What does your FLGS have to offer?

I was listening to the [[http://www.ogrecave.com/audio/index.php?id=4|Ogre Cave Audio Report for 8/1/05]], and at the tail end of the show, they started talking about the changing landscape in which the local game store has to compete. (One of the guys is a game store owner or employee. The other guys are, beyond the Managing Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Ogre Cave.)

One of them said something which I think really sums up the issue (which I'm going to paraphrase):

A game store has to be more than a place where the customer buys a product.

And I strongly agree. If I just want to simply buy a product, the Internet does a much better job than my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store). The selection is much larger, the prices are cheaper, and I can get it delivered to my door in a week or less. The prices are often low enough, and today's games costly enough, that even if my FLGS has a copy in stock (unlikely, because I don't buy many main-stream games), I can still save ten dollars or more by going mail order on a high-priced hardback. (Case in point… the new Serenity RPG, which I'm interested in. It's $36 at my FLGS after an unadvertised 10% discount. I can get it for $26.39 and free shipping from Amazon.com.)

The FLGS can't afford to compete on selection or price. The Internet's got that all wrapped up. You could say that the FLGS is more convenient than the Internet, because you can browse stuff and buy it on the spot, but that only counts for the stuff they have in stock, and that comes back to the "can't compete on selection" problem. And special orders? Don't tell me about your great special order program, because that's what the Internet is all about… no way to compete with that. (And that assumes that you do special orders well… my experience with multiple game stores is that they suck at special ordering, failing to order, losing orders, putting the order on the shelf and selling it before I pick it up. And if they don't do any of those things, it still takes twice as long for the order to arrive compared to mail order.)

So, how does a FLGS compete? That's a really tough question, because the things by which you can benefit the customer don't translate into something you can directly sell them. You have to give them a reason to frequent your store that isn't a product, in the hopes that, being in the store, they'll buy some of the product you have on the shelf. Build enough customer loyalty through such benefits, and they'll buy stuff off the shelf knowing that they can get it for 35% from Amazon.com.

Obviously, even if you can't directly compete with the Internet, you're still going to have to have a reasonable amount of inventory, because getting them into the store isn't going to do any good if you don't have anything on the shelf that they want. I'm not a typical customer, so I can't help you there. The stuff I'm buying now days is rarely heard of by local gamers, let alone seen on the shelves of my FLGS. But maybe that's part of the problem… if you never have what I want, you're going to have to get some of it before luring me into the store. And you don't carry what I want because you can't seem to sell it when you have it, because I don't come to your store. Lather, rinse, repeat. You're going to have to break that cycle.

To justify carrying the kinds of games I want, you're going to have to have more customers for the kinds of games I want. And the way you're going to do that is to create demand. I think that's the number one place where my FLGS' go wrong… they don't seem to think that it's their responsibility to sell their products. I don't mean ring them up at the cash register, I mean sell, like in promote and generate interest in.

One of the things said in the Ogre Cave report went like this: Back in the eighties and early nineties, these games basically sold themselves. You just put them on the shelf and people bought them. Today, that's not true. Video games and the Internet are really big right now, and they're sucking up your audience. If you're going to sell an RPG or board game, you're going to have to get people interested in it.

Take this exchange, which I more or less had with one of my FLGS employees…

Me: So, this Pirates of the Spanish Main… you selling much of it?

Him: A little, but not anything to get excited about.

Me: So if I bought a few packs, do you know anybody I could play the game with?

Him: There are some guys that come in here and play it once in awhile.

And that was about it. No "we have demos on such-and-such weekend" or "we have a group that plays every Sunday afternoon." There was no attempt to hook me up with said group, and there was no notice board or other social organizer that helped me find these guys.

With a game like this, were I the store manager, I think it would be my responsibility to make sure that someone is demoing this game in my store regularly. Especially if it's from WizKids and it's hot out on the coasts, but is only mediocre here ("here" being Wichita, KS). It's also my duty to know it's hot out on the coasts… pay attention to the Internet, or at least develop a good working relationship with reliable customers that do. Not just the collectible games, but the roleplaying games as well. Those copies of Now Playing on your shelf might sell faster if someone demoed the game in your store.

Of course, you need to have some good space to play and demo these games. Not a couple tables half-covered in unshelved comic books, pushed so close to the gaming display shelves that browsing customers can't get to them or even see half the product. And if you've got a wall covered in roleplaying games that you're trying to move, you need to leave space for RPGs at the demo tables… don't cram the schedule full of collectible games.

When you've got stuff happening, customers need to know when things are happening. A notice board to announce your own schedules and allow customers to put up their own flyers to look for players. Allowing people to tape stuff to the wall is alright, but it looks very tacky and it's not as inviting as a corkboard with pins. Give your customers a clear place to communicate.

Start a newsletter for your customers… tell them what's coming out soon, what the demo schedule looks like, that kind of thing. Set and meet a regular schedule… quarterly and on-time is better than hit-or-miss monthly. Find volunteers to help with it if you have to.

If you're losing business to the Internet (and believe me, if you aren't providing value beyond making the sale, you are), you need to have a strong Internet presence of your own. Not for mail order sales, but to serve the purpose of the corkboard and newsletter online. Keep your schedules up to date… find some software that allows you to delegate upkeep to your volunteers. Don't think of your web page as a big ad for your store… think of it as a customer support tool. Good customer support is a better advertisement for your store than anything you could write about it.

What I'm moving toward is that the FLGS needs to become the social center of gaming in your community. Not necessarily where everyone comes to play all their games, but where gamers come to meet other gamers, test drive new games, and find out what's going on in town. You, the game store employee, don't necessarily have to create all that value yourself, but you have to manage it… make sure the fans are doing it, and when your Pirates… fanatic quits doing demos and you think your sales would benefit from demos, seek out another fan and recruit them. Don't wait for the fans to come to you, seek them out, cultivate relationships, and create an army of volunteers willing to work for the betterment of the gaming community and maybe a little discount or free product.

What is this going to do for you?

Create more customers. Am I so totally wrong, or is it not totally obvious that this is going to get people buying more games ("I'd buy it if I knew someone to play it with."), which is going to generate more interest for the games outside the usual customer circles. It's going to grow the hobby, it's going to bring more people into your store. And those people are, we hope, going to be buying stuff from you.

And that's the bottom line. Obviously, if you aren't getting more sales, then there isn't any point. The bottom line is the bottom line, and there are bills to pay and mouths to feed. But you can't sell more games without getting more people into the store, and you can't get more people into the store unless you have something to offer them that they can't get from the Internet or a coffee shop.

Yeah, it's going to take time and money. But, in this customer's opinion, it's an investment you're going to have to make, and which will pay off in the long run. And I think you can minimize some of the time it takes you. Create fans of your store, and then leverage that fandom. If your customers feel that you are contributing to their gaming experience, they will give back to you. But you're never going to create fans if you're just there to make a sale. You need to be more than a place to buy a product, you need to become the social center of the gaming community.