Opening a Game Store

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

So now I've got the conundrum of very cheap rent/crappy location or high rent/decent location. I definitely can't afford the best locations in town.

I do have a friend that is working on his own store right now also and is hoping to be up and running just a month or two behind me. He is going to be doing mainly tabletop games/card games. We've been talking about finding a bigger space and having both of our businesses in in the same place. That would help cut down on the operating costs and bring both stores more foot traffic since there should be a decent amount of crossover appeal between what our stores offer.

That sounds like a great idea. When younger I always wondered why the D&D/Tabletop themed stores didn't have gaming stuff...It makes perfect sense, and anything you can do to lower overhead would be great. Just have to make sure the partner guy isn't a spaz.

[Fokakis79]

I used to go to this place that was in a pretty crappy location, due to how you have to access it, and the difficulty of getting to it due to getting across the road because of traffic.  I went there many times before I moved, so I don't get to go there anymore.  What made it worth it was the place was owned and run by a guy and his wife.  They were both very nice, informative, and willing to make deals with trade-ins and me being a frequent visitor of the store.

The place was quiet (no loud music or videos being played).  the atmosphere was calm, and not intense.  I am not into bunch of distracting things when I am trying to shop and talk with store-owners/employees.  I also like they were never busy doing something ridiculous like playing video games or putting price stickers on stuff to help me. they also did not bug me and follow me around like I was going to steal something.

In a nutshell great customer service, and great atmosphere.

that is what kept me going back

[Shadow Kisuragi]

In my experience, the high rent places don't tend to pan out early at all. It's best to build up a base clientele in a crappy location and then move up when you have a support network. Almost all of the local stores that tried to take on the higher rent locations failed.

I can't tell if its just me trying to rationalize the lower cost place to myself, but I don't live in a huge city. Even in a semi out-of-the-way kind of place its not a big drive around here. Do any of you guys frequent stores that have crappy locations? If so how did you find out about them and what do they do right that gets you to make the trip to their store?

I frequent stores in crappy places all the time. Typically, I find out about them by word-of-mouth from other people I talk to, or rarely flyers. Word-of-mouth has always been the #1 way to promote a place to me, since it means someone's willing to go out of their way to recommend it.

[Duke.Togo]

I can't tell if its just me trying to rationalize the lower cost place to myself, but I don't live in a huge city. Even in a semi out-of-the-way kind of place its not a big drive around here. Do any of you guys frequent stores that have crappy locations? If so how did you find out about them and what do they do right that gets you to make the trip to their store?

The only good location used store in town is Gamestop, and I don't frequent there. I go where the people treat me well, and where prices are good. As you know pawn shops in the rough part of town don't bother me a bit.

I think location becomes a big issue when you have more competition, or when it's a bigger area.

[Crabmaster2000]

Ok, but would you visit said store more often with a better location. You might visit crappy location once a month versus good location twice or more?

[Duke.Togo]

If you're market is mom's buying games for their kids then a nicer location is a bigger issue. If it's mostly teenage boys, then location won't matter as much. Not sure what you're targeting there.

[techwizard]

personally i don't care about where a store is too much, if i like it i'll find a way to go there. the only thing that can be an issue for me is because i only bus around town, anywhere far off the main bus routes can be a bit of a hassle. if you're going to be aiming for teens and early 20s, you might want to check how close you are to the major bus routes. most people drive, but there are a lot of people that use buses too. otherwise just make the store awesome and people probably won't care much that it's out of the way. if you build it they will come .

i second what fokakis said about keeping it quiet, loud music and/or loud TV(s) can be really annoying. in a store with hundreds or thousands of games to look through, it's nice to have a relaxing environment where you could browse for 30 minutes or more without getting a headache. again, depends on the market you're aiming for, but if you really want to attract everyone it's good to have a store that feels a bit more mature and less in your face like an EB games or something. of course you'll have TVs going for your plan to let people play before they buy, but you can do that without the volume being cranked up.

[Crabmaster2000]

I love the idea of atmosphere. Can you guys elaborate as much as possible in what you look for with the atmosphere. Anything from sounds to how stock is displayed to employee demeanor.

[Barracuda]

There used to be a game store that I would frequent where I used to live that would play music from games. I always enjoyed that.

Also, if at all possible try to use see through wire display racks instead of the alternatives. In my opinion it makes the store feel more open and comfortable.

[singlebanana]

I second the idea of game soundtracks playing in the background. 

Not sure if it was mentioned, but organizing games alpha by title can be a good and bad thing. My local store use to have games mixed in with like titles beside each other, but no real organization other than that. Then, several months ago they organized their games alpha by title. While I thought this was a great idea at first, because it made things much easier to find, I soon discovered that I wasn't much of a fan of it. I had to think about why and here is what I came up with:

1. The collector in me wants to find that "treasure" and spend some time looking for it and spotting something I need or don't have.
2.  If the titles are alphabetized, I take a quick glace and move on instead of hunting through a stack I saw about a week or few days ago and looking through it.
3. Doing so makes me look for select titles and I may ignore other items that I might also be interested in and thus only look for things on my list.
4. I don't stay in the store as long. Maybe some people like it this way, but I really like to take my time and look. As a store owner, the more I browse, the more I am probably going to find and purchase.

Just a thought and curious to see what others think about this.

