*IMPORTANT* - Might be time to think about some rent fellas

[Raak]

**Jim could I get this pinned for a little bit please, sir? **

So look. I'm tired. My frickin' shoulder is doing 3 things that it medically shouldn't and to top it off I've stayed up too late again playing ancient strategy games (ADD side note: Word to the Solo and 2 player wargamers - Case Blue is the absolute bees dadgum knees), work tomorrow promises to suck the chrome off a trailer hitch and pre-school starts at what I consider to be an inhumanly early hour of the morning so please forgive if the following message is brief, ill-worded and possibly a little contentious.

Today I found out that we are very close to loosing the back of DTG as a gaming space. No; actually I think we might have lost already but may have it for a while until Nathaniel figures out what to do.

WTF, you say - how does he know this? Who does this nob think he is? Well here's the deal gentlemen: I was playing a learning game of Fantasy with Nathaniel recently and asked him if he’d consent to another. He agreed and today when I called to say that if I even said the word "game" near my wife today I was going to get shot and that we should reschedule, I ended up spending almost 2 hours on the phone with the guy. Now #1 - He's not going to read this. He's thought about getting an acct. but for his own reasons has decided not to. #2 He does not know that I am posting this but I asked him if I could quote him, use his exact numbers and even explicitly warned him I that was probably going to post about it - he was reluctantly O.K. with it.

His rent is $3000 a month. His Electric is ~$500 - now for those in the very back of the room that means Nathaniel spends $3500 a month (not including internet, phone, etc) on that shop. The back of DTG where we game represents roughly 45% of the store's square footage.

Really Short Version: Nathaniel is running a retail store and is essentially (in terms of financial gain) letting 45% of his available showroom space lie fallow. That is insanity. He has finally come to this conclusion with his wife and has decided that he is tormented by making the correct decision but letting things stand as they are is not, in his words, a viable option.

So. It cost Nathaniel $1575 a month to have that back space and he makes no return on what is an $18,900+ a year game room/ labor of love. This is a guy with his first kid on the way. This is a guy with big heart This is a guy who wanted to create something that he thought should exist and did. The thing is, there really aren’t all that many GW or paint sales at the shop. We all know where and why we buy. It is what it is. I don't judge. I'm probably one of he worst culprits! I now feel like I am literally taking food out of this man’s family’s mouth. I’m dead serious.

Now the other side of that coin is that it’s his responsibility to fix it if he doesn’t like it but apparently he’s had enough and he now wants to figure out a new situation.

 

Things that were mentioned that involved us still having the game room :

• Monthly memberships
• 10% Discounts on bulk GW orders through the shop with a 4 day delivery promise
• Pay to Play on a by Table basis.

Things that were mentioned that involve us loosing the game room:

• Turning the Room into a NetCafe area for PC/LAN parties and Gaming + console gaming
• Extending MTG into the back room
• Anything that will make $1600 a month so that the space at least breaks even

If we loose this shop it will mean Bellingham will have no tabletop home. At the same time I cannot for the life of me think of a way for the people who use that space to semi-reliably come up with $1600 a month. That's #54 $30 memberships every month or at $5/hr table rent it would mean 10.6 hours of tables time reserved every day.
 

I’m posting this because I know there is a solution and I know that it is going to take the Hive Mind to figure this out.

 

ps. Don’t shoot the messenger. I want the Status Quo to remain unchanged just as badly as the rest of you, ja?





 

[Fix]

The amount of floor space isn't equal to the amount of return he's going to get for it.  He's not going to make up the cost of getting rid of play tables by stocking more or more various merchandise.  He's already carrying more than he can sell.  There are definitely things that we can do culturally to help (shop local, gents.  Pay where you play) but he's not going to turn it around by putting a LAN arcade back there.

 

Table fees are an unfortunate thing, but it might be mitigated by having all table fees paid convert into store credit.  I have heard great things of this kind of approach done in stores on the east coast.

