ask them when its coming back and they'll reply in a few hours. Any events coming up that they're hosting? You get the news easily. Its very convenient IMO. Not to mention lots of cool pics.

Fourthly, This isn't really something I've experienced, but I really think would be awesome. Something like a veteran's night on a Friday that goes on to very late. I don't mean gaming veterans, but really, older, more mature customers/gamers who have full time jobs, come off work at 8PM, and drop by your store, so it would have to go on to pretty late (I'm honestly thinking like 10PM or 12 midnight.) You could perhaps close the store itself and just use the game tables for gaming (Store Staff may be able to join in too depending on their personal situations.) After the gaming, the whole group could probably go out to a bar/club and enjoy themselves as well. Bonus points for having a small "storage service," where your customers can safely leave their baggage at the store for a few days/weeks... (perhaps even semi-permanently) for a small fee. Both above services would need to be highly regulated by you/staff. As said above, its aimed at mature working gamers and you would probably need to ban under 18, or even 22, just on principle.

The storage thing could work in your favor if you charge a reasonable enough amount, so gamers can just come off work, go straight to your store, and play. Once done, pack everything up and put it back into storage. At least for the self-conscious gamer, no matter what storage system you have, it just won't fit the look of a suit and tie when you walk into the office. (Again this is aimed at more full-time working customers.)

Finally, the most important. When off duty, PLAY with the gamers at your store AT your store. Talk with them, game with them, ask the very same questions are asking here. This is IMPORTANT. Hopefully you will get firsthand feedback of what you need.

I think it boils down to one single thing in the end; Community. You can have fun in a crappy store that's filled with good people and friends, but no matter how nice a store is it's going to suck if the people who go/work there are bad.

Thx all, for the great replies! so much good info, its really appreciated. kouzuki i totally agree with what you said, definitely a lot of what i was thinking i work 45-55hrs a week and havea wife and daughter and have often thought it would be great to be able play a game either late from after work or able to go after my daughter goes to bed. also the army storage would really be killer if it was done right!

anyway thx again to everyone and dont hesitate to keep shelling out the awesome! Go Dakka!