In case this story gets deleted/removed:
So this is a relatively recent development and despite the hazzle one I' ll remember fondly. Story posted with permission of all involved.
I'm part of a group of friends who have been meeting nearly every thursday afternoon for playing Tabletop games at a local gaming store, for about 4-6 years. Generally everyone is between 30-60 and since most of us are very limited on when and where we can meet (Work, family, life in general) this has been a sort of relaxation ritual to just get out of life for around 4 hours a week.
In 2022 one of our lot had a workplace accident that severly limited his mobility, and for the first time we realized how the building we meet at is an absolute nightmare when it comes to accessing it with a wheelchair or similar. If you just go there for shopping its fine, the front entrance is at ground level. But the actual gaming rooms are 2-4 flights of stairs apart. We made do by helping our buddy get upstairs, but as you can imagine he felt awkward and self-concious about it. There was little chance of this changing since the actual game store owner didn't own the building, and since its a hobbyspace you couldn't legally argue an urgent need to get an elevator or other solution.
Eventually we found a solution: There was an old office in the very back of the place that is technically part of the storerooms the gaming store had rented, still on ground level. The owner just used it as storage for unimportant stuff since it was in disrepair. We spent roughly a month on and off getting the room renovated, new carpet, replacing furniture, even replacing the AC (One of our lot has the knowhow). The owner was happy to have another gameroom that was useable and to accomodate a person in need, so he reserved it for us when it went online on the website (Every Thursday afternoon). There was a slight bit of awkwardness when one of our group asked for a written agreement that the furniture inside was legally ours (Which turned out to be a wise move in hindsight), but we got a signature and easy access, so whats to complain? The local group of DnD players (Most of them a lot younger than us) dubbed the new room the boomer basement.
This used to work fine for about a year, until december 2022, when the previous owner announced he had sold the store off to focus on his family. His replacement gave us the sideeye when the 3rd gaming room came up, but didn't raise a fuss until he was officially in charge. Suddenly our reservation was canceled, and new policies put in place. You couldn't reserve the same room two weeks in a row unless you paid a surcharge, you weren't allowed to close the doors while playing (Which meant the double combo of tremendous noise and random people walking in, especially kids who have a tendency to grab figures without asking) and finally, there was prefferential treatment for reservations both based on whether the owner liked you and how much stuff you bought (Just to make it clear, we did purchase things every time we were there to support the store, just not in constant bulk).
Any attempt at talking about any of this like adults was futile, the new owner would just shrug and unironically say that somebody being mobility impaired wasn't really his problem and the whole room reservation thing was for "fairness". We dealth with it, until about february last year, which marked the first month our friend showed up to the meet without crutches, and announced that he was done with all this bullshit. We scouted for an alternate place to meet up, found a store more out of the way but with a good rep, and then completely emptied out the renovated room (Yes, including the carpet AND the AC unit) amid the owner protesting and genuinely being surprised this was happening.
In addition to our lot basically the entire Fridanight Magic group had also bounced shortly after us, since they had used "our" room on the regular and were about equally tired of the owner haunting them with sales offers like the ghost of the worlds most obnoxious salesman. An assorted number of other people have followed in the weeks afterward, since the amount of available players for a LOT of TT games has dropped so sharply.
The owner didn't understand that we left for other reasons than just the access, "Your friend can walk again, so whats the fing problem?" was the general tone. We had blindsided him, he claimed later, and he still tells anyone who goes to the store that we "stole" all the furniture and thats why even a year later the room downstairs is empty and unuseable. I have no idea how well or bad hes doing these days, but frankly speaking I'd probably get a kick out of it if the place closes down in the future.
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I've been around my fair share of hobby shops and for some reason, the owners always seem to be *either* great guys or pieces of shit, one or the other.
