The death of the local gaming store, is it true?

[tekfox212800]

Im not really talking about gamestops or game crazys. But the mom and pop game store. Here in Arizona we have a few that i hold dear. Fallout Games is one in glendale that sells 90% classic gaming. I recently watched as my favorite Play and Trade went out of business.

The idea for this thread came from a movie i watched on Netflix recently, called "I want that record!" Its a movie about the death, and small resurgence of record stores. Trash records was a main topic they spoke about.

That aside, what are your thoughts? I went into Fallout to buy my weekly 25 dollar NES binge, and talking with the guy he said that they have really seen a rise and fall over the last year. On one side, he pointed out, more people are turning to things like Gamefly, which is a little like Netflix. They want the newest, fastest, blockbuster games. But at the same time, he has 13 year olds trading in their xboxs or old playstation 2s to get a Master System or an NES. I know alot of people turn to Ebay for their gaming needs, im guilty of that as well. If there is a game i want, its easier to find it on the internet, rather than driving 15 minutes to HOPE he has it. sometimes, however, that is the joy of the store. I meet great people (some even use Digital Press or Nintendo/Atari/Sega Age) and i might find a game that i really want.

TLDR Do you think the local game store is fading, or will there be a resurgence?

[digitalpress]

I've had to make a lot of adjustments. 2009 was rough, 2010 felt like a "rebuilding" year, but we're having a tremendous 2011 (knock on wood).

Local game shops have to strive to stand apart from Gamestop and become the kind of place that Gamestop sends people TO. I have 2 Gamestops in my town and they have always been the best source of new customers, even moreso than advertising or the web.

I can't speak for them directly but hopefully they'll add their own opinions, my buddy Sean in Chicago and Nick in south Jersey are always active and looking for new ways to grow and promote their stores, and I'm certain they're both doing quite well.

The bottom line: I believe it's the management of the store, not the concept of the store, that dictates its success.

[tekfox212800]

Well thats good to hear! I am going to have to talk to the guy at Fallout Games, he does have a website up, but it seems he only uses free advertising like Craigslist. His website is sub par and unfinished, and its been that way for the past 6 months. I mean this guy has over 20,000 classic games, he has these large pull out metal cabinets that are alphabetized and all the games are clean. Its nice to go into a store like that, knowing when i get home all i have to do is pop it in the NES and its game time. His store is great, his staff are awesome, but I see your point. Its up to him and his staff to advertise and put themselves out there!


EDIT: here is the webpage http://www.falloutgames.net/

[digitalpress]

EDIT: here is the webpage http://www.falloutgames.net/

I honestly get very little clientele from people who found my website, and this site has been around a long time and has a lot of pages and is totally entrenched in Google.

A simple storefront site with hours and basics and a few photos really should suffice, and have it loaded with keywords (even if they're hidden). Instead, I'd focus on things like merchantcircle.com, yelp.com, google places, and every possible social networking site he can stomp his footprint onto. It sounds like he doesn't want to spend (or can't afford to) on advertising and I totally get that, he will get a lot of mileage from guerrilla marketing on the web. It just takes a little time.

If he hasn't already established a relationship with his local Gamestops, that should be a high priority. Hook up the guys that work there - they're almost always "retro" geeks like us!

And if it isn't already happening, having some kind of monthly event to keep locals reminded that he's there as well as draw in their friends (and their friends, and so on). It's a breeze running a simple head-to-head tournament of Smash Bros or Street Fighter and you're always guaranteed attendance. He might just need a few more "eyes" in the store.

I hope he succeeds. Every indie store that stands is one more strike against the corporate machine!

[Boltorano]

I'd be interested to hear how they are faring as well. I live in a fairly rural part of western NY and the closest store dedicated to used games is a 45 minute drive away.

The last time I was in there the guy working register looked like a bouncer, and stood in a ready pose as if he was prepared to put me in a headlock the whole time I was looking at the condition of a $10 used NES game he got out for me from behind the counter. I did end up purchasing it, but it's a shame there aren't even enough people around here that would be willing to work in a place like that and wouldn't just see it as "just another job".

If I lived closer and didn't have student loan debt up to my eyeballs I'd love to work at a place like that, but alas, it's not to be.

[Griking]

TLDR Do you think the local game store is fading, or will there be a resurgence?

I'm not a retailer but I would think that the cost of rent nowadays would be crushing most mom and pop shops.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Unless they happen to own the building they're in... which isn't common, I know.

[Edmond Dantes]

I'm not sure. Recently, a classic game store opened up in my hometown. And mind you... I live in the south, and my home town has never had a game store before (save for one pitiful little GameStop). Apparently the new place is doing well--the owner had another branch in a bigger city, but closed that one and moved all his stock here.