[Raak]

The amount of floor space isn't equal to the amount of return he's going to get for it.  He's not going to make up the cost of getting rid of play tables by stocking more or more various merchandise.  He's already carrying more than he can sell.  There are definitely things that we can do culturally to help (shop local, gents.  Pay where you play) but he's not going to turn it around by putting a LAN arcade back there.

 

Table fees are an unfortunate thing, but it might be mitigated by having all table fees paid convert into store credit.  I have heard great things of this kind of approach done in stores on the east coast.

 

I agree with all of the above to a T; especially that the space to revenue ratio is not as simple as that . I think communicating these things to Nathaniel will go a long way in figuring this out too. Right now I think he just looks at the math and empty space and is feeling very worried.

[smashthedean]

Clearly he just needs to get a beer and wine license and put taps behind the counter. I don't know anything at all about the laws on this or how much it would cost, but nerds do like to drink and with all of the traffic he has in there from Magic players and then us, I imagine he could make some pretty good money.

 

If that's totally unfeasible, I could see shifting to a membership or table fee system, but I don't see that likely generating the revenue he's hoping for, nor do I see a LAN space really being a big hit.

[JMGraham]

Hmm… we’ve been here before, no? WARNING: Wall of text incoming. Do you reckon Nathaniel would mind if I shared my thoughts with him? DTG is the closest to my vision of a good gamestore that Bellingham has ever had, but I think it could be more. I'd be willing to help with some of the data analysis, if need be. Of course, I'm a data/research/statistics geek.

 

RANT ON:

 

If it were me, I wouldn’t make any decisions without data. I think the folks at black Diamond Games (http://blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com/ ) are a good model of how to run a gamestore. They track everything, engage in regular analytics of their data, and make business decisions based on evidence. Somethimes they’ll do some experiments, but everything is pretty much on a trial basis. Really great blog – I hope Nathaniel’s reading it!

 

Re: the backroom. I may be naïve, but $ per square foot seems an odd way to think about it. If he thinks carrying more stock would help him generate more income, than using the space for that seems legit. However, my (again, perhaps naïve) view is that the space he has creates an enormous community, and that community is key.

 

Single-use space in general seems like a waste of resources. Currently, he has the front devoted only to Magic, and the back devoted only to miniature wargames. Because of the way things are set up, it’s hard to use one for the other. If it were me, I’d want space to be flexible. Tuesday night? Maximum wargaming space. Friday night? All Magic. It’d probably be good to keep a few smaller spaces continuously devoted to their respective games, but the rest of the space should be flexible. I’d do this:

 

1)     Track usage patterns. Every hour, for a month, make note of how many people are in the store and what they are doing. A quick checklist of the number of people in the front room (with common categories for activities – games played, etc), number of people in the back room, etc. Also, a count of how many tables are being used, and for what.

 

2)     Track sales in the same way. I’m not sure if the computer system allows it, but dividing sales into categories based on gross categories (miniatures, RPGs, cards, snacks).

 

3)     Look at the data from #1 and search for patterns in usage. Peak hours for different game systems? When’s the time where you NEED more space for a given use? More Magic space might be needed, but probably not all of the time. Here, I’d be searching for times where a space is being under-utilized (with an eye toward creating something to fill that time) and crunch times where more space is needed.

 

4)     Map #1 with #2 and search for the influence that these activities have on profit. Of course, there might not be a direct corollary between space usage and sales, as people may not always buy when they play. However, this provides a very important baseline. Once you have a baseline, you can track what happens whenever you change anything. That way, you know whether your changes had an effect.

 

5)     Based on #1 through #4, come up with a plan for space usage. This will involve a weekly schedule about how the tables will be set up. Whoever opens the store might have to re-arrange some things. Some of the tables in the back room may need to be set up for easy set-up and tear-down. This might necessitate more storage space for terrain. Or removing the smaller skirmish tables. Some flexibility should exist in the schedule for random fluctuations, and for monthly or other special events.

 

6)     Experiment. At different times, try out some of those other things Nathaniel mentioned. Try the whole host of garbage I’ve posted below. Collect data. See what works, and what doesn’t. Adjust accordingly. Treat your business like an ongoing research study.

