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How do?

In this thread, I want to hear from FLGS owners about their experiences being an FLGS owner. And I want to hear anything and everything. Funny anecdotes about customers and their foibles, how you decide what lines to carry. Do you prefer game systems with a relatively small range, or do you get on better with more sprawling selections? When it comes to new trends, do you find you lead the community, or does the community lead you?

That sort of stuff. And the above is by no means an exhaustive list of questions or variations on those questions. If you've got praise for a given manufacturer or an axe to grind, let rip.

So come, tells us of your experiences running a gaming Mecca.

This is definitely an interesting topic, hopefully some store owners chime in.

What's up with the frequent "How do?"?

Is that a reference to something we'd possibly get?

As for Store Owners...well, we have a few that post occasionally, but they also have a sub-forum all their own and it doesn't appear to be very active, so...

Isn't "How do" what the monks say in Goonies 2 when you hit them in the head with a hammer?


I've seen plenty of FLgS owners post here, but usually when riled up by something or to backlash against riled up consumers. This thread looks like an obvious no-win scenario for them , and I assume they are too wary to step into it.

 Alpharius wrote:
What's up with the frequent "How do?"?

Is that a reference to something we'd possibly get?

I believe that's the British equivalent of "How's it going?" as it's likely a shortening of the phrase "How do you do?" It's just a greeting to open the thread like "Hello Dakka!" or "Hey guys".

 Alpharius wrote:
As for Store Owners...well, we have a few that post occasionally, but they also have a sub-forum all their own and it doesn't appear to be very active, so...

Yeah, I doubt they're common enough to want to share. You can likely look for some threads where people have talked about opening a store and glean some stories from folks there, but I don't know that they'd really want to take the time. Who knows though, maybe it's just the weekends are their busy time and Tuesday or so a few will get bored...

I'm a VR arcade owner and I get bored and post here all the time, as long as I don't have to walk any customers through games.

 Krinsath wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
What's up with the frequent "How do?"?

Is that a reference to something we'd possibly get?

I believe that's the British equivalent of "How's it going?" as it's likely a shortening of the phrase "How do you do?" It's just a greeting to open the thread like "Hello Dakka!" or "Hey guys".

As a British, not really. It's a rather ancient reference to a comedy show of dubious hilarity called Bo Selecta. It does still get used by people of a certain vintage, but it needs liberal applications of throwback style irony that is hard to convey in text, or to legitimately be from the part of Yorkshire that it originated from, but even then the broader pop culture reference kinda trumps that.

Thanks Az!

While we might not be learning about FLGS, I do appreciate hearing about other cultures.

People do definitely still say How Do. Cumbrians and Yorkshiremen, mainly.

Is that our explanation then?

Is MDG a Cumbrian or Yorkshireman?

Anyway, I wonder if store owners are either too busy and/or not interested in sharing their secrets?

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Krinsath wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
What's up with the frequent "How do?"?

Is that a reference to something we'd possibly get?

I believe that's the British equivalent of "How's it going?" as it's likely a shortening of the phrase "How do you do?" It's just a greeting to open the thread like "Hello Dakka!" or "Hey guys".

As a British, not really. It's a rather ancient reference to a comedy show of dubious hilarity called Bo Selecta. It does still get used by people of a certain vintage, but it needs liberal applications of throwback style irony that is hard to convey in text, or to legitimately be from the part of Yorkshire that it originated from, but even then the broader pop culture reference kinda trumps that.

This is 100% absolute nonsense. Krin's answer is the correct one.

No, it's from Bo Selecta in my case. Melanie B, Scary Spice to be specific.

I just use it as a polite opener. I like the way it sounds.

Oooohhh me piles etc

Its still not its origin though, its just a northern thing.

As a Northerner I can confirm it is a Northern thing.

Southerners! *shakes fist*

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
No, it's from Bo Selecta in my case. Melanie B, Scary Spice to be specific.

I just use it as a polite opener. I like the way it sounds.

I watched that "Bo Selecta" thing - it is hideous.

Might be time to move on to something else...

mikhaila is our resident store owner/expert, but it doesn't look like he's posted anything since July.

Might be best to PM him directly if there's something specific to ask...

 Alpharius wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
No, it's from Bo Selecta in my case. Melanie B, Scary Spice to be specific.

I just use it as a polite opener. I like the way it sounds.

I watched that "Bo Selecta" thing - it is hideous.

Might be time to move on to something else...

mikhaila is our resident store owner/expert, but it doesn't look like he's posted anything since July.

Might be best to PM him directly if there's something specific to ask...

It's a somewhat acquired taste and suspect it doesn't travel well as it relies on a understanding of UK c-list celeb culture of the early 00's and a couple of broader UK culture refs like the How do

 Pete Melvin wrote:
Oooohhh me piles etc

Its still not its origin though, its just a northern thing.

