Trying to save RPG space at my FLGS. Opinions if you have any.

[TheTSKoala]

Okay, so, my FLGS.  I've known the owner for a decade, volunteered to take over for him (sans pay) when his wife had to go in for some medical stuff, helped plan events, etc.  I'm the type of guy who enjoys seeing a FLGS flourish when they're run right and for the right reasons.

So, had the owner call me yesterday and asked if we could meet for lunch as he needed someone to bounce business ideas off of. I've never objected in the past and this place is a good hang out for kids and adults alike, so I of course agree.  Turns out, his rent was raised by about 30% and he needed to make the store more efficient.  So, of course, he was turning to run more TCG / mini events as they are a proverbial cash cow.  His other idea was having a 16-Player XBOX360 night.  (I quickly shot down that idea.  Too many parents with too many opinions on what should or should not be played might have them taking their children away from the store.)  He was, however, worried about alienating the three Various RPG groups that come to his store because the more TCG events and mini events he runs, the less space there is for RPG groups.  Now, the RPG groups are very loyal.  Buy all their books from the store, show face, and even pick up a new player from the browsers every now and then.

Now, as we all know, cash vs. cash, Minis and TCGs put out more per capita than RPGs.  But, RPGs are probably the most loyal customer base a store can have.  So, after thankfully fighting off the "pay per session / pay per character generated" idea that took me a year to get him away from... I need to come up with ideas.  Now, I have ideas.  But I figured, the Crafty forums crowd are one of the most level headed forum crowds I know of, so I'll use you guys as a cross section vs. the people I know personally.

Ideas:
1.  No outside food or drink.  Why?  We could have the store create a snack bar.  Getting a vendor license in the city isn't that hard.  And, overhead of food / drink is profitable.  (Pay $3 for a 12 pack of Soda, sell for .50 a piece, you double your money every time.)  Caveat:  Some sort of Pay X, and you can bring outside food in.  That way, you can have a pizza party in the store and the profit doesn't disappear.  Like a Tariff.  The initial idea was liked by my personal group, the caveat they sorta leered at.  They said it was too "iffy".

2.  Renting table space.  I've always hated this idea.  It's definitely a profit margin, but, I don't know.  Just seems like a "Why don't you just play at home then?" idea.

3.  RPG tournaments.  Now, this idea came out of left field by a buddy of mine who plays MTG.  His idea is, have everyone pay a buy in.  Tournament runs for X days (30-90, we think).  Have various categories.  "Most deaths by a player's PC."  "Most damage dealt in a single night."  "Most obscure rule used."  And then have prizes ranging from minis, store credit or cold hard cash.  Now, I shot down the Cold Hard Cash idea.  We have a parent who is a police officer and has already stated that while he loves the store, giving out cash to the wrong child who's parent is angry could get the store slapped with rumors of illegal gambling.  The GM would have to be trusted, but thankfully, all the player groups are friends, so it shouldn't be a problem.  We were thinking 70 prize / 30 store profit split of the entries.  Nothing too huge.  Like.. a group of 4 players and 1 GM would have a $40 group buy-in. 

4.  Reducing the on-hand stock. Yet again, I loathe this idea because it'll hurt player "recruitment" by eliminating the odds of some guy / girl walking through, seeing a game and be like.. That looks cool.  I'll go buy the book now.  On the other hand, it zeroes the overhead by placing book requests on special Order.  The supplier to the store isn't too bad.  Usually gets orders to the store within 4-7 days.  2-3 if we beg him.

Those are my ideas so far.  The owner is also working on his own.. but.. most of them were the "Pay me to play here" ideas.. to which I chastised him for.  So, any opinions or ideas? 

[MilitiaJim]

The food is the best I can think of.  And if he keeps the costs for food low then he won't even need to explicitly ban outside food. 

I can imagine most wouldn't be thrilled about passing around a hat, but increasing mini/TCG events isn't an awful idea.  Doubly so if he can schedule them around when the RPG folks are in.

(Any idea why his rent spiked 30%?)