Also, you putting any arcade cabs, pinball machines, etc. in there?  Not saying you need a ton of them, but they can draw in business. They won't make a lot of money, but they will also keep customers in there longer, which is always good for business.

Sell snacks and drinks as well. Allows you to make a little extra cash and it's nice. Wrapped food is the key and I don't think you need a health license for that. Not sure how things in Canada work though.

Sorry if any of this has been covered already. New to this thread and really excited for you Crabby.  

[Duke.Togo]

I like friendly store employees that don't mind taking a moment to chat, and learn what I am interested in. I really like it when they can hold onto my wish list and call me if something comes in.

I don't pay a lot of attention to what music is going on in the background as long as it isn't too loud. I definitely don't want to talk over it.

If you're going to have items in a glass case make sure the price is visible. If a store is busy and I can't see a price, I won't necessarily wait around in a long line just to find out what the price is. It is very irritating to me. A solution my local game exchange has done for portable games is to put them into the display case grouped by price with it clearly labeled.

Group like items together. For some reason my local store has boxed games in several different locations and I'm never sure what is and isn't for sale.

[Crabmaster2000]

Like banana I like to dig around through semi-unorganized stacks, but I'm not sure that's gonna be practical for most people. Besides if someone comes in and asks for something specifically I'd like to be able to take them right to it and not have to dig around and risk not being able to track it down quick enough for them.

And yes I plan to put both my current arcade machines in the store and would like to add more cabs/pin balls in the future should I be able to.

I've always had it in my mind that video games tunes would be playing in the store. Glad to hear at least a few of you guys echo that sentiment.

Judging from some the survey responses I've gotten so far I think there will be a few interesting people coming to check out the store right away. Hopefully I can make a good impression and get the word out as soon as possible. I've also got 4 people asking when I can hire them already

[jansolee66]

I can't tell if its just me trying to rationalize the lower cost place to myself, but I don't live in a huge city. Even in a semi out-of-the-way kind of place its not a big drive around here. Do any of you guys frequent stores that have crappy locations? If so how did you find out about them and what do they do right that gets you to make the trip to their store?

When you're a general needs store, I think location is far more important. Retro game stores are a niche market which means you'll probably be able to coax people to go a little bit out of their way to get to you. Locally, we have a few game stores downtown, and some in the suburbs. I've never seen the ones downtown be as busy as the ones in the suburbs. The reason being that the ones in the suburbs have better stock. People who are looking for vintage stock find a way out to the suburbs if they know it'll be worth the trip. Personally, I drive 30 minutes, every Sunday, to go to my favourite store when there are 2 lesser stores only 10 minutes away (parking is another factor in my decision making - if that applies). 

One recommendation I might make is to buy curtains. I've now gone to two new stores where they decided they wanted the space to be as bright as possible so they left the picture windows uncovered. This was fine at first but within a few weeks, a lot of their games were badly sun damaged. I tend to like my game stores a little bit darker than most (i.e., all stores pretty much have fluorescent lights, but I like the walls to be painted a dark colour. I want to be able to examine labels, etc. but I also don't want to feel like I'm in an office, cafeteria or big box store (there's a lifelessness to super-bright spaces).

[jansolee66]

I've admittedly skipped over some of the pages in here (forgive me if I'm repeating), but my foray into vintage gaming was fueled more by this fascinating history of video games I was almost completely unaware of than nostalgia. Yes, I'd owned an NES and played other systems, but my interest in the subject was born on Wikipedia, reading about the various generations.

I think making little plaques/posters/articles explaining some important moments/innovations in gaming history might add a real cache to the store: i.e., you have a section of your store with Atari 2600, Intellivision, etc. And you have a framed advertisement (even just a printed copy) of Plimpton telling you how much better the Intellivision is. You can have a little plaque/poster that says: "The second generation of video games (1976-83), Dominated by the Atari 2600...". Maybe somewhere else, you could have articles about the bit wars, etc...  It's the kind of stuff that maybe only 1 in 10 people will read, but it will add a certain of level of charm for them and raise it above all other "regular" stores.

I like the idea of staff recommendations with actual explanations why they're recommending certain games. Things like that will draw in collectors. i.e., someone might see that "John" recommends a game they've been considering. They buy it and love it. Next month, they see that "John" is now recommending game X which they were also looking at. They get the game and enjoy it too. Next month, John is recommending an obscure little puzzle game the customer has never heard of. They debate it, but realize that John hasn't steered them wrong yet, so they take the chance. Now, they're pretty much committed to following John's recommendations, etc... I think it also gives the customer the feeling that the store really respects its employees' opinions, so customers should too.

I also think it'd be ideal to have a community atmosphere at the store. Maybe have a monthly "Gamer's Club" game where if you purchase it, you get X amount of points. If you beat it and take a picture of yourself and the end screen, you get more points. Then you can make it so that after you collect a certain number of points, you qualify for certain prizes (i.e., all "Gamer's Club" members with 1000 or more get a "Gamer's Club" T-shirt. Members between 500 and 999 get a 5$ gift certificate etc.). You have those giveaways maybe twice a year. Membership to the club would also enter you in certain draws for smallish lots.

[techwizard]

i second the staff picks idea, we do that at the library where i work for books and a lot of people like to browse those ones. a few times we've moved them around in some reorganizing and patrons have asked where they went because they liked them so much.