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RxGhost wrote:One time I stayed open an extra 45 minutes so a guy could go through our magic cards as he had already built up quite a stack of single cards. After pricing out the stack (which came to over a hundred dollars) he goes through the cards and purchases two dollars worth. It was like a slap in the face, I was pissed and I let him know about it. I still see him in from time to time, and I don't care if he ever spends another penny.

It's not like every customer is a good customer, you know; there are some customers that actively hurt a business just by them being there. Even the money they spend (which they usually don't) is almost never enough to make up the difference.

This is very true, some gamers hurt areas. I know my FLGS the players forceably got rid of a few magic/Warhammer players that were scaring away others because they were driving away people.

Also, about the discounts that everyone on about, what my FLGS does is gives you a discount the NEXT year based on what you buy. So at $200 you get a 5% discount, $700 a 10%, $1500 a 15%, and over 2k 20% off the entire next year of purchases. Seeing as many gamers go only to this store, it racks up pretty quick! if you buy, say, $50 worth of stuff every 2 weeks you'll easily make the 15% discount. Sure, people who buy less get less of a discount, but once you hit the 20% mark you never go to another store!

I think the thing that keeps gamers coming back isn't the price but the atmosphere and location. Also the workers. Workers who are interactive in getting people to play, setting up events, and making the area a generally fun and conductive to play at means you'll come back. Places with a higher player base means more sales (typically). I know our FLGS does MAD buisness with magic cards, with 40k a close second, and we try to pbring more players every week for 40k. I dunno about ya'll, but in between games or when my opponent goes to get food or use the restroom sometimes I'll wander to the front looking at stuff. Sometimes a game hits you as "wow, I could really use one of XXXX" and your more inclined to buy it now rather than go home, get on the web, find it, order it, wait for a week, put it together, and then be ready to play. I like to have my new stuff for the next weeks play sessions.

As well, if your shops accessible (aka good area) to a large audience that doesn't have to drive far they're far more inclined to come and buy stuff. I know many times (this happens a LOT while trying to buy IG and Demons) I'll find something online for, say, around 20% MSRP. Well after shipping the discount gets cut down to MAYBE 10%. I'd rather drive the 10 minutes to my FLGS, throw down the little bit more, and have the item built and ready for next sunday. Having a shop in a good area means impulse buyers (like myself lol) will probably come throw down a bit more for something they can have NOW. And also this of course adds up to your discount the next year.

Other cool ideas I've seen are; 10% off when you use cash (no debit/CC fees), 20% off coupons at the beginning of the year that STACKS with any bonuses (when I got this I used it in conjunction with my 20% off to buy almost $400 worth of stuff, including books I'd been holding off on), discounts on singletons of magic in bulk, raffle boxes where you pay in $1 to draw a pack of cards (magic normally) and you get whats inside. Its normally a crappy rare and an uncommon. But in the box somewhere the guy put a few packs with super rare expensive cards (dual lands, he put a few alpha cards too, fetch lands, etc.). It actually did well for him, he made around $100 a month off the box, the more you spent the more drawings you got ($5 got you 6 drawings, etc.)

I mean theres TONS of cool ideas that draw in just that little bit more, I think storeowners just need to be inventive. I, personally, want to start up my own store one day and I'm not ashamed to steal ideas. I've been in gaming stores all over, from san diego to michigan, new mexico to alaska, and when I was stationed in japan I went to quite a few gaming stores there as well.

And on the food thing, I agree entirely. They shouldn't push food products, the turnover on them is good enough and most stores make jack for profit anyway. My FLGS just offers soda/candy because the shelf life is long, and sodas go really, really fast. They don't care if you bring in quiznos or anything; they can't open a restaurant, why would they care if you brought something in? lol

Fiercegoldfish wrote:Phew. Just finished reading all the post.

1. Telling people to buy somewhere else in a store is one of the rudest things I can think of. Your on their property, using their stuff, and then you go and hinder their business? That's wrong in so many ways.