[Granado_jake]

DUDE! I got to fallout games alot! The Games+ closed in Mesa for some strange reason, not sure if they moved or closed but i have heard both.

Where else can you find gaming equipment beside fallout?

[Colorado Rockies]

I wish I had a classic gaming store nearby. One that was even half as sweet as the Digital Press Store would be so awesome imo.

I buy about 99.9% of all my games on ebay/amazon and while this is perfectly ok w/ me I do sometimes wish I could just go somewhere and browse classic games and talk w/ fellow collectors/

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I can't imagine its anything like record stores, but there will always be ups and downs in the video game store business. As for my area, there are plenty of mom and pop stores selling old games, and there are Gamestops everywhere too. Occasionally a mom and pop store will shut down, but then another will open up somewhere else. I'd say it's been steady for about five years.

I don't think Gamestop has had too much of an effect on mom and pop stores. Before Gamestop was around, there were other chain stores in my area like EB that were pretty much like Gamestops.

[Suikoman444]

We have a few local retro game stores around here. From what I hear, Gamestop has been important in keeping them around. If someone brings in something older that they can't take they refer them to the retro store who will. Though, something interesting I heard from some employees at the retro store, is that 95% of their business is from new games on current gen consoles, where they don't make much due to lousy distributors, but without it there's no way they could stay in business on used games alone.

[allyourblood]

I'm probably gonna catch it for this, but it's my hope that the handful of mom & pop video game stores around here die off and go away. While I have nothing against the idea of these stores, the ones local to me price their items far above the upper average of websites like Ebay and Amazon. Adding to that is a general air of nerd elitism and smugness that blows over you as you walk in the door. Heaven forbid you have a question -- you're gonna catch a ration of eye-rolling and sighs the likes of which you've never seen.

Since I have assembled my collection almost entirely from yard sales, thrift stores, etc., these local shops are simply more competition in my eyes. If they doubled, tripled, or heck, quadrupled their money on retro trade-ins, I could happily support them. But with the average markup being somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000%-1500%, I can find what I want more readily (and for less money) on Ebay, of all places.

I see the great bargains that others post from their own local stores, and many of them are quite reasonable. That's wonderful, and those folks should continue to support these places so they thrive and flourish. But around here, these stores can't shut down fast enough, as far as I'm concerned.

[chrisballer]

I'm probably gonna catch it for this, but it's my hope that the handful of mom & pop video game stores around here die off and go away. While I have nothing against the idea of these stores, the ones local to me price their items far above the upper average of websites like Ebay and Amazon. Adding to that is a general air of nerd elitism and smugness that blows over you as you walk in the door. Heaven forbid you have a question -- you're gonna catch a ration of eye-rolling and sighs the likes of which you've never seen.

Since I have assembled my collection almost entirely from yard sales, thrift stores, etc., these local shops are simply more competition in my eyes. If they doubled, tripled, or heck, quadrupled their money on retro trade-ins, I could happily support them. But with the average markup being somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000%-1500%, I can find what I want more readily (and for less money) on Ebay, of all places.

I see the great bargains that others post from their own local stores, and many of them are quite reasonable. That's wonderful, and those folks should continue to support these places so they thrive and flourish. But around here, these stores can't shut down fast enough, as far as I'm concerned.

I don't want to see any small shops close, but I do fully understand your point. There are a few around me that think if they look on E-bay and then add 20% they are giving you a deal. There are many game stores around me, and most I do not even go to. However there are a couple that I really like and go to frequently. What they do is use the price check web site and then drop some off of that. I can totally live with that and I buy many games for my newer collections from them.

[buzz_n64]

I'm probably gonna catch it for this, but it's my hope that the handful of mom & pop video game stores around here die off and go away. While I have nothing against the idea of these stores, the ones local to me price their items far above the upper average of websites like Ebay and Amazon. Adding to that is a general air of nerd elitism and smugness that blows over you as you walk in the door. Heaven forbid you have a question -- you're gonna catch a ration of eye-rolling and sighs the likes of which you've never seen.

Since I have assembled my collection almost entirely from yard sales, thrift stores, etc., these local shops are simply more competition in my eyes. If they doubled, tripled, or heck, quadrupled their money on retro trade-ins, I could happily support them. But with the average markup being somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000%-1500%, I can find what I want more readily (and for less money) on Ebay, of all places.

I see the great bargains that others post from their own local stores, and many of them are quite reasonable. That's wonderful, and those folks should continue to support these places so they thrive and flourish. But around here, these stores can't shut down fast enough, as far as I'm concerned.

I will have to agree on this, living in the same area as allyourblood. The prices they are are outrageous, and yes I understand they need to pay for the bills and staff, but $20 NES/SNES controllers and $20-$30 Super Mario Bros. 3 games? They're screwing over the naive retro collectors

[NaturalChemical]

There's one independent game store around here, and it seems to do well; it's outlasted the others, at least. I was in a Gamestop a few days ago, and heard the clerk referring someone to it.

