I'm interested in the responses to this query. I shall monitor this thread closely...

Not a longtime fa/tg/uy, but it shouldn't be much different than local friendly (/v/idya) game shops, so your crutch will be events. Especially on opening, and then a few organized events scheduled.

Everyone who wanted to do this on /v/ agrees that events are how you stay afloat, because Gamestop and the like just don't care.

Stock board games as well as RPGs and miniatures, provide gaming spaces, have a large back room that can be rented out for parties and tournaments, advertise on college campuses, sell gift certificates, be prepared to work huge overtime, get listed in yellow and white pages BEFORE opening, and if you have the money, maybe consider opening a LAN room in the back.

Where's you FLGS located?

if you say this is going to be northern New Hampshire I will be the happiest of men.

Buy and sell used books. Helps players find more obscure and out of print titles.

Also offer to order stuff that isn't available in your store for the customers (with a bit of a markup, usually just a couple bucks). My LGS does this. Sure I could buy it online on my own for a bit cheaper, but you gotta support your LGS man.

A separate area for playing.
Ventilation.
No food.

>>14800766
when you say no food, you permit drinks, right?

Because you could make a killing on soda and water at events...

>>14800766
>>14800782

This this a hundred times this. Put a table outside where people can smoke, eat, and drink, but nothing inside the store except water, because anything else turns it into a fucking shithole

>>14800654
Where will you guys be situated?

Don't ever allow people to bring their own filthy food and drinks. Instead be smart like cinemas are and provide them with culinary services of your own. These people are willing to sink loads of cash into WH40K and simmilar shit, so they will have enough money to purchase your overpried snacks.

interested as well, though i've technically already started.
now it's just 'transform train shop into all around hobby shop'.

wareham ma here if anyone cares

This FLGS best be in Hertsfordshire, we have only one LGS in the entire county.

This thread is relevant to my interests

Also make sure you can see the whole store from where you'll be most of the day

>>14801018
Wait no I'm wrong, we don't have any

>>14800886
don't over price your snacks, buy bulk, so you don't have to worry about being a dick and kicking people out if they sneak food in. This way, they have no excuse for breaking your store rules.

>buy hot pockets/various other cheap food/snack items
>buy microwave to cook said food
>smell gets everywhere, more hungry neckbeards

works pretty well at my shop. for additional goodness get a toaster/toaster strudles. 2$ a box and charge 75$ per. shit's hard to resist.

>>14801104
75cents of course, not 75 fucking dollars

A good way to start is to have the 3 fundamental games you'll find in any store. Magic The Gathering,Warhammer 40k, and DnD.

Try to establish 1 or 2 nights a week for open playing, By establishing a set day, more people will try to come because other people will try and go too.

The best way to make money is by selling snack though. A glass fridge with a variety of drinks and a modest selection of popular snacks and candy will keep people happy, but also be sure to include a microwave. A candy bar isn't enough sometimes, and where I play, people buy hot pockets and pizza singles all the time.

Put all the small items into a separate area behind counter, shit gets stolen alot.

I'd love to do something like this but I'm wondering how much it would cost top open/initially stock a place like this well enough to be competitive.

Also, have you talked to a bank about this?

Don't plan on turning a profit for the first couple of years. If you don't have enough cash in reserve to survive that long, think long and hard about opening a shop.

>>14801387

>This, really fucking hard.

Unless you have a pretty fucking large and active userbase, can get them into your shop over other shops, and keep them spending money, you're not going to be rolling in profit for a while. Especially in a niche market like this, you need to seriously build up and retain your market. That comes from good customer service, good product, and good atmosphere.

I've heard knowing your customer's names or making an effort to keep in contact with walk-ins/making good first impressions can really help with the initial years.

Magic ; Warhammer ; and DnD, your three friends, learn to play them all if you don't play them all already. That way people can consult you on things. Make sure if you are hiring employees, that they have a good bit of knowledge in at least one of these games. Have Tournaments monthly is a good thing. Two open game nights per week, and then specific Warhammer Days, DnD Campaign days, Magic days, etc. You will make a ton of money on SNACKS. Get sodas, water, energy drinks, gamer friend foods, (Candy, Hot Pockets, microwavable stuff) These sell good, people will buy them a lot. Maybe even have special events, such as learn to play nights, etc. Best of luck, hoping to own my own FLGS sometime.

No one's mentioned it and I'm not sure if it's obvious but have a really good printer. You can print off character sheets, reference, stat sheets, anything you like. Hell even free quick start rules for people to play with on off days. Get a kid in there for like a half hour playing something and you're more likely to have him spend money. Further more it just makes it all around easier to play in store games.

Become a TO for Magic, so you can organize sanctioned events. Having FNM every week will get you a lot; charge 5 bucks a head for entry fee, with a few booster packs as prizes, decent profit. You can also host prereleases and stuff as you get more players.

If you sell food, either sell stuff that's not messy, or ask people to refrain from eating in the gaming area. Don't allow any non-bottled drinks in the store, to prevent spillage. Keep small items like boosters, dice, singles, BEHIND THE COUNTER, or they will get stolen.

Make sure your location is ventilated well, and has heat and AC or it'll be miserable. Natural light is good too, but have some blinds or something to avoid glare in the play area.

As a part owner of a game store, let me tell you this:

Games Workshop are a bunch of assholes. Yes, their games can bring in good money, but they require you to dedicate a certain amount of space to their games exclusively, amongst other things. Oh, and they can periodically come in and check to see that you're up to their standards and can take away your official retailer status if you don't.

Mind you, once the ball gets rolling, it's not so bad. But it's really hard if you want to open your doors as a GW retailer

1) Location
1a) Make sure you have enough space for what you want. A good idea, of course, is to make absolutely SURE you have a good amount of gaming space. If you find yourself under using that space, you can always turn it into more retail space.
1b) Put your store within walking distance of somewhere to get food. Trust me, it will keep people in store longer. And people who spend more time there will eventually feel the need to buy something.

2) Know your core products
D&D, Both Warhammers and Magic. Learn how all three of these games work, because they're probably going to wind up being your core. Of course, this will change depending on your customers.
Warmachine overtakes Warhammer by leaps and bounds? Learn how to play it
WoW TCG bigger in your area than Magic? Figure it out.
GURPS is the top dog in your store? Make sure you have a grasp on it.

The worst thing you can do is say "I don't know."

3) CLEANLINESS.
So many game stores fail here it's not even funny.
Keep. Your. Store. Clean. This will make it easier to get new customers, and make you better at keeping your current ones.

4) Events.
You want to host things. Friday Night Magic, Warhammer Tournaments, Steamroller, Encounters, LFR etc etc. But you must find a balance. There have to be nights where someone can just show up and play at your stores without stepping on someone's toes. And you will need a day (probably Tuesday) where there isn't anything penned down so that you can deal with inventory and restocking.

and a final word of advice: You won't make money for a few years. This is typical of businesses. Make sure you have a slow start built into your business plan.

Make sure you have plenty of table space.

>>14801672

>The worst thing you can do is say "I don't know."

In addition to what this guy says, if you don't know, say "Let me find out". Always a better response.

This might be a bad idea, but an idea that occurs to me that I don't know if stores already do?

Foe war games that are popular in your area, have the store have small, as blandly painted as possible, armies of minis already set up and ready to go.

You have some guys in the back room playing warhammer 40k. A guy comes in, looks very interested. Says he has heard about the game but is debating whether or not to get into it.

For a couple of bucks, a fraction of the price it would cost to buy a set himself, he can rent the pre-made army from the store to play within the store only (any minis lost or damaged he will be charged for).

If he pay-and-plays once and never plays again? You just got a couple bucks out of a guy that wasn't going to get into the hobby anyway. If he becomes a regular? He will want his own army.

This is also not a bad way to try and hook people into branching out into new armies of games they already play. Say, a guy seeing how Necrons handle before he commits to a pack of warriors. The kicker is, don't rent out the books in the same fashion.

Just make sure to not let people rent only 'part' of an army to round out their force. that means mixing store minis with their own and that path leads to people walking out with your shit.

>>14801534
>>14800992 here
huh, must be the times, but they seem to be bending over backwards to get their stuff in my shop. i just don't have the cash for range three yet.

>>14801744
A great point. They won't mind your lack of knowledge if you show willingness to help them out.

Follow the 80/20 rule, too. 20 percent of your customers will provide you with 80% of your revenue. Keep them happy, but try not to go overboard and allow some fat, smelly, complete jackass to have free reign over the store just because he buys a lot. He scares off new customers.

