Opening a Game Store UPDATE!

[jgenotte]

Great idea. One question:

Are you going to use your own collection to start? If not where is the product going to come from?

I really think you should have games/items from as many systems as you can. For me, this is what makes a game store good. This alone will not be enough, though.

For example:
There is an AWESOME game store two blocks from my house. They have top loaders, sega CDXs, rare games of all sorts, but they are way overpriced, so I never go there. It is a real shame to have such a wonderful inventory, but to have it worthless to me.

My fav store in town is called "Cool Stuff." They sell music, movies, and games. They are fair, honnest, and knowledgeable. They price their games at 75% of DP listing, which I think is fair.

All in all, I think you will do great as long as you dont get greedy, stingy, or rude.

Good luck,
-james

[digitalpress]

Just one question....

Are you selling franchises?

I know the perfect location for a video game store but I don't have the tiniest idea where to begin.

I didn't answer this question before because I didn't understand the question. I still don't... can you elaborate?

[AtariBuff]

Joe, I wish you all the best

The next time being in the States I promise to visit the "Digital Press Realtime" store

[ubersaurus]

Just one question....

Are you selling franchises?

I know the perfect location for a video game store but I don't have the tiniest idea where to begin.

I didn't answer this question before because I didn't understand the question. I still don't... can you elaborate?

He wants to know if you're planning on starting a chain with this as a base.

I wouldn't expect enough financial strength to go chain for some years.

Unlike others, I'd be wary of making it TOO arcadey. Arcades aren't all that profitable-having the machines can bring in extra cash (I'm seeing DDR in there somewhere if you can handle the sound), but I wouldn't make them the focus. You are, after all, still selling things.

Accepting tradeins on older games could be a good advantage, as major chains will not do that for anything older than NES, or PS1. When I was in Japan, I noticed the game stores accepted pretty much everything, and had massive numbers of older Famicom games. Naturally I don't know if you'd get that kind of stock, but how they displayed it was excellent-most of the stores I went to had them in little baggies clipped to hooks on the wall, deep about 3 or 4 carts. To keep them from getting stolen, they all had little plastic wires that the employees had to clip off to get them down. The REALLY rare and pricey stuff was kept in a glass case.

I like the idea of having an area set up for people to rent and play games.

[Sylentwulf]

In the arcade cab department, I wouldn't even THINK about trying to charge for playing. Put a few in there for free play, and either mechanically insert a timer, or just put a clock above it where you can see it. You're NOT going to make any money off of any cabs in your store, but it's a good way to bring business in who would then buy games while they're there.

Having my wife help would also be the only way I would do it Joe, but she works for the state mental health hospital, and they're paying for almost 100% of nursing school atm, so I would at least have to wait until she finishes school And I have no friends offline, so there goes that thought.

My only other problem was getting set up with suppliers by nintendo, sony, microsoft, and ass. publishers/game distributors, but I'm sur eyou have a few connections you can get those set up quicker than I could

[chadtower]

In the arcade cab department, I wouldn't even THINK about trying to charge for playing. Put a few in there for free play, and either mechanically insert a timer, or just put a clock above it where you can see it. You're NOT going to make any money off of any cabs in your store, but it's a good way to bring business in who would then buy games while they're there.

As someone involved in a local arcade, I can say the opposite is likely. What will happen is he'll end up with a crowd of 12 year olds in, all coming because they can play without paying and have no money. They won't buy any games and they will shoplift. Parents will drop kids off and use the place as a free babysitter. The point of most cabs in a store now isn't really to make money so much as it is to bring in people who have some. The cabs I would stock are the classics you don't see elsewhere but have name recognition. Get a Star Wars. Bemani games bring in a very loyal (and spendy) crowd, but take up space, cost a lot, and are very loud. I would definitely say that a DDR machine, if you wanted to drop that, would bring in not only your target crowed but the portion of that crowd that has disposable income.

[Promophile]

Exactly Chad, You have to balance "fun" with profitability and customer base.

[chadtower]

EDIT: erf. Forum problem.

[ClubNinja]

Parents will drop kids off and use the place as a free babysitter.

Exactly what I was thinking.

An idea from the local arcade Chad mentioned that I think is very nice involves a single charge for unlimited play. Leave the machines in the store on free play, but charge five, ten, or twenty bucks up front for the day's use. Of course, you're designing a store and we're focusing on the side attraction here.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm...what have you in the way of large display lights, Joe? A few might be nice, but those suckers are big enough that they'd quickly overwhelm a small store. What sort of dimensions are you looking at?

[Mayhem]

Hmmm how did I miss this thread earlier?

Good luck with any venture you decide to go ahead with Joe. A friend of mine here in the UK is looking to establish and start a game store as well, maybe even a chain of them nationwide if things go well enough.

If you're interested, I could see if he's up for having a chat with you. Exchange ideas and the so forth. He's a businessman first (and like you, has books available to buy on Amazon!) but a gamesplayer a very close second, so we're really gunning for him that he can pull it off.

[goatdan]

A few things...

First, you need to start with a ton of inventory. If you don't, when you open and people first see your store, it will seem empty. Since the first impression is very important, a really well stocked shelf at the beginning will make people want to return in the future to see things again and again.

Secondly - and this may sound crazy - but ignore the DP prices. You'll be dealing with the general public more than game collectors, so having a game like the first Zelda listed for $3.00 in your store will mean you'll never, ever have it in stock because people are still willing to pay $8-15.00 for their own copy.

