RF Generation Message Board

I've been tossing around the idea of opening up a game store in town here for quite a while now, but more recently I've gotten to the point that its a serious consideration and not just a "maybe eventually". I'm gonna use this thread mainly as a place to just get some ideas out of my head and explore them, but any criticism/insight/horror stories/encouragement/life lessons/etc. that you guys wish to contribute are always appreciated.

For starters this is basically a list of things I feel I need to explore more to open a store in general followed by possible services and things that would be related more specifically to a game store.

Store Planning:

Bookkeeping/Operating Costs:
- Banking/Loan/Line of Credit
- Taxes
- Payroll/Employees
- Advertising
- Write Offs
- Donations
- Initial Stock
- Rent
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Security
- Shelving
- Tills
- Signage
- Uniforms
- Hours of Operation
- Price Stickers
- General Cleaning Supplies
- Gaming Specific Cleaning Supplies

Locations:
- Floor Space/Layout
- Location of Town

Vendors:
-Ordering
-Returns
-Promotions

Local Partnerships:
- Advertising
- Hosting Events

Security:
- Insurance
- Security System/Security Tags
- Camera
- Safe




Possible Services:

- New Games
- Used Games
- Food/Drink
- Rentals
- Repairs
- Cleaning
- Pay to Play
- Test before you buy (old and new)
- Return Policy
- Cash/Credit/Trade for used games
- Tournaments/Contests/Leagues
- Release Events
- Homebrews
- Gaming Memorabilia
- DVDs
- Magic Cards
- Host Parties/Events

This is basically just me spouting off anything that jumps to mind. Some may be unnecessary/unrealistic, but I don't want to overlook anything. If you feel I overlooked something that should be added to my list please tell.

For a start, you should consider whether or not there is enough local demand for what you'd sell to maintain such a business. I'm not exactly sure how you'd figure this out, though one thing to consider is the size of the local population. Of course, this will factor into the "location" section of your Store Planning outline.

I noticed in the "possible services" section a "pay-to-play" entry. This reminded me of a setup that a local now-defunct video-rental store had way back when. The store's game rental section had Genesis and SNES machines hooked up to small color TVs. The TVs were powered by a coin acceptor slot that, for a quarter, would turn the TV on and let you play for ten minutes. When the TV suddenly powered off, it was time to drop another quarter in for another ten minutes of play time. For my money, it was waaay better than any arcade. Sadly, this kind of setup may be a bit too old-hat and space-wasting for your tastes. And you have to take advantage of every bit of space you have, none can be wasted. Still, it's one idea to mull over...

Try-before-you-buy is always a good idea. It's the big reason I dug GameCrazy over GameStop. Sadly, their attachment to Hollwood Video doomed them...

As for Magic cards: personally, I think you should keep to the vidya games. Though I suppose if there's not much competition in the local Magic retail scene, you could very well clean up.

Most important thing of all: being friendly and keeping a good attitude towards customers. When I was a teen, there was a nearby independent new-used specialty shop that I checked out one day. I found a few things of interest, but when I asked the clerk some questions, he made me feel like a moron for not knowing the answers to the questions I asked. Okay, so I was a bit of a newb-- that's no reason to treat me that way. The guy had a chance to cultivate a repeat-customer relationship, and totally blew it. Needless to say, I never went back again after that, and the shop closed down less than a year later.

Oh, and you should also consider online sales...

...which have a whole 'nother set of factors to consider:

- Venues

  - Auction sites:
    - eBay
    - GameGavel
    - etc.

  - Fixed-price:
    - Amazon Marketplace
    - Half dot com
    - etc.

- Commissions and fees

- Shipping & handling charges
  - S&H compensation
  - International shipping?

- Payment options
  - PayPal
  - Credit cards
  - Cash
  - money orders

- Local pickup options

- Auction descriptions
  - Condition of item
  - Rules and terms of sale
  - Estimated S&H charges



The list above is hardly complete, but it's a start.

i think this would be a really awesome thing to do. some suggestions:

 - check local bylaws. i was curious about this sort of thing once and looked up anything gaming related in my town, and found out that arcades are actually banned. no business is allowed more than i believe 1 or 2 arcade or vending machines on site. so that might be a consideration for any sort of pay to play setups in store.

 - what zag said about the population, you might want to research what the demographic percentage is in your town. are there many kids/teens, or is it a popular retirement town for seniors? how many schools are nearby that could give insight into how many young people are around, if accurate statistics aren't available.

 - i know you said you were just trying to list off all possibilities of things you'd need to deal with, but make sure to really keep it simple to start. i've heard that for the majority of businesses it can take a few years before the profit margin really starts to increase just because of all the startup costs and getting the word out about the business. the simpler you start, the less the startup costs. things like uniforms, other employees, hosting events, etc aren't essential at the start. start basic and keep improving it as you can afford to, that also has the added benefit in some ways of keeping the store fresh, if it keeps getting better people will have more reason to want to come check it out again.

 - advertising: really get your name out everywhere, before the store is even open. hype it like you would the next blockbuster video game ;). print, radio, or tv ads (i've heard they're not as expensive as you'd expect, but they can definitely be pricy). put up flyers, craigslist ads, get your name out on twitter, facebook, every social media option you can find. maybe even do some video tours of the shop to put up on youtube.

 - security: enforce a strict no backpack policy, but keep it reasonable. maybe even have somewhere for people to hang their bags somewhere so both you and the customer can keep an eye on them. i find it a safe policy for the store, but as a customer i feel a bit uncomfortable when a place asks me to give them my bag and they put it under the counter. as much as you're a great guy, not everyone will know that when they first come into your store and being able to watch your own stuff and know it's safe would probably be a good thing. that's just my opinion though, might be dependant on space and other factors.

 - layout: something basic would probably work fine but if you have the space maybe something like ikea does, with its suggested path to follow through the store to lead customers to each game section? you could even have a setup that sorts by system release date or something like that.

what zagnorch said about payment options for online is something to consider for local too. do you accept debit, credit, or cheques? or do you stick with cash only. most card services have a transaction fee that you have to consider.

anyway i think this could be really cool, and i hope it works out for you if you follow through with it!

I would get in touch with guys that have done this.

Joe at Digital Press has an awesome store with many added features like what you are considering. There is a tour of his store on their you tube channel.

I think the guy from video game rescue is on here. He has a store in a flea market working towards a full time store, I believe.

Good luck. Having a job doing something you love is really a blessing.

I feel like there is a demand, but since I'm not sure how to properly check it there is always the possibility that its just wishful thinking. I live in a city of 80,000 and we are kind of like the "capital" of the area. We are the biggest city for quite a while so a lot of the smaller communities around us flock to Prince George for shopping or events. There is literally nothing comparable in the area to what I have in mind. The closest thing would be EB Games and I hope to offer several services that they don't provide.

I don't have a specific idea in mind yet for the Pay to Play, but I was thinking more like $5 a head to sit on a couch and play any SNES/Playstation/Genesis/etc. game in the store for an hour type thing. I know people can emulate, but if the price is reasonable wouldn't it be cool to play Little Samson, Steel Battalion or Guardian Heroes with your buddies?

And for newer stuff I was thinking of maybe even offering a discount off the purchase after playing. Like you spend that $5 to try out Call of Duty xxxxx for an hour and if you don't like it you're out that $5. If you do like it I could take the $5 fee off of your purchase price at the till.

Magic Cards would just be an easy sell and a small extra source of income. They are very easy to move and don't take up much shelf space. I'm familiar enough with the game that I would be comfortable selling them to help supplement the store's income.

And I completely agree that customer service is gonna be key. I've had many years working in customer service and even been offered jobs in the past from customers who own businesses who were impressed with my service while shopping at the places I've worked. Its been a few years, but I don't think it'll be an issue getting back into it. Plus chatting with Duke and Bil for the last year has given me a great deal of patience towards people with incorrect gaming related opinions ;)

And to add to that, as much as I would enjoy dealing with gamers I want to bring in as many moms/grandmas/young kids as possible into the store. I actually really like helping people explore new games when I have the chance and especially with kids. I'd love for it be kind of a family hangout rather than a gamer dungeon.

The online aspect is something I'd like to stay away from if at all possible. I know its an easy way to supplement the store's income, but I really want to strive to push for an entirely local experience. Its important to me.



Didn't think to check by-laws yet. Very good idea!!

There is actually a decent amount of youth up here. Long, cold winters equal lots of baby making ;) I was thinking that the best location at least to start up would probably be within walking distance of a highschool so I could hopefully get some traffic during lunch hours or flex blocks.

You are absolutely right about not trying to over-reach right off the bat. I've heard that on average small businesses start to profit around the 4th-5th year. Not sure how accurate that is, but I don't expect to be rolling in cash right off the get go (or ever :P ). Some of the things I listed will be goals to work towards and others may just be pipe dreams. I do need to narrow it down to what I would want to open with though.

Advertising is gonna be one of my weaker points, but fortunately my wife seems willing to help out in that department. I do have a few friends around town that own business that I'm sure would help me promote though at the very least.