Also, make sure it's well lit, and be friendly to anyone who walks in the door. Nothing scares off potential customers like walking into "The Android's Dungeon" which is smelly, overly warm, dark, and full of grognards including a shop owner who would rather be reading back issues of Scrye than say hello.

>>14801473

In addition to this, offer your printer as a service. Like 5-10 cents a page for printing shit. My buddies and I play a lot of out there shit, like BRP or even our own systems. Whenever our printer is on the shit (a lot) were kinda boned for Character sheets, or even charts or new rules were testing. Offer to print .pdfs, .docs, etc... or even do photocopies. A small additional income.

>>14801763
And, of course, if you have some sort of membership, like 20 bucks for a year, you can rent for free (or so many times per month/army?)

>>14801787
> Offer to print .pdfs, .docs, etc...

I was going to say don't let them print stuff that the store sells, but...

For even a 200 page book? 5 cents a page is a $100. So if they try to print shit they pirate, they will end up spending way more than buying it from you legit, so that shouldn't be an issue.

>>14801875
So either way you win, and you'll probably get more people to hang out that way. Like the group I DM for, we have no fucking room at my house so if we had a place to play we'd be there every friday. And my guys seriously buy like a thing of dice each week online, so we'd be blowing tons of cash in your store.

>>14801875
200 pages = $10

>>14801911
>>14801875
Honestly if they pirate a 200pg book and want to print it they wont be happy and they'll end up buying the proper thing. I was going to do something similar but I realized I'd rather just pay the extra $10 and get the proper thing, instead of 200 pieces of paper to get messed up.

FLGS live and die not by their product but by getting loyal customers. Have enough product to keep them interested but it's far more important to make it a place that people want to support. Give them a place to gather and socialize while working on their hobbies.

A place to paint means they might need a new brush or pot of paint.

Snacks are great for keeping people in the building. Having hookups with takeout places is also useful.

Game nights to get people playing. FNM is a great money maker.

Pick up/demo games are also good for getting people buying.

The one thing to watch out for is people getting too tight-knit. You can end up alienating potential customers.

>>14801930
>Honestly if they pirate a 200pg book and want to print it they wont be happy and they'll end up buying the proper thing

[citation needed]

>>14801938

>The one thing to watch out for is people getting too tight-knit.

this- nothing worse than feeling you're treading on everyone's toes by not being part of their super special secret warhams clique

BE FRIENDLY

BE HELPFUL

Want to echo the suggestion to diversify your stock, such as books, models, and board games - and also make the venue available for board game groups.

There are a lot of people who are not really into RPGs or wargames, but would definitely love to have a store in their area that they can count on to have space available and stock available for games like Settlers of Catan, Twilight Imperium, etc.

And there are quite a few board games that tie into franchises that are relevant to RPGs and wargames - the Game of Thrones boardgame, Axis & Allies, and so on.

As an example, along with CCGs, wargames, and RPGs, the FLGS in my area stocks board games, comics, manga, model kits (from WWII models to modern kits to Gundam), and collectible figures.

Having game playing space is important - having an open table somewhere out in front of the store where people can play is free advertising for you. Having a back room for groups that want more privacy helps too.

>>14801969

Personal experience. Anything more than like a 30pg is shit when you print yourself. If you loose leaf it, its a pain to shuffle through, and gets fucked up easy. If you use sheet protectors, its a lot of money, and a really thick cumbersome book. IF they are a cheap jew, yeah, they wont care. In either case they print at your store, you get like $10-$20 dollars. If they say fuck it and buy, you get $20-$40. Either way your making money. If you dont offer printing, and they're a jew, you lost a chance to make a little cash.

I'd like to throw out a small grievance of mine with my local game shops: The never seem to be open late enough. The shops around me close at like 6-7 and sometimes are worse during the weekend. I've been out and about with friends as late as 10 and wanted to go to the FLGS and play/buy something, but they're all closed.
I realize there is likely to be a cost:benefit thing there but I have a store that is only open noon to 4 on sundays.

>>14802183
Heartily agreed with. My buddies and I live an hour from both of the FLGS around here. Some days we dont all get to hang out till 5, sometimes 9, and by then we dont have enough time to get there, browse, and buy. Definitely stay open till at least 9pm.

>>14802183
>>14802197
3rded. Close down at 9 or 10pm.

Also carry out of print and hard to find shit. None of the LGS around here carry anything other than WotC and Warhammer stuff.

>>14802183
>>14802197
>>14802266

Drunks- drunks everywhere

also people running the FLGS have like, lives too

>>14802689
>Drunks
Because everyone works a nine-to-five job and is in bed by 10. In the summers especially, I'm nocturnal due to my job; I work from 6 PM to 4 AM, so it is very common for me to be awake later at night. And, as some of them said, they might get done with class/work around 5, and the shop is an hour away, so they won't have much time to properly play.

>also people running the FLGS have like, lives too
No they don't. When you open up a small business of any stripe, especially one with tiny profit margins like a FLGS, you work as many fucking hours as you can, to stay open as long as you can, to make as much money as you can. The shop will BE your life.

>>14802717

>you work as many fucking hours as you can, to stay open as long as you can, to make as much money as you can

I don't think you understand overheads and cost/benifit ratios

also

>I demand that you overwork yourself with 20 hour shifts so that you can appease me and the four other fucktards who expect to go shopping at four in the morning

>>14802773

Its a balancing act... small business owners NEED to work long hours because their margins are so low, and they arent paid by the hour. Each sale is important. You see that in ethnic produce markets or corner stores, the owner opening up at 5am and locking up at 9 or 10pm.

But a game store is different, because buying patterns are different. Restaurants without breakfast menus rarely open before 11am because people don't buy supper dishes at that point, and a LOT of game stores dont open early or stay open late because the people who come to the store at those times dont really spend all that much money, particularly compared to the people who pop in for that narrow 1-to-5 window in the afternoon.

At first it seems odd.. the people who come late do so because they have jobs during regular hours, and jobs = disposable income. But I expect its because the people who go into a game store in the middle of the afternoon are people who DONT have jobs but have disposable income, and to a game store those are the cash cow customers because they're looking to spend money whose value they dont appreciate on hobby items to fill their empty hours.

OP here, sorry for being away so long. I've been doing a lot of research. To cut quite a few points very short, it'll cost slightly under $20,000 for startup costs (including first/last/security on rent). I will need to make a $300 profit daily to maintain the business. I have been in contact with other gaming stores gathering quite a bit of information.

Snacks can net me up to $50 daily, half that is profit so $25 earnings from my $300 goal. Now I sit at $275.
I am considering renting use of game consoles for $10/hr in store. Assuming 5 hours of daily use, there's $50 profit (electricity it minimal cost). I now sit at $225 to goal.
I am also considering selling related literature to my product lines in store. If I sell one book a day, I can see a $5-10 profit, putting me at $215 to goal.
I will definitely be hosting tournaments and events on fridays and saturdays (friday night magic, 40k tournaments). With entry fees of $5/person (greater for 40k due to prizes but assume $5 profit) and 10 people per tournament, there's $100/week, over 7 days is about $15/day, putting me at $200 to goal.
40k will show few items sold with higher values, with about %50 profit on items I'll see probably around $100/day, putting me at $100 to goal.
I have a printer I can put to use, if I sell paper at $0.10 per sheet I might see $5/day, putting me at $95 to goal.
Assuming I sell one role-playing game book per day, I'll probably see $25 profit, putting me at $70 to goal.
Paint, brushes, dice, modelling tools, flock, basing materials, glue etc... let's say $20 per day, easy. Let's up that to $35, puts me $35 to goal.
If I do some home-office type work, I should be able to maintain, assuming I don't have to live @_@

Now, most importantly, this place needs a name. Suggestions?

>>14803158
THE MULTIVERSE

>>14803179
That...doesn't actually seem bad.

Reading these threads gives me so much hope. I'm planning on opening a LGS once I"m done schooling. The only problem is that where I live right now is probably too saturated (We've got 2 Games Workshops) for me to open a store where I live, but these are things I've got to start researching... But it makes me feel less alone and like I'm asking to piss away my future.

>>14803158
>names
Fear and Loathing in Mom's Basement
Neckbeardia
Kromgol's
Dice 'n Things

>>14803158

I'm not familiar with /tg/ spending habits, but do you think you're going to have a consumer base that is going to be spending money every time they walk in? You might see a buy every day when it comes to TCG related stuff because of booster packs and whatnot, but idk.