2. On the topic of discounts; no, I don't think it's right to expect this of your store. As said earlier, when you buy online the seller doesn't have to rent space or pay for utilities or anything. He sits in his house and sells it from there. Not to mention a lot of his stuff isn't even going to be straight from GW. Stores buy from GW, but online sellers buy from not only GW but also stores going out of business, players, and other sellers. Expecting your store to give you a discount is borderline lunacy imo

3. On the topic of "free space"; I couldn't care less about the space. I have a kitchen table I could play on if I wanted. However, I do not have a wide assortment of opponents. If you walk into the store and there's another 40k guy there you can start up a game with him, but you mite not go and call him and invite him to your home. Also, I don't know about all of you, but in my area I know just two other 40k players who I could readily play. My FLGS however has 10 times that many different people. If you are content with playing the same armies and same friends day in and day out, go ahead and go to McDonalds. If not your going to need to go to the store. I don't see it as free space, but instead a free community of players

4. On food and drinks; If my FLGS didn't allow outside food and drinks It would no longer be my FLGS. Attempting to put a monopoly on that type of thing is their way of forcing you to buy their products, thus pushing sales to a point that is past my tolerance level. I don't mind the owner stocking up on broadsides when I mention them, I actually admire his alertness and want to satisfy the costumer, but telling me I cant buy from anyone else is too far.
:(

You actually summed up the four points I wanted to talk about very well! Very convenient for me; I hate quoting multiple people

1: I kind of agree with you here. Possibly not the rudest thing, but any more than once or twice is pretty lame. However, consider whether you would feel the same way pointing out to a fellow customer at say Wal-Mart that the Radio Shack across the street had the phone they were looking at on sale for 50$ less. Alternately mentioning to a guy at a car dealership you were shopping at that a car they were interested in was 5,000$ less expensive across town. If there is a difference, is it because of the money involved, the size of the store, or the impersonal nature of the actors (larger companies vs small)?

2: This point is pretty off I think. Every FLGS I have known has links with other stores and buy up inventory and the like as you state only online stores do. However, even that is beside the point. Online retailers survive and indeed thrive on volume. Your FLGS has, what 30-40 regular customers if it is pretty big? That is a pretty small market. Online stores can have thousands of regular customers. They make less money per box, but sell so many boxes it works out well. Additionally, this increased volume means that fluctuations in demand do not affect them as much, allowing them to keep much more inventory. E.g. when you have 20 customers, chances are only one or two play GK, so you don't stock many, if any. When you have 2,000 customers, chances are those boxes of PAGKs are not sitting on the rack long.

The thing to keep in mind here is "How did the Big Online Store X (say the Warstore or Maelstrom perhaps) go from being small to being huge, while offering a discount?" The answer is they expanded their opperations to serve everyone they could. Same thing with Wal-Mart, Dell, and really any other retailer that has been really successful (at least in the US) since the internet. None of them got there by being more expensive than everyone else.

3: I think the internet is starting to crush the FLGS there too. It isn't always really easy to just show up and get a game, and probably that requires a lot of sitting around waiting compared to playing. As AWESOME ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE!!!!1 let me relate a trip some friends and I took to the Battle Bunker in Glen Burnie a few months back. Well, let me summarize the story: We played, had fun, and over the course of 3 hours had 4-9 people asking if they could get in the next game, get frustated and go home only to be replaced by someone else a bit later. I think only two to three actual pick up games happened all day (we were playing apocalypse so we had all day.)
Now, that is just my one experience, though it is similar to many experiences I have had at my local shops which is why I rarely just wander over. I have to think that organized clubs, online forums and the like are much more effective than just showing up and playing. Not that I haven't met friends I play with at home etc. at the local shop. Just that it isn't too efficient. I suspect FLGS will still be good for this, but I think they also need to think very carefully about how much value that really provides, and how much of that value turns into dollars in their pocket. A FLGS charging for gaming rights makes a lot of sense, just like you rent a table to play pool or have a membership to a golf club.

4: I think you nail it here. A FLGS has to think pretty carefully about the services it provides, and what its competitive advantage is there. Food and drink might be one of those, but one really needs to be careful about how you charge for peripherals like that. A lot of people decide just to go without snacks and drinks when going to the movies, for instance.


All in all, I think the Game Store business model is in for quite a shake up in the next 5-10 years, just as the last 5-10 have been. It is a very niche market, and as I am sure Mikhalia will attest, running a business has many, many more pitfalls than just "buy low, sell high" as has been described here. Serious game store owners are going to have to really evaluate just what services they provide, which make money, which are loss leaders and how they can expand those services to make more money. Non-serious game store owners are going to have to think really hard about getting a job they are more serious about.
The thing is, this is almost always the case for every industry. The advent of new ways to sell to more customers while stripping away processes that do not add value has forced a lot of companies to change how they do business. Look at Barnes and Nobel and Borders, and the twitching pile of book store corpses they feed off of while trying to compete with Amazon. Then ask how there are still so many small used book stores around. The answer is those small used book stores offer low cost browsing for people interested in that, and sell through Amazon's marketplace to make up the volume to pay the rent. If those used book stores only had a store front presence, how many could survive as more than a hobby for retired people who like books?