There is a large theft problem up here to begin with so security is something I'll have to take quite seriously. I've got a couple friends that work for a security firm in town so I'll be picking their brains to try and find the right balance of safety and consumer appeal.

I've got some layout ideas already, but ultimately it'll likely depend on that locations available within my price range. So until I start looking at property I'll leave that one on the back burner for now.

I would love to deal through debit and credit card if possible. I'm not sure what the cost is yet, but I know several small businesses in town recently went cash only so it might be higher than I'm anticipating.



Thanks for the help so far guys. Its great to hear your ideas and insights!!

There are a couple people locally that have recently opened stores that I'm gonna chat with and try and get specifics for my city. I know of several guys online that run local stores I'm going to get in contact with and hopefully pick their brains as well.

That's a very ambitious dream, Crabby, but it's doable if you prepare adequately.

Starting off small is probably best. Maybe you can look into a flea market vendor booth or making yourself known by going to every video game event in or near your city. This will keep your fixed costs such as overhead down. Staff is not a major need at the beginning.

Talk to your bank about starting a small business. They'll know the ups and downs of opening and running a store. The only downside to that is that they may not want to give you a loan for start-up because they might not see the potential revenue your business will generate. Going the partner route could work, but that has it's downsides too.

Do some homework. Are there many video game retailers in town? How can you stand out from the crowd? What can you do better than the other guys? Are you ready to invest the time and money into this? It'll require a ton of both.

You have a bunch of good ideas in your list, but I'm going to question you on the "try before you buy" proposal on the basis that you're in this to sell games and make money. Having people come over to play the first ten minutes to Mega Man doesn't create cash flow. Basically, you have to be a capitalist through and through if you want to start a business. It might seem cool to have buddies coming over to chat about games, but you need to make sales to stay alive.

You said that stores tend to make make a profit until year 4 or 5. It's actually that a store can't be considered "successful" until it's survived to year 4 or 5.

I was thinking something good for you to start off with would be retro game sales and repairs. Heck, you could run a business like that out of your home if you used a website as your store front.

I hope none of that sounded pessimistic. Just giving my two cents.

Destiny Games (http://www.destiny-games.com/Store)

Just to give you an idea, this game store has outlasted pretty much every other local game store in the area, and that being an area completely over-saturated with Gamestops.  The reason:  they are great, friendly people who offer much more than what you get at Gamestop:  older games, Magic cards, tabletop, and even a Steel Battalion setup (not sure if it is still there).  Plus the owner is always there and ready to talk games without sounding like a douchebag.

It's a lot of work, has a ton of risks, and will take up all of your money (cash and credit) and time, but owning your own business is a wonderful thing. 

lol, there is no such thing as a Flea Market or Video Game Event up here. And you're probably right that staff won't really be an issue early on as I can use my wife/brother/friends if I need some extra help I'm sure.

I've got plenty of time, and a bit of cash at my disposal. I'm quite prepared to use both :)

I'm thinking of the try before you buy thing a bit differently than you. I'm thinking more like the person can pay a few bucks to play Mega Man and then if they decide to purchase it I'll take that price off their copy at the til. Otherwise they basically just pay for the time they spend playing. Either way its money in my pocket. Of course if someone wants to just buy something I'd like to be able to show them its in good working order before they leave the store with it.

Great feedback though Fleach, keep it coming!

Too bad you don't have flea markets in Prince George. Vendor booths aren't super expensive (around $300 for a whole weekend) in Ontario. You're guaranteed foot traffic in a flea market. Being located near a school could be good because you'll get foot traffic, but high school kids don't really spend money unless is mom or dad's money. It's kind of a bummer you can't open close to a university or college... Those kids have loads of free time (I would know as I wasted mine).

Reaching out to family and friends is great because you don't really have to pay them. Just give them a little perk and they'll be happy. But make 100% sure they're knowledgeable and have good math skills. Speaking of math, being cash only is best because those credit/debit machines are pricey and you'll be charged a percentage of every sale (Moneris or TD want to make a buck too). You know the saying, "cash is king." Store your money in a cash box that's under lock and key. Consider a safe and registers when your business starts growing.

Thanks for clarifying the try before you buy idea. I get it now. Just as a heads up you'll want an available copy of the game that's being tried. This is more important for new games. Make sure you have a copy of Call of Duty that's only for try before you buy because once a game's seal is broken it's not really "new." This game will be part of your purchase order but not sales inventory, though you can put it up for sale if you need to. So it'll be part of the outgoing money, but indirectly part of incoming money. I hope this makes sense. And of course, showing that the game works is smart. Glad you thought of that.

Here's a cool spin-off idea: Video game and Magic tournaments. $5 or $10 or whatever gets the person in the tourney. You keep like 50% or so and the rest goes to the winner. This idea works wonderfully if you can pull it off financially.

I second techwizard's "no backpack" idea. I work in retail and I really get suspicious of people in big coats or with backpacks. You never know what they can stuff in there. Moreover, develop a kind of Spidey sense. Know who to keep an eye one and watch them like a hawk covertly. If you see them steal confront them calmly, confidently and assertively. "I saw you take that! Put it back!" works wonders. Say you'll call the police if you feel it's necessary (but only actually do it if the situation is getting out of hand). Cameras are good, but you can invest in that as you see more money coming in.

Turnover is key. Make sure your stock is making turns, not sitting there.

Get ready to be a brand. Advertise, promote, hype it up, the whole nine yards.

If you've got any questions or ideas shoot me an email or PM. I'll gladly help out.

Targeting young gamers and their guardians, with the purpose of educating them about gaming on top of gaining and retaining their business? I think you may have stumbled upon your theoretical business' mission statement.


You don't have to adopt it or embrace it, but don't discount online sales out of hand. Heck, There may come a day where your ambitions go beyond the local scene, and you'll want to expand your business accordingly. And online sales could be one of those methods to expand your business. But for now, why not keep it on the back burner.

Now that I think about it, why not add "strive... for an entirely local experience" to your overall mission statement.

Sounds Like a great plan I hope it goes well.

NEW GAMES

Unless there would be no competition for new game sales i would suggest against it. Big chain stores can afford to take a loss on sales you can't.

The risk on new sales is too high, you would have to be locked into large "minimum" distributions often times  and when prices start dropping a couple months after release you can't still have them at 60$s on your shelves.

Upfront investment is going to be high and initial stock you are going to want to try and get from everywhere. Flea markets, tag sales, ebay lots(have a separate buying and selling account), kijiji/craigslist, bestbuy one day sales(GTA was on sale for 8$s and dozens of copies have still been selling on ebay for 20+$)/amazon gold boxes(same as BB sometimes the price cuts are massive and then the game doesn't see a discount for months to years.), etc

The most important thing though is location. I have seen tons of great game stores in my area dry up because they were too far out of the way or had terrible parking. While some of the ones with ever dwindling selection/pricing have been around for literally decades.

Rentals - are a bad idea. You have no way of enforcing a rental policy.

Play before you buy - also not a good idea IMO. Giving people the chance to come in and play anything for free before they buy it might actually discourage sales.

Pay to play - I think going rate on that down here is 8-12 an hour. Been a long time since i have been in a store that caters to that crowd. This would give people X amount of time to play whatever they want. This could be their play before they buy and since the games/systems/tv are all sitting in your store anyways it is free cash in my eyes.

Returns - Since all your disc based games will be leaving scratch free returns should only be for a non functioning product. 7 day return policy gets used as a rental period quite often. Should you decide to do a no questions asked returns policy only give store credit to ensure you are still getting to keep that money.  Profit walking back out the door a week later doesn't mean you break even it means you go negative.

Tourneys/Contests/Leagues:
Once you get things situated and feel comfortable with it you could have themed nights to try and draw different crowds in. DDR, Karaoke, FPS, insert sports here, competitive co-op, various fighters nights (use the stereotypical ones but mix in some unique stuff too.), etc

Host Parties/Events
There is a company in my area that apparently makes a killing with their gaming truck that gets rented for parties. If you can find/afford a large enough building you could have an area dedicated to this/tourneys and pay to play. Obviously they would not all happen at the same time.

Trade ins:
-Be honest with people without being rude. It is always good to have more stock coming in but you really don't need to have scores of copies of X game coming in when you know you already have 20 that won't sell for a buck a piece.
-Test everything. With disc based stuff make sure it will at least launch into the first level. I have owned quite a few games that would go to title screen and then die when i tried to get off the main menu.
-Have a disc buffer on site. If something looks like it might need a buff don't do it until someone is going to buy the game. Then you know exactly the condition it is leaving in and you are not wasting materials on something that might not sell for days months or years. Might take a couple extra minutes on the transaction but i am willing to be people will appreciate knowing that you take care to know you are leaving with the best copy they can get.
-Places that offer cash here always offer less than store credit. Also depending on your area you may need a pawn license.