Thirdly, don't focus on older stuff as much as you do newer stuff. Balance is key. Online, having a store (like the GOAT Store) stocked with a million old items is a benefit because people can get so much at once. But in real life, they probably will only buy one or two things, and most of them will have a modern system while only certain numbers will have older systems. Besides that, you can make more money off the newer systems than you can the older systems.

Fourthly, don't have arcade / pinball games unless you intend on selling them. You won't make much money from them, most communities have insane rules about running them (for instance, the rules in the city of Milwaukee are insane, but are completely different in the surrounding cities in the county). If you aren't selling them, having them as "not a main attraction" (in other words, the arcade being the main part of the store) means that people won't be stopping in to play them, and if they are on freeplay you'll just end up with them getting damaged and you having to pay for them. Selling them is another story altogether, and I know of a few places around town that do that, but I wouldn't suggest bothering with that unless you're really ambitious. That type of inventory takes up a TON of space, and if you're not turning it over quickly you can use that space for things that actually make money.

Fifthly, if you're planning on involving the Web, that adds a million and five layers of complexity. You have to track both inventories in realtime and make sure that the games are removed at the very instant they are sold so that people in the store don't try buying something that has already been sold online.

Sixthly, accepting credit cards totally sucks. But you'll have to do it. PM me for more details.

There is some more stuff too. If you're interested in hearing it, like I said above PM me. Gary and I have sort of had the goal of having a brick and mortar GOAT Store for years now, and even though the GOAT Store doesn't perform badly, we don't feel that it is a good enough vehicle to make enough money to pay for rent with. We do have another plan that has been kicking around that we may or may not be doing that is pretty much unrelated to gaming because of it.

[chadtower]

An idea from the local arcade Chad mentioned that I think is very nice involves a single charge for unlimited play. Leave the machines in the store on free play, but charge five, ten, or twenty bucks up front for the day's use. Of course, you're designing a store and we're focusing on the side attraction here.

That leaves him with the problem of policing who plays. At TGA, it's fairly simple, since there is nothing else there. If you haven't paid, and you play, you're out. Plus it's a very intimate place, if you've been there a single time they know you. If Joe tried a flat rate model with cabs, he'd have to watch the kids playing while also running his store. Another problem is that I don't know many people who would pay $5 for unlimited play on a small number of regular cabs. I'm not even sure I would want people in my store for the length of time it would take for them to get $5 worth out of a .50 or .25 game.

[Sylentwulf]

Um, did everyone miss how I said install a mechanical timer? Let them play for 5-10 minutes, not hours. Like the system players in walmart/target, every time I go to the store, those things are deserted roughly 75% of the time I'm there.

[chadtower]

Um, did everyone miss how I said install a mechanical timer? Let them play for 5-10 minutes, not hours. Like the system players in walmart/target, every time I go to the store, those things are deserted roughly 75% of the time I'm there.

I didn't miss it, I thought about it and considered it undesirable. It has too many of the negative elements and too few of the positives.

[FantasiaWHT]

Just one question....

Are you selling franchises?

I know the perfect location for a video game store but I don't have the tiniest idea where to begin.

I didn't answer this question before because I didn't understand the question. I still don't... can you elaborate?

Yeah, if you get established, I would buy a franchise from you, meaning the store I opened would have the same name as yours, run the same policies (with small differences) and charge the same prices, get their games from the same place, etc. I pay you a monthly franchise fee, but I keep all the profits of the store after that.

I'm just whistling in the dark I know a city that's just itching for another video game store (and more to the point, a BETTER one) and buying into an established franchise is easier than starting from scratch.

So 10 years from now, look me up *g*

[kiun]

Be sure to sell import games. But make sure you know which ones are in demand (for example, exclusive Jp only release, Beatmanias, etc.) Of course, import , maybe modded, consoles would be great.

[Sosage]

Good luck! Some suggestions:

I am in the camp that thinks a food/beverage bar is a bad idea. People are slobs when they aren't in their own house (even then...some people live in filth anyways). This is also a game store we're talking about, not a sports bar.

Organization. I hate going into mom n pop stores that have stuff just "lying around" in stacks or tossed into bins. I like to "flip through" my CD's/Carts/DVD cases...not dig. :P

I'd contemplate possibly setting the arcade coin mechs for nickles. This might clash with having free demo set ups for consoles ("why should I pay a nickle/whatever when I can play this console game they have set up by the counter for free"), but imo you run the risk of having someone hang on the machine all day long. Then there is maintenance. We arcade collectors can attest to joysticks wearing out. Pinballs are worse. At least some of the funds should come from the players. Plus, true arcade gaming is all about risking some sort of coin to play anyways. You youngin's with your "free emulators". Bah on you. You're all spoiled.

I would also set up a sound system for playing music in the store. Maybe some T.V.s running a DVD like they do for movie rental stores. Maybe I am strange, but I dig flipping through merchandise with a cool movie/radio station playing in the background. *shrug*

My 2 cents.

[CartCollector]

You could have PC-10s modded to play standard NES carts and put excess inventory in there for display. You could also try that with an AES or the SNES arcade thingy (forget the name). Heck, if you're good enough, you could mod other consoles to do the same thing! Pay-per-play because extra revenue streams are good.
It could be profitable to have an online storefront. I'm sure there are many DPers who would love to buy from your store but would be too far away from it (like me).
Maybe hook up a PC to some in-store speakers. Play SID and NSF tunes... create an atmosphere.
Best of luck!

[Masco73]

When you get this store up and running I will definately make the trip. It should only take 3-4 hours car ride. Also, maybe host your get togethers at the store. Maybe special discounts for DP members?? Anyway, good luck!!