I'd charge more for a print and consider how much ink would run you. These estimates just seem too optimistic to me.

>>14803466
>Fear and Loathing in Mom's Basement
If you don't name it this (or Kromgol's) you're a faggot, OP.

>>14803487
I'd make sure the name is something gamers can say to their non-gamer friends, and ideally doesn't infringe on copyright

>>14803473

Indeed, I'd say that your numbers are very optimistic, representing a good day in the life of your gaming store. Such good days would be balanced out by bad days where your takings will be significantly less, and occasionally bolstered by great days when people show up and shower you with money.

At the very least, have you checked with book wholesalers and GW/game producers to confirm your estimated profit margins for those items?

>>14803505
Multiverse is pretty good as suggested before. It makes a lot more sense than other shit.

BTW Try and get a laser tag kit FOr a horror!

>Magic: The Gathering

DONT.

The EVEN WORSE than 40k unwashed masses that are Magic players will take over the store and drive tabletoppers out.

Happens EVERY FUCKEN TIME.

Also:

>2k warhams game
>pop out for half time lunch break
>come back to bare table with 2 Magic players sitting at it
>'Nobody was here so we took it'
>told both armies had been scooped up and dumped into cases

Raged.

>>14803443
I have the opposite problem. I'd love to open a shop, but there's no shop within 3 hours of my town. I don't think there's enough of a presence to support it, sadly.

>>14803557
So because two douchebags moved your shit, and the employees of the store couldn't be bothered to keep an eye on it [or, a step further, because you left valuable minis sitting unattended for a period of time assuming that people would be A-OK with you just claiming the table as your own personal property], all Magic players are assholes?

What if I got up from a game of Magic and went to get lunch, and someone had just tossed mine and my opponent's decks into a box to play Warhams because the table was empty? Does that make all Warhams players douchebags?

>I am considering renting use of game consoles for $10/hr in store. Assuming 5 hours of daily use, there's $50 profit (electricity it minimal cost). I now sit at $225 to goal.
This... will draw a certain kind of crowd. I hope you enjoy baby sitting.

See, the irony, OP, is that if you listen to everyone's suggestions about what not to do, you're going to fucking fail (except for stuff like "make sure the store is clean").

Most of the things we hate about most FLGSs is are direct results of the profit motive. If you get rid of M:TG because it's only played by smelly fat slobs or Warhammer because it fills up your store with screaming kids, you're cutting out guaranteed revenue.

It would seem to me that your best bet is to stock and sell stupid kiddie shit like Pokemon cards or whatever the fuck they're into these days. Sure, that's what almost killed tabletop gaming fifteen years ago, but that really shouldn't matter to you.

>>14803596

>implying said story is the problems root cause

ool knee jerking bro, you must play Magic

>>14803602
Yeah. I see a lot of stores try the video-game rental route, but I haven't ever seen it do much beyond break even at best. Most fall into one of two categories: people who want to bring their own games there to play on a bigger TV/with friends [rarer], and people who want to play games they don't have, or games on SYSTEMS they don't have. However, the second part requires you to actually keep new games on hand [and possibly several copies], which can bite into your bottom line pretty hard.

They CAN be great for tournaments, though. I know of a place that does well, and one of the things they do is hold MvC3, BlazBlue, and other fighting game tournaments.

As a player, and not somebody that knows anything about the business side, let me say a couple things I like about my FLGS.

The employees (there's only about 3 of them total) all are incredibly knowledgeable about their games of expertise, and they all learn people's names rather quickly. So if you start showing up for FNM, Brian is going to know who you are and say hello when you walk in.

The store has regular events, and covers all the important events. If I want to go to FNM, there's always a FNM. If I want to go to the prerelease for New Phyrexia, I know the store is doing that. And I know that the store will also be doing a normal release event the next week as well. Additionally, the events are judged properly and I can't recall any bad rulings coming up.

The store buys and sells singles. I understand that this could be kind of hard to get into at first because of the amount of capital it takes to get an inventory, but it really means something to me to know that if I crack Karn at the prerelease, I can sell him to the store for credit and then use it along with my stored up credit to get a Revised Bayou for my legacy deck in progress. Or that I can always walk into the store and riffle through the commons box to find cards for my casual brew of the week.

The store allows trading, but does not allow buying/selling between players. I've been to other FLGSs that want everything to go through the store. This is highhanded and completely misses the point of trade binders. Players want to be able to get cards they need by having cards other players need. Forcing yourself as a middleman is unnecessary.

A couple thoughts I've had, and some things I've seen that work:

-If you can, partition the buying area from the gaming area. A local place is beautiful, because beyond special events, you have to redeem dice to use the gaming area. The dice themselves are given for every 5 bucks spent. This means few freeloaders, and no kids dropped off by jackass parents.
-Be attentive, always. Do not hire friends. Friends are nice but will not necessarily view this as a business, which it will be. It is not your clubhouse, it should not become theirs. Once people start getting away with things, theft happens. It ruins your bottom line and overall quality, which is a vicious circle.
-If you have computers available for gaming time, set up two or three Steam accounts whenever you have the time, and have various fun games people can play, or sign on with their own accounts. Things like L4D, DoW, things like that.
-Make it so that for FNM, as many people get packs for placing as possible. Nothing against Magic players as a whole, but giving away a bunch of packs to the winners attracts the wrong kind of Magic player. The guy who netdecks and doesn't buy packs, but wins every tourney? You don't necessarily want him, and you definitely don't need him.

>>14803713


Finally, the store has adequate playspace. Its not a separate room, its not fancy, but tables are in abundance. I'd actually estimate that the playspace is almost 1/2 of the store's floorspace. And its still pretty full during events.

Only other note I would have is that my store used to have some LAN set up, but they've disappeared in the last year and a half. I've never inquired myself because it was never something I wanted to do, having my own rig at home, but I imagine that it just wasn't profitable.

The store also used to do used anime dvds and video games, and that has also disapeared, with the shelf space being devoted to more miniatures, D&D books, and assorted board games.

>>14803723
>you have to redeem dice to use the gaming area. The dice themselves are given for every 5 bucks spent. This means few freeloaders, and no kids dropped off by jackass parents.
Nigga you just went full retard.

>>14803723
That's a good point. You can do 5 dollar entry fees, with a single booster per person as prize support, and try to distribute it to the top 4-8, people allowing. Just the top 1 or 2 guys winning will really piss people off, because the focus of FNM is supposed to be fun and community more than just competition, but some jackass is gonna pay 5 bucks for 5-10 packs every week because he has Caw-Blade, and other people might quit playing because it's a waste of 5 dollars.

>>14803630
Yeah, good point here. Start by stocking a wide spread, and take things out as you move along. If you notice that fucking NOBODY ever buys Pokemon, quit stocking it [but be willing to order cards if someone requests it, or if it picks up]. If Magic takes off more than you thought, you should stock more of it, etc. You shouldn't give two shits about what you like, sell what sells.

>>14803602
if you do this. try to separate them. that way people who just play consoles are herded to their one section and hopefully wont bother others

One thing this entire thread has missed OP.

Support Yu-gi-oh.

We all know that its inferior to Magic, but I swear that half of my FLGS's event calendar is Yu-Gi-Oh. And I can't recall the last time I've walked into the store and there wasn't a couple kids in the back playing. Whereas Magic and Warhammer only really have a large showing on night's with events planned.

The weird thing is that the store only sells packs and precons for Yu-Gi-Oh while having Magic singles stock for basically every single Legacy deck out there. I guess the owner knows where the profit is with the Yu-Gi-oh players.

Re: tourney prizes it's almost always better to go packs over picks. Has less of a positive feedback loop for hardcore players and doesn't strip you of your decent singles.

One thing I can't stand about my local shop: the little kids who don't know how to behave worth a shit. Jackass parents drop their 12 year olds off to play Yu-Gi-Oh! (which is fine), but 10 minutes in, the kids get bored and spend the next 3 hours they're supposed to be there by annoying the fuck out of everybody else. Don't let this happen, OP. Now I only ever go there for FNM, and I buy most of my /tg/-related shit online. Same price and I don't have to be bothered to babysit some fuckwit's kid for them.