Cleaning/Repairs - potentially good idea. But you have to have someone skilled enough to never make mistakes and you would need to have a bunch more parts on hand at all times. For cleaning you could bill it as preventative maintenance. You would still need someone skilled enough to get it all apart and put it back together right. Something that has gotten harder and harder with new systems. You would also need to have your own warranty stickers to ensure someone didn't open it back up and mess things up and try to blame your store.

Food/Drink - junk food and soda. Or trail mix, gatoraid and bottled water if you are more health conscious :-P These you would be buying in bulk from a grocery store and would probably be able to double your money if not more (on the drinks).

Magic Cards
If the card/board markets are large in your area those would definitely be worth considering also. I don't know how much has changed but i remember when i was playing MtG buying old cycle boosters were the same price or more than current cycle. Card games IMO are safer than the Warhammers and i paint my own figures games. You only need to stock one thing. Cards. They take up a ton less space than scores of figures and paints that even in the busy stores seem to collect dust.

DVDs/other media
A store in my area started doing this. They still have piles of VHS tapes covered in an inch of dust with DVDs covered in a half inch of dust and blurays/hd movies in a 1/4 inch of dust. If you do go this route tailor your selection specifically to what people coming into your store are going to want. super heros, cartoons, gaming related movies, anime.

Gaming Memorabillia
Sometimes you can score great lots of this online too. Even if you cannot establish a sales relation with a company because of sale limitations you could still probably get promotional swag. You still have customers coming into your store that are going to want to buy the new hottest games. Let pubs/devs know that and they might be willing to send promo items your way to display and potentially sell. Doesn't hurt to ask. And if they say no it doesn't hurt to keep touching base until someone says yes.

Crabmaster is wanting to live out the American dream!   ;)

My wife and I have owned and ran a retail place before. Like several others here I have some thoughts and opinions too. Lots of good things to think about are already in this thread so I'll highlight a few I may have brought up on my own.





When I think about what it takes to run a successful used game business, and I've wondered many times, selling online seems like near necessity to me. Every time I go into a used book store, which I think of as being a very similar business, there is someone working on a computer doing the online side of the store. You say you want to strive for, "an entirely local experience" but I really think using sites like whatever the Canadian version of eBay is (eBeh?) is a great tool. And I wouldn't think for one minute it hurts your local centric business. Fleach says,
This is hugely important and you are not helping anyone local by having stock sit around. Maybe you could wait a week or two or four, then put items online, but I would definitely (and defiantly) do that.



Don't think because it is something you are concerned with nearly all the time, anyone else is. You might be surprised how often we drive by a place and I'm like, "Hey! They put in a such-and-such store here." and my wife is like, "That place has been there for 7 years now." Make sure you are using as many tools as you can to get your name out to people. I could go on about this more and my wife even longer as she manages social media for many businesses.





The times I go into game stores and they have a place to do this, I think, "Thats a great idea!" You might not have the space or resources at first to do this but keep it in mind. It's almost always smelly 10-14 year old guys playing hit games (not Little Samson) but if you end up with extra space why not try and get some income from it?



At least around here, I can't imagine a place not taking cards. I don't spend much at the places which don't. It is true, fees can be quite high but it varies so much. You might be surprised how much it varies. Look around, one company that runs a card service might literally be 10 times cheaper than others.  It might take some looking as there are quite a few companies running a card service and they might not advertise towards you.



You said there isn't anything like a flea market up there but starting small is a very valid way of succeeding. Making money early on is for sure the way to do it. Don't lease too big of a place and hope that in a few years business will have built up to the point were rent payments are no longer a constant worry. Go into business with the intent to make money. It doesn't help anyone if you aren't successful. You need to show you are making more than "enough" money to afford a good location, hire and retain good employees, keep good stock on hand, keep the place looking nice, get any sort of consideration when looking for financing and many more things. Go in wanting to be a spectacular success. You want to be at the point were you could step away from the company, pay someone enough to manage it for you and still make a profit.

I also think to be a success in this business you need to aim for expanding to multiple locations. Maybe you can't do that at first but I really think it should be a short to medium term goal.





Izret has some good things to say, I'm getting wore out on typing  :P   but yea! to Location Location Location and disc buffers in particular.


Like they say, "The best way to make a small fortune in the restaurant business is to start with a large one." The biggest and best trick to making money on investments is to not loose the money you already have. Easier said than done.



Me too  :D

A store around here bags up all the loose games and zip ties them to brackets on the walls.  It works pretty well and it keeps theft down more than you'd think. 

Also, if you're looking for a consignment deal with an art vendor I know a guy ;)

Got a name in mind for the store?

"Gaming with Crabs!"

Hmm, nothing quite like gaming when you got the itch huh? :P

Start small and expand once you have a core group of customers and see where there are overlapping opinions on what you could financially support adding to your store.

The local store in my area has become the one stop geek shop when it was started with purely video games and some basic sports memorabilia. All of the owner's expansions were planned out and based on what his audience wanted (and what stores went out of business or had bad service).

Since this initial opening he has gone on to successfully add in Magic cards, Warhammer, comic books and graphic novels, and some other small group based tabletop games, etc.

Another part of the store's success has been just having a basic discount. This city has a major D1 university and Fort Riley's Big Red One and company less than half an hour away, so it made perfect sense for the owner to have an always in effect student and military discount. So if you have some demographic like that, which is easy to reach out to and probably interested in games of various sorts (the soldier are big into Warhammer here), then offer some sort of incentive like that.

You're getting fantastic tips Crabby!

I thought some more about your idea and came up with these ideas:

Food/Drinks: might not be a good idea because of perishability. You'd hate to order or buy a few slabs of Red Bull only see low sales and the rest of the stock spoil or exceed the best before date. I don't see many people coming in to look at games and get hungry or thirsty. You want to be a video game store. Stick to it. Plus video games don't expire (although some people would disagree ;))

Debit/Credit: the fees are going to bit you in the bum. Have a read of this article on credit fees to merchants in Montreal (http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Rising+card+fees+have+small+businesses+crying+foul/7873599/story.html). Up to 3%. Ouch! The best solution is to have an ATM on site or close by.

Lots of more great feedback guys!! Thanks so much!!

Izret I'm wondering why you would cross off rentals like that? I assumed it would be fairly easy to implement. For example when I used to manage a Roger's Video they would charge X amount of dollars for the system and require a deposit on top of that price to be refunded upon the item returning. So say a kid wanted to rent a 360 for the weekend we would have charged him like $30 plus a $200 deposit (when the system was still new). That way there is no risk on the stores end. If they keep the system/damage the system/keep it extra days beyond the agreed upon rental period I can take it out of the deposit. Seems like a very low risk way to deal with rental to me, or am I overlooking something?

Also regarding the New game releases, my area is pretty sparse even with those. I could always start with easy sellers and expand from there if it works well. I'd also be interested to see if there is a market for niche titles up here since NO ONE stocks them locally. I find games like Persona, Ico, Beyond Good & Evil, Ni no Kuni, etc. at the pawn shops in town on occasion, but none of the retailers here tend to stock those games so they are likely purchased online and shipped here.

I'm gonna make it my goal to sit down over this next week and try and come up with the essential services I'd like to provide for an initial opening. I'm gonna try and cut it down to the right level of manageable and not over ambitious with a sprinkle of awesome (hopefully).

To everyone that has commented so far.... Thanks so much!!!

PS - Ebeh, lmao

I like your thinking on the new release games. But beware minimum order quantities and other demands set up by distributors. If you're the only guy in town with the in-demand new releases you could be on to something. I anticipate you making more money per sale from retro games. Have a read of this and put into the current gen context: http://kotaku.com/5937166/why-1990s-snes-games-were-so-damn-expensive

As for inventory... try buying games from pawn shops with the intent to resell. Set aside your doubles and unwanted game to be resold. Start establishing a varied inventory with something for everyone. Price fairly but keep profit in mind.

Location: I've said this before... you want and need foot traffic. Pick the right spot. You don't need a big shop because what you intend to sell doesn't take up a lot of space. Plus, if your space is smaller it'll look busier and that'll give people a positive impression.

Try doing some market research by perhaps putting an ad in the community paper with a survey asking how many household members play videos, which systems, hours spent gaming each week, etc. That'll help you so much if you know your area's demographics. As they say, know your audience, or in this case - market.

As far as pay to play I'd suggest being careful with how much you invest in your setup. A place down here opened up as a pay to play/coffee shop with  like 25,000 dollars worth of gaming rigs, four giant flatscreens, fancy gaming chairs, and every system and game you could imagine; they all sat empty the entire time the place was open. The place did fairly steady business on the coffee shop end, because the local nerd crowd liked the idea of a place centered around them to hang out, but they didn't touch the P2P stuff and the place ended up closing after about six months.

Main thing is just don't drop a ton on your initial setup unless you know you'll get the business.

I love the rental idea.  Not everyone can justify dropping $200+ on something like a TurboGrafx just to own it, but I could totally see people feeling comfortable enough to rent the thing for a few days if it meant getting the deposit back.  The only thing you're overlooking would be certain systems being in short supply if someone were to break something like a Turbografx or NeoGeo or what have you.

I was thinking too you could set up kinda like a video game museum, something for people to talk about and bring em into the store.