 

In regards to other stuff, here are some more ideas:

 

Above all, TRACK CUSTOMER PURCHASES!!!! These data are pure gold. To do this, you need to create a loyalty program, where people get something small in return. Perhaps you get a variable discount, depending on how much you spend at the store. Perhaps each dollar you spend gets you an entry into a monthly prize raffle. Perhaps there are some special events or sales for folks who are in the loyalty program. Get a special discount, not on your birthday, but on a couple of days after your birthday, so you can spend your birthday money there. At the store where I worked when I was in undergrad, each dollar spent gave one frequent customer point (the frequent customers were called “Freaks”). If your freq point balance was over 100, you could exchange any number of freq points for store credit (at a 1:10 rate). Essentiallty, this worked out to a 10% discount ONLY for people who spent over $100 at the store.

 

Create a Hobby Budget program. Myriad Games (http://www.myriadgames.com/mvp) has something like this. Basically, folks can be signed up to have a set amount of money charged to them each month. This is the amount of money they’ve budgeted for their hobby. This amount accumulates as store credit, and can be used to turn in for purchases. Likely, it’d be good to give folks a discount for money charged like this. Perhaps the more of a discount for more money that’s contributed each month (5% if you contribute up to $25 a month, 10% up to $50, etc.). I reckon this’ll make impulse buys even more likely. Plus, it’ll be of help to actual budget-minded gamers.

I searched the old posts, and found a bunch of nonsense I have spouted in a previous thread, I believe when Stacy was upset about profit in Eagles. I’ve added some edits, that I’ve included in brackets.

 

 

 

I have LOTS of ideas about the way a gamestore should be run, all of which require additional work and making the store part of the community. Some thoughts:

If the current location is kept, you can always do a seasonal kiosk-style store out at Bellis Fair during the holiday shopping season. Stock it full of family games and gift items. You'd have the advantage over other such places as you would have the stocking synergy between the store and kiosk. Have some outgoing people I'd suggest hitting up students in the theatre department at WWU) who can demo games at the mall (particularly party games like Times Up, Apples to Apples, and the like). Games like that can make it easy to include passers-by on the fly. Done correctly, it could generate a lot of attention from walk-by traffic. Of course, such demos wouldn't be constant, but you could target peak shopping days.

Also, work on a partnership with local schools. Do some kind of boardgame club, etc. that involves kids getting a discount coupon to take home to their parents. Have representation at the Blodel Donovan Kid's Festival. Have a game-themed float in the ski-to-sea parade where you give out coupons. This is Bellingham. Visibility in the community can go a long way towards building business and loyalty beyond the basic gamer crowd.

Over the summer, get some motivated folks to run a "summer camp" for some of the major wargaming systems. We did this one year at my store when I was in undergrad, and it was a huge success. Kids get a starter army, assembled by the store staff, and included (at a modest discount) in the summercamp price. They spend time painting, learning rules, etc. The 5-day "camp" ends with an all-day mini tournament. Parents get a break, the store gets income from the camp, from the armies, from all the extras the kiddos buy, and you get another player.

Other stores run "Beyond Monopoly" classes at local community colleges. Introduce folks to some basic Eurogames over the course of a couple of evenings, include a game of their choice in the price of the class. Boardgame Geek has some great info on this model. [Another clever way of doing this is, after the class, make the boardgames you opened for demoing purposes available for sale at a discount].

Give talks or presentations or run special events at the local libraries. You can't charge for stuff there, but you can have flyers and brochures on hand.

Above all, track where your customers come from so you know what works and what doesn't. When you give out coupons, make sure you have a tracking system to know where folks heard about you. Have a customer database to track purchases, etc. 

…

The take home marketing message is based on the idea that Bellinghamsters don't just sit there and watch the idiot box. Bellinghamsters have active bodies, and active bodies deserve active minds. We've got a lot of rainy days, a lot of possible time spent on indoor leisure. I'd provide solid support to the core gamer community, while really pushing the family games and eurogaames in the larger community. Do a coffee house tour. Create a game library. Loan games to coffee houses. Partner with bars. [Ajia started to do this with the Black Drop before Eagles closed – creating game nights]

…

Re: partnering with schools. Create grade-specific lists for some good go-to games for different types of age-appropriate games. Run an occasional parent-child family game night training camp evening (age specific). Run it for free, in the local communities if need be.

