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Before you ready a reply, just know this is not another 'hai im gunna startz a gamer store, so help me!' Type of thread.


My question here is, lets say you are in an area that could be considered to be saturated with shops that carry GW. If you opened a store that carried more variety of 'good' games ie. Malifaux, WMH, Hell Dorado and the like, but didn't stock GW, would you survive?

In a different vein, if you opened an LGS, but you offered more or less "only" terrain, as opposed to minis; so offering table space for gaming, and tons of quality terrain pieces/kits, very little actual minis, but could order them type of thing, could that survive long??


I know that in theory it could be done, but in the more practical side, if you carry TT wargames, do you NEED to carry GW stuff?

I'd say you'd need to start with some, and see how it went

Once you are up and running you could start specialising more if that's what the traffic demanded

The area may be GW heavy as there is a decent buyer base there (GW seem ready to close underperforming stores after all)

Since GW is one of the greatest companies doing these kinds of things, i don't see how you would want to start a store without it (even though interest will be razor thin in the beginning).

I understand you'd want to specialize in other brands, but still, just for the people that do collect/ paint and play, it would probably be smarter to include GW products (or at least have the option of ordering items for those interested).

You don't HAVE to do anything but why would you alienate the largest part of your potential customer base?

Ensis Ferrae wrote: My question here is, lets say you are in an area that could be considered to be saturated with shops that carry GW. If you opened a store that carried more variety of 'good' games ie. Malifaux, WMH, Hell Dorado and the like, but didn't stock GW, would you survive?

I think it's possible, but there are a lot of factors that would affect it... You would need to choose the area carefully, as you would need an area where those games have a strong following, or where you can work on building one. Running mail order on the side would help.

In a different vein, if you opened an LGS, but you offered more or less "only" terrain, as opposed to minis; so offering table space for gaming, and tons of quality terrain pieces/kits, very little actual minis, but could order them type of thing, could that survive long??

If you're trying to be a terrain store, with everything else just order on demand, no, I wouldn't think so. By and large, people just aren't willing to pay for terrain.

If you're talking more about running a gaming venue, and just selling stuff on the side, that's a little more workable... but would come down to how successfully you can run events to bring people in. Just running it like a pool hall where people wander in and pay to use a table for a couple of hours would not work... there's no way that would generate enough income to justify the required space and the cost of setting up the tables.

If you are in an area saturated with stores, opening a store is probably not a great idea in the first place, no matter what business model you choose.

In terms of not stocking GW... why? Out of principle, because you don't like the game/company? Bad idea. Stock what your customers want, not what you want them to want. The mark of a good salesman is his ability to sell something that he doesn't like.
GW is considered to be the highest volume selling TTG. Margins on gaming stores are thin enough that wilfully dropping a high seller is probably not a good idea.
If you get into an area with not much GW presence, and can build up a community of other games, it might work. But I still wouldn't recommend it.

In terms of terrain only? Depends what kind of terrain. A store that sells a lot of terrain supplies (foam, grass, ballast) works well with a train store. A store which sells completed gaming pieces works with a store that sells gaming miniatures. Ordering miniatures on demand is something that people only do for a store that they care about: otherwise its cheaper, quicker and easier ordering online.If you stock only terrain you won't have enough leverage with distributors to get individual miniatures.

You could run a coffee+games store, but those generally tend to have the games section dragging them down in terms of profits.

There are TWO gaming stores in my area.

The local GW, and the local FLGS.

The FLGS carries minimal GW stock, does not stock the paints or glues or any other GW product.
PP and magic are his main lines carried - but he also carries Infinity and "alternative" figure lines and the usual board games. He seems to be thriving, and because of the minimal GW stock, is probably not considered a threat to GW.

chromedog wrote:There are TWO gaming stores in my area.

The local GW, and the local FLGS.

The FLGS carries minimal GW stock, does not stock the paints or glues or any other GW product.
PP and magic are his main lines carried - but he also carries Infinity and "alternative" figure lines and the usual board games. He seems to be thriving, and because of the minimal GW stock, is probably not considered a threat to GW.

I'm not sure how much table space he has, but are there still "GW" nights at your LGS, or because he primarily stocks other games, do those get more of the attention (and table space because of that)?

The closest big city to me is Nashville, and I know that there are 4-5 places that sell "gaming" stuff, and each one has a different reputation. One of them, I know all of my friends had told me prior to going there that its a good place to buy, but theyd never game, and he carries a good chunk of GW stuff. Another one is simply a toy store (so no gaming space, and no real threat to GW), one literally JUST went under, and the last one that I've been to carries a large GW assortment, but is starting to carry Infinity and Malifaux. In that last store, in talking to the guys who own and run the place, they are noticing that even their "die hard" GW customers are buying less and less stuff, and beginning to play more and more "other" games. GW, from what I have seen on their website has just opened within the last couple of months, a GW store somewhere in the Nashville area, but I have no idea how or if it is affecting much of the gaming around the area. If it's in the wrong part of town, most of us from Clarksville wouldn't go there, because many of these other shops are on a side of town more conducive to us visiting.

Ensis Ferrae wrote:Before you ready a reply, just know this is not another 'hai im gunna startz a gamer store, so help me!' Type of thread.


My question here is, lets say you are in an area that could be considered to be saturated with shops that carry GW. If you opened a store that carried more variety of 'good' games ie. Malifaux, WMH, Hell Dorado and the like, but didn't stock GW, would you survive?

In a different vein, if you opened an LGS, but you offered more or less "only" terrain, as opposed to minis; so offering table space for gaming, and tons of quality terrain pieces/kits, very little actual minis, but could order them type of thing, could that survive long??


I know that in theory it could be done, but in the more practical side, if you carry TT wargames, do you NEED to carry GW stuff?

If I read this correctly- You are asking about selling other products other then GW in a shop to offset the demand?

You need the demand first, I would think.

If no one plays those other games, I think you'd have issue selling them, unless you drummed up the interest.

For example- I tried pushing AE WW2, and Secrets of the Third Reich.

They went about five minutes, 99% because no one knew anything about it, no one understood why I was bringing in the games, and no one was honestly interested in trying to get the stuff when no one else had it on hand. Smae thing happened with Mongoose. I didn't go very far with that one, either, when I asked for the product, then as they tried to keep pushing new and ever decreaseing quality of shinies, they @#$% thier own bed.from an award winning game to the discount pile within a 1 and 1/2 year period.

Demand is the key here.

Drum up the demand, and the game will eventually sell itself. I/E Infinity, Malfaux, and Spartain's games. People see them, and something about the games draws people in... hard.


As to the terraign- Quality terraign will sell itself, but you need to have the games to sell it. Or else go on ahead and get ready to be a Model Railroader. Because THEY are the ones that are interested in the terraign for terraigns sake. ( Them and Architects.)

Thats my opinion.