I can't see many people being interested in putting down a deposit for the full cost of ITEM X to borrow it.
If that is the route you were to take that would certainly negate most/all of the risk involved.(This is obviously not something i had though of lol)

You clearly already have experience with it and have seen it work.

My rental experience is:
here is a 60$ game give us 5$s bring it back in a few days. If you don't you get banned and we charge your account. If you do and it is damaged we might do nothing we might make you replace it.

As for the other suggestions...
They must have all been more widely accepted. No news is good news right lol

I was more thinking rentals for newer systems. I can't see to many people wanting to rent an NES for the weekend, but parents who don't want to dish out $300+ for a Wii U/Xbox 720/PS4 are definitely willing to shell out $40-$50 for their kid to play one on their birthday weekend or pro-D weekend even with the deposit. I would have no problem doing that with older systems too, but I doubt it would be  used much.

I have nothing to add other then I have often thought about how it might be cool to open a game store. But then I think I love games and dont want relying on them for income to make me hate games.

After talking with a few local business owner and other guys online I'd love to start something small in the very near future. Unfortunately there is nothing comparable to a flea market in my area, which would be ideal. What do you guys think about starting basically a "local" store on Facebook?

I could come up with a store name and post available items with updates when new stuff comes in. Could advertise myself on kijiji, craigslist and the local facebook Buy/Sell/Trade. Think something like that could work to start building myself a brand and start moving/buying some items?

That could be a great way to start.  Not to mention the amount you'd save by not having to rent a store, pay employees, taxes, etc.

agreed that would probably be a good way to start, though you might want to double check facebook's policies on that just to be sure they're not going to shut you down without warning for breaking some rule about businesses. very cost effective way to get going, and at the same time once you're ready to get a physical location up you'll already have a customer base who know you and could tell their friends.

Great idea! That's exactly what my favourite flea market vendor does. He posts updates with new inventory, pictures of stuff that recently was sold/traded in. It's working really well for him. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/GameHoard?fref=ts

Online is the way to go. No overhead and the world as a customer base.

Where would they come to get the games? Or would it be mail order?

I'd still try to keep it local and basically do craigslist meet ups to exchange cash/games.

What do you guys think for a name on the Facebook page? Something painfully obvious like Prince George Retro Gaming? I'd like something that people will know what its about right away and would be easy to find in the search?

that would work but something less specific might be better. your plans are local right now but you never know what will happen in the future, if you're successful you might someday want to expand outside of Prince George. not sure on a name now though i'll let you know if i think of one

If I can expand this into a physical store down the road (which may deal online as well) I'd likely change the name to something much less specific that still gets the business across. I just want to make sure that I can get going as smoothly as possible right off that bat.

Video Games with Crabs

Your slogan can be "Got a video game itch? Let the Crabmaster scratch it for you."

I'd go for something generic that got the point across, with the first word being Game for search purposes. Something like Game Trader, Game Replay, Gaming Again, etc. Whatever wasn't already trademarked.

Press Start Games

K-Man's Retro Game Shack. Reset Games. Pixel Paradise.

Mr. Pinch's Game Shack. Have the logo be a play on the crab shacks we have in the States.

[img width=700 height=537]http://bargainbriana.com/wp-content/uploads/Joes.jpg[/img]

Frigid(or Frozen) North Gaming?

Fantasy Realms - works great too since you want to branch out. There was an awesome shop locally when i was a kid with this name. They were one of the "bad location" ones though so they died out before the PSX/N64

Video Game Castle - another shop "locally" that has fizzled (IMO) over the years. But since they have a decent location have managed to stay open in spite of dwindling stock (some of which you probably have owned crabby :-P )

Gamers Anonymous

Hell even just "Gamers" short and gets the point across. Remember ad space isn't cheap.

Drunk Izret Named My Game Store - self explanitory. Though the business cards might need a bit of explaining.


Side note. This thought amused me
P.G. Gaming - Rated M for Mature.

This.

For store names I was thinking "Let's Play Classic Games"

Crab Master is a great guy if anyone can do it, it's you.

So after a couple brainstorming sessions I've got a list of potential store names. I'd love to hear rfgen's thoughts on them or even other suggestions if you've got some ideas. I'm leaning towards two in particular at the moment, but I don't want to influence your answers so I'll keep it quiet for now. Ideally I want to have 5 that I'm happy with for when I register the business name just in case I can't use some of them. Here is what I'm working with at the moment:


Game Pursuit
Revolver Games/Game Revolver
Game Peddler
Game Quest
Game Hunt(er)
Game Seeker
Star Power Games
Game Crusade
Game Patrol
Game-Knack
Game Guardian
Game-ivore
Game Source

My off-the-cuff votes:

Game Quest
Game Crusade
Game Source

Game-knack!

How about Papa Crab's Game Shack?

That's already the name of my side business where I sell my Sleeping Tonic and Gamer Juice ;)

Exactly, its all about the brand recognition.

i really like Star Power Games and Game Quest.

Star Power Games rolls off the tongue nicely and is memorable, and something that people could easily abbreviate; "hey want to go see if Star Power has anything new?"

Game Quest is a nice sounding name too but it also has potential for cool gimmicks. you could do one of those cards some businesses offer where for each purchase over X amount of dollars you get an X on a card, and when the card is full you get some sort of promo reward or discount. it could fit easily into the style of the store name though, call it the "Quest Log" and style it like an RPG quest log checklist. i'm sure there are other marketing gimmicks you could do with this name.

Pink Gorilla?

Keep the store name input coming in guys!!!

I'm also putting together a survey for my potential customers. Stuff like: What area of town is most convinient to shop in, what store hours work best, most interested in which systems, etc.

Any questions you think would be important to ask?

My top three votes are:

Star Power Games
Game Hunter
Game Crusade

Your survey sounds pretty thorough. I like it.

Hmmm... Gamer Juice... that might work.

On second thought, that'd give people the wrong idea about your business.

Or the right one, depending on your intentions.

Howzabout something esoteric and upscale-sounding, like Crabs' Pixel Emporium?

I'm glad a couple of you guys mentioned Game Quest. That's one of my favorites along with Game Crusade and Game-ivore.

No one mentioned Game-ivore in particular so I want to hear some thoughts on that name. I thought it would be very easy to advertise with some kind of game character chowing down on a stack of games and it shouldn't be too hard to come up with some kind of slogan about "consuming" video games.

Since I'm supposed to submit 3-5 names when I apply to register my business name I'm leaning towards these ones:

Game Quest
Game Crusade
Game Guardian
Star Power Games
Game-ivore

Gonna have to apply pretty soon since I can't move forward with several other things until I have that done and out of the way.

Here is my survey. Any feedback on it would be greatly appreciated. I'm gonna post it on the local facebook Video Game Buy/Sell/Trade and also kijiji and craigslist. Did I miss anything important?

Game Store Survey:

Age:
What area of Prince George do you live in? (College Heights, Hart, Surrounding Area. Etc)
What systems are you most interested in purchasing games/consoles/accesories for? (NES, Playstation, Atari 2600, Game Boy, etc.) Please list 3 at most
What hours would work best for you to visit the store? (Mon-Fri 9-5/Friday-Sunday 12-8 or whatever works for you)
What would your preferred method for keeping up to date with store news be? (new stock, contests, sales, news, etc)? Facebook, twitter, dedicated website, etc. List your 2 favorite methods.

Additional Comments:

Personally, if you are hosting anything other than sales in the store, later hours would be preferred for holding events, e.g. MtG or whatever else. It separates the types of people (so you don't get the normals mixed in with the hardcore) and also is a good source of revenue for drinks and snacks. :P

One of the local stores used to do Saturday midnight pen & paper RPG nights. Toss in $20 for the night, line up food and drinks for the night, and run till done.

It'll likely be just video games only at first. Ideally I'd like to run maybe 10-6 Sunday-Thursday and have longer hours on Saturday and Friday.

Pay close attention to zoning laws. The local store here has midnight release events for hardcores but they offer free snacks and drinks. They can't sell food or drink since they're in a strip that has a good Thai restaurant, a grocery store, and a fast poop taco joint.

Interesting. Gonna try and get in touch with a Realator by the end of the week and can hopefully ask them some of those kinds of questions.

very cool that you seem really dedicated to this and have a good grasp of the steps you'll need to take to get started! so many people get these sort of plans worked up in their heads and then get lazy or give up when they start to see the work it takes.

Since I don't think I've posted this yet, let me just say good luck! Hope you do well. It'll be a game store for gamers owned by a gamer, and that is always a good thing. :D

Thanks for the support guys!! Just did a preliminary name search for Game Quest, Game Guardian and Game Crusade. Should any of those be available I'll be registering the name shortly after. Says I should have results back within about 1-4 hours.

Cool! It's great that this is actually happening! (I never doubted you)

That'll just make it all the sweeter when I succeed, right?