Honestly you need to support the games you sell. your events calander should dictate your product representation.

also, never forget your a business not a charity

>>14803835
The shop I love going to [that's so far away] has a strict policy against this. They don't allow any unattended children under the age of 15, and there's multiple signs on the door and the way in basically saying, in no vague terms, "We are not a fucking day care. If your kid can behave themselves and is here for an event, you can leave them here for the duration, but don't drop them off at opening and pick them up at closing". They also make it very known that ANY damage dealt to the store's inventory, or to the personal belongings of other customers, will be the parent's responsibility.

There's a lot of kids there that play Magic, and they're all very polite and well-behaved. So, yeah. Have safeguards against parents who think "Card shop" is a fancy way to say "Day care", let it be known that you won't tolerate that shit.

A piece of advice, OP, is to avoid hiring employees solely on their knowledge. I can't count how many times I've been put off from buying things from stores because of the mouth-breathing neckbeards that count as the staff.

Yes, you don't have to teach them shit, but it's a lot more profitable in the long run to hire a good employee with no knowledge of games over some repulsive grognard who can recite some random rule from some out-of-print book that he read 5 years ago.

>>14803835
I was looking around for FLGS's at one point and dropped one because there were 3 or 4 kids who pretty much perma-lived there playing console games. The prices and tiny selection didn't help either. I think it was nothing but WOTC, munchkin and a token amount of warham single figs.

>>14803723
>you have to redeem dice to use the gaming area. The dice themselves are given for every 5 bucks spent. This means few freeloaders, and no kids dropped off by jackass parents.

That's a terrible idea. Consider the implications of blocking potential customers who already want to walk into your store to stick around for an hour or more. ("freeloaders"). You shouldn't be punishing these potential customers by giving first treatment, or exclusive treatment, to regulars. It's going to lose sales.

Children can be dealt with by applying the old "no unsupervised children" rule. Young kids don't buy shit, you need the parents there to actually get money out of them.

>>14803801
This, a thousand times this.

My FLGS has an Xbox set up in the general play area. People come in, play Rock Band or Halo for hours, make a ton of noise, and don't buy anything except maybe a soda. You might think it doesn't hurt anything but as a customer I really have no desire to spend time there if I'm going to have to listen to 13 year olds screech Avenged Sevenfold and bitch about which guns are overpowered.

>>14803884
Oh, great point, hadn't thought about that.

Follow the same hiring model most GameStops use: your highest priority is people who have retail experience/knowledge, AND knowledge of what they sell. Behind that is someone who knows retail but not games, and then someone who knows the games, but not retail.

It's far easier to teach someone about different game systems and stuff than it is to teach a mouthbreathing grognard how to be polite to people and not be Comic Book Guy. Plus, most 'good' retail workers will answer a question they don't know with "I am not sure, but if you can wait just one minute I'll ask my boss/co-worker/a knowledgeable regular and get back to you!".

Some generic advice that I don't think has been mentioned before now:

REMEMBER THAT IT'S A BUSINESS. YOU ARE RUNNING A BUSINESS.

Too many FLGSes have gone under because the owner wanted the shop to be a super special clubhouse for all his friends, letting customers run up tabs, refusing to stock certain products because the owner didn't like the game, letting them dirty the place because he didn't want to be seen as a bad host, and so on. I'm sorry, but you will be exploited if you allow this to occur, and you need to be firm.

I've heard that board games (think Settlers, Ticket to Ride, Diplomacy, Dominion, Arkham Horror) all have pretty high profit margins. I'd guess that the problem would be managing inventory, but one of my favorite things about my FLGS is their board game selection. While I know that buying online would be cheaper, I always go to them first to see if they have the game I want in stock first. And so far, they've had every single game I've wanted in stock when I visited. Because of that they've probably gotten more money off of me than they have even for Magic. Which is saying something.

>>14803875
It's starting to calm down a bit, since we (some of the regulars) told the kids that if they don't get their shit in order, we're not gonna let them come back. Not like we have that authority, but what does a 10 year old know any better? The final straw was me playing MTG, and one of the annoying regular kids walked over and grabbed my UNSLEEVED Candelabra of Tawnos (was about to put it in a sleeve) out of my hand. Left a grease stain right in the middle of the flavor text. I'm still butthurt about that.

>>14803884
This. Knowledgeable is good. Personable is much better. Most people who apply for a job at a gaming store will already have some rudimentary knowledge of something like DnD, Magic, or War Hammer. Even if they don't it might not be an issue and if it is its not hard for them to crack open a beginner's rule book and learn the basics. If on the other hand they don't have good people skills then it WILL become an issue and those are much harder to teach than the basic rules to a game.

>>14803903
Which is why that place has many special events to showcase the different games available, and for going to these events, they hand out dice for later use; something I forgot about. I'm aware this method could backfire, but this store has been in business for a while and lasted longer than the more traditional stores, while maintaining quality and keeping themselves from being babysitters.

They seem to be doing something right.

>>14803964
I'm going to come in and second this. I'm looking at opening a paintball store and field myself (in a few years) and I've been doing alot of business research. One of the two things I keep hearing is A) Don't not stock an item because YOU don't like the company or item, Don't stock an item because it has bad margins or dosen't sell. and B) Don't get the line between "business" and "personal fun times" Blurred. it is a business- a source of income, and, presumably, a way to make a living. it is not something to support a few friend's warhammer habit, you know?

>>14804029
Even if this were the only store for 50 miles I'd still turn 360 degrees and walk away if I heard there was a "fee" for using the tables.

>>14803557
Fucking Mouth-breathing MTG players. Always crowding entire stores with their luggage and not realizing some people are trying to look for product. They are the worst.
I hate LGS because they cater to those people. The autistic, fedora and trenchcoat wearing, slovenly people who look like they are either cultists in the temple of Set or that the special-ed bus dropped them off for a field trip.
I want a store filled with Bros who have lives, families and personality. Not those who wear ankhs and talk about final fantasy swords.

I'd open my own store since none of the stores here put the F in FLGS. They are a bunch of douchebags that wouldn't know customer service and retention if it bit them in the ass. I would buy MSRP from them but because they are assholes, warstore is just a few clicks away on the intertron.

>>14803158
>names

Keep it generic. Seriously. The FLGS in my area is called Comic Shop Plus.

If you end with a nerdy name, you're going to scare away the casuals, and you're making yourself harder to identify in the white/yellow pages.

All your name needs to do is convey that you are the area FLGS. Nobody is going to say, "Man, lets hang at Kromgol's" even if thats what you name your shop. They're going to say, "Lets go hang at the game shop" The closer your shop's name is to that reality, the easier it is for people to find you.

>>14803994
I would have been too. Like I said, the shop I go to has clearly posted signage. They've actually had to explain it to parents directly too. As in, the kid walks in, the parent goes to leave, and the shop explains all the rules to them, and they actually make a verbal contract with them [they're binding in New Mexico, if done right] about having to pay for any and all damages their kid causes. The camera aimed at the register sees and hears it all. We had one kid actually do something like that, he yanked a guy's Mox out of his hands and started crumpling it up [it was double-sleeved, but still] because the guy wouldn't trade him a dragon. The parents tried to sue the store for making them pay the full price, claiming the card couldn't possibly be worth that much, but they lost that in a hurry. Store used the money to buy a brand new Mox and gave it back to the customer.

They don't fuck around there.

>>14803994
Actually you do have that authority. Stores are legally allowed to ban people from there property if they have just cause. Being rude to other customers or to the staff and generally scaring away other customers is a just cause.

>>14804103
Pretty sure that fa/tg/uy is just a regular and not a staff.

>>14804084
Never had that happen where I went but damn that store is pretty bro.

>>14804103
The store has that authority, yeah. Players IN the store, who are not employees, do not.

>>14804066
This. The store I go to is called Active Imagination. Most people just call it AI. It conveys what it does pretty well without sounding too nerdy [well, at first. The main store is "AI: The Arena", and the tabletop/wargaming store is "The Destination", but still]

>>14804057
I've seen more rude, mouth-breathing, store-crowding, bag-toting Warham players than Magic players, and I'm still not stupid enough to think that they're a majority of the hobby.

>>14804084
Thats an awesome FLGS you have there. I'm rather jealous.

>>14804131

I think it depends on the region. In my FLGS, the rude, mouth-breathing, store-crowding, bag-toting idiots are the ones who play Yu-Gi-Oh.

>>14804154
Yeah. There aren't really any at AI. I mean, there's the occasional mouthbreathing retard jackass, but they don't tend to be part of a specific group, they just... exist. Most everyone is pretty cool.

