Gaming store models
David Artman:
One thing you haven't mentioned, which I think could be a big winner (in a large enough city, or with a nearby university):
Gamer Bar.
Yep, let people sit and play for free--just like Chess players and card players at the bar.
Yep, make your money off of meals and a steady stream of beer and wine consumption--just like a bar does.
Yep, sell you game products (though, in my model, the game store is like a "pro shop" that's closed at around 7 or 8 even though the bar is open until 2am).
The point is that you have this "issue" of folks not eating... but that's becaus4e you front as a game store with free space. Front as a pub which encourages gamers and supports them (loaner mini models and games, the store). Folks come in a sit down... your ait staff approaches and takes their drink order. Returns and takes food order. Returns for more drinks; repeat. And here's the best part:
You'd get non-gamer customers coming in, then noticing games, then asking, then playing a loaner... then buying. NEW gamers, who already came in the pub for the food and drink. This is why you need to seriously consider getting AWAY from the mega-games (D&D, WW) and favoring known converters (Looney labs' Fluxx and Icehouse; Euro board games; PTA and Universalis; etc). You already have a store in town with a huge selection--be the niche; carry the unusual and the closer-to-mainstream and "gateway games." Because you're REALLY a bar, see.
Face it--aside from miniature gaming and some board games, playing games takes up little to no more space than eating a meal. Be tricky with the table designs (frex, trays under the table edge, into which drinks and other stuff can be put so they aren't on the table top) and you wouldn't even need much more dining room space than the average pub (at least, average in my area in NC).
And the time from about 1:30pm to about 5pm WILL be slow.
Seth M. Drebitko:
Hmmm, I do really like the feel of the classic pub style setting, admittedly alcohol always seems to deter productive gaming habits. What do you think of sectioning off a section of the shop where drinking and gaming happens but also a more quite area where people who still want the silence can relax.
Paul Czege:
If I sit down at a table at a Max & Erma's with three friends, about the least we'll spend on food and drinks for the four of us is $60 for the 45 minutes or so we're there. Can you tell me how we'd spend even $30 per 45 minutes if the four of us sat down for four or five hours of gaming in your gamer pub? If you have a restaurant infrastructure (waitstaff, kitchen, etc.), you need to generate revenue per hour from your floor space like a restaurant.
And if you're not a restaurant, and your gaming space is free, you're day-care on the weekends. Moms drop their kids off in the morning with their M:tG cards or Warhammer figs and a single crisp Jackson for food and snacks and they're there for the whole day.
Paul
Eero Tuovinen:
That's my worry also, Paul, just more succinctly said.
Lance D. Allen:
Paul,
What keeps this from being any different than a gaming store with free play space now?
I see people disparaging the whole free play-space angle, but all of the successful gaming stores I've ever seen have free play-space in varying amounts, dependent on their level of success. The various concerns about how the space will lose you money have already been successfully addressed by all of these places.
Adding a revenue stream from food and drink aside from the Mt. Dew and Junk Food model that many of the places I know offer can't really be a bad thing, can it?
I've considered many times over the years a similar model. I was going more coffeehouse than teahouse, and most food would be of the deliverable and pre-packaged variety, such as pizza and sub sandwiches.. The sort of food your average avid game-store gamer thrives on anyway.
The part I'm not sure about in your model, Seth, is the online store part. I mean, sure, by all means have an online component to your store.. But if that's the entirety (or at least the majority) of your store, I think you may have problems. Many of the benefits of the game-store space have to do with perusable stock. Minis for the game you've just started, paints to paint them. Dice. ALWAYS dice. Casual games to play while you're waiting for the rest of the group to show up. That supplement you need when you level up next, so you can go with the prestige class you were eying. Gamer swag, because really, where else are gamers going to buy it? (besides GenCon).
It's quite possible that, with the main focus on the food service part of the store that the perusable stock will be less important, but then the restaurateur concerns brought up by Paul and Eero become more important.
Really, either way you do it, the idea has merit. I really love the idea of a game store with food service built in. But you'll definitely want to do some serious research into restaurant management as well as normal small business concerns. The liquor license may actually be a good idea, too. Perhaps you've had bad experiences with drinking and gaming, but some of my best gaming was done in a group where casual alcohol consumption was the norm, rather than the exception.
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