Just found out that one of my co-workers is in the same stages I am of opening his own game store in town. He is shooting for a Table Top style game store. Pretty cool, and now I've got someone to talk to that's in pretty much the same boat as me :)

So Game Quest (My first choice) is already taken by a company in Toronto :( There other two were available though

Which do you guys prefer: Game Crusade or Game Guardian? I'm leaning towards Guardian myself.

Not a fan of Crusade. It'd be hard to market and hard to remember. Guardian also goes with the retro theme. It also would make a wicked logo for the company.  ;)
Talk with den about possibly getting some artwork for the logo. He's done a decent job for us in the past.

Yeah I thought Guardian would be easier to market and remember too (who doesn't love alliteration?)
Den does do awesome work. I've got an old friend that does graphic design and has helped me out with stuff in the past though. I'll be talking with him first.

Game Guardian

guardian, it's alliteration and can be abbreviated to GG which is great for the multiplayer gamers.

This usually has to do with previous tenant agreements.  The board game store I go to sells snacks, candy, drinks, etc, but they cannot sell pizza because when the pizza place next door signed their lease, they worked in a "exclusive rights to sell pizza" clause. 

It's likely that you will be able to sell some food or snacks but there may be restrictions based on who is already there.

I'll sell whatever the hell I want!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZLVi4v7lSM

Name registration finally went through (there was a long delay apparently because a few that approved them left their positions and there was a flood of new applicants after our recent provincial election). And I got approved to use the name Game Quest!!!!!!! Really psyched about that as it was my first choice. Also got in touch with a realtor about checking out some store fronts locally and have been checking out a few with my wife and just peeking in the windows. There are a few possibilities in our downtown area depending on the price of rent. 

congrats, sounds like everything is rolling along smoothly now!

Congrats! A long term dream of mine is to run a 'swap shop' or pawn shop.  This has been a great thread to read through.

Started a Facebook page so I can update people as I progress towards my goal. Check it out if you have time and let me know what I need to do to spice it up. I'm pretty far behind when it comes to facebook so I'm sure it could use some work.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Game-Quest/480354178712555

looks pretty good, the only thing you're missing is the Cover Photo. pretty easy to put one up, but be warned that cover photos always crop pictures to only show a horizontal section of it, so try designing it around that. the exact resolution that seems to work for me is about 847 pixels wide by 315 pixels high, if you come up with something at that size there won't be any cropping.

i "liked" it :)

edit: that looks better  :D

Could have sworn I had one already. Just added it anyway. The pics are just place holders for now. My wife has been drawing up a ton of logo ideas and a couple of them have turned out really well. Once she has several that I like I'll probably post them all and see what people like and then get it printed out professionally.

cool, that works. eventually when you have a location and are near opening day you could make a panorama shot of the store into a cover photo, that would probably be a good one.

I cant wait to have a store front to photograph :)

If only you lived around here, I could easily point out 10-15 spots with decent rent and great locations. Sadly, where I live, there aren't really any video game shops. It's a @#$%$@# gold mine out here. Nearest GameStop is 10 miles away, and nearest retro store is close to 35 miles away.

i actually meant a panorama of the inside to show off all the games, but a store front shot would be good too.

I think the nearest game store up here is about about 650 km away (around 400 miles). I only know the rent in one particular spot in town right now and its manageable, but I hope I can find somewhere cheaper at a decent location for when I start.

@Techwizard - Thats a great idea too!

I put up my survey last night and actually got a decent amount of responses so far along with one VERY interesting response. A videographer from the local TV station responded and asked if when I get my store up and running if I'd be willing to do an interview with him regarding the history of video games to air on the station. That would be awesome publicity for a new business!!!

Wow that is wicked awesome!

that is very cool!

So now I've got the conundrum of very cheap rent/crappy location or high rent/decent location. I definitely can't afford the best locations in town.

I do have a friend that is working on his own store right now also and is hoping to be up and running just a month or two behind me. He is going to be doing mainly tabletop games/card games. We've been talking about finding a bigger space and having both of our businesses in in the same place. That would help cut down on the operating costs and bring both stores more foot traffic since there should be a decent amount of crossover appeal between what our stores offer.

In my experience, the high rent places don't tend to pan out early at all. It's best to build up a base clientele in a crappy location and then move up when you have a support network. Almost all of the local stores that tried to take on the higher rent locations failed.

I can't tell if its just me trying to rationalize the lower cost place to myself, but I don't live in a huge city. Even in a semi out-of-the-way kind of place its not a big drive around here. Do any of you guys frequent stores that have crappy locations? If so how did you find out about them and what do they do right that gets you to make the trip to their store?

That sounds like a great idea. When younger I always wondered why the D&D/Tabletop themed stores didn't have gaming stuff...It makes perfect sense, and anything you can do to lower overhead would be great. Just have to make sure the partner guy isn't a spaz.

I used to go to this place that was in a pretty crappy location, due to how you have to access it, and the difficulty of getting to it due to getting across the road because of traffic.  I went there many times before I moved, so I don't get to go there anymore.  What made it worth it was the place was owned and run by a guy and his wife.  They were both very nice, informative, and willing to make deals with trade-ins and me being a frequent visitor of the store.

The place was quiet (no loud music or videos being played).  the atmosphere was calm, and not intense.  I am not into bunch of distracting things when I am trying to shop and talk with store-owners/employees.  I also like they were never busy doing something ridiculous like playing video games or putting price stickers on stuff to help me. they also did not bug me and follow me around like I was going to steal something.

In a nutshell great customer service, and great atmosphere.

that is what kept me going back

I frequent stores in crappy places all the time. Typically, I find out about them by word-of-mouth from other people I talk to, or rarely flyers. Word-of-mouth has always been the #1 way to promote a place to me, since it means someone's willing to go out of their way to recommend it.

The only good location used store in town is Gamestop, and I don't frequent there. I go where the people treat me well, and where prices are good. As you know pawn shops in the rough part of town don't bother me a bit.

I think location becomes a big issue when you have more competition, or when it's a bigger area.

Ok, but would you visit said store more often with a better location. You might visit crappy location once a month versus good location twice or more?

If you're market is mom's buying games for their kids then a nicer location is a bigger issue. If it's mostly teenage boys, then location won't matter as much. Not sure what you're targeting there.

personally i don't care about where a store is too much, if i like it i'll find a way to go there. the only thing that can be an issue for me is because i only bus around town, anywhere far off the main bus routes can be a bit of a hassle. if you're going to be aiming for teens and early 20s, you might want to check how close you are to the major bus routes. most people drive, but there are a lot of people that use buses too. otherwise just make the store awesome and people probably won't care much that it's out of the way. if you build it they will come ;).

i second what fokakis said about keeping it quiet, loud music and/or loud TV(s) can be really annoying. in a store with hundreds or thousands of games to look through, it's nice to have a relaxing environment where you could browse for 30 minutes or more without getting a headache. again, depends on the market you're aiming for, but if you really want to attract everyone it's good to have a store that feels a bit more mature and less in your face like an EB games or something. of course you'll have TVs going for your plan to let people play before they buy, but you can do that without the volume being cranked up.

I love the idea of atmosphere. Can you guys elaborate as much as possible in what you look for with the atmosphere. Anything from sounds to how stock is displayed to employee demeanor.

There used to be a game store that I would frequent where I used to live that would play music from games. I always enjoyed that.

Also, if at all possible try to use see through wire display racks instead of the alternatives. In my opinion it makes the store feel more open and comfortable.

I second the idea of game soundtracks playing in the background. 

Not sure if it was mentioned, but organizing games alpha by title can be a good and bad thing. My local store use to have games mixed in with like titles beside each other, but no real organization other than that. Then, several months ago they organized their games alpha by title. While I thought this was a great idea at first, because it made things much easier to find, I soon discovered that I wasn't much of a fan of it. I had to think about why and here is what I came up with:

1. The collector in me wants to find that "treasure" and spend some time looking for it and spotting something I need or don't have.
2.  If the titles are alphabetized, I take a quick glace and move on instead of hunting through a stack I saw about a week or few days ago and looking through it.
3. Doing so makes me look for select titles and I may ignore other items that I might also be interested in and thus only look for things on my list.
4. I don't stay in the store as long. Maybe some people like it this way, but I really like to take my time and look. As a store owner, the more I browse, the more I am probably going to find and purchase.

Just a thought and curious to see what others think about this.

Also, you putting any arcade cabs, pinball machines, etc. in there?  Not saying you need a ton of them, but they can draw in business. They won't make a lot of money, but they will also keep customers in there longer, which is always good for business.

Sell snacks and drinks as well. Allows you to make a little extra cash and it's nice. Wrapped food is the key and I don't think you need a health license for that. Not sure how things in Canada work though.

Sorry if any of this has been covered already. New to this thread and really excited for you Crabby. :) 

I like friendly store employees that don't mind taking a moment to chat, and learn what I am interested in. I really like it when they can hold onto my wish list and call me if something comes in.

I don't pay a lot of attention to what music is going on in the background as long as it isn't too loud. I definitely don't want to talk over it.

