What the industry needs (by me!)

[Ron Edwards]

Aah! I get it, both about the company thing and the competition thing. Great points, and thanks again.

I agree that different forms and types of services are necessary relative to the size/goals of the publishers. Just for clarity (not to argue), I'd like to see a few more Tundras out there, but I'm not advocating that only such services be available.

Best,
Ron

[wizardattic]

Aah! I get it, both about the company thing and the competition thing. Great points, and thanks again.

I agree that different forms and types of services are necessary relative to the size/goals of the publishers. Just for clarity (not to argue), I'd like to see a few more Tundras out there, but I'm not advocating that only such services be available.

Best,
Ron

Sounds good. I'd love to see more Tundra's out there too, especially if I'm the one doing their shipping  (which can easily be a separate function from sales). The core of WA has always been shipping savings. Only having 6-10 companies wouldn't create any really. Volumes need to be higher than that regularly to work.

Cheers,

Eric Rowe
www.wizards-attic.com

[Jack Spencer Jr]

PART TWO
A retailer who is willing to act as "buyer" for a number of allied retail stores. This person doesn't actually buy the games himself, of course, but he has a running list of what to order for the region and the games get shipped directly to the stores in question.

This is a bit of stretch, as it requires retailers in a given region to regard one another as allies rather than competitors... (snip)

I'm not buying this little bit, not completely, anyway. Way it works out, a lot of these people especially in the same area no doubt have worked together and/or has worked for the other and there may be personal feeling or bad blood there that extends beyond just business.

For example, My FLGS (a good hr drive away in Syracuse, NY) is a store called Altered States. A store bucking to be the largest game store in central NY and it is big enough to carry such items as Sorcerer, Little Fears, Junk as well as the typical D&D and Warhammer stuff. The guy who owns ALtered States used to work at another local store, Twilight Book & Games, a comic book store with a decent selection of RPG/gaming materials (This kind multi-purpose store is something that should not be ignored. Altered States also has a selection of comics, Anime videos, models, tarot cards, etc.) In any case, I'm given the impression that the Altered States guy left Twilight with some bad blood with the owner. Why should Altered States share any knowledge with Twilight? Why would they believe any information Twilight decides to give them? And vice versa. We can further this as well. The owner of Twilight recently got divorced. Say his wife opens her own game store. Would he share any information with his ex-wife? The ALtered States guy isn't spotless, either. I've heard some rumors about his employees and the words "not getting paid" kept coming up, if you catch my drift.

This is a cycle as old as business itself. You work for a guy in such-and-such a business then, when you have the capitol and inclination to do so, you strike out on your own. The terms of this may be friendly or they may not be.

Be that as it may, I think it's way to much to want games store to think of themselves as allies when they are, in fact, competion. At best they can be friendly rivals, like WalMart and Ames who had a gentleman's agreement to stay out of each other's territories until Ames broke that by aquiring the Zayre's chain and didn't close down the store in WalMart areas. (Now Ames is closing all of their stores. Go figure that one)

But, just because they're competition doesn't mean they can't use each other. When I worked for Lechmere we always had or competion's sale paper. The sales managers would often do some "comp shopping" which is to go to their competion and see what they've got and what's going on with it. My boss at the restaurant I used to work for asked all of the employees to get menus whenever they went out to eat. He was always on the look out for new ideas and he often drove around town to see how the competion was faring.

Doing this should have the same affect as the "buyer" idea if it may be a little less straightforward.

Many game stores should already be doing this, although I'll bet there are plenty who don't and just order whatever got the most hype from the distributor's catalog. This sort of thing is support what I've always though about game stores going under because their owners just plain didn't know how to run it as a profitable business. You've got to keep an eye on the industry. See what's hot. See what your competitors are selling and above all, listen to your customers. If you get asked about RPG Product X every week, it may be time to stock a couple of them.

Or such is my take on it.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Jack,

What you're describing is an issue, but I think the real problem is not the issue, but the inability to think beyond it. Store owners without this ability can ... well, not benefit, and those who can, will.

I have to emphasize that I am not calling for some romantic notion that all store owners will unite in mutual benefit and, singing, share all their information so everyone is happy. The very thought makes me spit.

I'm talking about something else entirely.

One of the effects of the interactions I'm talking about on this thread is for stores to become more specialized, according to their customer base. It's not clear from what I've described already, because I haven't provided the in-store demo policy that would help promote it. But one effect of the "product cycling" that I described is for stores to arrive at what they "are" in terms of their customers. The main reason this doesn't happen now is that store priorities are solely driven by what they have already ordered, not what people come into the store looking for.

Therefore the 'burbs store who mostly serves old-style wargamers and 12-year-old entrants into the hobby should be a different place, with different proportions of product line, than the city-campus store who mostly serves college freshmen and graduate students. You'd think this would be the case already, right? It's not. The RPG three-tier is not a demand-side economy; it's driven by speculation and debt at the retailer tier.

I'm talking about ways to focus stores' contents - through plain and simple capitalism, not idealism - on their customer bases. Should that occur, and if a "failed" game in Store A does not result in "debt/loss" for Store A, then the information-sharing may become too profitable to ignore. I hope.

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

I know of one situation where this has developed.  In northern Virginia there are 2 stores I used to frequent.  The Game Parlour is this huge well lit, well staffed "mega store" which carries everything from Parker Brothers to old micro games that have been on the shelf for years.  The majority of shelf space is (was) given over to the "hot lines" but these were placed deep in the back of sometimes maze like shelving arrangements because the owners knew people who wanted those would look for them.  The store also had a full PC Lan area and several largish rooms for "private" gaming as well as the usual assortment of tables.

Then a few miles down the street is Little Wars.  A much smaller store run basically by 1 guy and his wife.  They'll special order anything, of course, but the store itself caters mostly to the wargamer / micro armor crowd.  You are far more likely to find people playing games of Close Action, High Tide of the Confederacy, or pushing little 15mm tanks around a green felt cloth than playing CCGs at their tables.  

Last I heard from people who have more inside knowledge than I, Little Wars was regularly pulling in a comfortable profit margin with a much smaller more customized client base.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I have to emphasize that I am not calling for some romantic notion that all store owners will unite in mutual benefit and, singing, share all their information so everyone is happy. The very thought makes me spit.

Thank God. You had me worried there for a sec. ;)

[Clay]

Therefore the 'burbs store who mostly serves old-style wargamers and 12-year-old entrants into the hobby should be a different place, with different proportions of product line, than the city-campus store who mostly serves college freshmen and graduate students. You'd think this would be the case already, right? It's not. The RPG three-tier is not a demand-side economy; it's driven by speculation and debt at the retailer tier.

I'm actually seeing a little of this.  It's not exactly pervasive, but I noticed last week that the game store across the street from campus carries a huge stock of games, only some of which are from the major lines. Lots and lots of stuff that wasn't from Wizards of the Coast or White Wolf (and none of the display items were). They even had a copy of Sorcerer, which perked up my day.  

Meanwhile, the suburban store near my house is overflowing with D&D and White Wolf material.  He tries to stock other things, but some of it's been on the shelf forever, and he's not going to take even more risks on ordering when he's sacrificing shelf space for product that's not moving now.