Bad customers in general:
Warhams players who have a lot of material that's either Citadel Grey or spray painted.

Basement dwellers who will curse out people for being wrong, using X edition/army/deck w/e.

Grabby people.

TCG players who crowd out table top games. "You're not using this corner of the table right?"

TCG and table top players do not get along. Host that shit on separate nights.

We had one guy at my LGS who was so horribly disabled he actually scared customers off. He was massively autistic, he was a tub of lard, and he reeked. There's no real way to get those people to leave.

>>14804245
Sure there is a way! Tell him you don't take kindly to hit 'types' in here and tell him that your name is skeeter for reference.

Just, in general, don't be afraid to break out the jackass stick. Mostly you should be nice, yeah; don't be a dick at all times.

However, even if someone is buying a lot from you, if he's a total fuckass that scares off your other customers, you need to have a stern talk with him. With destructive, overly rude, grabby, or otherwise undesirable people, you may want to skip the talk. Give them a warning, and after that boot them. If you ask people to keep their language PG-13 for your store and one guy busts out F-Bombs, give him a warning or two, letting him know what happens if he doesn't stop. If he keeps it up, kick his ass to the curb, no ifs ands or buts. Same for anyone who damages or steals another person's belongings. Just tap them on the shoulder, and tell them to get out and never come back.

>>14804245
ban them from the store when they harass someone.

>>14804273
*his

>>14804245
Ban them from the store.

>>14804245
you can ban them if they're driving customers out.

>>14804314
>>14804301
>>14804278
Actually, I'm pretty sure you can ban people for no reason at all, if you want [just usually it isn't a good idea]. It's a business, private property, and you have the right to refuse service to anyone.

But, yeah. Even though you CAN kick him out because he scares off customers, someone is going to get massively butthurt and try to make you out to be some monster who hates the disabled.

>>14804276
While I agree with the PG-13 talk thing for the most part, when it's 8-9 on a warhammer night and everyone is at the very least highschool age a rational shopkeep would relax the rule.

>>14804278
He didn't harass anyone. He was just hideous and completely socially unaware.

>>14804332
I'd be very wary of banning if there isn't a demonstrable cause for fear of running afoul of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It is so hard to make money as an LGS, OP, my advice would be to broker a deal with some powerful entity from another plane of existence. The Devil is a popular option, but anyone capable of giving you power over the minds of men works.

It also helps to advertise your shop once in a while on the radio. Announce your shop's location, any tournies you are hosting (official and unofficial), and possibly any sales you are having.

I knew a guy that owned a LGS, but he never advertised so no one ever knew about it and he went out of business.

>>14804336
Oh, I agree. Late at night, when you know all of the present company won't mind, you might be able to dial back the filter and let people get more colorful, and be more lenient [less of a STOP CUSSING, and more "hey, guys, try and keep the F-bombs to a minimum, eh?"].

When you're doing a tournament for Magic, though, your hands tend to be tied. Vulgar language is actually grounds for Game Losses, if not a DQ. I tend to discourage it during tournaments [and at my 'venue' in town, I tell my players to pick between language and volume during normal days]

>>14804245
Oh dear god, we have this one kid who's in a wheelchair who comes in EVERY Saturday. His electric throne of a wheelchair makes a lot of noise and is too bulky to move around without knocking shit around. Not only that, but he's more opinionated than any religious-fag I've ever met, and I live in the deep South. That, and I doubt he's ever cleaned his piss bottle. The thing REEKS. All he ever wants to talk about is "wrasslin'", how his tastes in music are superior to everyone else's, and his shitty movie "reviews" which are really just "If you find this funny, you're obviously stupid and don't have a good taste in music." I swear to god, he's like a stereotypical 4channer, but he doesn't even know what 4chan is... We've tried telling him to piss off, but he won't listen. His mom drops him off (he's 19) from noon to 7, so he has nowhere else to go. He's literally killed ALL of that shop's Saturday business. Only a handful of us go there on Saturdays, but we've told the owner we refuse to buy anything while that guy's in the shop. Hopefully he'll wisen up and tell wheelchair-fag he's not welcome.

>>14804332
The customers you may lose to banning this awful smelling retard will easily be made up for the extra people you will get by having the place not smell like shit.

MAKE A WEBSITE.

OP, Make a website and put your calendar up on it and KEEP IT UPDATED. Sometimes I don't go to FNM because I'm too lazy to call the shop and it doesn't say if it's draft, standard, extended, etc. And I'm usually mostly in the mood for standard.

so make a website, put good info on it (CALENDAR! and contact info).

Name your store "Dave's Dice and Cards."

People don't really expect stores with names like this to be associated in any manner with someone named Dave anyway, and it still benefits from being paradoxically generic yet distinctive. It even has the alliteration angle!

>>14804411
Plus, when people ask for a reason behind your draconian policies (no invalids), you can say "Dave said so."

>>14804405
And when picking a name for your shop, try to find a name with an available domain name.

www.<examplename>.com being available will make it easier to find your website.

Get some Yugioh cards.
Or did 5Ds kill that card game off completely?
I assume they still make a profit.

From what I've seen of the FLGS I've been at, card games will always be your lucrative money makers. The calibre of people varies, yu-gi-oh players I've seen are the kind that will buy a good 5 boosters take the one card they want and leave the rest of them on the floor. Magic players I've met are alright, they will sink hundreds into cards so long as you can hold tournaments, have prize support and the rest. While they tend to be at odds with the roleplayers for use of space, designating times and dates when one group holds preference will ease things up.

My local store, has major issues mainly due to the guy who owns the place, the other staff are alright, but him, well he gets on peoples nerves. This has passed the point where he alone has driven off otherwise loyal customers, never to be seen again. Really while its your hobby and the people who come in may end up being your friends its still a professional business, so don't drop your standards. If you promise your regulars something don't just go back on your word for no reason. If you do allow people to bring in snacks, don't just steal them without asking as though its your god given right and kick out those who don't, shit is not cash.

Though generally, cater to your target consumer and don't act like a douche and you should be good.

>>14804366
I am more a fan of Loki, personally. Sure he'll pull some practical jokes that are only really funny to him, and go overboard, but he's a pretty cool guy if you don't keep pouring venom and acid on his face.

Plus, whenever he comes over to discuss the terms of the contract, he always brings some damn fine beer. I'm afraid this will backfire on me someday.

>>14804245

Actually, there is. A business does have the legal right to refuse him service, especially if he is like others of his kind who tend to knock stuff over in the store, annoy and harass the customers.

A business may not want to lay a hand on a person like that, but they can lock the doors on him so he can't get it.

It may seem low, but if you overhear customers talking about something you've never heard of, do a few minutes of research about it on the internet. That way you'll be able to participate in their conversations. If you become their bro, you'll get their business.

Or even better, I guess, ask them what they're talking about. They'll probably enjoy showing off their knowledge about whatever it is, however stupid.

This is an idea, feel free to shoot it down, but offer to buy books on amazon for ebay for peoplee who pay for them.

Let's say they don't have a debit card or access to them. Perhaps you can offer a service where they immediately pay the shipping + the item price + a mark up on a book they want from amazon or ebay, and you call them when it arrives.

They pay up front, immediately, so you aren't stuck with a book. I don't know how widely this appeals, but I know for a while I had cash but no cards and still wanted books.

>>14804505
Yall niggas need to read up on the inter-state commerce acts. It's actually very difficult to legally refuse service

>>14804579

nigga boi knows his shit.

>>14800654

Fuck your post, OP. Is that sum Sandwich?

>>14804579
Would you mind explaining or linking to a reference about the appropriate law?

>>14804618

9000 nanosecs on fucking mother google.

http://www.legalzoom.com/us-law/equal-rights/right-refuse-service

>>14804588

>nigga boi knows his shit.

If that nigga boi knew his shit, he wouldn't have let his dad blow all his money on stupid shit.

>>14804644

black man has no rights when he is a minor.

He's got to grow the fuck up and...

wait, shiiiiiiiiiittttttttt

>>14804579
http://www.legalzoom.com/us-law/equal-rights/right-refuse-service

make it very clear from step one that the offender is being asked to leave and not return due to the disruption they cause, not any protected option.

asking someone to leave because they do not follow your very clearly posted rules is fine, as long as the rules do not include "must be a straight white male with the use of all his appendages and faculties"
>even though the boyscouts can get away with that.

>>14804654
You're obivously not American.