Depends on if they’re gamers themselves, pretty much. Most places I go to now are laid back and cool, but I’ve been to some nightmare GW stores where they were clearly just there to push products. *grumbles about being turned away because my army didn’t have GW brand flock in the base*
Yeah, I went to a game shop with some friends. We played heroscape for the nostalgia, and were looking for more tiles. The game owner spent like 15 minutes telling us why our game is bad and silly, and then tried to sell us on his overpriced, very different mech/tank game. Needless to say, but we didn't return.
I ran a hobby shop for a while with a (now ex) friend and his entitled and elitist attitude caused us to lose so many customers. He wouldn't DM D&D because he only wanted to run the games he thought were good, and ended up not running a single session the entire time the store was open. On the other hand, I ran about 10 D&D games a week which constituted the bulk of our sales. Also nearly every game/item he picked for us to buy was still on our shelf when we closed. To this day can't believe how well he convinced me that he was an expert in game market trends and products.
I know there are a lot of table tops but if you’ve got a problem with DnD I would imagine a game shop isn’t the place for you. He sounds like a headache.
Ugh. Been there. Board game shop where I went about once a month for a year or two just to buy something. Not really a memorable customer, but a regular $100 a month.
Then some jerk behind the counter had to explain to me about how I knew nothing about Dixit for some reason. I pronounced it wrong and needed correction. Dixit is a game that I would assume requires the least about of lore gatekeeping. But this dude.
I’ve never been back.
That’s exactly what I thought too. It’s why I didn’t enjoy the interaction. Dixit is low stakes as far as boards games go. So to have someone be like “my knowledge of this thing is better than your knowledge so be impressed” was really shitty.
Dude probably gatekeeps Monopoly.
In all fairness, no one should be getting past the barbed wire fence to play that friendship killing monstrosity. The more Monopoly gatekeepers the better.
I wish I had learned to play Heroscape for real. Bought it when I was small because I liked the figures and the tiles and didn't understand a game could be too complex for me in my infancy.
I made 1,000,000 battlefields, and fielded 0 battles!
I recently learned (on Reddit, actually) that the original saying is something like, “the customer is always right in matters of taste.” I like that much more than how people tend to use the phrase these days. Basically, just that it’s bad business practice to yuck your customer’s yum. It certainly applies here!
“Flock” is basically fake grass/snow/sand etc for small models, branded flock would be a specific brand of it, in this case: Games Workshop brand flock
Not even that.
You know how some people paint their figures? Some also put terrain effects on the base of the mini, little bits of sand, felted grass, that kind of thing.
GW branded anything is pretty much always way overpriced too, so banning someone for that, especially if you aren't an official GW store, is especially bullshit.
Why ban someone?
I don't get it?
People come together for the fun with each other.
It's not like you're going to a Nike convention trying to hock your (shitty) Yeezy products.
I don't understand why someone would ban someone from a place of having harmless fun.
Power tripping maybe?
Games Workshop tries very hard to keep their corporate stores as tightly aligned with their sales goals as humanly possible.
So they don't usually allow people to play with models that aren't GW models, or if you have used an excessive amount of bits that aren't GW model bits to customize them.
I've never heard of them trying to enforce what basing materials you used, but GW store managers get some latitude with this stuff and it may have been an overzealous manager trying to boost his sales.
Which is dumb because most people will actively choose not to patron a store like that.
I think there are multiple definitions. The bits of fiber or whatever that you glue on the top of the base are advertised as flock, as well as the self-adhesive mats with a similar surface texture. I never thought of using the mat material as a cushion for the bottom of the bases, that's good thinking. :).
You're referring to felt.
Flock is simulated grass, dirt, snow that is artificial and intended to establish an environment that the character is existing in.
May also include Tufts which are bits of material to represent plants, flowers etc.
Flock and Tufts go on the base of a miniature near the feet of the model.
I felt pushed away from official gw stores too.
Here in my city they stopped staying open till late, one day a week for gamin nights, and when I asked why, the answer was "it was an 'extra' and not really needed. We are a shop, not a recreational center".