Fiercegoldfish wrote:
.... I don't see it as free space, but instead a free community of players...

Bingo,
With all the talk about discounts, incentives, etc, this is probably the most important aspect. In this age of internet, we don't technically need the FLGS to gather and form communities. Yet, FLGS's with gaming space seem to still be a nucleus of so many gaming communities. For me it's not necessarily "how much value does the FLGS bring to my pocketbook" rather, the question is, "how much value does the FLGS bring to my gaming community."

How often do gamers play there?
How welcoming is the environment?
Does the FLGS host a usefull forum?
Does the FLGS host tournaments?
How would the local gaming community be different without the FLGS?
If the FLGS went away, would you have as many active players in the area?

Money does play a part in the decision, but the above questions are equally important.

I definitely buy as much as possible from my flgs. They offer discount, and the manager is a good guy. Also he does an awesome range of games, and can get pretty much anything you need, other than direct only pieces.

Oshova

I'd just like to say this: While I am pretty sure that I am getting a discount @ my gaming store, I am guessing that I could get a heckuva lot better online. But I don't know if this is just that I am not looking in the right places, but when I factor shipping into the cost of buying online, I seem to only pay 1-3 dollars less. For that sum of money I'd rather buy my models at my flgs, where everyone is friendly, and willing to help. If you're ever in the Twin Cities, visit the Source! (shameless plug #37)

I do what I can to support my FLGS. The only time I buy anything directly from GW is if his distributor doesn't carry it. One thing that DA ren's precious online stores can't do is see what you opened in a booster pack. When I was starting in Axis and Allies minis I opened what had to be the worst possible booster ever made. Not a single mini was useful in any way, not even to fill points. The owner looked at it and said "Wow that box sucked. Go grab another box and create a booster from the 2." I still had to take a couple crappy minis to fit the norms of what comes in a booster, but I wasn't stuck with a full box of crapola.

When I had a LGS, I'd buy pretty much every non-model purchase there (Codex, Rulebooks, RPG Books, paint, glue, terrain, novels, WD and the like) and I might by the odd figure also, but it's just too easy to get a large order from one of the on-line outlets for the 20% off. If my opponent or another customer comes in looking for a specific figure, I'll usually direct them to the right place also, so I figure I'm doing a little bit of unpaid staff work to assuage the online guilt.

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:
I completely agree with the last sentence. The rest sorta sounds like "There is no such thing as free gaming space" which if this is the case, why does it matter if a store offers "free" gaming space(You have to pay for the gas to get to the store, etc)?

Does it cost you anything to have people play in your store? (again, does it cost you anything MORE then it would to have them their otherwise. Other then retail space, which if being used as a form of marketing the product in the shop, is being used appropriately)

If we're talking about only the 'space', it matters because in this case, the gaming space really is free to you. You don't have to pay any money to play there, unlike at the other locations discussed. If you want to get into absurdities, every April it costs us money to be Americans; chewbacca doesn't make sense; you must acquit. And it does cost Money to have people play in the store. Half my store is open gaming space that isn't being used to display any product! You wouldn't expect Best Buy to have half the store given over to a game lounge where you can kick it and watch the plasma screens for free, would you? We could ditch the gaming space and open a whole separate store in there, like a comic store or a video game store, and it would make far more money than the gaming space.

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:
There is a VERY good chance I have my prices outdated, I wont argue with you there.

But would your "future maths" be Meaningless? Not at all! Infact, I would love to hear the actual figures of the current point scale for the cost via GW, ACD or other distributor... that being said, I know you are not allowed to disclose that information publically, but a rough (honest) estimate.

The best deal anybody gets from GW is a little less than half. You can find the MSRP for a Land Raider on the GW site and do the math from there.

Daemon-Archon Ren wrote:
Back to the above, legitimately and honestly, the cost of GW to the consumer is far greater then that of a retailer, much like practically every OTHER product availible in the retail world, and yes I know that this is simply the way "Retail" and this sector of the Free Market Economy works (for the most part) but you should also be willing to admit that charging 7 bucks less for a squad of spacemarines wouldn't break your bank... especially if it increased the number of space marine boxes you sold by X.