If you're going to have items in a glass case make sure the price is visible. If a store is busy and I can't see a price, I won't necessarily wait around in a long line just to find out what the price is. It is very irritating to me. A solution my local game exchange has done for portable games is to put them into the display case grouped by price with it clearly labeled.

Group like items together. For some reason my local store has boxed games in several different locations and I'm never sure what is and isn't for sale.

Like banana I like to dig around through semi-unorganized stacks, but I'm not sure that's gonna be practical for most people. Besides if someone comes in and asks for something specifically I'd like to be able to take them right to it and not have to dig around and risk not being able to track it down quick enough for them.

And yes I plan to put both my current arcade machines in the store and would like to add more cabs/pin balls in the future should I be able to.

I've always had it in my mind that video games tunes would be playing in the store. Glad to hear at least a few of you guys echo that sentiment.

Judging from some the survey responses I've gotten so far I think there will be a few interesting people coming to check out the store right away. Hopefully I can make a good impression and get the word out as soon as possible. I've also got 4 people asking when I can hire them already :P

When you're a general needs store, I think location is far more important. Retro game stores are a niche market which means you'll probably be able to coax people to go a little bit out of their way to get to you. Locally, we have a few game stores downtown, and some in the suburbs. I've never seen the ones downtown be as busy as the ones in the suburbs. The reason being that the ones in the suburbs have better stock. People who are looking for vintage stock find a way out to the suburbs if they know it'll be worth the trip. Personally, I drive 30 minutes, every Sunday, to go to my favourite store when there are 2 lesser stores only 10 minutes away (parking is another factor in my decision making - if that applies). 

One recommendation I might make is to buy curtains. I've now gone to two new stores where they decided they wanted the space to be as bright as possible so they left the picture windows uncovered. This was fine at first but within a few weeks, a lot of their games were badly sun damaged. I tend to like my game stores a little bit darker than most (i.e., all stores pretty much have fluorescent lights, but I like the walls to be painted a dark colour. I want to be able to examine labels, etc. but I also don't want to feel like I'm in an office, cafeteria or big box store (there's a lifelessness to super-bright spaces).

I've admittedly skipped over some of the pages in here (forgive me if I'm repeating), but my foray into vintage gaming was fueled more by this fascinating history of video games I was almost completely unaware of than nostalgia. Yes, I'd owned an NES and played other systems, but my interest in the subject was born on Wikipedia, reading about the various generations.

I think making little plaques/posters/articles explaining some important moments/innovations in gaming history might add a real cache to the store: i.e., you have a section of your store with Atari 2600, Intellivision, etc. And you have a framed advertisement (even just a printed copy) of Plimpton telling you how much better the Intellivision is. You can have a little plaque/poster that says: "The second generation of video games (1976-83), Dominated by the Atari 2600...". Maybe somewhere else, you could have articles about the bit wars, etc...  It's the kind of stuff that maybe only 1 in 10 people will read, but it will add a certain of level of charm for them and raise it above all other "regular" stores.

I like the idea of staff recommendations with actual explanations why they're recommending certain games. Things like that will draw in collectors. i.e., someone might see that "John" recommends a game they've been considering. They buy it and love it. Next month, they see that "John" is now recommending game X which they were also looking at. They get the game and enjoy it too. Next month, John is recommending an obscure little puzzle game the customer has never heard of. They debate it, but realize that John hasn't steered them wrong yet, so they take the chance. Now, they're pretty much committed to following John's recommendations, etc... I think it also gives the customer the feeling that the store really respects its employees' opinions, so customers should too.

I also think it'd be ideal to have a community atmosphere at the store. Maybe have a monthly "Gamer's Club" game where if you purchase it, you get X amount of points. If you beat it and take a picture of yourself and the end screen, you get more points. Then you can make it so that after you collect a certain number of points, you qualify for certain prizes (i.e., all "Gamer's Club" members with 1000 or more get a "Gamer's Club" T-shirt. Members between 500 and 999 get a 5$ gift certificate etc.). You have those giveaways maybe twice a year. Membership to the club would also enter you in certain draws for smallish lots.

i second the staff picks idea, we do that at the library where i work for books and a lot of people like to browse those ones. a few times we've moved them around in some reorganizing and patrons have asked where they went because they liked them so much.

I like staff picks too (used to do it at the video store with movies). Doesnt really work when I'm the only staff though :/

Another suggestion: A dollar bin is quite nice for cheap games and those in not so great condition. My store has one and I sometimes find good stuff in there.

Totally. I love bin digging too!

Along with music, don't forget to play episodes of the podcast ;)

I'd recommend a program like buy 5 and get 1 free. My local Disc Replays do that and it often gets me to buy more to get a free game.

My local store also had a stamp card system when they first opened, spend $100 and get $5 off your next purchase. Ongoing promotions are always good. Crabby, if you need any advice about opening a game store, I can put you in contact with my local. Really nice guy and sure he'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Music is definitely nice for atmosphere.  Having game music playing would be fun, and then broadcasting a local radio station is a good idea.  Imagine hearing your own promo playing over the radio station as people wander through your store.

Like Duke mentioned, ALWAYS have prices easily seen for those items in the case.  I hate when I have to ask for assistance just to see the pricetag. 

I'm in total agreement with jansolee66 in regards to historical items.  Create a museum case for everyone to enjoy.  It should draw interest from those that may be new to gaming or are not familiar with older systems. 

If you are going to post staff picks or personal recommendations, take it serious.  The local PnT guys tried that but it ended up as a joke where staff picks included a Wii ballet game and titles they were just trying to get rid of.

Bargain bins good. 

Just another general comment on running a business, which probably doesn't help Crabmaster too much as it is US centric.

There is a publishing company called Nolo (http://www.nolo.com/) which makes books on all sorts of legal topics. Two we have found very useful are their "Every Landlord's Legal Guide" and one on starting and running a small business. I'm not going to go into detail but they are mostly easy to read yet very informative help on doing business from the legal point of view. An example of something in there would be pre-written documents on legal agreements between partners or sub-leasers. What if you have a partner who dies, who gets their share of the business? What if a family member gets the rights and wants to sell out? Can they sell to anyone? Do they have to sell to you? How do you value the other partners share?

Those books help point out all these little things to think about and what to do about it. I would give more reasoning to support that, but, you know, typing words and all that. It's like work   :P

Like I said though, the books are made with US laws in mind but if you can't find a Canadian version of this I think there is enough good info in there to be applicable to you.



Uh, they do make books called, "Becoming a U.S. Citizen" and "U.S. Immigration Made Easy"   ;D

I second the game music that can be actually cooler than listening to some cheesy music (i.e. Nickleback ).  keeping the sounds at a level where only if you are next to the machine it can be heard is a good idea. that way you are not mixing the store music with the game sound effects, which can make it seem like a noisy place. I think parents and adults will find it annoying enough where they may be turned away.

I agree with Bargain Bins, and rewards for buying more things. I think you should be careful of this as a new owner you may want to try and come up with an incentive program that will help you payback your start-up costs the best way. too many incentive programs can hurt a new business.

I agree with picking a location that is accessible for all. i.e. wheelchair, bus riders, car drivers, walkers, bikes.  I think making aisles that are not super close together will help those with disabilities get around your store. maybe look into having a store that is near a bus route.  of course I do understand the cost of rent can go up if you are catering to all.  

I agree with nupoile to read up on your rights as a business owner, and how to protect yourself as much as you can. Find out what incentives and perks you get for hiring people.  

Employees, hire people you know and really trust at the beginning, someone you can hire that has managerial experience because there will be times when you will need a day off and you will have to leave that person at the store to do counting of money at the end of the night and what not. not sure if Canada has this but you can always do background checks, but I think it costs money to do it.

and yes oh please for the love of god and take Techie's advice, keep prices visible so customers do not have to wait to find out a price. I really fucking hate it when I can't see the price, Half-Price Books does it all the time in my area, and I really hate waiting in line and asking some hipster with a bad mustache to let me check out prices, when I should just be able to see it for myself and decide then and there if I want it.

so glad to hear you are really doing this, I live in WA state and you never know I might make it up to your neck of the woods one day. I would love to visit your store and support it.

Fokakis ate you taking about the Half-Price books in Tukwila?  That place is loaded with hipsters and their retro-case is a joke.  Plus you're not saving any money with them, they do Ebay "buy it now" pricing

I am talking about the one Tukwila, LOL.  Yeah, their case is so small and so annoying.  Yeah I don't go there all that much, I used to alot, before I realized the mistake I was making. I do like the comics section, but that is really all I buy from there anymore. 

I like the idea of having a "Museum Case" on display in the store. I think I might plan for that. You guys are really helping with all the ideas and feedback. Can't thank you enough!!


Unless you have family around here or have to fly up for work there really isn't a reason for most people to travel this far north. Definitely get in contact with me if you do find yourself up here though. I'd love to get together with any rfgenners that make the trek my way :)

Today I went to check out a store and it turned out to be PERFECT!!!! The location, size and rent meet or exceed all my criteria. I will hear from the landlord (who also seemed normal and not nearly as shady as the rest of the people I've been meeting with) by Friday, but I've got my fingers crossed.