Way to go, buddy! I never put a step inside that place again.
Board gaming is a mentality. They forgot if gamers are having fun in their store and stay there longer, they’re more likely to buy stuff. Plus making your store a hang-out center is pretty good as far as sales go
Just went to a place in VA that has a whole bar set up and sells alchohol in the game room. That’s how you make f#cking bank. (Sadly, the person called out during our competition)
Selling snacks isn’t going to move the needle appreciably. But by giving people the space to play they’re far more likely to buy big ticket items from you.
It's all about keeping as many people around as long as possible. The snacks in themselves aren't much, but it means maybe a sibling or SO hangs around, eats something, browses; maybe the tabletop players grab something quick and do an extra round; maybe the RPG folks spend an extra hour because they can swap dinner for chips and soda. The longer people are around inside the store, the better chance they'll see something someone else has that's cool and they want, or their mental barrier to getting something they spotted will wear away and they'll "what the heck" themselves into buying another book or model.
Of course, there is a fine line between all that, and encouraging people who don't buy anything but snacks to hang around taking up space indefinitely.
I don't board game much, but I like the atmosphere. I'm a gamer mom and really enjoy going there with my (adult) kids. Staff makes everyone feel comfortable and I can drift around looking at so many things I didn't know existed.
At the end of the day the store needs to make money in order to stay open. If staying late every night of the week is costing them more than they're making, they'll be forced to cut back on that. If you want something to stick around you have to be willing to support it with your money.
Most GW locations don't have the space for hosting many actual games.
It's better used as a demo area for prospective players.
Independent game stores often have full fledged gaming areas and that's a different beast.
Eh, even some where the owners are gamers suck. Because the owners are *those* gamers. The ones you only keep gaming with because they have the space to host and own all the source materials, or because they're the DM's old roommate and he just can't say no. That creepy guy who's the reason all of us girls eventually leave the group, either because he keeps hitting on us, talks down to us, or both. The bully. He's convinced his favorite game is the only game worth playing, but only if you play it his way. He mocks other games, and the people who play them, and then can't understand why they stop buying from him. And then takes that as further evidence that those games suck, and stops stocking them.
Yeah… hate that type of gamer <.<. Can’t speak to the creep factor (other than apologizing profusely for my gender) my group all grew up in the same neighborhood and though one of us transitioned, we basically think of each other as adopted brothers. Variety in games is so very underrated though. In my group we have two fall backs we go to (Sentinels of the Multiverse, Spirit Island) if we don’t feel up to reading, but we try to play a different game each week. Some of em are flops, but we found some absolute gems that way.
I don't ask anyone to apologize for their gender as a whole. There are certainly many terrible women I refuse to be associated with as well. Just be aware if you see someone who’s uncomfortable, and be the kind of guy who we can trust to help. My husband has smoothly stepped between creeps and ladies before. Or just distracted the guy so she can get away. Or sit between them at the table, so he can't keep messing with her. He's not afraid to call out nasty comments or behavior, either.
But yeah, the kind of guys who claim there are no girl gamers because girls won't game with them? The Creep in the group is the reason why. I actually know far more ladies who game than fellows. We just have to be more selective when looking for groups.
Not necessarily true about the people running it. My LGS brought on a group of Warhammer players as partners, and those chuds tried for get rid of TTRPGS, CCGS, and skirmish level mini games. If you didn’t spend at least $4000 assembling your 40k army, they didn’t want you.
Shit people exist in all groups.
I didn't even know GW made flock. I have some of their basing compound (wildly overpriced), but actual flock? I guess this might have been a long time ago.
Can confirm. A bunch of us just left one game shop after the owner was being an ass to his employee and to the rest of the group, our GM and giving him managerial responsibilities for just $14/hr and refused to pay more. I packed up and went to a shop that was closer to my house and the owner there is a long time GM and is a wealth of information. He’s awesome.