Though it's worth noting that they used to be a bit like what ayb describes. They marked up classic games too much, and tended to only use Ebay for pricing. When they finally started acting more competitive, the shop became much more reliable and successful.

[BetaWolf47]

To be honest, my little town has never had a mom and pop game store. At least, not in the past 15 years. For me, it's either a chain (Play N Trade, Gamestop) or a pawn shop. The closest mom and pop game store is one that recently moved to a flea market that's about 45 minutes away from me. This particular place gauges like crazy, like AYB described.

That said, I've built quite a nice collection just from chains and pawn shops.

[tekfox212800]

I will have to agree on this, living in the same area as allyourblood. The prices they are are outrageous, and yes I understand they need to pay for the bills and staff, but $20 NES/SNES controllers and $20-$30 Super Mario Bros. 3 games? They're screwing over the naive retro collectors

Yeah i see your point on that one. If i go into those shops, they will have the "crappy" games for like 3-6 dollars, but games like mario bros duck hunt will be 10 dollars, or final fantasy NES for 35, or even Metal Gear for 30. and these are loose carts we're talking about!

[ubersaurus]

A game like Final Fantasy or Mario will be worth more to someone who just wants to check out the highlights or the games of their youth, because they can actually sell for more. Whereas random crappy game that no one cares about? That can go cheaper.

[crazyjackcsa]

I don't mind paying a resonable premium, since there is an increase in overhead for having store.

I don't have a classic shop near me, and let me tell you, I'd be prepared to pay for the "privledge" I'm tired of dealing with E-Bay run arounds, craigslist people who you can never track down and even messageboards (DP) included. (that's mainly due to my hatred of the postal service.)

There is a store I frequent in Hamilton Ontario (I have family there, and make the trek a dozen times a year)

Massive amounts of cruddy games and systems seems to be an issue. He seems to do okay, but I'm sure he has more Xboxs than he knows what to do with.

[Granado_jake]

From my experience Fallout games has a decent, clean collection. But he usually doesn't have box or manuals, and the prices can sometime be outrageous

[YoshiM]

There are two stores that carry classic to modern games but are diversified into other areas. One is primarily a CCG/RPG/Table top game store that also handles a fair amount of video games at OK prices. The other is a retro toy store carrying everything from Go-Bots and Rainbow Brite to Xbox 360 and PS3. Game wise, the toy store seems to be doing well as their stock fluctuates weekly and I tend to find things I normally don't find ANYWHERE in my town (loose Thunder Castle for the Intellivision?!).

However if these places were video game only...don't think they'd last. Had one store that was devoted to video games back in the early-to-mid 90's that eventually just ate itself, especially after going big into laserdisc rental.

[Bojay1997]

I will have to agree on this, living in the same area as allyourblood. The prices they are are outrageous, and yes I understand they need to pay for the bills and staff, but $20 NES/SNES controllers and $20-$30 Super Mario Bros. 3 games? They're screwing over the naive retro collectors

I take it you're talking about Luna Games? I visited their store about a year ago and it was the first and last time. Everything was in horrible shape and really badly overpriced. The employee also stood watching me the whole time as if I was going to magically leap over the glass cases and steal a handful of beat to heck loose NES cartridges. The only store I have ever liked in Southern California is Game Dude and although you rarely find hidden gems anymore in their stock, at least they have a huge selection and generally pretty reasonable prices. So, I suppose that I have to agree with you that mom and pop video game stores in Southern California have generally been terrible in the past decade or so and I personally have had no reason to use them given the tremendous number of on-line sellers (including many fellow collectors here and elsewhere) with all of the same items in better condition for less money.

[Emperor Megas]

I think a classic gaming store has to diversity to stay afloat. I'm pretty sire that most of the classic gaming places I've been too make more off of DVDs than they do video games, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that.

[Richter Belmount]

Herp a Derp people will always make a local game store or rental store /end derp. Stop worrying

[tekfox212800]

http://www.gamesniped.com/2011/07/28/project-indie-game-store-day/

found this post on Game Sniped. I think this is a good idea.

[Zing]

I am a heavy board gamer. This sort of discussion comes up constantly on board gaming forums. There is a big competition between the online stores, which have discounts of up to 35% off MSRP, and local stores, who, at best, offer 10-15%.

If a local store has some value for me, I will patronize it. If not, then I don't. I feel no obligation to pay a premium unless I am getting value for my money. I do not believe in paying more money for no reason other than to help keep a store afloat. I am not saying I need lower prices to entice me, but there needs to be additional value in some form over buying online.

[Shingetter]

I'll pay a small premium to shop at a local store. 10% over what I would pay online usually.

