Want to open a hobby/video game store

[Jeff_B]

You can never be too cautious when opening up a business especially one with the expenses that go along with brick and mortar.

That being said the most important aspect of your business will be location and the type of environment you are willing to provide. Locally we have a company popping around called 2nd and Charles, they're buying up all of the old borders stores ( they are very similar to borders) and are seeing only growth.

Their model is of the understanding that competing with Ecommerce is nearly impossible since you can't have anywhere near the buying power of Wal-Mart or BestBuy. What they do differently is about 50% of what they sell is second hand, they'll buy a game for $15.00 when Gamestop will only pay $3-$5, and sell it for $20.00 ( when GameStop will sell it for 30 +). What this does is corner the market on used games/books while keeping their prices lower then their E-commerce competition when you start to factor in shipping. While this drives traffic and gives the customer an influx of their own cash ( from selling), and up the door to impulse buys of new products.

The stores are very comfortable to your standard 20 something gamer, which is a category that I fit into, as it has all of the fittings of a border with all of the products I'm interested in purchasing.

Hopefully that helps.

-Jeff_B

[mrrodosmith]

I agree with the folks on this post that state the brick and mortar business is NOT dying. Especially in this industry. Yes, people will say LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION is very important. But also, it's vital to find a need and satisfy it. Or create a need people weren't aware of and supply.

Most of the successful, long term hobby/comic book/video game sore type places I visit in my town have one thing in common - a place for people to table top rpg's, or book based rpg's (D&D, Palladium, Magic, etc.). Granted, some of these can be played out online. But there is something about coming in and playing from dusk til dawn "in person".

I'm not sure how this would work, by maybe consider a reserved area of your building where folks can play fopr maybe an hourly fee or flat based fee or something.

I hope this helps.

[Original Hosting]

I like your idea, sounds good.

Rather than doing just physical or just online why not do both? You can still sell on Amazon, Ebay, on your own online shop and in store. Plus you can advertise your online shop in store and maybe make use of some sort of loyalty scheme so people will keep their custom with you. A good idea could be to do contests on certain games in your "Games Room" with the local community for charity or similar as this would be a great way to benefit others, shed good light on your business and also recognition along with some free endorsement.

[kimoonyx]

Hi,

Retail video game stores can be very successful. I have been in the industry now for six years. It is my bread and butter. I also needed to integrate back to the private sector upon exiting from the Military. I know about your perspective. I know how you feel...After serving it is very different and even somewhat challenging to work for those who haven't experienced some of the events that we have. For me it was difficult any way.... My very best successes came after I went entrepreneurial, and I did it with video games.

I own a business that specifically provides a video game store set up service.

[Edited]

In any event Good luck!

Michael Elliott, Owner of GameStart Stores.

[ryand83]

Ok first of all, the only way to have a competitive hobby gaming shop is to use Wizards of the Coast and other gaming companies of the sort as a distributor (they don't cater to just on-line shops) you get 65% off on WotC's products as brick & mortar. I would check out what other hobby gaming shops are doing to find a niche in what they don't do and market that. If they don't have a specific format in say Magic: The Gathering cater to that specific format along with FNM operate at various times (I believe WotC doesn't say when FNM has to start) so if a shop starts it at 5 or 6 PM start your's at around 10. If you don't have competition then don't worry about what time you start at.

I just started school not long ago for business administration so I can ultimately do the same. I also wanted to get into a field that I could find various outlets and such, not just operate a small business just incase my idea doesn't come to be.

Anyways, another thing to look at from my stand point is location, I'm very heavy into hobby gaming as a whole and the main thing I see from a mass amount of shops is this issue. Shop owners seem to think imo that "out of the way" "word of mouth" is the way to go for hobby gaming, they're dead wrong, you might pay $5k a month on rent but if you have a solid location and obviously niched in a wide array of games you shouldn't have an issue generating a mass income. Do $5 video game tournies for store credit or $5 casual tournaments and you'd be surprised at how many people will flock to your store. Also discounts really help hype your store up when you spend $1.75 on a pack of magic cards and resell 3 for $10 not only will people buy them you'll be out of boosters before you know it.

Another thing is marketing, you rarely see gaming shops marketing in newspapers so that may be another route to go I believe that can get pricey but you'd be surprised at how many retired folks read the newspaper and would be interested in playing games as a hobby. Facebook is a definite.

Find a nice niche that other shops don't have and what the surrounding area wants. The shop I want to open would be right across the University of Southern Mississippi. So no doubt I will have a small café area with homemade potato chips, smoothies, coffee, soft drinks, and if I can get help from friends I may delve into homemade pizza as well all with superhero/fantasy/sci-fi themes.

Various contests work too. Once a month I would throw a contest where customers can submit ideas for the store and gain store credit if their idea is picked, this idea would not only help you as the owner make it better but show the customers that you care. Costume, drawing, painting, and karaoke contests would work too.

Make sure that you don't spend yourself to death, there was a card shop here in Mobile that recently shut down and they sunk about $60k into the shop because they spent too much on décor. While décor is nice and all it won't save a shop if you don't have enough starting inventory to make profit right away. Expect to be spending around $30k on start up inventory.

I'm not exactly sure what your money is like, but I would not go with a bank...while Investors are risky they can be rather useful, Angel Investors do not interfere with the management of the store so I'm tempted on going that route. I think $100k overall would be a solid start but as you earn profit you'll want to upgrade. Bargain shopping would be solid too for tables and such.

I'm working on my business plan for a project in my intro to business class, and if it looks solid to my teacher and classmates I may use it when I can make that leap.