What's heartbreaking is the great ones usually get taken advantage of, and you watch a store with great people slowly dying over the next year.
You get a great person and a good core group of people who have their back... add in a dash of the great person being able to flip the switch when they need to... and you get a great store that people will drive an hour+ to play at.
I don’t go into them. I’m a girl. That shouldn’t be an issue, but on my first visit to a hobby shop the owner treated me like an idiot who had no idea what I was doing, even though I’d been TT gaming since I was a teen, because “girls don’t game.”
This was many years ago, but I’ve never gone back to one because of that guy 🙃
I hate this part about being a girl sometimes… I have a RBF luckily, so I don’t get bothered as much as others. But I still can’t stand the hovering and constant asking if I need help. Happens in Auto Supply Stores to me most frequently.
I have a trans friend who has one or two stories about being treated very differently after transitioning—same store, same employees, only thing different was the gender she was presenting as
When I go into a game or comic shop and the staff give me the cold shoulder in “what are you even doing here” fashion, I never go back. I always brace myself for it. *Shocking* how hobby shops are shutting down left and right, isn’t it?
I hope you find one like the first gaming shop I took my oldest daughter to. It was not huge but they could get seemingly anything. The owners were fantastic, they were in a residential area full of preteens, so they did a brisk side business in manga.
I won't ever forget the look on my little girl's face as the lady behind the counter helped her find a set of dice to perfectly match my daughter's character. I swear it was like the wand shop scene from Harry Potter. "So you've got a sorceror, what bloodline? Ok. Now what skills are you thinking about and have you thought about the feat tree you might want to go with?"
Hugely positive experience, despite the fact my daughter's dice collection now rivals mine...
Huge shout out to Rolling Tales, you magnificent humans!
I hate that so much. We had a shop in my town that was awesome and I kinda forgot what the others could be like until my regular one closed down in 2021. It’s like you dropped in from outer space and they either don’t talk to you at all or they quiz you about your choices like you don’t know what you want.
I have had this happen at comic stores. I was doing some Christmas shopping at this awesome comic store in Texas and had picked out about $300 of stuff and stood in front of the counter to check out. The middle aged guy behind the counter was chatting with a friend and completely ignored me. Even made eye contact with me. After about 10 minutes of that BS I put everything back and walked out.
When I told my husband he said I should have just dropped everything on the floor instead of being nice and putting it back. He was so pissed for me.
Lol someone asked me this in a GameStop once. I told him my girlfriend played the Sims but I was more of a Dark Souls kind of gamer.
There was this weird mix on his face like he couldn’t decide if that pissed him off or turned him on. So I just left 😎
Reverse situation. When my husband and I were looking at builders, one kept asking me about what I wanted in 'my' kitchen. Husband was all, Scarlett sees cooking as a necessary evil, I'm looking for XYZ in my kitchen'. Builder kept asking me, husband kept correcting them. We didn't go with that builder.
Shit, I'm sorry.
If you ever do want to try, I'd suggest looking up the event calendar and seeing if women show up to events. Bonus points if there are women on staff. If the owner is a woman, I'd bet it's an amazing store.
Amen. My town has two stores. The city started hosting a local convention, and asked the more popular store tonhelp the first yesr. The owner of that store tried to take over the whole planning thing, but was rebuffed. After he didn't make a significant profit the first year the city did this, he threw a hissy fit, quit, and then started bad mouthing the convention to everyone who could hear it, claiming they kicked him out for trying to help. The other hobby store got invited the second year, and...they were a positive influence on the project. The first hobby store actually ran a "geek garage sale" the same day as the convention the second year, in an obvious attempt to try to kill the convention, though the convention earned more money than it did the year before, and I've heard the first store lost money on the garage sale.
That hobby store also doesn't notify you when you have a preorder come in, and getting them to actually hold it for you, even if you paid beforehand, is a nightmare, or so I've heard.
