[Death Jester]

**NOTE ON THE POLL**
Please vote on everything you would considder purchasing or considder a part of a business that you would make use of.  (some options are in a second post)

(Also a quick note on the events and tournaments for games like Magic the Gathering, this would include Friday Night Magic, drafts and pre-release events!)


Greetings, it's been a while since the last update but I have some interesting news.

I have found no less than 4 potential condenders all in the past week.

1 of them will be the new gaming store! (Feels all reality TV)

I want discussion about what you want. What you'd prefer and what you want to be on offer goods and services wise.

There is a time frame here so if it's a 'I will post later.' thought, please ignor it and post now

All this information will go towards me making my desisions in regard to, location, stock, size and practically everything else.

I have had to remove some options from the poll because it was too big, so some of the obvious ones have been removed. Anyone who would purchase Wargames can you post below and let me know what games you play/would be interested in playing.

Many thanks, with this information I can really move things quickly.

GAME ON!

[Gileh]

I voted (does it tell you how many separate people voted and for what?) Do you have a survey monkey for this as well?

Anyway I clicked action figures but I am only likely to buy Dr Who/DC figures for my niece and maybe lego and transformers- contemporary.

I'd want some where with a gaming table so I can play things like kings of war or D&D.

I was listening to a Linkara podcast the other day and they made a big deal over how successful comic book shops don't just survive on comics but as a sort of nexus for all the sci-fi geek stuff.

When something like this gets suggested part of my brain attends and asks: "What's the USP?" what will get people through the door and keep them coming back. What's the wider demographic research- and how does that affect the UBS of the potential consumers? Will this be a geek positive social venue, or a hard selling, fast-delivery goods outlet and what will make it outstanding? What will make it unique? What specific need is the business going to service and feed?

I would love to see a 'Forbidden Planet Chester'. I would love even more to see something original and surprising and unprecedented that makes all the customers go 'I didn't realise this is what I really wanted all along.' and all the other businesses go 'why didn't I think of that?'

[Kamikazegerbil]

Am I correct in assuming that Mail Order service is for things like RPG books and the like?

[Death Jester]

KG - Yes, I took RPG books off the poll because I know that people will want them already. The mail order would basically be I can post things to you that I have in store.



Gileh- Thats a great response there!

I don't do hard sell. I belive that if you love the hobby/s yourself and have a good knowledge base to advise thats all that it needs. I'm never going to be pushy about things but I will get excited about great items.

It wouldn't be a comic shop, chester already has that, I may have the odd graphic novel here n there, statues and figures but thats all. The USP is simply that it's a personal, local business run with experience and knowledge of the products on offer. Geek positive social venue is what I would like most, some properties would force me to be more capitalist than others but even they would have some tables in the back and such.

Does that help?

[steffworthington]

[Death Jester]

You can vote for multiple things just so people know.

In response to competing with the internet shops simply can't do that, you may just have to pay an extra £1 or 2 for being able to pick up the item and look at it first, being able to get some feedback and info on it and take it away that day.

The internet is destroying the gaming communities. If you want to support a shop that is trying to do more than just make money from you great, but if you just care about getting the cheapest you can, you will never find that in shops. There is an awefull lot to bear in mind, internet buying sindicates buy in massive volumes and then split it up amounst themselves selling at a cheaper price than some shops can even buy at.

As I said if you want to just save money a gaming store isn't going to be for you, if you want to support a local business who supports the gaming community then a store is worth paying a little extra for over the purely profiteering communityless e-bandits.

[Shiny]

I'm not sure what to vote on.. all of the above?

Ideally what i would like to see is a smart friendly community shop.

people with geeky interests would go there to hang out in a comfy area, buy, make, and discuss stuff,
events would take place there,
people would recognise it as the go to place to advertise and buy gifts and things necessary for these events.
having a community there doing games and things gets folk excited about geek stuff, and excited geeks buy more
esspecially if they know that they can get exactly what they want straight from the shop with the advice of fellow geeks and hobbyists.

i love the idea of ordering stuff in,
if that was advertised quite blatently it would create a lot of loyalty,
a cobbled together mail order book of whats new/favorites for people to flick through would rock and keep people comming back for more.

a notice board stating events to be held after hours, generating income after most of chester is closed is a definate bonus

with regards to location the one we discussed earlier would be a dream,
however due to the increased cost would need to cater for the casual geek dropping by on their usual saunter through the streets
as well as having the community feel.

too far out of chester and a small shop would die, it would not be enough of an attraction to pull people away from the center..
a larger more diverse shop on the outskirts would work but would need a lot of advertising or nobody would know/care where it was
and it would require a lot of stock

[paz]

I can make a more detailed post later, but being part of this initiative would be a key selling point for me:

http://www.bits-and-mortar.com/

[Death Jester]

[HDimagination]

I wholeheartedly wish you the best of luck.

I think that Shell and I would be inclined to support a local gaming shop with our cash, but we don't actually buy RPG products all that often at the moment. More frequently at the moment we buy the occational batch of magic cards at the stall in the market.

We would probably be interested in participating in events like magic tournaments/drafts etc...