The local gifted programs are horribly undersupported in the schools. Gifted kids love challenging stuff like interesting games and the like. Chat with the local HCL (highly capable learners) office about getting some sort of occasional after-school event organized. Some programs (languages, chess club) are already offered in a similar manner. There's a possibility for a Mensa tie-in there, as well. [i can help with some of this if needed – my oldest is in the HCL program]

Run tournaments for other games, not just gamer games. 

Here's a store that's a good model of family + gamer store: http://www.gamepreserve.com/ This was my local store when I was an undergrad.

Staff recommendations: for the boardgames, have little cards with reviews of games by the staff, ala Village Books and the like. These give folks some guidance when browsing, and creates more of the "local store" vibe.

Hell, for a killer punch, have Ben Mann paint some of the signage. He's a very recognizable Bellingham artist, who did the signage for Mallards, Village Books, and just around town in Bellingham. That'll give you some amount of instant "Buy Local" Cred. 

Have a coupon in the buy local book.

Provide some kind of sponsorship for Smart Trips.

 

 

 

[JMGraham]

BTW, Jon - Thanks a million for chatting with Nathaniel about this, and for bringing it to our attention!

[Raak]

BTW, Jon - Thanks a million for chatting with Nathaniel about this, and for bringing it to our attention!

 

pshaw, I just wish it was someone with a little more behind the scenes know-how (yes I think you definitely need to talk to him), because I really had nothing to contribute but an ear. Your ideas above are killer and the closest thing he'll have to a road map for success, imho.

[JMGraham]

Also, apparently open-to-buy planning and a good inventory management system are huge. Likely he's not making best use of his available shelf-space, and turning over inventory that's not selling well quickly could help free up additional capital that's just sitting there rotting.

 

[EDIT: Ok, sometimes when I get going, I have a hard time stopping. This has happened before!

 

Much of what I've suggested is that a good community is the key to a good business. Not sure if that's correct, but if so, events are necessary (tracking sales on days of events versus other days would be a good way to know for certain whether this is true). If so, create a loyalty program for event organizers to encourage more folks to run events. Run a tournament? A campaign? Get some store credit. It won't make up for the time, but it might be a nice way to get a wider variety of folks to step up to the plate. ]

[Raak]

Clearly he just needs to get a beer and wine license and put taps behind the counter. I don't know anything at all about the laws on this or how much it would cost, but nerds do like to drink and with all of the traffic he has in there from Magic players and then us, I imagine he could make some pretty good money.

 

If that's totally unfeasible, I could see shifting to a membership or table fee system, but I don't see that likely generating the revenue he's hoping for, nor do I see a LAN space really being a big hit.

 

agreed.

I don't know the details but apparently places like AFK exist because they are awesome at filling out govt. forms in triplicate. Apparently theres a thing in WA about games and alcohol (casinos, I think?) and that makes getting a liquor license pretty hard. Also I think (guessing) that it means he would have to make the "bar" area 21+ ...not sure

 

I'm not a huge LAN fan (ha) but I do play a lot of those games and having lived in both South Korea and Japan I did use them  extensively there as they are ubiquitous, hell-useful and have an off the charts geek-factor that really appeals to me. That said, this is not the orient and I don't think/know that Bellingham has the population numbers / cultural bent to make that fly but then again I don't know a lot of things. I'd certainly rather see tabletops than screens back there, that I do know

[intrizic]

also, I don't think Nathanial's principal table top game lends itself to a sustainable FLGS experience for either the end user or the FLGS.  My intent is not to bash, but to point out, which was done is a much smoother way above, that branching out into other games will probably be key.  Nathanial focus on a set of particular games, because of his fondness for them, may be part of the problem: note the use of the term 'may'

[JMGraham]

Is there a way that both tabletop and screens could co-exist in the back room? I don't know how much space a LAN network woand a console or two would take. This is where I think tracking usage patterns could really help. I'd love a den of nerdery where every geeky vice has it's place.