If you're black or have a missing finger or freckles, you can CLEARLY make a case of [term]-bias and the resultant legal fees will make your YIGIOH profits evaporate quicker than you'd blink.

>>14804650

California has a law where the parents of child actor have to save a percentage of the child's income for the child.. When nigga boi was actually a child, his daddy didn't do that. Hence why he was stuck as a security guard before he died.

I work at my FLGS, We host DnD on Mondays for newer players, Heroclix on Wednesdays, and Warhammer (both) on Sundays with Fridays being open game night (FNM almost never happens because the other FLGS has better prices. They don't have to play a middle man).

We also make alot of our money from comic books as well, but like it has been mentioned before, that 20% of your customers will keep your doors open. I've seen the same two guys drop about 150-300 bucks a week for years.

<---My Shop

>>14804782
I don't know who you are, or where you live, but I want to move there so I can go to that fucking store. That has to be one of the nicest FLGS I have ever seen.

>>14804782
I wish my LGSs did that. Only one has RPG books and they're put aside in a corner along with the manga and board games. They both focus on MTG and Warham, but I'm not into either of those. One is large and very clean and bright, but quite empty every time I've been to it. The other looks kinda scrungy and small but always has people when I went to it.

I don't know whether its the owners or because it's a college town, but neither in my town are all that appealing. It's terrible.

>>14804782
DAT STORE!

>>14804796

it's something that we take a lot of pride in, We're in Whittier,CA (near East LA). Cleanliness has been one of biggest reasons we get more people into our shop over the other shops (we have about 4-5 other places within 20 miles).

>>14804782

Kudos. That is a nice fucking store.

Damn you for not being in my city!

>>14804654
no, what the boyscouts can get away with is "must be a non-gay non-atheist."

>>14801930
>>14801911
>>14801897
>>14801875

I don't know what the fuck you morons are thinking. Enabling piracy in a market as teensy as traditional gaming is the quickest way to lose endorsement from your major providers.

>>14804745

it's kind of funny since you're pretty much assuming the FLGS owner is a white male.

also, regardless of what you might have heard on certain talk-radio stations, it still does cost money to hire a lawyer and file all that paperwork. like at least two or three grand if you want to have any chance of winning. yeah, some lawyers will do it pro bono if they smell money in the water, but not unless it's a sure thing. got kicked out of a Wal Mart? hell yes. got kicked out of some penniless fat-ass's comic book shop? get the fuck out of my office.

and of course, that's assuming some random idiot is well-versed enough in the niceties of consumer legislation to realize he could do something about it.

and also assuming that the FLGS owner is not smart enough to simply call the cops. it doesn't even matter if the guy is actually breaking the law yet. call them on two or three separate occaisions, even if they just show up and do NOTHING, and then BAM you've got yourself a "problem customer" who you've had to "call the police on several times" and then there you go.

stop whining.

>>14804782
That's the cleanest, most inviting games store I have ever seen.

Call it Friendly local game store and have your sign with FLGS. Core customers will get it and its straight forward for the casuals too.

Cubbies and coat racks, use at your own risk. Keep the mess in check!

>>14804977
Someone needs a hug. They obviously are getting a little upset. Poor thing.

>>14804782

That is the most well lit FLGS I've ever seen. Except that the gamer in me, used to my local store is thinking about how you could move all of your displays together to make more room for the play area. Not that making crowded aisles is a good idea at all, but because play space is always at such a premium.

>>14804924
And only because they got bought by the fucking Mormons.

God, I'm so glad I quit that hugbox group when i did.

Thank you all for the complements on my shop

>>14805060
It's a big space, the shelves that you see are a good 15 feet away from the table. It's not a display, that's a Warhammer table, it's now a desert themed table. Been using it for Warhammer, Warmachine and Heroclix for a while now. There's a smaller coffee table used for MTG, Chess and Checkers, and another big table, (Green) used for more Warhammer.

Not the OP, but I would like to say thank you /tg/ for this thread.

I'm currently looking to open up a game store myself, and I've taken much of what you've said into consideration.

my local game shop/comic shop (cloak and dagger daytona beach) is full of hero clix, MTG and well thats it. they have a few miniature games (that i had never heard of) ex illis? they said if i wanted to run a game there i was more than welcome to.


OP find out what is played in your area. and sell the people that. if they dont want it dont sell it.
and buy big lots of used minis cheap on ebay and craigslist and simple green them.

>>14805123
Personally speaking, it seems a bit too open and sparse for my liking. I like to game at places that are bit closer.

>>14804782
Dear God your store is fucking AWESOME! While the FLGS in my town has recently moved to a bigger/nicer location, for a while i would have been, "WHY CANT U BE IN MAH TOWN?!?!?!"

As for OP, yeah what most of these guys said. Also another thing, dont tolerate bad dealings from the people to people interactions in ur store. For instance recently we had a guy come in with a large number of MTG rares. What would up happen was we found out that they were stolen from a different member of our FLGS. The guy that had the cards claimed that he bought them from a friend, but we think that he either actually stole them or at least was in on the whole thing. The fact that he couldnt tell us exactly who he got the cards from made his story all the less plausible/he was trying to protect the guy identity. The owner banned him for a year.

I've said it before: Have a side business you can run out of the back room. Game stores are great and all, but you're going to struggle to break even. Now, there's lots of grants and such available from the government for starting a new business, talk to a competent accountant to find out about them.

While I think about accountants, ITEMIZE EVERYTHING. Don't ever take a 'standard deduction' on taxes, itemize each individual thing and see what you can write off as business expenses. It's all about Dollar$ and $en$e

Then, when you start your game shop, start the side business as well. Run it out of the back room. Make it something where the customer comes to you. Fixing computers is a popular option if you know how. So is the internet Cafe route, if you can set up a wireless network, secure it, and get some desktops.

Find out if your local recycling center pays for cans/bottles. if so, insist that all customers throw their cans into the recycling bin instead of the garbage. At the end of the week, cash them in. you want to maximize profits and minimize expenses.

When shopping for food and drink to attract and maintain your customers so they don't have to leave your store, bring a calculator and notepad. Divide the price on a product by its weight in ounces. Compare EVERY brand and alternative in a given category (drink, substantial food, snack, candy), and stock only those that cost the least for the highest return.

If you go the internet Cafe route, use a MAC filter to secure it instead of WEP keys. Get a bunch of plug-and-play USB network cards and input their MACs. Then, rather than having to grant each laptop separate access, you can just rent the key-fob-sized connections at 5 dollars a day. 4 days and a card has payed for itself.

If you know anyone interested in being a chef, or you have a local culinary school, talk to them about incorporating a small grill in the facility. Fresh food at a gaming table? Huge draw. It'll cost you more in licenses to set up, but you can minimize your expense by writing it off, and by using unpaid labor by culinary school interns looking for cheap college credit. I know a lot of guys who love gaming in a Waffle house or other fast food joint, but aren't wild about the odd stares. This gives them all the gaming they want with a side of food.

only stock the bare minimum in models and cards, but make it clear that you're happy to special-order anything anyone wants. You REALLY don't want to get stuck with unmovable product. I know a guy who still has a half dozen Doomrider figs sitting in storage, and dozens of old Warmaster blister packs, and some L5R card boosters, some age knight, etc. Nature of the beast, but still, minimize that expense.

Not sure if its still done, but be careful of being TOO successful selling GW products... used to be that when an indie store was ordering enough wholesale product to indicate a profitable market, GW would plunk down an official store in the immediate area, and then have their wholesale side start pressuring the indie into carrying slow-selling stock or delaying new release orders so they could snatch the business.

>>14800713
>>14800713
>>14800713
>>14800713
Fucking this, I own an LGS and this is exactly what I did

You guys think we should archive this? In case others might want to open there own a FLGS down the road and couldn't be here tonight

>>14806825
It's a perennial topic but it couldn't hurt. Best o'luck with the votes though.

>>14806676
Board games cost a lot of money, but dedicated board game players will net you tons of cash.

A lot of guys here have mentioned the law and such, and that is going to be important. A huge-ass lawsuit is the one thing that can fuck over even a fully-functional store run by a guy with plentiful lines of credit and a good sense of business.

