Any comic or game store owners out there?

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

My best friend and I are looking into starting our own comic, game, collectible, pop culture, store and I am basically looking for some free advice. We have been friends since high school, went to college together and now roommates, and we have ALWAYS talked about starting our own shop, now we are gonna make it happen!

We live in St. Louis and have the fortunate opportunity to have the Fantasy Shop comic and game store here in the city. The man who started the Fantasy Shop wrote a book about starting your own store and I have read on many a forum that it is THE book to read to get started.

Right now we are looking at about opening 2-3 years from now. This is for several reasons. One, I don't want this to fail, so we are going to do as much research as possible for the next year, and make sure that we have full understanding of every aspect that we need to know before we even approach writing a business plan. Two, we both just got sizable raises at our full time jobs, are making decent money, and want to live comfortably for a little while before we start this thing. Plus have decent money saved up as well.

Other than that, at this point we know jack squat about getting started, we have a crap ton of ideas and thoughts about how to run the place and do what the current shops in town aren't doing (Wi-Fi cafe anyone?).

So really need resources at this point and good advice.

Thanks

[MortonStromgal]

I don't own one but I can tell you what not to do as I have seen several fail.

The most important thing is its a business first treat it as such.

1. Don't buy your inventory on ebay
2. Don't carry only the games you like
3. Be prepared to put up with stinky people and have to be polite (you'll need to get a feel for who buys vs who wastes your time)
4. Don't buy something in bulk because one guy and his friends buy it
5. Always keep one core book on hand of games your selling supplements of.
6. Offer something Amazon does not (discounts are the most common but I have also seen gaming space and swag, I think discounts while nice can be dangerous. If you can figure out a way to sell stuff to grognards who wont buy new editions your golden)
7. If you have the $$$ carry some obscure stuff (don't buy this in bulk see 4, it wont sell a lot but if a guy knows he can get his burning wheel books there it will be repeat business and he might grab some D&D books while hes there.)

The trick is not to maximize your profits across each sale but to be willing not to make as much on say a core book if you know that guy will buy 4 or 5 supplements from you.

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

Indeed! Thanks.

We are thinking comics, games (not just rpgs, and including family board games and card games), some DVDs, some PC games, novels, trade paperbacks, a cafe with Wi Fi, and a game room (tables to play and possibly PC and/or console games to play, like an arcade).

In over our heads?

So far the hardest thing is deciding on location. Foot traffic is hard to come by and the good locations aren't necessarily conducive to the customers we want. Which might be good to get people into the store who don't normally go.

Hmm...

[kujester]

I used to own a store here in my town and was relatively successful (I moved on for personal reasons more than anything else).

I'd be happy to talk about my experience and thoughts at any depth you would like.

[purestrainhuman]

I would start small with comics, as they're non refundable, unlike most periodicals - one store I know bought a miniscule amount of comics for the shelf, and did most of their orders by subscription - have people sign up for it, put down a deposit, and place your orders through Diamond with only the barest amount of overage. Lure them in with back issues, hook them with subscriptions, and let word of mouth draw in new customers until you have enough traffic to support a full blown wall of weekly comics.

Pick your location as somewhere that has good foot traffic - impulse buyers will be your friend. That being said, make sure your place is open and appealing to get that foot traffic in the door - wide aisles and bright colors are your friends - nobody likes shopping in a cave!

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I have two friends that are business owers, each owning their own respective stores. Here's what they said worked and why it killed their competition. They were both bookstore owners that did dabble in rpg sales.
1... Sell your merchandise online(if it's in your store, list it). Never limit sales to in-store sales only. Their competitors always sold in-store only and never figured out how he stayed open and they all closed. Youll find that the majority of your profits may actually be made online, depending on the merchandise, or course.
2... Give potential future loyal customers an excuse to show up at your store... have gaming tables to not only encourage sales but to help gamers introduce their friends(potential new customers) to gaming. Make your store their store, if you know what i mean.
3... Web page(list everything for sale).
4... Maintain mailing lists.

I love the Wi Fi internet cafe idea. Go with it. In business school, we had a professor that harped on a great point. He said, "if it makes you a profit, no matter how small, you'd be a fool not to pursue it. Pursue all profits of any size for even though it may not seem like much in the beginning, at the end of the year you will be pleased with what it all added up to."

Hope this helps and best of luck.

Thoth-Amon

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

Lots of great info, thanks everyone. Kujester, I will for sure be picking your brain about stuff.

Another thing we were thinking about was encouraging cooperation amongst the local comic shops to help build up the community here in St. Louis. There is one shop that is active in the community but I have heard they can be difficult to work with, and the other shop I think could be more open.