 

@Loren - which games do you mean? The focus on Warhammer and 40k being problematic?

[smashthedean]

Also, apparently open-to-buy planning and a good inventory management system are huge. Likely he's not making best use of his available shelf-space, and turning over inventory that's not selling well quickly could help free up additional capital that's just sitting there rotting.

 

[EDIT: Ok, sometimes when I get going, I have a hard time stopping. This has happened before!

 

Much of what I've suggested is that a good community is the key to a good business. Not sure if that's correct, but if so, events are necessary (tracking sales on days of events versus other days would be a good way to know for certain whether this is true). If so, create a loyalty program for event organizers to encourage more folks to run events. Run a tournament? A campaign? Get some store credit. It won't make up for the time, but it might be a nice way to get a wider variety of folks to step up to the plate. ]

 

Actually Nathaniel currently does $20 store credit if you run an event. On the topic of events, one thing that was a bit of disappointment when I ran the X-Wing event was that there wasn't really any effort on the store's part to stock up on X-Wing before the event. I believe there was a single core set on the shelf for the two weeks leading up to the event that did sell that Saturday and the blister ship selection has been pretty thin for a while. I know this could be partially a thing with his distributor, but we did have a few new players and a few walkins just checking things out while we played and it would have made a good selling opportunity I'd think.

[Fix]

Anybody know if people actually play video games at Reset?  I don't think I've ever seen anyone use their screens apart from the occasional kid or staff checking out whether a disc works.

[Munkie]

I think a LAN area is a bad idea, personally. I've seen MANY of those businesses come and go. Asking people to travel and pay to play a system they already own that can already reach anyone in the world doesn't make sense. Also, giving up on a known but insufficient quantity (our sales) in favor of a whole new market with a lot of overhead seems risky. Up your sales rather than scrap them in favor of hopefully new ones.

 

I agree that we should be trying to buy as much as of our nerd merch at DTG, it seems to have been taken for granted lately. Hell, if we can just show him a bump in sales for a little while, it may help alleviate his concerns. To this effect, I would recommend making your purchases on the weekends when Nathaniel is there so he'll notice that we do actually buy things.

[JMGraham]

Actually Nathaniel currently does $20 store credit if you run an event. On the topic of events, one thing that was a bit of disappointment when I ran the X-Wing event was that there wasn't really any effort on the store's part to stock up on X-Wing before the event. I believe there was a single core set on the shelf for the two weeks leading up to the event that did sell that Saturday and the blister ship selection has been pretty thin for a while. I know this could be partially a thing with his distributor, but we did have a few new players and a few walkins just checking things out while we played and it would have made a good selling opportunity I'd think.

 

Nice - again, this is where good planing and inventory management could pay off. Getting rid of some slow (never) moving stock could free up capital to use more fluidly - about to have an event? Stock up with stuff for that so it's on hand for the event. Some of the X-wing stuff is the fact that Fantasy Flight underestimated it's popularity and didn't plan production runs appropriately. Still, though.

 

Another thought - Paypal is the "hidden gamer economy". If you sell your stuff on eBay, it goes into Paypal, which people tend to spend more freely than cash. It's super easy to be able to take paypal payments in a store, and the rates aren't grossly different from what the credit card companies charge. Paypal makes it super easy for stores to accept Paypal as payment, even in person.

[Fix]

Yeah, I'd have dropped some Paypal coin on him recently if he'd accept it.  That's for sure.

[Raak]

Yeah, I'd have dropped some Paypal coin on him recently if he'd accept it.  That's for sure.

same here.

[Raak]

Anybody know if people actually play video games at Reset?  I don't think I've ever seen anyone use their screens apart from the occasional kid or staff checking out whether a disc works.

 <hangs head>

 

...yes but my 4 year old made me <not really>

[Jayne_Cobbb]

Yikes!