[foproy]

membership card. renting table space is a bad idea, but if he has some sort of membership, that can help the money situation.

the food idea is not bad, though get vending machines.

a lan setup in the store with Internet access. setup a proxy, and id people who are under the age limit of the game cannot play without parental consent. he can then charge by the hour, or have package deals for so many hours a day. one of the gaming shops i used to frequent had 2 xbox 360's and 6-8 computers and did quite well off of them.

all of those ideas i got from a gamming store i used to go to before the move. no parents complained, the ones who did were mad over having to consent to let their kids play the games. but that is tough.

[Wolverine]

A lot of the ideas being bought up in this thread will depend on how much space your FLGS has available. Are you able to give us some details - numbers of tables, rough size, etc?

As for charging for tables, this would be one of the last things to implement. Getting people to play in the store is a good way for other customers to see the games being played and become interested. Also, get in touch with local representatives for gaming companies (aka the demo guys) and arrange to have some demo days in the store. This works remarkably well for card games, and is fairly common here.

Card gaming tournaments (with a playing fee) are a good idea, especially when they only last for one day. Wargaming tournaments are also good, though it might be better to spread them out over a longer period of time in the form of a league. Have the players pay to join the league, then offer prizes at the other end.

Selling food and drink is also another easy sell, as others have mentioned. We had a store here who had a mini cafe at the counter. There was hot and cold food as well as soft drinks and coffee/tea. This was great as it meant you could get some fairly decent food without having to leave the store, and the staff would even bring drinks out to you if you were in the middle of a game. It also meant that parents could have a drink while watching their kids play. They might not want to go that far, but provide the customers with some good options and the money should flow.

When it comes to reducing stock, you may want to limit that to suppliments while keeping good numbers of main books. Also, try and offer special deals which tie in with roleplaying tournaments and other special occasions. Out local store offered a discount on DnD books this weekend, to coincide with DnD Day (even though the books don't arrive till Monday, but that's another story).

They might want to also look into diversifying the stock a little, too. Adding cards is a good idea, and they're a fairly easy sell. Depending on what customers want, you could also add in Manga novels and anime DVDs, or other gaming-related material. Ask around and see what people are after.

[Mister Andersen]

Get an old school arcade machine or two for people to drop loose change into while they wait for peoples to show/games to finish.

Yearly membeship cards with some sort of discount on store prices (say 5%) is good. Only card holders can book/use table space?

[Gentry]

Finding out why his rent jumped 30% is also a darn good idea.  I bet that can be haggled in some way, if for instance he offers to split the cost of maintenance/repairs with the landlord or something.  But that may be more info than you have a right to get, so tread lightly.

As to the rest, food is a cash cow.  I'd advise against vending machines, though, because the margin on them is pathetically small, and is paid at odd intervals that depend more on the vending company's whims than any real schedule.  Coke and Pepsi will also lock you into a certain range of products your machines *must* stock, and those may not be what your customers want.  And if you get an unreliable route driver, you may never get restocked properly.  It's a minefield of "circumstances beyond your control".

Just get a fridge behind the counter, post a sign on the door with the types of soda that are stocked, and sell it by the can.  Sam's Club/Costco always has a deal, and you can make a fair chunk of extra dough on it.  A decent selection of candy on a few shelves behind the counter is also a good idea  Selling candy bars at 75 cents a piece is something I've seen fly just fine--the customers are already spending, and with a booster pack costing close to five bucks now, a candy bar for a single looks like a deal.

I've also known game groups to do pizza lunches for gamedays.  The idea there is to find a local pizza place with a killer carryout deal (if you're in a big enough town, I'll bet there's a 5-dollar carryout pizza joint someplace not too far away).  If you buy pizzas for five bucks, and then sell them to your players at a buck a slice (or even a buck for two slices), you're doing great.  I've even seen gamedays do an lunch-hour "all you can eat pizza for five bucks" thing--there's always a guy or two that can eat a whole pizza, but most folks will stop at four pieces, so you still come out ahead, and your customers think it's the best deal in town.