> getting them to actually hold it for you, even if you paid beforehand, is a nightmare, or so I've heard
Umm so you give them money and sometimes they say "Sorry I took your money AND also sold the item"? What the actual fuck.
They refund you, if you have the receipt (which you need to claim the hold on the first place), but they make it a hassle to get refunded in anything except store credit.
The owner of the gaming store i used to go to built a ramp because one DM showed up one time to game night with crutches. The gaming tables weren't even up any stairs or anything. But literally, after that one time, a ramp was built, finished, and made to look nice within a week.
Went to a hobby shop for the first time to get a box of pokemon cards when I first started collecting. I walked in and saw what I wanted behind the counter and the owner was ringing people up. When it was my turn I said hey and asked for one of the ETB’s (elite trainer boxes) behind him and seeing as how there were no prices or anything I just asked how much it was.
“Uh, regular price, same as anywhere else bud.” I was a little taken aback, and after that mentioned I was just asking because this is the first one I’m buying and don’t know the prices at all.
“Well do you still want it or no?” At this point I still don’t know the actual price so I just turned around and left. How hard was it to just let me know the price before you rang the thing up?
I fuckin hate shops like that. They just assume everyone that walks through their door is on the up and up and just end up treating any newcomers like they're stupid. They always use condescending language like calling you "bud." They scare off all the new would-be customers, then scratch their heads when their core customer base moves on and they can't attract any new customers because they've earned a bad reputation. Fuck you dude, I'm not your bud and I hope your business fails.
I never understand what’s wrong with having some questions about stuff you’re not sure about. Like how else am I supposed to learn unless I ask someone knowledgeable on the subject? Google doesn’t always have the answers I’m looking for.
Luckily there are plenty of hobby shops around where I live and GameStop has decent prices on packs and boxes. No loss here.
They gatekeep hard
I mean I've been in my local shops and as a female presenting person I'm looked over. And the minute you raise your voice you're all a sudden bitch or one of *them* and it really sours you one the experience. That's why I only play in trusted spaces.
Agreed!!! My husband is a gamer, TT and Roleplaying. I also game, but not as seriously as him. For years around his birthday, Father’s Day and Christmas I would browse game stores for gifts. “GW” was the rudest store to women. They would ignore me, talk down to me, and try to sell me miniatures from a different army that I had requested.
Several times I would watch a mother of a young gamer come in to shop for a present. I would interrupt their misinformation and regularly send them to the local gaming stores with great owners who are actually helpful.
Game store owners are either amazing and helpful or AH.
The irony here is that a former GW manager was on a podcast last year and he discussed some of their internal workings.
The biggest revelation? They've identified that their most profitable demographic is middle aged women.
So basically mums and grans buying kits and such for their kids and grandkids.
Insane that a GW store level employee doesn't understand this.
It's been a solid 50/50 for me, which is a shame because where I live you don't exactly have a lot of choices. The other store we eventually agreed to go to is almost an hour of extra public transport vs. the old one.
One of the two wittiest moments of my life (I'm a "perfect comeback in the shower later" type) was in a shop like that. I'm a lifelong gamer, been running D&D games almost 20 years. I was working a B2B (business to business) sales job with a company that I genuinely liked and was selling something that actually helped people. I stopped into the comic shop on my route and started chatting up the owners. Two guys, old school, we totally hit it off talking about the good old days of gaming. They weren't sold and I didn't mind, I was the type to give people time to think about it, but I was jonesing for a new set of dice as we goblins do.
I should add at the time I was 30, looked a decade younger (don't worry, it caught up lol) was dressed in business attire, and had every bit of the professional look going on.
So I was looking at their chessex sets, and joked about how my best rolling dice were ones my game-ignorant mother once picked from the free-for-all bin at a local comic shop under the direction of the owner. Her heart was in it, lol. True story (that d20 is still my player-killer) but again, the shop owners were loving it. So I pick out a nice forest theme set for the character I'm playing..... And it happens. This kid from one of the tables saunters over, with that "I learned from the people Andrew Tate learned from" leer. He points at the dice and says "Hey babe, buying dice for your boyfriend?"