The best thing for you to do is get some genuine legal training. Accredited, if possible. A number of groups will run general business law courses, which give you a good overview of the relevant elements of contract, tort, and company law, plus the small elements of other fields that crop up. It won't make you a legal genius, but it will let you know your rights and duties generally, teach you how to find out the specific law around any problems that crop up, and most usefully, means that you won't be so easy to intimidate with 'lawsuit' claims. Nearly every single claim that you're breaking the law or they'll sue you is arrant bullshit based on complete ignorance of the law and a grossly inflated sense of self-importance that will go nowhere. If you can sift the actual problems from the fags, then you can safely lauhg in the faces of the idiots, and save yourself the costs of obtaining counsel for a case that'll be thrown out of court in the first fifteen minutes. These courses can eb a bit expensive, but if you can afford it without compromising the actual business, it's often worth it. Try to go to the ones hosted by actual law firms, if they have them, because they actually have something to lose if they teach you nonsense.

Failing that, if you're close to a university, make nice with the students and find out what they do. Do some favours for a good regular who's a law student, and get them willing to help you out if you ask. Last time I was at a store a fat shithead threatening to sue was literally laughed out of the store by a group of law students. Likewise if you've got technical colleges and things nearby. An apprentice sparkie or plumber may not actually be certified to fix your stuff, but you can ask him if he thinks you need to get someone in, and every time he says it looks okay you've saved yourself a few hundred bucks. And if you make nice with the right guys, they can help you control the store a bit. They don't have any actual authority, but most of the younger kids will listen when the older guy suggests they do this or that. A few favours here and there, a discount, and a free model or booster pack every weekend is an expense, but it gets you the next best thing to an eployee, guarantees they'll care about keeping the store nice, and saves you a bit of cash and a whole wad of business complexity over hiring actual employees. I know the local I like has some damned blurry lines between the favourite-regulars and actual employees, to the point where the ownerwill let one or two of the completely trustworthy ones work the counter for a few minutes while he runs for lunch. Plus, when you do get big enough to warrant hiring, these guys are an obvious first stop and already are emotionally involved in the success of your business.

>>14801534
Dem blackbawkses tho

>>14801516
This can work, but there's always a neckbeard or two who rule monger.

>>14800804
I recently banned food and sodas for this reason.

>>14804245
>>14804314
>>14804332
>>14804391
I see this a lot, I get these grown men in their 40's, living with their parents, trying to play with 12zyear-olds

As for tcgs, my advice is don't buy a bunch of tcgs that seem like they won't last, like chaotic, battle spirits, naruto, bleach and those types, I had this fucktard who wanted to buy battle spirits, so I ordered him a box, he payed for it, then bitched at me more since I refuse to sell them, the 3 tcg games you should stock are:MtG, yugioh and pokemon, seeing as they seem to be most popular

I personally don't like trading magic cards, but you'll get a lot of people who want to trade as an alternative to buying, trade at your own risk.

Try to keep in touch with GW frequently, I've sold grey knight kits left and right when they came out, so I found myself constantly re-ordering

Always keep hobby supplies either in veiw of your counter, or nearby. I had this emo kid who tried to steal a hobby knife and sprue cutters, luckily, I saw it from the counter and banned his ass.

Keep on top of your glues and paints as well, it sells quicker than you think, keep a large selection of brushes as well

Also, if you plan on selling board games, do realise that sometimes they might not sell, still have BANG! Sitting on my shelf, after 2 years

I'm not that much help businesswise, but I can tell you what gets every store like this going isn't prices, or range, or even convenience, but the fact that it's the LGS, the place you go for a good day of your hobby. You're not so much selling a product as you are selling an experience. People go to your store because it's fun, and they buy things because they're there. Make it fun to go to, and make it easy for people to see what they want and buy it, and you're set. Well, set insofar as a small business startup can be.

Also, out of place here, but if you have a buddy in the cops it's fantastically helpful. Having someone in blue you can call in on the quiet and have a talk to problem kids, or someone you can call to back you if there's an out-and-out problem going down in the store, will help you to no end. And a surprising number of cops are into /tg/-style things.

>14806893
This is true

>still have BANG! Sitting on my shelf, after 2 years
what travesty is this?!

Just some help that I learned form a local comic shop owner and another LGS owner.

1. You can get your customers to help you with renovations / stocking if you give them product in exchange. If done properly, you give them items that you have a 55% markup on, and end up paying less than minimum wage.

2. Advertise. In Arizona we have the college times and several university papers, guess where the LGS and comic shop owner put their ads? Don't go apey, but have a well designed and to the point ad. Offer 10% off their purchase for mentioni9n the school / magazine they got it in. That way you know where people are reading your ad, and where you may want to keep it.

3. Keep your TCG's behind the counter, and keep a damn camera pointed at your register. My LGS owner sells Magic singles and others for a huge fucking profit.

4. Have a schedule of events that everyone knows. Friday Night magic? Saturday Warhammer tourney? Thursday night DND? etc. make sure people know what is going to be played that night, and change some of your stock layout those nights to make it more tempting for people to buy.

more to come...

>>14807117
5. Hold events that bring your community in. A member day where they get 5% off every purchase once a month, or if they spend x dollars, they get 10% off a single purchase.

6. Be prepared to teach the games. I bought 4 different game systems from my LGS because the guy took his own damn time and taught me the basics of them. Warhammer, 40k, heroclix and that pirates card game, he taught me each one. And I spent a crapton of money with him because he had the enthusiasm behind it.

7. Allow people to reserve tables, and have some sort of marker for tables still in use. My LGS did not do this, but no one there was a complete retard and took our table from us. It can happen, and may happen, just better to be prepared than have to deal with people who just lost their table when you weren't watching it.

8. Always have a cheap distraction for the kids. 50 cent old comics? $10 painting tutorials? Terrain building was always my favorite. The adults get to play their tourney, and the kids they bring along can watch, or they can get involved with other kids and have some fun playing/painting/creating...

> $10 painting tutorials? Terrain building was always my favorite.

This a million times this. I remember some of the best ways to get people buying product and helping the store were little gimmicks like this. Model painting contests for the same single 40mm fig at $5 a pop. Have some regulars who don't suck at painting/modeling build your terrain pieces for you. Have a store army or two painted by a couple of regulars for teaching the game.

Depending on how big a space you get consider selling comics as well

Also, clean the premises often and well, non neckbeards still will make up a decent share of profits depending on your stock and they might not want grognard funk all over them.

>>14807187
9. Keep an online presence. You may not have a facebook or twitter, or whatever the fuck else there is, but your store should have at least two. This way people on the go can see, "Hey, Kromgol's has a tournament for x next week, sweet, I didn't know because I can only go there once a month."

10. Kick out the assholes. Sur ethey may be your best customers some times, but the atmosphere of that one jack ass will ruin any kid or family that may want to buy something from you. And their totals spent will outshine captain asshat, so if he is an asshat, boot him.

11. Don't be aused car salesman. If someone wants to knwo about game, give them the basics, if they seem intersted, tell them more. But don't sell them Furry Tales XII because it's been on your shelf for 6 months and hasn't moved. Also, stock what the customer wants, Joe Dirt put it best, "It's not about you, it's about the consumer." Warmachine getting some interest at your store, buy a little wheeled cart and display the shit out of your new warmachine order.

>>14807115
Sadly, this is true, lately, since the local university re-opened their anime club, most non-40k/MtG sales are anime DVDs and toys, especially the figma line, except the reimu hakurei on my register. Sadly, more and more hipsters come to my store, and they all buy MtG, and all the 40k players are unhappy, and beginning to leave because they take up all the tables. I also get airmen, who, while having the disposable income, would rather trade cards for cards, so I'm familiar with this travesty.

>>14807187
Say, does anyone have the Story Time picture with the huge Black Templar reading the children on his huge lap a story of the Emperor, who was also huge?

I... I like to pretend the little girl in that is a younger version of this little Sister, right after their city was saved by Marines, and she got inducted into the Schola Progenium because she wanted to be a loyal servant of the Emperor too.

>>14807312
I have it somewhere, give me a second to find it. My picture folder is really disorganized

>>14807284
Not much more I can say that is specific to an LGS, so I guess I'll linger if anything cool pops up. My father owned a small computer store, so I know all about the business set up and getting in touch with resellers for certain things, if you're interested OP, or still around.

>>14807269
I agree with this. But there are good and bad aspects to this. New comics are very numerous, and you need to order roughly 70-100 copies of new issues to get a single variant. Also, the markup is roughly 90 cents on a 4 dollar comic. Nowhere near the 55% you get with Games Workshop materials.