For little stuff, do gumball machines full of M&M's and whatnot.  If you can get one that holds those plastic ball-things with prizes in them, put pairs of dice in 'em (dice can be bought by the POUND from Chessex).  You'll sell a few sets at every gameday as players get sick of their bad rolling dice and buy new ones. 

[foproy]

when i was talking about a vending machine, i was refering to one he stocked himself.

[Krensky]

Oh Hells no.

Self owned vending machines sound like a good idea, but are generally never worth it. They're among some of the most hideously mechanically complex things on Earth. Especially the older ones. A small to medium sized fridge (preferably glass fronted) behind the counter (assuming you can't rely on the honor system, and the answer to that is almost always no) is far easier and cheaper.

[Morgenstern]

I'd consider the table renting thing with a twist - table rental is like 8 bucks, but you throw in 5 bucks of the food . Makes it a nominal fee, and gets people in the haabbit of eating the store munchies. if they play for a few hours, they'll almost certainly pick up a second wave of munchies.

[Argonnite]

I'd consider the table renting thing with a twist - table rental is like 8 bucks, but you throw in 5 bucks of the food . Makes it a nominal fee, and gets people in the haabbit of eating the store munchies. if they play for a few hours, they'll almost certainly pick up a second wave of munchies.

Then your FLGS has to make sure to get big and sturdy chairs.

[Wolverine]

Then your FLGS has to make sure to get big and sturdy chairs.

Forget chairs, lower the tables and bring in bean bags!

[NezMaster]

In addition to adding a fridge with your own food and drinks, find a locally owned pizza place or food place. Go to them with statistics about how many people are in the store on a given night, and offer them heavily preferred food customer base, in exchange for a decent discount.
Explain that the owner intends to add a surcharge for people eating in his place, and he needs to find a way to pocket some of the money, and still pass some savings on to customers. You shold be able to get a 20-25% discount, and pass 10% of it to customers.
Simply tell the customers you now have  a 10% discount with the local pizza place should steer nearly all the business that way. If not, explain that as part of that agreement, their will be a 10% fee if they order elsewhere, so your store gets the money either way. Call it a clean up fee or whatever, becuase een the neatest group in the world usually leaves a mess when they eat. and gamers are rarely the neatest groups in the world.

the only way pay to play works, is in VERY small communities that have no options whatsoever. And usually resentment will build and smoeone will find a way to provide free space.

How big is the space? Pay to pay larp space can work, as most larpers expect to pay for their space due to their size needs. But they'd need to occupy the whole store in off hours, and it may not be worth it.

I don't think a video game slot/computer game slot is a bad idea, provided it's a non intrusive part of the store. And if your concerned abuot parents, you can make requirements that will curb that. From simply not allowing children below 16 to play rated games, to not allowing people under 18 to play at all.

Club membership fees are a good idea, but should not be required to play. they may provide benefits of some kind, depending on what his margins are.

Good luck, let us know what happens!

[Mister Andersen]

Don't surcharge or limit food tat comes from outside the shop, that
s only asking for resentment. What you do is simply make it clear that if there's food at a table at least some of it has to come from the store canteen - some people simply can't or won't eat store food and will bring their own for financial or health reasons.

Another option is to sell mugs with the store name/logo on them. Presenting the mug means discount tea/coffee/hot chocolate

[TheTSKoala]

Okay.  First reply.  This one is easy.  Rent Increase.  If anyone has ever lived or been stationed in the South-east part of the North East, property values have skyrocketed.  Average home around here goes for $250,000 and that's for like a 2 Bed / 1 Bath with a yard in a nice neighborhood.  (Which is, coincidently, why I can't wait for my new assignment early '09.)  So, the high property value plus we now have three... yes.. THREE business developers and one residental developer purchasing land around the FLGS for development, which is also putting a spike in price.  Also, the city has increased utilities across the board.  Water has gone up 30% in a year.  Now, happily, the FLGS isn't going into the red because of the rent increase, but the black margin is becoming much much smaller. 

[Mister Andersen]

What are his options on relocating?