Starting a specialty game and toy store?

I'm not sure that's entirely true. I'm not an owner, just a consumer, but I buy almost all of my games from a specialist shop for several reasons:
1. they know about the games
2. you can actually pick the product up and handle it! (and sometimes even play a game first)
3. it's a friendly place where I know the staff
4. they actually know about games (did I mention that? :-)

It certainly costs more than it would buying on-line, but I much prefer it.

- Definitely have enough room in your store to have smallish tournaments or to host 'game nights'.

- Don't compete with the Internet game stores.. Embrace them! Start an internet storefront to suppliment your Brick & Mortar sales. You are already going to be keeping these games in stock anyway, so why not sell them at a discount online? Perhaps even pass on the discounted rates to people who purchase the games online but want to pick them up at the store to save on shipping. You might need a decent bit of storage space, but I think this is a great idea. Most of board game sales occur during the christmas holiday, so the income generated from a discount internet store front will help you stay afloat. And hey, why pay that college drop out (no offense to any, as I am one) to sit around and do nothing! He can box up and prepare shipments during store 'down time'.

- Carry 'cash crops'. By this I mean games that are easy to display, are popular and sell often and fast. These means Yu Gi Oh, Pokemon, Mageknight, Magic the Gathering, etc. If you can sell this stuff to help support your board game niche, then more power to you! Also carry a healthy supply of classic stand bys; I.E. party games and monopolies, clues and risks to sell to the soccer moms.

- Always allow people to play the game in the store if they are uncertain whether they will like it, if they don't you could always reshrink it and still sell it at a slightly reduced rate.

- To further my first point, it helps to be in a location within walking distance of inexpensive quality food (food court is golden) and restrooms. If people want to come in and play games from the time the store opens until it closes, let them! These are the folks that will consistently buy games from you and refer their friends to you.

That's all I have for now. Good luck, I hope it goes well for you.
-Darke

One thing I will add to the topic, which I was told by a couple of store owners at GenCON, many store startups need to be able to have enough starting cash to survive for about 3 months.

Main reason, you need time to build a customer base. You need enough time to get a core group of people that will help you make the monthly bills. Many stores can do this in 3 months with a good marketing/advertising plan.

And besides that I would just start making your list of costs for running the company. Keep in mind these reoccuring bills and plan for at least 3 months of extra money for these types of bills, and dont forget all the overhead and cash needed to initially get the business set up (furnishing the store, buying products to sell, etc).

Best of luck and I hope my input helps a little.....

From what I've seen both here in Orlando and from talking to people at ToyFair, one of the keys to the success of small game stores is to have the staff know the inventory and be able to make recommendations.

It's amazing how much more likely someone is to buy something if they're talking to someone who can say "yeah, I played that. Lots of fun", or "Mmm...that one's aimed more at small kids", or things like that.

I'm not devaluing playing areas and things like that, but if you can't afford the real estate (or the problems of overseeing them), simply having a staff that know the games will give you a huge step up.

There are some resources out there for you. ASTRA is an association of specialty toy retailers that seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Also, talk to your suppliers! Many of the smaller companies like mine (Live Oak Games), are willing to break packages for first time purchases (so you don't have to buy 6 or 12 copies of a game that you're not sure will sell), and sometimes even include demo copies.

Finally, look seriously at the small players. I'm not just saying this because I am one. There's a wide variety of games out there that are much more fun than they get coverage for. Anagramania is a great example. And I know people on this forum could recommend dozens more.

If you have a game you think we should carry please email me the following information:

1. Your company name
2. Your contact info (including email)
3. Product titles
4. Distributor pricing - this should include: MSRP, the price I will pay, shipping fees along with a purchase threshold for free shipping if available.
5. Case lot size (if you care about selling at the case size. Many, many small publishers don't care and that is fine for me and them.)

Rainsford,

Quick question: do you require UPC codes?

-Darke

No, we don't need a product to have a UPC code.

Additionally, I suspect (this is a gut feeling, not a studied conclusion) that retailers willing to take on a small publisher are also willing to take on a product with no UPC code... as many, many small publishers don't have them.

Best regards,

Rainsford

Cool! Next question: Does your company distibute desktop publishing quality games or do they only distribute 'professionally' printed games. Was your game Phantasy Realm a DTP game? Will / does your company distribute Phantasy Realm?

-Darke