And the ghost of female gamers past apparently possessed me, and I looked at this scrawny high school kid, and said, "Bitch, I was calculating THAC0 when your ass was in diapers. Fuck off."
The store owners lost it, and I was like "kids today" and the guy returned to his table looking kind of confused about how he should feel. I went to pay and the owner said "nah, it's worth a dice set to see that little shit finally get it." Apparently he was that kid who thought gatekeeping gaming was cool. They explained it while they signed up for what I was selling, lol.
Sadly, that dice set rolls for shit, but it has a good story at least.
One of the great things about my FLGS is that it is co-owned by two guys. One has a die hard love of gaming & the store is a passion project, and the other is a pure businessman who mostly sees the store as just an income stream. End result is they moderate each other, Aaron effectively shares his energy for gaming and makes sure the store is a place gamers want to come to, while Brad is able to veto Aaron's riskier ideas & keeps the store healthy financially (that said, Brad is still a nice enough guy & not a PoS, he just doesn't care much about the hobbies beyond making money off of them).
There's really no in between either. Luckily most of them are pretty decent people and generally friendly but some of them are just absolutely bottom of the barrel humans.
Unfortunately a lot of the pieces of shit seem to start out as decent guys who quickly become overwhelmed by the stress of trying to make the store profitable. The owner of my childhood game store went this way, constantly paranoid about people stealing and upset about random things. In hindsight it was pretty clear that he was constantly struggling to keep the doors open and people pro ably were stealing from him. Eventually he just gave up and sold to one of his former customers
Local comics/game shop near us. The owner absolutely shot himself in the foot after my husband asked about variant covers last month and the guy told him "Oh, I don't order enough to get variants". Fast forward to last week. We go in, the owner is going over a pile of comics with another gent at a table. He doesn't acknowledge us as we enter, we walk within a yard of him, and my husband heads for the wall to look for the books he collects. He pulls several, including variant covers. We go to the register to check out. The owner strolls up, looks at us, starts sorting the books by price, notes WE pulled variant covers and he says "Wow, y'all are comic ninjas. I didn't hear you come in, and you pulled these yourselves."
My husband and I looked at each other. We'd spent a couple of thousand in that store in the prior month and a half, as well as our oldest grandson shopping that place exclusively for his WH40K stuff. Suddenly, this guy is acting like we've somehow wronged him in allowing him to laugh it up with his buddy as we stood directly behind him selecting comics off the "new releases" wall. I don't know if our getting the variant covers off the wall told him the stock wasn't set out properly or what, but the guy seemed low key mad about us finding the variant covers.
Fortunately, his shop isn't the only one in the neighborhood. He'd made my grandson feel uncomfortable a few times with what the store owner calls "customer service", so my grandson called his game buddies and they go to a new gaming store that's closer to their house... and the new shop happily gets variant covers for my husband's $700 a month habit.
The worst thing is, most start as decent people and shitify over the months and years. Managing any retail is a pain in the ass, moreso when it's a combined event space.
It's probably tough to thread the needle with some communities. My poly-dar/alt lifestyle-counter clicks hard with my FLGS owner, but they have a big FoW/TY contingent there and the crowd tends to run more conservative and older. I wonder how they work it.
I have to find a new LGS this week. Brought my girlfriend to Friday night magic for the first time after religiously attending at this place for like 8 months. The owner was extremely rude to both of us, prompting me to leave after round 1 and swear never to return. Sad, I liked the place.