Again I am an avid fan of my FLGS (The Complete Stratagist if anyone else is in the area) and I STRONGLY insist buying from a LGS instead of a GW (any day of the week!) I only bring up the reasons why a store MIGHT want to consider offering competitive prices (aka 5-20% off GW IN STORE price) BECAUSE of the love I hold for the FLGS (aka, don't want it to die to things like Ebay etc) however I don't consider TWS(The War Store) an issue as, lets not forget, TWS started out as a FLGS and still is one to this day (.... Kinda?)

I can't agree with charging $7 less at all. When you factor in all the other costs that go along with retailing a product besides the wholesale cost, I'm only making a couple bucks profit on a Land Raider; less on smaller boxes. If I discount them, the best I can hope for is to break even, and at that point I could sell a million Land Raiders and never make a cent. You have to get past the idea that selling more always equals better.

-Dis.

I've mentioned this in the past so I won't dwell on it, but my local games store is a Games Workshop, and it'll be a cold day in hell before I start buying things are the over-inflated Australian prices again.

If I did have an actual local game store that I played at... I still wouldn't buy there. Sure, I think if you're going to use their space - for free - then you owe them the courtesy of putting a little money in their coffers every now and again. However, this is Australia. We pay 40% more than the rest of the world, so no, my purchases all go online.

My FLGS is that- a Friendly Local Gaming Store. I support them as much as I can and only stop at bits. They give the usual 10% per hundred dollars purchased but the discount is peanuts for what they really provide. I can regularly be gaming there until 1-2am if I pleased. Normally when I'm there or another regular is there they stay open until everyone is ready to leave. It's not abused so the staff are chill with it.

Sure, I could save a couple pennies shopping online but when I have no place to play, what are all these little plastic men good for? They don't force me to buy stuff and the regulars tend to advocate for all purchases there. Recently there was a bit of a flame war on their boards because some jerk was talking about how it was too much for him to pay for but was fully taking advantage of the community. The store supports the community. It is the community's responsibility to support the store.

Not supporting your FLGS when you game there is pretty much the same as the low rent walmart mentality.

This has been an interesting read so far, a lot of different opinions here.

As far as my take, I can game elsewhere than an FLGS, so that is a complete irrelevance to me. I have seen stores with gaming areas that are little more than converted storage areas, and I have seen stores with amazing gaming areas, with NATURAL LIGHT! YAY! . In terms of me actually buying an entire army at a store, the odds of that happening without a 15% discount minimum, are extremely slim. When it comes to most of my painting supplies, and things like blister packs, I'll buy stuff like that every other trip or so.

It really depends on the store, and any retail store needs good salespeople to rake that cash in. Many stores have apathetic employees, that do little more than sulk at the register, and give you dirty looks, for being a bad person who is bad because they are not spending a hundred dollars per visit. Damn you customer, damn you to hell.

If I could find a store with 20% discount, and a well stocked range, there would be little doubt that I would purchase full armies, annually from them.

If my FLGS offered 15% or 20%, I would use them for everything, no questions asked. But they don't, so I use online outlets for the majority of my large purchases. But what I do offer my FLGS is a lot of miscellaneous stuff (paints, glue, etc., provided they are reasonable, not that $15/can GW crap) and I play most tourneys, which means throwing an entry fee in towards store credit for the winners. I'll get sodas, chips, whatever once in awhile, but that doesn't really contribute much, but what does contribute is having me, my buddies, other gamers there with cool painted toy soldiers having a good time, being good sports, and soft selling to everyone who happens by. I figure I spend a minimum of $25/month which is essentially a rental fee, maybe getting a tourney prize now and then as a reward.

I could spend less on gaming purchases but really, at the end of the day what I want is a place to play my games and people to play them with. Now sure, you can organize a club and go online to find opponents but it's much easier to just have a regular place to go play. That's what the FLGS offers (as well as the roof, heat, lights, tables and carpet).

Good stores attract players, and players keep the gaming alive. I'd rather have the community around than saving change on purchases. I won't run around town looking for the cheapest gas or movie... I find a reasonable price that's convenient and buy my stuff there. When I found a great local store that was reasonable to get too and had good players, the purchases followed. It's just that simple.

Most of my stuff I get from my FLGS. I've bought stuff on eBay, but only when I could get better than a 50% discount from what I pay in the FLGS, including shipping. (Lots of stuff you see on eBay actually ends up costing more than you'd pay getting it from your FLGS or GW direct, because nobody bothers to think about shipping.) My one order from GW direct was when my FLGS couldn't get certain items from GW.

Just like to mention that stores are at a natural disadvantage over all the online sellers, and that's that they aren't allowed to sell online. GW has a rule that stores cannot list any gw figures on there sites. This means that LGS cant sell as much as others since they don't have the internet to sell on, thus meaning that often they cannot discount.