Would you also be thinking of running the organised play for 4e (encounters/lair assult)? If so, I might be able to volenteer to GM for those, although as I've stated, this is conditional upon childcare and negotiation with my lovely wife....

Hopefully WotC will release more hobyshop exclusive books like 'Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium.' Ironically one of the only D&D books i've been interested in this year, and I can't actually buy it without traveling to liverpool/manchester....

[Death Jester]

Thank you HD and Shell

I realise that RPG books aren't the biggest money spinner in the world and have something of a steep distributor price. The likely hood is, at least at first it would be mostly core books, pre-orders and to order for RPG books, as we all know there are so many of the damned things, stocking them all probably wont be good for the shop.

It would definately be something I would have interest in. Will see what the WotC people say.

Any events I would hope to be able to do, for any kind of game I may supply.

If yo ucan hold off a little longer I will put it on the first order sheet I do.

It's litterally a case of I am seeing properties over the next day or two, making a choice and then it will be paper work time. So it could be open very soon indeed.

[steffworthington]

[Tess]

I think having somewhere to sit with food / drink will be essential to get the loyalty you will need. I have not ticked mail order under the thought of 'I'll go in to buy it', but I now see wht you mean. If its not in the shop I could ask for it to be ordered in - I could go for that.

Things like battle mats, dry wipe markers, pens, paper, pencils seem almost too obvious/mundane to add, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

I know a lot less about gaming, and would buy a lot more stuff towards it if an experienced person were able to make recommendations on 'basic minimums needed for...' so I would know that the money I spend would be well spent. I would happily pay an extra 5-10% just to know I had the right thing.

Having the shop in the right place would mean not only us geeks could go in to shop, but also friends and parent would recognise it as a go-to for any birthdays or other gift giving events.
If you encourage regulars to start up 'wish lists' you could use these to guide you on what would be popular stock to keep them happy, and they could send people in to buy presents for them knowing they would get the righ thing - face to face amazon style.

I quite often stop for a coffee or similar in Chester and if this existed within easy walking distance the shop would be the place I would automatically gravitate towards just to be near people of the same mind set even if I wasn't buying anything else that day. Having people in the shop (even if not buying 'stock') will make it look popular and inviting for more people to come in.

If you have a seating area you could run for example 'how to be a GM' workshops, if you have the right people to pay a few pounds to once a month or so. It could give you a boost for new books once in a while. I certainly run Monsters less than I would like purely down to confidence, and if I ran it more I would buy more books for it.

erm... yup  I think I've run out of steam. Thats your lot.

T

[steffworthington]

[Death Jester]

Tess- Thanks for the input there. It may be a case of I will make you a cup of coffee with my kettle, please don't sue me. To start with at least haha.
You do have the correct idea of what I mean by mail order. I already have a order-in system planned and ready from my old shop, that would be available to everyone.

steff- I imagine there would would be no money in it for me without of course charging for printing and binding if that were the case you may be better off doing it yourself or perhaps via a printing shop who can do it alot cheaper than I could with higher grade printing equipment. Good idea though and something for me to look into.

[dead]

If your city centre aim for some more mainstream stuff.  There are loads of second hand video game places around, I dont think there is anywhere doing DVD's but is there money in it?

In the city centre board games could be a big draw for the general public, don't make it to geeky, your limiting your customer base.

Ian

[xorsyst]

So, I'm mostly interested in a place to look at and occasionally (though not often) buy board games.  I'd consider a pay-to-play (or free to play!) library as a way of trying out games I was thinking of buying, but mostly I use the club/conventions for this.

WhSmiths has a few board games - it has basic Settlers, Carcasonne, etc.

There is also the toy shop on Watergate street that I think I've seen Diplomacy in.  I think they are a local business and you might be able to get friendly with them - get them to recommend people looking at/asking for that sort of game to go to you, and recommend people asking for kids games (of which they have a large range) to go to them, that sort of thing.

[annoyinglizardvoice]

I'd definatly look in store before I tried to shop online for anything.

Have you thought about running tournaments of various games at the store?
Having drinks and snacks available for gamers has worked for Fanboy3.
I'd be willing to run a few games if you need anything doing to get a proper gaming community going.
Let me know if you need an extra set of hands to help sort anything out while you're setting up. (I'm out of work at the moment, so I have a bit more free time during the week than some and I can get anywhere in Chester fairly quickly)

[Prostanc3]

I'll probably speak to you about this tonight but I would defo like to see D&D 4E Encounters (wednesday nights) running and I would attend these providing my circumstances work wise don't change too dramatically!

[steffworthington]

in store gaming is cool... but try not to set up evening stuff. This is probably the best games club ive ever been too (and ive been to a few around the UK) and I'd hate to see folks making a choice between monday nights at the club and wednesday night at your shop.

[Gileh]

When taking advice, including this, just remember what a camel is...

[Prostanc3]

[paz]

I was gaming in a games shop yesterday, and the atmosphere was very different to the club. Apart from the two tables of pre-arranged RPGs, it was all students (or those of near-student age) playing MTG or similar.

I personally wouldn't be worried about cannibalisation, in either the literal or metaphorical sense.