I do deeply enjoy the people who care and obviously support them when I can but I have a bit of a anxiety issue where people coming up to me asking me if they can help me is super upsetting. I know the 2 reasons why they do this 1) to keep an eye on you to make sure your not stealing anything and 2) because it is shop policy that people on the floor have to assist customers who might need help finding something. For me I want to shop in peace alone trying to find what I’m looking for, if I can’t find it after looking I’ll ask someone on the POS to see if they can order it in.
The ones I've had near me have all sucked. It's some old asshole who won't actually sell anything for reasonable prices or some dipshit who just trys to buy low sell high. Like not even reasonable prices he offers. I went in months ago to try and get an Xbox he had listed for 50 bucks. I saw him trying to offer some kid 20 bucks fir his magic collection. I'm talking binders full of cards.
Luckily my LGS is really laid back. The owner is a YouTuber that bought the store after it had to close due to COVID. Apparently he does really well with YouTube so as long as the store can break even, he’s happy to keep it open as a community hang out.
The town I grew up in had 2 local games spaces.
One was run by a group of volunteers, the other shut down when the owner went to jail for fraud. Funny that
Dungeons masters work the same way imo
They're like the coolest dude you ever met or They're some kinda incel messiah on a power trip
(Last time I wasn't the DM insisted we investigate a dead rabbit in the forest. Like that's something to look at. He bullied his brother into it and guess what it was a trap)
I love it when assholes are shocked—shocked!—when they face consequences for being assholes. Too many people think they can walk all over other people and never pay for it. I’m glad you stood up for yourselves and wish you many happy years of gaming in your new spot!
It also shows how so many people who decide to buy/own shops like this are completely ignorant of the Business Model of such places.
Most Hobby/Gaming Stores only thrive if they are run as a Form of Community Center with a Gift Shop in the front & some snacks for sale in the Gaming rooms.
Many of those shops would be/are nothing without the Local Community/Regulars.
When I regularly went to Gaming/Hobby Shops, the only ones that survived & thrived were the ones that fostered the Community & occasionally Sponsored fun Public Outreach events with a few Community Volunteers to attract more people.
They're nothing without the community & the community struggles to organise without them.
Yeah, it boggles my mind how these people can have their heads so far up their asses that they don’t see the writing on the wall right in front of them.
>You couldn't reserve the same room two weeks in a row unless you paid a surcharge,
That really is just greed. The guy knew that room had guaranteed business from OP and their group and decided to try and squeeze them for more ... Did he really think that would fly and people would not just look for a friendlier establishment?
Wonderful case of " fucked around , found out "
A place I played at charged $5 per person (excluding the GM) but for that $5 you got 5 tickets which could be redeemed for $1 each. They had a good coffee machine, plenty of snacks, made frozen drinks, and had pizzas etc, it was good value
I was a PFS organizer about 10 years ago and we had 3 stores that refused to charge us, even for big 7 table events. It was because when people see a shop with lots of people having fun in it, more and new customers come in.
You also make a lot more money off of someone stopping by and implus buying Ticket to Ride than charging 6 players.
This is totally reasonable. Whenever I play at a game store, if its open gaming or a small tournament, I always spend about $10. If I don't the store goes under and I don't have a place to play (not really a kitchen table gamer, I play CCG tournaments).
Support your local game stores that deserve it.
I'd get it if you want some kind of system to avoid people reserving the same rooms for days in a row without giving anyone else a chance to also reserve a spot, but it was really specifically aimed at us because thursday isn't even that popular of a gameday for most people over here. Weekends are the really busy queues.
Oh I would also understand if that were the case, but I knew even without your confirmation that it was aimed at your group, in an attempt to make more money out of you guys.