Its downtown which I think will be the best area of town as far as getting trade ins flowing into the store. The rent is by far the cheapest I've come across so far too. Its directly across the street from a bus route and gets a decent amount of drive by traffic that gets redirected off of a nearby 1-way street. Its a bit small at 657 Square Feet, but I think it'll do nicely for me to start with. Also it doesnt need nearly as much TLC as a lot of the other places I've been looking at.

I also went down to city hall immediately after and checked into what that area is zoned for. Its zoned for freakin everything!!!! Arcade Cabinets, Retail, Food, Sales, Buying, and about a hundred other things. Really hope this one happens because if it doesn't I'll likely be comparing all future places to this one. I think I made a good impression on the landlord though since I had my stuff together and it sounded like her other prospects where much further off and a bit unreliable.

That sounds exciting and I wish you the best of luck with it. It def sounds like a great location. You can always work with the space and find ways to fit everything. Maybe not put all the stock out at once and do some rotation of it.

very cool!

Good luck man. Sending good vibes your way.

In my thoughts and prayer, my friend. Hope it works out well for you! :)

Very nice. I am so excited for you and hope you get the place

Awesome news Crabby!  I hope all goes well.

I haven't read every page of this thread so pardon me if someone has mentioned these ideas before.  These things will range from "super simple" to "still pretty simple"  I will be referencing Retro Games Plus a lot because they do a lot of things the way I like them to be done.

Stickers that stay on the product but come off without tearing or leaving residue-
The owner of my local store was thrilled when he found these.  I asked why in JENOVA's name would he put price stickers on a boxed NES game and he told me to peel the sticker off.  It was heaven.  He told me they are about the same price as the regular stickers.  PM me for details if you want me to find out where he gets his supplies.

Regular Promotions
I'm a big believer in regular promotions.  One of the reasons I like shopping at Retro Games is the Buy 3 get one free (Under $7.99).  Lots of casual customers come in just looking to buy one or 2 cheap carts but witht he Buy 3 Get One Free Under $7.99, you sell an extra cart or two while moving a low dollar item to make room for more inventory.  

Post Trade Ins On Craigs/Kijiji/Facebook/Twitter
I know that you aren't a big social media guy but I LOVE stores that do this, especially since the store is 40 minutes from me.  Sometimes I want to go there but I don't want to drive that far if they haven't had any good trades lately.  Now, I just load up their FB page because every time there is a decent trade in, they post pics.  You will start to get regular customers following your page and they will become steady customers.  For examples check out the Retro Games Plus FB page

Regular (monthly, bi-monthly) store events
Tournaments, swap meets, casual game days where you set up 15 tvs and let people bring their own stuff for free play, whatever works, just make your store the place where people want to get together with other gamers.

Don't be afraid to spend money on advertising
SOOOO many new businesses seem afraid to spend money on advertising because it is expensive and you aren't sure if there will be a return on it.  Start slow, make sure you have a MONTHLY ADVERTISING BUDGET, and make sure that you spend it on advertising.  Try to find out where people found out about you and put more of your advertising budget in that area.  Find out what the 3 most popular radio stations in your area are and put an ad on the radio, you would be surprised how many people still listen to the radio and read the paper.

Offer System/disc repairs and mods
Invest in a disc resurfacing machine.  If you don't know how to perform common system repairs such as the red ring, yellow light, lens replacements, save battery replacement, sega CD blown MB fuse, AV mods, etc, EITHER LEARN OR HIRE SOMEONE WHO CAN DO THESE THINGS.  Most of these repairs are relatively simple once you do a few of them and will regularly put cash into your business.

Sell carts and manuals separately
If someone trades in a cart that comes with a manual, file the manual alphabetically by system.  If someone buys the cart and asks if you have the manual, by all means, give it to them for no extra charge but only if they want it.  This way, people who may be trying to find random pieces to fill in gaps in their collection will always have a manual source in your store.

That's it for now, if I think of more, I'll come back

Crossing my fingers for you.

Good luck! I hope it all works out!

Bil you're awesome :)

So the landlord is definitely willing to rent to me, but she is not willing to hold the unit until September 1st for me. I won't be able to even start setting up shop until the middle of August so I'm gonna have to decide wether I want to pay for a month I cant use or risk it being rented to someone else while I wait.

Tough choice :/

Same think happened to my wife and I when we started renting a house.  It was a tough call but we REALLY liked it and we decided it was worth paying for an extra few weeks as long as we locked it down.  We had lost out on a different place a few weeks before and we didn't want to start the hunt over again AGAIN.

Happens A LOT on houses down here as well. It's an effective squeeze technique used by landlords in order to get money coming in sooner. If you feel you need to secure the location, try negotiating for a date in-between, though I'm sure you'll get some BS about monthly lease agreements.

lol, that was the first thing I asked and got that exact answer. I'm gonna talk to her today and see if she'll take a lower payment for August so I can secure it and she can get at least some rental income from it.

After a little back and forth it looks like I got the place I wanted secured!! Pretty darn psyched about it too! That was the last major thing I needed to get in order. Now I've just got to start crossing off all the little things so that I'm ready to open in about a month.

Thanks for all the "good vibes" guys. I credit this acquisition entirely to the vibes!!

Wooooooooooo hooooooooooooo!!!  Congrats sir! :)

Awesome! Congrats!
...now to send you a few random flat-rate boxes to get you started.

congrats! i have a lot of cheap commons for sale if you want a bulk load of filler games to make the shelves look more stocked for opening. a handful of more popular things in there, but mostly sports games and the like. send me a pm if you're interested, i'd be willing to sell it all for well below what it's worth just to get it all gone :)

 :beer:


Excellent job man!

I would also be willing to send you some garbage commons for pennies on the dollar.  :laugh:

Congratulations! You must be really excited to see your dreams coming true.

If I'm ever in Prince George (and I will considering I'd love to see more of Canada) I will be stopping by.

Awesome job Crabby. Glad it went through. Hope you get everything going for the opening. I'll keep a eye out for cheap games I could ship you to help fill the shelfs as well.

Thanks for the offers to help. You guys are amazing!!

Got my place looked down in writing now so its officially and legally all mine!!! Here's some pics of what I have to work with. Still needs a bit of TLC, but I can get started fixing it up right away.

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114351_zps8afa2449.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114351_zps8afa2449.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114025_zps9c8fcf13.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114025_zps9c8fcf13.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114041_zpscaea3f57.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114041_zpscaea3f57.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114053_zpsa40eeb04.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114053_zpsa40eeb04.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114104_zps556f16f6.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114104_zps556f16f6.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130813_114128_zpsb08cdc15.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130813_114128_zpsb08cdc15.jpg.html)

First thing I would do is call the Ghostbusters to take care of that Canadian ghoul that is haunting the window in the first pic.

All kidding aside, congrats, man.  Living the dream. 

That's no ghost. Just a sexy selfie that I can post to facebook ;)

It even came with a stripper pole? Best. Store. Ever.

Big congrats.

They come standard in every building up here. Any business without a "dancer" fail in the first month.

The pole even has recepticles on it. Ummmmm......electric strippers.  :drool:  That little side room is for the adult games and videos. You just need a black curtain to run across the doorway. My friend who owns the local store here always shows me the "goodies" that come in some of the disc games. Apparently, a lot of kids store their dirty DVDs in those cases and either they or their parents will sell games with the videos accidentally in them. :)

In all seriousness though, congrats Crabby! Looks like a great place.

Congratulations man! That looks like a great space. I hope you're a handy DIY guy ;)

looks great, congrats! good sized place, i can't wait to see what it looks like when it's fully stocked!

Gotta admit, the place looks really promising. However, the interior looks fairly drab. If your budget allows it, try to get some vibrant colors going on in there.

Or you could go all-out and do really garish neon colors, just totally '80s it up.

[img width=310 height=310]http://i01.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/1160582403/Solid-jelly-chirography-font-b-neon-b-font-pen-font-b-marker-b-font-pen-marking.jpg[/img]

Just don't go with pastels, please. You're opening up a video game shop, not a crafts store.

I am definitely not a DIY kind of guy, but I'll do my best to spruce it up. Probably all in pastel colors, right Zag?

I already got some paint and my wife and I are gonna try and get it painted up on Tuesday-Wednesday. I'll post some more pics when its done.

I posted an ad on kijiji. If any of you guys have a minute please check it out and give me some feedback on what you think.

http://princegeorge.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-video-games-consoles-older-generation-Game-Quest-Prince-George-W0QQAdIdZ514208108QQfeaturedAdZtrue

Saw the add. It's great. It makes me wish I was in Prince George... but then I remember how far north it is.

Wow that's pretty neat! You could get some awesome wallpaper for a few walls, something like this (http://designerwallcoverings.com/WallpaperStore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=30383) :D

Went to say hi and ask about hanging a flyer at the table top gaming store just around the corner from my place yesterday. To my delight and surprise he just offered up a shelving piece to me and helped me carry it to my store. Its one from EB Games that they used to display loose GBA games. It'll definitely free up a lot of display space for me, and it didnt cost me a thing! What an awesome neighbour :)

Going to see if the store needs another coat of paint today. Should have some new pics up soon when thats done.