Any argument of "well, why don't they just expand with the internet" is therefore moot.

Actually, that's not true.

Brick & mortar stores can sell online--just like the online retailers do.

Either way, they're both not allowed to have a shopping cart featuring GW products.

The "natural disadvantage" of a local store is that they have an actual storefront to maintain, utilities to keep going, etc.

Some web retailers have to just pay for warehousing/shipping costs.

Kanluwen wrote:Actually, that's not true.

Brick & mortar stores can sell online--just like the online retailers do.

Either way, they're both not allowed to have a shopping cart featuring GW products.

The "natural disadvantage" of a local store is that they have an actual storefront to maintain, utilities to keep going, etc.

Some web retailers have to just pay for warehousing/shipping costs.

That's what I meant (the shopping cart thing). Some-one brought up expanding online lie walmart or whatever but without a shopping cart type thing that's not really possible. Sure they could sell on eBay or something but that's not the same.

We've got a store here that has a deal going with the bingo parlor at the end of the building, thay have a real solid group and there always available for a good game and the talent here is top notch. stinks of chain smoking old bingo lady and old lady victory, but other then that, theres plenty of table space, we keep our own house, and the donations go to a good cause. 2 bucks gets you the Mark of the Beast, and a full area to game in.

As to the support the FLGS deal, you can either support your local scene, or watch it die. You don't have a third choice.

Same with music, you don't get to call the shots all the time, and 9 times out of 10, the customer is an . The fact that you have a deal every now and then at your local shop is something in itself to be grateful for.

My thought on the online sales thing is that it is a nessesary evil. Seeing as GW jacks the price on them in the first place, your local store jacks the price to the second, and you have the option to get what you can, you should.

BUT like was previously said, keep your mouth shut about it. Number 1, no one cares. Number 2 its just plain rude.
Honestly. Running your hole about "Well so and so costs this much on line, ..." is like smacking your local in the face.

My FLGS is pretty awesome. As such, I tend to buy everything I can there. (Hell, I've stopped using my Amex card there, because I know Amex charges them a higher card-use fee than my other options.)

I'm also price-insensitive, though. For people on a tighter budget, I can understand the attractions offered by buying online. But at the minimum, it'd be nice if they would refrain from commenting on "better" deals while standing in the middle of the store.

Mentioning that you would be buying from an FLGS, but the prices are too high, is not a sin.

If the FLGS has a serious problem with you having a conversation about such things, I would hazard a quick guess that they have other problems as well. Running around the store, telling everyone about this better deal online, and that better deal wherever, I could see a problem with. If the FLGS wants to act like the spanish inquisition over something as simple as people being consumers, and acting like any normal consumer would, they have other problems surely.

While an employee is pushing me to purchase hundreds of dollars of goods, they better be prepared to hear that they are offering a bad deal overall. There is no recourse, the tables are free lest they decide to ban you from the store. It is a tough business, but most business is tough business.

Talking about lower prices elsewhere, while standing in the middle of a FLGS is not a sin and it isn't even illegal. It's low rent.

The two FLGS I have frequented never had goods pushed on me. I have been to GW stores where they latch on to you like you are stealing. They ask you all sorts of stupid questions and then push armies on you. It's not comfortable and it's not an inviting atmosphere. It is pure capitalism so f'em, no community.

My problem is when people use a community and refuse to support it. Later they then actively promote ways that have destroyed FLGS's.

FLGS is not a GW store, I wonder if everyone gets that point. The fact that it means Friendly Local Game Store which means it is locally owned and operated and they actually care about the gaming community and community as a whole.

I could buy primer at walmart for $1. I could buy armory primer for 6 bucks (or what ever the msrp is) at my flgs. The difference is that I know that the company that produces armory primer is going to be around longer now because of my purchase and my FLGS will be around longer because of it. It's a simple concept that took me a while in life to realize and I think that's why I get so worked up about it.

[quote=disdainful...You wouldn't expect Best Buy to have half the store given over to a game lounge where you can kick it and watch the plasma screens for free, would you? We could ditch the gaming space and open a whole separate store in there, like a comic store or a video game store, and it would make far more money than the gaming space. ...

Wrexasaur wrote:Mentioning that you would be buying from an FLGS, but the prices are too high, is not a sin.

