Today, the death of Your Move Games truly sinks in; it is Monday, the day for our weekly VTES meeting. We'll be in Pandemonium which won't feel like "home" yet.
It got me to thinking; one of the reasons Your Move closed down was that it was not profitable as a store. Makes sense, actually.
So what if there were a "gaming store" that wasn't a store at all? If I had the capital, I wonder if this would make money. Here are my dream features of My Game Store:
* We rent tables. From the round ones all the way up to The Sultan. Cost depends on the tables; we can also supply tablecloths or you can bring your own.
* We have clean and well-maintained bathroom facilities.
* We have quality Air Conditioning and Heating.
* We have demo games available for people to play.
* We can host special events, and we allow you to advertise.
* We have (non-free, but secure) wifi, and possibly a small bank of Internet Cafe style computers.
* We have at least one soundproof room with a door that closes.
* We are open as early/late as local laws allow.
* We have NO VIDEO GAMES.
* We do not sell games ourselves, but we will special-order items.
* We will ship your gaming things or allow you to ship things to us. (This led me to think, maybe there's a UPS Store inside the place that is a source of income from the general public)
Is this a realistic fantasy? For now, it's just a dream; I don't have money or time to open a new business, but I wonder if it would work.
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I've been thinking of something similar, but with the addition of a café as well. I dont know how economicaly viable it is though and theres a lot of questionmarks really. I think the place pretty much needs to sell games, singles and the likes to make ends meet.
ReplyDeleteHow much would it be realistic to charge costumers for a table per hour and still be able to pay rent and saleries?
You mean something like this : www.outpost.be ?
ReplyDeleteIt's a gaming store (actually they have 3) with enough tables and chairs to accomodate more than 100 board and cardgamers, around 20 pcs for gaming. And here comes the best part: it's also a no-smoking-allowed pub that serves food and drinks from 11am till closing time.
I think one thing that is neccesary is to put the game store close to a college(walking/bus distance), in an area with parking, food, locals, and not too seedy. I am so jealous of Europeans and their public transportation and beer halls....
ReplyDeleteI think your real money making will have to come from food, computers, and some games. If you charge too much for space and don't offer any comforts, why would people spend much time there? What would people pay for a table? Maybe there could be peak and non-peak hours-based charges (i.e. rent a table at $.25-50/hour per seat, $.50-.75 from 5pm-10pm). Keep the dream alive!
I think that model *could* work, but it'd be highly dependent on the area you chose to place it.
ReplyDelete@brandon - sadly not all of europe have beer halls :(
ReplyDeleteHere's the problem: nobody wants to pay to play. While it would be great to charge players to use your space, you can't charge much at all. One major problem facing modern gaming stores is that you need play space to get sales, but so many people use the play space without buying much from the store, if anything.
ReplyDeleteKeeping something like this open will require you to either sell things (either food, drink or games) or minimize overhead as much as possible.
Games Workshop has Warhammer World and the adjacent Bugman's Brewery with sells beer and games. That seems to work pretty well but one of the biggest gaming companies is backing it.
Minimizing overhead? Well, if no one's playing then you shouldn't be open. Owning the building instead of paying rent would be nice.
That's all I got to say. Maybe someone can find a way to work it.