Opening a FLGS - My nerd retail dreams are coming true

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Law

Law

Dworkirian Jihad
True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Nov 8, 2018
I might get to help open a nerd store selling boardgames, Warhammer stuff, comic books, and the like.
What makes a good retail experience for you? What do you like to see in such a store? Is brick-and-mortar retail utterly dead in current year? What do you think?
 
People not smelling like shit would be my #1 for any FLGS.
herefortheactualthreads said:
good customer service and knowing your shit instead of ripping off the customer.
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Yeah, the opposite of the GW store model would be golden. Don't try to upsell or be pushy in general, most nerds know their shit and know what they want to buy in advance and are also much more likely to pick up extra stuff when you let them "free roam" the store.
Law said:
Is brick-and-mortar retail utterly dead in current year?
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Regarding this, there are only two GW stores and only a small handful of FLGS, with some of the bigger and well-known ones already having closed shop pre-COVID lockdowns, in my city of ~4 million people.
 
The one I am at regularly but not weekly makes a lulzy amount of money out of cans of coke and toasted sandwiches, if your licence will let you do hot snacks on the premises.

I know this is not what you asked, but it is the thing that is easy and people will drop a fiver on a toastie and a can when they won't drop thirty quid on a new box to add to the pile of shame. Air fryers and panini grills are cheap. Check your licence conditions and think about it.

The one I'm talking about also has a very decent gaming space that will fit six 4 foot by 6 foot tables. Plus obviously the store can store terrain etc. The reason I bring this up is they are very willing and keen to host small tourneys, or special game days if you can get enough mates together, and also they can run regular games night with pick up games. Again, these sell a lot of toasties, and also the longer you've got people in, the more semi-impulse purchases they will make. We all enjoy lunch. We will not leave the store for lunch if lunch is available there.

Let people organise pick up games through your Facebook page. People want to come to a place where they can actually get a game, so make it easy for people to find someone to play with.

If there's a college or similar large collection of youngsters nearby, reach out to their tabletop, D&D, animefag, scifi/fantasy and similar societies to offer to host them for game nights or book club or whatever else. The store needs footfall. No, it's not a charity, but likewise, people need to be in the store to actually buy things, and as a new store you need to become known as a place where people can meet likeminded fgts and buy stuff.

If any of your customers sell not terrible and not pure hentai artwork, offer to display some of it and sell it for them for a small handling fee. You get free shit for the walls until it sells and more local community links.

No fursuits for any reason.

There needs to be some time earmarked for old bastards/veterans/however you call them, but you also need to be pretty friendly to having slightly bigger kids come in with parents. Kids want shit and parents have wallets. Do NOT become the local unpaid babysitting spot for the seven to fifteen year old age group, though. Shut that shit down quickly. A particular night, or afternoon, or monthly session especially aimed at younger players just getting into tabletop shit can be a good moneyspinner, if you can get your most hygienic/least pedo regulars in to help with small pick up games and coaching etc. Obviously let the kids play with the store models and terrain.

If the kids have a good experience they will buy things. If the old bastards have a good experience they will buy things. Make the experience of being in the store good.

The smelly creep who never buys anything but hangs around a lot driving away the actual customers and annoying the fuck out of the staff is not a customer and should not be tolerated. You know the guy. Every FLGS has this guy. I quit my job in our then-local FLGS because this guy.
 
Rudy from Alpha Investments says you're a stupid Timmy, then follows up with the reminder that all your margin comes from selling junk food and drinks. Prepare to get dumped on by both the manufacturers and the distributors.
 
I'm not familiar with board games or GW stuff, but I do have some experience in an adjacent industry, TCGs, so I'll try to list off some things that I think are applicable to game stores in general.

- Provide a good gaming space. Hygienic and temperature-controlled, meaning clean tables and air conditioning/heating.

- It's not unusual to hear that LGS's make large margins on food and drink, and while I'm sure that's true for some, I feel that this may be exaggerated at times. In my experience, the availability of food and drink is to give customers less reason to have to leave your store to go on a McDonalds run.

- Social media is gay, but free. You can use it to let your local community know that you exist and it can be used to inform your customers of what your weekly tournament/event itinerary is. You should also use it to announce when you have new products or restocks on in-demand products coming in.

- This may be more of a TCG thing, but if kids happen to be a non-insignificant part of your customer base, then having items that can be bought for pocket change (below $20) can be a good idea. Those silly little Pokemon tins or Yugioh booster packs come to mind for me, but I don't know what would be analogous for you.

- Be prepared for the possibility of opening an online store if you accumulate an excessive amount of product and local demand is already fulfilled.
 
Probably don't have any sort of unique insight; but keep in mind, a lot of things have gone digital, so you'll need some sort of value added to get people in the store.

A store I used to hit up when I was in San Diego was called Game Kingdom (it's gone now, Corona ruined it); and they had one of the larger plots in the building, and most of it was space for game nights. They had different days for their card games, War Hammer, and the like; not saying you need a lot of room, but you should definitely do something to foster IRL meetups.

Another thing I can suggest is don't be afraid to do custom orders, if possible; these should be people you're familiar with and can rely on.

I'd also second the "geeks/nerds know what they like and don't need help" claim. Friends and family would probably need help, but anyone who's into something, nothing wrong with asking what they're into, but let them meander at their own speed, if they want something, they'll ask.

This is also more of an organizational type thing, and would be a further down the line thing. If you hold some sort of weekly/monthly events, get intimately familiar with the rules; I'll say 95% of problems can and will be resolved by the players themselves. But there's like a 5% chance that a card reads a certain way, or WotC and their infinite fucking wisdom decided to ban 80+ of their new card set from tournament play. Whatever it is you host, get familiar with how everything rolls, because yelling at the players to figure it out themselves only works for so long.
 
Figure out how to get some noise insulation into your gaming space. There will always be rowdy nights, but I've played at tables where games were wrapped up early because of the ambient noise.

Ban all friends from the store unless they're spending money. They don't make the store look fuller during slow hours because it's always the same group clustered in the same area, and owners who indulge their buddies risk becoming distracted or becoming the sort of owner who is annoyed whenever he has to help a customer.
 
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