If the FLGS has a serious problem with you having a conversation about such things, I would hazard a quick guess that they have other problems as well. Running around the store, telling everyone about this better deal online, and that better deal wherever, I could see a problem with. If the FLGS wants to act like the spanish inquisition over something as simple as people being consumers, and acting like any normal consumer would, they have other problems surely.

While an employee is pushing me to purchase hundreds of dollars of goods, they better be prepared to hear that they are offering a bad deal overall. There is no recourse, the tables are free lest they decide to ban you from the store. It is a tough business, but most business is tough business.

If you were in my store and walked up to me and said "I'd buy from you, but your prices are too high", I'd be pretty offended, considering 1) my msrp are set by GW (I don't mark up) and 2) I'm not charging you for the use of the tables/electricity/AC/chairs/army builder etc. I give my customers alot of attention, extending to teaching them to play, building army lists etc, but if your someone who doesn't want to support the store and help keep it open, then I won't go out of my way to help you. I'll still say hello to you, but I won't jump head over heels to serve you.

Also, its bad business to forcefeed people products, so if a store does it, ask them politely to stop.

I stop by weekly to my local GW to buy paints/glue and hobby supplies. When the new Tyranid dex came out, I bought the codex and a trygon there. Thats it. I'll buy a unit from time to time, but I see no reason to purchase FULL armies there.

I wasn't going to then buy 6 boxes of gaunts from them... no I'll Warstore that....

I have a game board, a heap of scenery and i play at my place (bought some fold out tables to put my realm of battle board on.) I buy most of my stuff online (standing 20-25% discount makes a HUGE difference when your buying 1000 pts of stuff at a time) GarG = Cave troll

So i dunno how good the paying for play space, argument sits with me. I guess if i did play at a shop, then i would buy a thing or 2 there, at least my paints and brushes / glue. Its the boxed stuff i go for the online discount.

Oh and Ive found at war gaming conventions, the things go oh so cheap, there's usually a bunch of shops, all stripping $1 amounts off each other to get the deal. Awesome time to buy up big. (this one shop even gave me 4 free brushes per boxed item.........) 6 boxes later and i had a lot of brushes.

I try to buy where I play, at least some things. I don't buy everything there since I tend to build and paint a fair bit and the models aren't cheap. That being said, I buy my paints at my FLGS. I buy most of my modeling and painting supplies at my FLGS (it'd be close to all except I'm picky on brushes). I buy my books at my FLGS and most of my blisters. Boxes are a mixed bag. These likely sit at about 50/50. Wierd stuff I want to convert and out of print stuff, that's mostly online, though my FLGS has started to sell on consignment, so I'm finding some things around.

Thankfully, I've got a good FLGS here. If that weren't the case, I'd likely do most of my purchasing online.

I buy good deals on ebay and the rest in my shop.. but my shop is also extremely good to gamers

The other store we have around here actually banned me because I started going to the better store.. Explain that one to me store owners? Wouldnt it be more prudent to try to get a high paying customer back instead? Especially if said customers only offense was going to a different store.. amusing really

Every now and then, I might buy something online, but I mostly buy all my stuff from my FLGS.

They've been good to me, so to speak, so although I am feeling the full fury of retail, I think its worth it, as I like to think I'm paying for the gaming space/time as well as the models themselves, which is small price to pay for the good times I've had there.

However, I'm one of those people who likes to buy one or two things at a time, finishing it before I buy another unit, otherwise I doubt I would ever finish anything.

However, every now and then, my FLGS offers some discounts, which is nice.

If you go to a strip club, there's a cover charge and a 2 drink minimum. Plus a buck "tip" per girl. Try to skip the cover & with your own drinks and see how the bouncers treat you.

Why should a store be any different?

Pay where you play.

Kanluwen wrote:Actually, that's not true.

Brick & mortar stores can sell online--just like the online retailers do.

Either way, they're both not allowed to have a shopping cart featuring GW products.

The "natural disadvantage" of a local store is that they have an actual storefront to maintain, utilities to keep going, etc.

Some web retailers have to just pay for warehousing/shipping costs.

You do know that the costs for a warehouse based online retailer can be as high and possibly higger than a retail store?

We are UK based but excluding taxes which are local then Id say most have the same to contend with.

Warehouse rent
Insurance -Whouse etc
Insurance - various liabilities
Monitored Alarm systems to comply with above
Business rates
Shipping
Packaging materials
Warehouse infrastructure costs - shelving etc
Website hosting
Web developer
card and payment fees
Advertising
printing costs - flyers etc
Sponsorship costs
Staff wages
Other IT costs

The list goes on.

To do anything properly is not cheap.