The add sounds awesome. I'm sure it will draw tons of people in. Free Tetris tournament why not. Makes me want to get in the car and drive there ha.
That's awesome your scored a free display case. Those can cost a lot and he helped you carry it too!
Seems everything is coming together for you Crabby

Painting is done. I'm calling the colors Sunsoft black and Mega Man blue ;)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130822_141946_zps0a49e847.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130822_141946_zps0a49e847.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130822_144535_zpse9320725.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130822_144535_zpse9320725.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130822_141926_zps44b1f1c1.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130822_141926_zps44b1f1c1.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130822_141938_zpsfa7ea446.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130822_141938_zpsfa7ea446.jpg.html)

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130822_144653_zps226fc07b.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130822_144653_zps226fc07b.jpg.html)

Looks great! Those are good colours. I think you need some posters to jazz up the space.

Is there a leak in your ceiling? What's that puddle in the last picture?

Lol, we were mopping.

you really lucked out with such a nice looking place! all the game stores around victoria always seem sort of cheap and run-down, and most of them aren't even old.

A lot of the places around here needed a ton of work too. I definitely scored with the amount of work I have to put into this place.

Looking a little better now that I've moved a few things in

[img width=700 height=525]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/20130826_131621_zpsebe2b138.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/20130826_131621_zpsebe2b138.jpg.html)

Just like a house/apartment, it always looks smaller when you start putting stuff in it.  Do you think you might have events where you put the games on freeplay?  Except for TMNT, which doesn't have a freeplay mode.

Not a chance. I'm expecting 90% of my income to be the quarters generated from these machines ;)

Just wanted to thank everyone who chimed in here in this thread. The grand opening of Game Quest was far more successful than we anticipated. The response we got yesterday was on the brink of overwhelming and pretty much every customer was incredibly enthusiastic about the store. So thanks for helping me get to this point, as ALL the input from you guys was used in our decision making and it turned out very well :D

Congratulations, Crabby! Here's to many years of bringing great games to the people!

Congrats, Crabby. Here's hoping that day 2 is busy as well!

That's awesome Crabmaster! I hope you have many more days which are far more successful than you anticipate :)

Remember to have fun too.


Oh, and more pictures please!

Good luck with it!

Have fun; hope it works out financially!

Way to go Crabby. Glad everyone had a blast going to the store. Hope you have many more successful days.

Thanks so much guys!! We literally did the amount of sales in one day that we had budgeted for the rest of 2013. People were lined up down the street prior to opening. People were packed in so tight for the first 2 hours that you could barely move around the store (probably 40-50 customers at once). I spent around 6 hours basically just ringing up sales at the til, while my buddy helped people track things down and answered some questions.

When things finally slowed down I got some really awesome trade ins and got a chance to chat with a few customers for a bit too. It was such a blast and people were so encouraging throughout the entire day. And some people were posting pics of the facebook page saying they were so happy to finally complete a set of games they have been looking for (Rogue Squadron and Silent Hill were two cool ones), some people were bragging about what they found and how they were having buddies over for a retro game night, and most people were just plugging the store and saying how great the price/selection/staff was.

It was a fantastic day!!

Way togo Crabby!!!

Sounds like a perfect start!

Great news!

Wow Crabs.  I couldn't be happier for you. 

That's fantastic, Crabby.  Congratulations.

Did that interview end up happening?

My congratulations, good sir. :)

Not yet, but I have met the guy in person in the store. It's still in the works.

Hey crabs, can i send you some perler art to display in your store?

For sure!! PM incoming

You better not accidentally send him the ones I requested. Or do it on purpose, either.

EDIT: Whoops... never mind.

I'm sending him a pixel perfect rendering of the Silent Service box art.  That'll get people in his store for sure.

Maybe if you had a specially licensed set of Silent Service Perler beads.

Make an altar so he can make weird Canadian based sacrifices to the Silent Service gods.

It's not weird, everyone does it.

Completely awesome, Crab!  I'd love to see a video tour of the place when you get a chance.  Also can't wait for the Google car to drive by so I can get a street view (maybe next time you can be glaring at it out of your store window when it passes).

I vote for video tour also.

Yeah! We need a video tour!

I second that !!

I second that !!

I second that !!

Nice to hear you got the store up and running!  Let's see some pictures!

We got one of your customers in the IRC right now. Better say hi!

That must be Jake! He's a pretty cool guy.

Have you put up pictures of the store yet?

Not yet :(

I'll try and get some done by December.

Do any holiday decorating? I hung some lights and put stockings up around. Had two small Xmas trees as well

No. As much as I love Christmas, I hate Christmas decorations.

Is everything still going well with the store? That's awesome the opening went so good. Sounds like a badass store!

Little hiccup currently with some City Bylaws, but otherwise things are going swimmingly

Still working two jobs, or is the store full time now?

Still living the dream working two jobs ;)

Its no video tour, but one of the local radio stations took a picture for a news story last week of me in the store. We are in a pretty small space so its hard to take a decent photo, but I thought this one turned out well.

[img width=600 height=400]http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk189/Crabmaster2000/GameQuestGoatPic_zpsbb5218f4.jpg[/img] (http://s280.photobucket.com/user/Crabmaster2000/media/GameQuestGoatPic_zpsbb5218f4.jpg.html)

That shirt makes everything perfect.

Wouldnt a Rush shirt be even more perfect?

Speaking of which Crabby, we're nearing on a year for the store opening, right? Planning on anything for the anniversary? I guess technically September 1st is the anniversary, but the official trademarking of the name is up. ;)

Here ya go:

[img width=225 height=200]http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/pict/251328317910_1.jpg[/img]




First RF Gen's tenth anniversary, then Nupoile's ninth... there's all sorts to celebrate around here.


...the same date World War II began. Hey, I know how to celebrate the store's first full year of operation: hold a WWII FPS tournament! Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, or even the Wolfenstein series, take your pick. It's not like you're wanting for choices...

Crabby what level is your beard at now? I'm behind on the podcasts but it looks like you've surpassed the grand master kung fu level.

Maybe not the most appropriate shirt to have had on, but I didn't have any notice before they arrived :)

@Shadow - No plans yet, but I still have a couple months to figure that out.

@h1ghw1nd - That picture was taken just a couple weeks ago so its pretty close to that still. Working towards my Grand Wizard status beard right now.

This is an awesome thread and I wanted to respond here after "finding" a semi local store recently. I stumbled upon it because a bridge was closed (unfortunate for them for sure) and I had to turn around. I had no idea why a game store would be so remote as it was, and to top it off, they were closed on Sundays and had terrible hours - focusing more on being open during regular weekday business hours than times when people would be out shopping and off work/school. I checked them out on Facebook and deduced they had moved from a different location (rent reasons) a year or so earlier but hadn't updated their page but ONCE the entire calendar year after. The signage looked good, and peering inside they had a decent selection but it bewildered me that they could drop the ball so badly with marketing.

I post this because Game Quest is the exact opposite - well planned, built a brand, interacts with customers to create loyalty, etc. I can't imagine running a business is easy (or else everyone would) but it always surprises me when the most obvious things as I've described above are ignored.

Good work Crabby.

So, you never did post what you were doing for the anniversary...

Unfortunately retrosportsgamer, this type of "marketing" is the norm rather than the exception from what I have seen. Seems that people think that gamers will just find them at some point. With the age of digital media, there are so many free forms of advertisement that sadly, many entrepreneurs do not use. It seems that Kelsy does a great job with this and has a really great supportive community who help him with word-of-mouth.

Thanks Sporty!

I'm starting to pump out some blogs relating to some of the things you brought up so hopefully I can give you a bit of insight into it.

Free cake and games!!!

I saw that - really looking forward to them.

This is a cool thread and I wanted to add to it as well.

Earlier this month I discovered the Collector Cast and I'm up to episode 18.  For those who don't remember, that's the episode where Crabby is absent due to his store just recently opening up.  I thought hey that's cool!  For some reason I've refused to just listen to the newer episodes so I really don't know what's coming up, but seeing this thread I'm glad to see the store has been a success!

I'm happy to report that Crabby makes a triumphant return to the show in later episodes.

Thanks!!

Hope you're enjoying the show, and as Duke said I get back into recording with the guys after that brief hiatus.

Yeah, kind of a neat historic timeline.

Hey Crabby I'm trying to convince my wife to go check out your store.  It's only a 18 hour drive from Seattle right?

I never thought of that! I'm going to send my wife to check out game stores for me too!

Might be able to make in about 14 hours if everything goes smooth and you beat the snow ;)

We have family that lives in Port Alberni.  We want to visit them sometime this summer, maybe I can convince the wife...

Port Alberni is still quite a drive from me. If you are able to make it up this way let me know. I'll make sure I have the day free so we can get our game on.

Port Alberni is a fairly long drive from me, and i'm on the same island let alone far north on the mainland.