I'm not sure in what ways specifically, but one thought I had was work together to get more events happening around the city. We don't have any conventions, major conventions to note, no book signings, no panel discussions, etc...

Could work or could backfire.

[nijineko]

i used to visit this one gaming store when i visited st. louis. passed it on the highway heading from illinois on the north side of town, heading down over to the west side. would always stop coming or going to see what they had. sadly, i don't live in those parts anymore. but best of luck!

as far as advice goes, take the online advice. and hire someone like me to do your computer and networking setup for you! ;D seriously though, never underestimate the value of bartering of services. a local geek might be happy to setup and maintain your network in exchange for anytime gaming rights or something similar. ^^ offering to provide cheap wifi to neighboring stores (and those stores customers...) is also an option.

[MuslixtheMighty]

There is probably no advice that I could give that has not been already said but I am curious about what you would be naming the store.

[Grimwell]

Two columns at RPG.net that you simply must read:

1. Behind the Counter by Marcus King
2. Business of Gaming Retail by Lloyd Brown

Both are from real store owners who are making money in the industry. Read them, multiple times, and glean as much as you can.

I managed a normal retail store and have plenty I could suggest; but you should focus on learning from those who have been in the same trenches that you intend to jump in.

You should also check in with GAMA and see if they have anything like an "apprentice" system where you can mentor under an existing store owner.

[MortonStromgal]

Indeed! Thanks.

We are thinking comics, games (not just rpgs, and including family board games and card games), some DVDs, some PC games, novels, trade paperbacks, a cafe with Wi Fi, and a game room (tables to play and possibly PC and/or console games to play, like an arcade).

In over our heads?

So far the hardest thing is deciding on location. Foot traffic is hard to come by and the good locations aren't necessarily conducive to the customers we want. Which might be good to get people into the store who don't normally go.

Hmm...

Location? well all I can say is perhaps someplace near the DMV/DOL, people have to go there every so many years so you'll get foot traffic you might no otherwise get. There may be better places though.

Based off everything you said, pick one and do that really well then add the rest. Video-games and cafe are going to have a bigger draw that the rest but running a cafe is very different than running a retail store. I have a feeling there is not much profit in video-game sales unless you buy massive bulk to.You may want to downplay the cafe part and just offer canned sodas (honestly though I would go fountain, makes more money but you'll have to maintain it and watch out for people who want free refills), microwavable food and snacks just to keep the logistics easier.

If you make the place comfortable and the food reasonable (quality and price) you should be able to get board gamers, minis gamers, and rpg players to stick around and spend their money on food if nothing else. You may even want to concider running it out of an office style building, that way you can have offices set up as play rooms for anyone who want their own room to game in rather than out in open space.

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

All good stuff, keep it coming.

I worked in retail for about 10 years and seven of those was as a manager at one regular job, and then I had 9 other retail jobs, not all at the same time, only 3 at a time!

[Dimthar]

I don't know if it is common for Comic Stores, but I used to go to Magazinne Store in Mexico with a Friend, they kept a "Bag" for him with the Comics he bought weekly, some "Not so common" series they will buy for him since he was a regular customer, all the customers with a Bag were guaranteed the comics they wanted (e.g. When Superman Died.. etc.), that was not only for Comics, My Bag was for Scientific American and Discover.

[Freejack]

I can't help with anything but my observations

One of the local stores turned me 100% off because they forbid outside foods. If you wanted something, you needed to buy it from the in store machine which was pretty sparse, a few candy bars and chips and limited to Pepsi brands (I'm specifically a Coke fiend).

The store was pretty nice in that there is a large back room for gaming, a large couple of rooms to the right where there were terrain and lockers, a small wide screen TV room, a reasonable selection of gear, and a Video Game pod (like 8 or 10 machines in a LAN configuration). This certainly could be a gamer's heaven.

All in all I'd really enjoy going but restricting food to in store purchase only really turned me off. It's similar to the movie theater restrictions except movies have a significantly larger selection (and popcorn! ). I haven't been back to the store although I've purchased gear from them at the local Conventions.

Carl

[Inquisitor Tremayne]

I envision the cafe as a full service coffee shop/restaurant. May have to recruit my significant other to run the cafe, she currently manages one.

The cafe would be attached and next door to the comic/game shop. Food would not be allowed on the sales floor but allowed in the game room.

So, since we would, hopefully, be making money from the cafe outside food would be ok.

How do people feel about paying a fee to use game at a table somewhere else? I can't imagine people paying to roleplay but does the need to game and gather away from the comforts of home that great?