I know....

or to legitimately be from the part of Yorkshire that it originated from,

I'm pretty sure Yorks still counts as a fairly big chunk of the North, even if the reference bleeds across borders a bit, and anyone who isn't from that part of the world has likely picked it up from Bo Selecta.

I used to own one, I read how many questions were asked in the first post and quietly backed away. It's a bit messy and unfocused and would be pretty hard to steer back on course towards a coherent thread.
Numbering your questions and phrasing them to allow short answers is a pretty good way to ask alot of them in one post.
Some of your post seems like you are showing a vague interest, some of it looks like you're asking for a soap opera.
Most of the store owners here are easily traced back to their stores and would be unwilling to start dishing the dirt for.....reasons.

Just want to hear your anecdotes and stories is all.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:
I used to own one, I read how many questions were asked in the first post and quietly backed away. It's a bit messy and unfocused and would be pretty hard to steer back on course towards a coherent thread.
Numbering your questions and phrasing them to allow short answers is a pretty good way to ask alot of them in one post.
Some of your post seems like you are showing a vague interest, some of it looks like you're asking for a soap opera.
Most of the store owners here are easily traced back to their stores and would be unwilling to start dishing the dirt for.....reasons.

Good points...

No need for even more drama here.

We'll give this another day or two and then possibly lock it up, depending.

Fair enough.

To be honest, hadn't really considered the topic could land FLGS owners in a bother. Certainly wasn't my intent.

I'm not a store owner but someone interested in the game store trade. I love reading this blog http://blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com/ a fantastic read and a really cool look into the FLGS business (from an American perspective at least).

Well worth a read through and he posts regularly. I would say it answers a lot of the OP's original questions.

Isn't that HotSauceMan's nemesis?

Could actually be a useful read, if handled positively.

e.g. what worked, not game systems to stock, but how to promote them, how to build a community and benefit the business off the back of it.

Horror stories are amusing, but frankly not all that useful and much better in a more anonymous way.

I don't run a store, I wouldn't know where to start and I know I'd be very bad at it.

The "lottery win dream" would be to own one, but I'd make sure I had someone clued up running it, with the authority to chase me out of the place for being a pest

I do not own an FLGS, but a couple of other businesses.

A situation that always made me scratch my head was this:

Customer: I see you have some muffins. How fresh are they?

Me: I baked them this morning, and brought them out to the case at 6:30 AM.

Customer: Yeah, I get that.... but how fresh are they?

Me: ???

For some reason that really sticks out in my head. Everything else I share will just come across as bitter, angry, and/or entitled. Therefore, I will keep it to myself.

 Easy E wrote:
I do not own an FLGS, but a couple of other businesses.

A situation that always made me scratch my head was this:

Customer: I see you have some muffins. How fresh are they?

Me: I baked them this morning, and brought them out to the case at 6:30 AM.

Customer: Yeah, I get that.... but how fresh are they?

Me: ???

For some reason that really sticks out in my head. Everything else I share will just come across as bitter, angry, and/or entitled. Therefore, I will keep it to myself.

Have recently, thank gork, moved out of the commercial world (well largely, its like the CIA) and into the engineering world, some of the stuff I've heard from customers along those lines is slightly worrying when you think about it.

Hard part is finding out what answer they are looking for, in your case for example they needed your response to start with "they are very fresh, I baked them..." etc. you were dealing with someone incapable of processing information.

I see it in the commercial world, if a response to a question doesn't start with "yes" or "no" it will be ignored and clarification will be required later

 Easy E wrote:
I do not own an FLGS, but a couple of other businesses.

A situation that always made me scratch my head was this:

Customer: I see you have some muffins. How fresh are they?

Me: I baked them this morning, and brought them out to the case at 6:30 AM.

Customer: Yeah, I get that.... but how fresh are they?

Me: ???

For some reason that really sticks out in my head. Everything else I share will just come across as bitter, angry, and/or entitled. Therefore, I will keep it to myself.

You own a bakery? You must be VERY popular with your gaming circle.

Still, you didn't answer the person's question. Customer asked how fresh they were, you told them that you baked them that day and when you put them in the case. That doesn't answer how old (aka fresh) the muffins are.

"Only 3 hours old, baked 'em at 5AM and put them out at 6:30, how many do you want?" Is a clearer answer to an admittedly poorly phrased question on the customer's part.

Not trying to dog pile, as something happens to people when they are on the customer-side of a sales counter that turns their brains off (I say this as a brain dead consumer), but I've gone to doughnut shops and asked when the pastries were made and received vague responses. Getting a "baked today" answer is kinda meaningless when its 10PM at night. Got stale doughnuts on that run too, so feth that bakery. Point is, you were both kinda talking around each other.

So, we have one link to Black Diamond Games' blog, which is great, and talk of muffins, which is making me hungry.

But no game store owner talk.

So I'mma lock it.