I would HATE to see the back room go.  And, I really like the suggestion of "dues" where that gets converted to store credit.  IT would make Impulse buys easier, and It would be paying for the back room by moving stuff off his shelves.  So we would get the back room, and get minis (win win)

I don't make a whole lot of money, but I could set a monthly gaming budget buy into a system like that.

[Raak]

I did mention detailed sales tracking and some pertinent high value software that could be passed along at "slightly less than MSRP (f.r.e.e)". That sparked interest but I think one needs to firmly understand the connection/relationship between extremely detailed data and the store's continued  (tabletop)

 

Is there a way that both tabletop and screens could co-exist in the back room? I don't know how much space a LAN network woand a console or two would take. This is where I think tracking usage patterns could really help. I'd love a den of nerdery where every geeky vice has it's place.

 

 

He was talking about 6-10 PC stations set up for StarCraft, LoL, WoW, Diablo, EVE etc etc etc. and 3-5 x-Box ones in addition to a centralized server for LAN action. It sounded more GameCafe than LAN arcade to me.

 

Co-exist? I would hope. I play those games and like them. I have crap internet in the county and might like an hour or 2 a week of fast framerates up at DTG. It seems like the vive/noise level would be different <You've spent all afternoon mentaly placing yourself in the narrative, things are going swimmingly at the top of turn 3 and then a roar erupts "Kill that motherF863tr!!!, Get Him, Go left!!! Flank him a@@hole!!! wtf! go! Go! Go!" I dunno ambience killer maybe but I'd rather have a LGS with tables and random ambiance than no store.

 

I can't express how deeply I agree with the sentiment that everything needs to be tracked there. Games being played, inventory category and game system etc etc. Knowledge is power. That information will give him the power to transform his business!

[Fix]

 <hangs head>

 

...yes but my 4 year old made me <not really>

 

See, that's what I'm talking about.  It's not a bad thing that you did, but there seems to exist this stigma that it is.  I sure as hell wouldn't mind a place to play video games with people because I much prefer couch-based multiplayer to online.  That said, I don't think it's the right thing for DTG, nor would it be very profitable for Nathanial. 

 

Screens are too distracting to tabletop next to.

[Raak]

Giving up on a known but insufficient quantity (our sales) in favor of a whole new market with a lot of overhead seems risky. Up your sales rather than scrap them in favor of hopefully new ones.

 

I completely agree with Kevin on this but only detailed sales data will reveal if the numbers will work. That's whats frustrating. Until there are hard numbers that can definitively prove that plan x or plan y will work it's all conjecture

[smashthedean]

6-10 PCs sounds like a lot of set up costs that will probably not pay off anytime soon...

[intrizic]

@Loren - which games do you mean? The focus on Warhammer and 40k being problematic?

sorry, missed this:

 

With GW going digital and direct release only, it doesn't really give much of a need to order from DTG ( I know it's not for everything ).  I'm not laying all this at the feet of GW, just pointing out that while 40k may still be the most main stream game, for the moment anyway, that it's business model isn't exactly friendly to our situation.  Now to take the focus off of GW, which games do we play that are more friendly to our situation?  More towards the MTG model?

 

On the topic of the cafe, I learned in the Marine Corps that playing video games is fun, playing video games with friends is more fun and playing video games with a room full of friends is amazing.  So, initially at least, i have nothing against a LAN arcade, plus I have heard Nathanial mention wanting to put xboxes in as well.  All of that sounds fun.  I don't see a reason that DTG can't cater to all nerds.  Plus, I have seen a large number of MTG players come back, watch games, take pictures of games, and quote, 'because this is just [big bad swear word]ing awesome' ( apoc game ) and I see the interest in table top grow.

 

While I entirely agree with everyone that Nathanial shouldn't rush into a decision and do the research, I implore all of us, myself included, not to get butt hurt if we don't like the direction of the change.  Be constructive with your feedback, make yourself part of the solution, regardless of the direction that is taken.  Remember the great thing about change is change, just because he goes in one direction doesn't mean that's the way it will stay.  

[intrizic]

oh, one more thing...

In all my tournament travels, The Warhamsters are the ONLY gaming group I have come across that do not have to pay gaming dues for a club house.