Also, if you have retirement communities / comicon's near you, grab some cheap long boxes off them and offer a paid access to the comics lounge. No food or drink allowed, but it is where kids can read comics, and if they like some, buy them. Keep it air conditioned, keep it clean, just liek you do the rest of your store.

>>14807292
>they take up all the tables
Have you tried scheduled days where certain games have priority at the tables? At one of my favorite places the 40k crowd knew better than to show up on Fridays except to hang out and maybe paint a bit but if a TCG kid thought they'd be getting any space beyond the 3'x3' card table on 40k Saturday they were in a for a rude awakening. Well more like the owner saying "guys, I need you to take this game to the counter or somewhere else."

>>14807312
And now I know what my story for the Black Library open submissions will be.

>>14807292
Try marking certain tables as MTG only and 40k Only. That way the 40k players aren't quite as alienated, also enforce time limits on tables if people spend too much time on them, especially if there's idling going on.

I am a pretty socially functional individual with a generally well suppressed interest in sci-fi and fantasy. None of my friends really know about it and I'll probably keep it that way.

After reading /tg/ for a couple years I thought I would finally take the next step and visit a FLGS. I walked into the poorly lit lobby and saw a group of large figures huddled around a board. They tried to ignore me so I asked them what game they were playing. All but two of them quickly turned back to the board and one of the men started mumbling something unintelligible. I am generally affable so I smiled and asked him to clarify but it was very clear my presence was making everyone there uncomfortable so I left.

Maybe have someone at the door to greet newcomers? Maybe help newcomers figure out how this stuff works?

I should thank them for doing such a poor job at attracting new business because it allowed me to spend my time on other more financially and socially rewarding hobbies I guess..

>>14807312
There we go, I finally fucking found it.

>>14807397
I'm pretty sure I've got the raw version sitting somewhere on another HD. Not sure if it's bigger or not.

>>14807372
I'm in the same situation. Doubt I'll ever take the next step though, I'd be terrified that somebody would see me. I'd have to wear a disguise.

Hey, actually, that's a pretty good idea...

>>14807372
Reminds me of my LGS that I hated going to for the longest time. There was always a group of 30-somethings hunched over a game of MTG with the owner. The store was also partitioned down the middle by a huge wall running from the counter to the back wall. Play space on one side, stock on the other. Owner would have to get up and watch you as you browsed the stuff. Everyone ended up staring/glaring at you since you interrupted the game. Things are a lot better since they moved to a new location. Saner layout and the owner/clerk can see most everything from a corner chair.

>>14807397
I thought the Black Templars hated the Codex Astartes? Or am I getting my chapters mixed up again?

>>14807372
Huh, never had that problem. I go to a bunch of game shops and all the gamers at them are outgoing as fuck. Guess it's a Texan thing?

>>14800654
>Only FLGS two hours away
>High interest in the area
>large market

...That perfectly describes where I live.

>>14807434

You end up with a closed culture when you have a small group of socially awkward regulars. The store becomes their clubhouse. It happens a lot in places that end up failing.

>>14807332
I've tried, they're there every day, I've told them to keep their luggage to a minimal, between them, and the fucktards mentioned in>>14804057 and >>14803557 , the 40k players are often stuck with just one 2x3 table, I made a schedule, with 40k/fantasy on Saturday and Sunday, FNM, and D&D on Thursday, as well as warmachine/hordes Monday, but they still come in and swarm the fucking place, using memes and fouling up the place with their douchebaggery and fumes

>>14807448

Bugger. Short of telling them to bugger off when the wargamers need a table not sure what can be done. Although having the whole weekend for wargaming might be a bit excessive. Weekends are serious business. I dunno if it's true for your location but I've noticed most wargamers tend to like evenings into late nights while card gamers are usually moring/afternoon people who tend to stick around at night only if there's something going on. But from the sound of it, it's more likely you'd need to temp ban some people.

>>14807445
Man, that sucks. One place I go to is a family-run operation, they've been around since the 80s. It's like something out of a fuckin' Norman Rockwell painting, friendliest damn atmosphere you can imagine. The wife of the owner regularly bakes cookies for us for God's sake.

>>14807336
Do it. I'd read the shit out of it.

>>14807426
This is a great point. My LGS is an open store, only one wall, and it leads to the backroom, bathroom of course is on other side. But the owner can sit in his chair upfront, or even be playing a game and he can see anyone that is looking at something.

He has 4 walls line dot the brim with inventory, and all his tables in the middle. Tables in the back are foldable cheap 30 dollar ones, reserved exclusively for TCG players. the huge green painted tables are for the boarders.

Some links for tables I thought were cool:
http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/building-gaming-table
http://www.drunkdwarves.com/?p=200

drunk dwarves one is great for permanent tables you will have at your store. Durable enough to hold two neckbeards, but soft enough to handle your miniatures...

>>14807470
FUCK YOU, TEXAN-FAG. EVERY GODDAMN SHOP IN MY AREA GETS CLOSED WITHIN A FUCKING YEAR, AND YOU'RE GETTING FUCKING FRESH-BAKED COOKIES?!?!?

FUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOU!

>>14807493
>Tables in the back are foldable cheap 30 dollar ones, reserved exclusively for TCG players. the huge green painted tables are for the boarders.

That reminds me of a interesting way to save a small bit of cash. Have wargaming table tops and cheap long tables. You put two of the cheapo tables parallel and lay the wargaming top above them. Saves some space and cash. Plus if you leave some space between the tables you end up with a bit of shelf space that can be used for dice, tape measures and the like.

>>14807468
Well, I have 40k on Saturday from 7pm to midnight, and fantasy from 6pm to 9pm on sundays. I do have a lot of days dedicated to wargaming, simply because, no matter what, there's always magic, and since less than 30% of the magic players come with money and they are my customers, since they buy things, most of my money comes from the anime things I sell.

Honestly, I'm finishing up with school, once I get my RN, I might just say to hell with it and close down, since I'll be making more money as a nurse than a shopkeeper

There's no getting around the fact that nerds are some of the worst customers ever.

>>14807616
I'm sure you could hand it off to somebody...

revival bump

Get HEROCLIX, it's BLOWING UP.

Display cases prevent shrinkage, just be ready to hop to it when someone wants to shuffle through some blister packs, and keep an eye on everyone else.

>>14807671
I could, I just might, maybe hand it to my husband

From a fellow fa/tg/uy whose dream is to operate a FLGS I sincerely thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Hopefully, with your guys' help, I can become a marginally successful business owner.

>>14807894

Actually now I remember it, one shop I know had a 'bounty' on people stealing shit. Not an actual outlined rule, but the owner just had a quiet word to all of the old hands he liked that if anyone saw someone stealing shit, told him, and he could confirm they were stealing shit and either kick them out or get them done in for shoplifting, they'd get a free model or a couple of boosters. There were also free drinks from the dollar-drinks fridge if you said you thought X was taking shit but couldn't back it. He never actually told more than a few people, so that if anyone tried to exploit it he could say he never said anything about it, but the few guys he did tell made it so that everyone 'knew' of the bounty. It won't stop experienced thieves, but it made it so that you've got a pretty good chance of the first-timers getting found out before they turn bad. Thirty guys vaguely looking around means you can afford to spend more time focusing on the guy who's been called out to catch the fucker, and if nobody sees anything, actually helping customers and making sales. It must have cost him all of $50-60 a month, and in the time I knew the place at least four guys got booted and two arrested. Any one of those guys would have stolen ten times that monthly expenditure over time, at least.

Have at least enough extra money before you start to keep yourself afloat for at least two years, assuming absolutely no profit.

Also, that brings up a damned important point. Make sure your register is as close to the exit as possible, and that absolutely nothing of actual interest is between the register and the exit area. That way, if you spot someone holding onto stock and he walks past without paying, you're completely safe to nick him. If there's anything of note past you, he can walk to that even openly holding the shit and you can't really stop him, and just wait there doing whatever until you stop paying attention, or even just run for it. The closer the register is to the line at which someone is obviously stealing shit, the greater your chances of spotting and catching them, and more to the point, the less ambiguity there is for the record and the cameras, the more likely getting caught will stick.

A 'wall of shame' for people who you know or suspect are stealing shit is very helpful, but you have to be careful. Depending on which jurisdiction you're in, it could be tortious libel, or even a criminal offence.

this been archived yet?

>>14808408
Not to mention it's nicer as a customer if I don't have to shoulder past a dozen standing or sitting gamers just to reach the register and get service from the staff.

this thread rocks, archived for posterity