[swlovinist]

I think that there will always be a market for indie game stores, but like some others have said, it all depends on several things. I have easily gone into hundreds of game stores over the years, and see what makes or breaks a place. I also have worked at an indie game store and seen first hand the challenges a store faces. Here are my top things that I see can have a indie videogame store around for years:

1. Management: The ability to run a store with clean organization, communication, customer service and consistent hours will get you a local fanbase and repeat sales.

2. Store inventory: Probably one of the hardest things to continue to have, Store inventory is a must have to survive. If the product does not match the demand, then it can be game over.

3. Reasonable overhead: Reasonable overhead is one thing that can really make or break a place in slow months and off season. While this does tie into how well a store is managed, being able to pay monthly bills, pay other fees(taxes, salaries, etc, is important for a person to continue.

4. Adaptation: As time moves on, there will be a moving demand for "classic games". I have a good personal friend who has seen this over the last two years. His success of his store has been the ability to serve a moving demand of gamers who are asking from everything from Atari to Xbox.

5. Competition: As in the original post, competition is something that does need to be considered. I think that indie game stores do best when there are specific things that they can offer that no other game store in the area can offer. I am blessed to live in an area that has a thriving local game store...doing well due to not having any local competition. Also though, the game store has very reasonable prices that are very challenging to compete with.

[lazyhoboguy]

I really wish I had a local game store that sold classic games around me. There was one a couple years ago, but it went out of business very quickly. I visited it a couple times and could see why though. Things were ridiculously overpriced. Still sad to see it die though. I really enjoy being able to go into a store and browse games in person. I like the mystery of what you might find haha.

[duffmanth]

Im not really talking about gamestops or game crazys. But the mom and pop game store. Here in Arizona we have a few that i hold dear. Fallout Games is one in glendale that sells 90% classic gaming. I recently watched as my favorite Play and Trade went out of business.

The idea for this thread came from a movie i watched on Netflix recently, called "I want that record!" Its a movie about the death, and small resurgence of record stores. Trash records was a main topic they spoke about.

That aside, what are your thoughts? I went into Fallout to buy my weekly 25 dollar NES binge, and talking with the guy he said that they have really seen a rise and fall over the last year. On one side, he pointed out, more people are turning to things like Gamefly, which is a little like Netflix. They want the newest, fastest, blockbuster games. But at the same time, he has 13 year olds trading in their xboxs or old playstation 2s to get a Master System or an NES. I know alot of people turn to Ebay for their gaming needs, im guilty of that as well. If there is a game i want, its easier to find it on the internet, rather than driving 15 minutes to HOPE he has it. sometimes, however, that is the joy of the store. I meet great people (some even use Digital Press or Nintendo/Atari/Sega Age) and i might find a game that i really want.

TLDR Do you think the local game store is fading, or will there be a resurgence?

I live in a big city so most of the indy game stores around here do good business, in smaller towns and cities I would imagine it's harder for them to survive? I usually go to indy game stores for retro games and consoles, while newer games are kind of an after thought. The retro market is what keeps these stores in business and separates them from the big chain stores.

I use to work for a Canadian video game retailer called Microplay (a nice mix of retro and current games and consoles), about 8 or 9 years ago and at the time there were probably around 100 stores across the country. Now there are less than a dozen in Ontario and they're almost non existent in the rest of the country, except for Quebec where there are probably a few dozen locations left. While Microplays were and still are independently owned franchise stores for the most part, they're not exactly a huge powerful retail chain like Gamestop or Best Buy. I guess they're somewhere in between a retail chain and an indy game store.

The store that I use to work at gained new customers by our competitive prices, fair trade in prices/credits and our knowledge about the industry and it's products. We gained so many new customers from Gamestop, because they were over priced on their used games, their staff were morons that wouldn't give you an honest opinion about a game or console, and their trade in program was a joke. Not to mention the condition of their "new" display games and most of their used stock. Microplay just felt like less of a corporate atmosphere than Gamestop, it was just a more casual and laid back environment.

The reason for so many Microplays closing was because of a few buyouts of head office, but more than that I think it was a result of shitty location, shitty management/owners, and not being able to compete the big chain stores. I think the latter reasons are why a lot of indy game stores don't survive? The ones that do good business must be doing something right.

[MarioMania]

I really wish I had a local game store that sold classic games around me. There was one a couple years ago, but it went out of business very quickly. I visited it a couple times and could see why though. Things were ridiculously overpriced. Still sad to see it die though. I really enjoy being able to go into a store and browse games in person. I like the mystery of what you might find haha.

Then the owner thinking -- what happened to my store? you pricesed your games to high

[Coptur]

I think stores will be around for gaming for quite a while yet. But with-in the next 10 years, they will probably die off.

[moggles]

Support your local businesses.

Fuck the soulless nationals.

That is all.