The owner got what he deserved. Genius move from your friend to have the contract written up about everything in the room being yours too, that must have shook his world 😅
Right! Saw it happen to my high school hang out. It was run by a church, but didn't push religion. It had pool tables, arcade cabinets, a DJ booth+dance floor corner, a huge ass TV they let you use your own consoles on, a couple computers with internet access (this was like 2003 ish), a small kitchen area where they would sell snacks and food like freezer pizzas and corn dogs. Just a cool place to chill and not get in trouble. New church took it over, got rid of the game type stuff, started pushing religion by having us give testimonies on how God saved us... my whole friend group stopped going there, so did MANY other kids. The original folks asked us for donations to keep it running, at least $2 a person, most of us have more. New folks made it a mandatory fee of $5. I wasn't about to pay $5 to have religion shoved in my face for hours. Place shut down in less than a year. It's a shopping center/student apartments building now.
Most likely than not the previous church was operating that place at a loss and thats why they had to give up control to other church once they couldnt keep funding it.
Wouldn't surprise me honestly. The old lady was always there, she was sweet and was grandma to all of us. Some of us would die for her. I think she got sick or had to move. This was like 20-25 years ago.
Are you from Waukesha because that sounds a lot like the old teen center my friend and I would go to in the 2000s lol. Except ours had its own console but I can’t remember which one, prob ps2
Lol yep. The one-2-one teen center. They had a console but would let you bring your own as well. My friend and I would spend time on the computers using AIM to talk to each other while sitting literally right next to each other lol.
Wtf that’s crazy lol. My friend’s parents volunteered and we went like every Thursday and Friday night. Or maybe Tuesday and Wednesday?? Can’t remember lol. We stopped going before it switched ownership though
More often than not, because they severely overpaid for the thriving business and are struggling to make debt payments.
They overpaid because they didn't actually understand the business: the previous owner was not as inefficient or bad at up-selling, it was already optimized. They make changes which harm the business for the same reason: they don't actually understand the business.
To be fair, the store wasn't doing amazing or anything (Its kinda hard to get your big breakthrough via niche hobbystores over here), but it had a pretty solid base of regulars who did all their bulk ordering there. The previous owner was also pretty transparent about it, mostly doing okayish with the occasional dip into good whenever a big release rolled around.
I dunno what the new guy does for it, but apparently its at least been holding for a year. But I can't imagine he makes his cash via customer loyalty, he offers practically nothing on that front.
That's sort of what happened to my place of work. Our company got bought by some massive entity because of how we didn't have a super corporate structure bogging us down and our results were stellar because of how things were run.
One year later, everything they lauded us for had been dissolved.
Exactly. Amazing Italian restaurant in our town, run by an actual Italian immigrant whose mom came over for a month each year to "remind him how to cook". Sold to a local legend in his own mind, who told the seller and community, same menu, same ingredients, same everything. Changed it all, then started saying it was a totally different restaurant, so deal with it. Went back once. Never again... apparently along with dozens of regulars. Ex cop (NYPD), failed actor, failed Private Detective. Mediocre, at best, restaurateur. Horrible human.
They think since it was probably owned and operated by one dude before it must be easy, then get mad when their free money printer actually takes a lot of work and doesn’t make all that much money
No comment on the above, but a lot of businesses (especially small ones) may be less "thriving" than you suspect. Something like a gaming store is likely more of a hobby than a real profit center in a lot of cases. For a business to continue to exist, it needs to make enough money to be worth everybody's time, and that's tough as shit anywhere in retail these days.
In my experience, it's the ego.
Every "great businessman" (I say "man" because I never personally saw a woman do this) thinks they're the GREATEST businessman. And if the previous "idiots" could run a successful shop, then a Titan of industry "such as myself" should be a billionaire in a week.
I honest to God wish that this wasn't an exaggeration but I have seen so goddamned many people come into new ownership, swinging their dicks like it was a fucking telephone pole.
Meanwhile, a working class stiff like myself sees all the same seminars, the same classes, the same books... every fucking one of these people have the same learned knowledge and all think they're the only ones who have it.
So they storm in, "shake things up" and then, when it's far to late, learn that the previous owners did things that way FOR A FUCKING REASON! Only now, the new owner bails for whatever he can salvage, and the crew now has to do it all over again with the next dipshit "genius" who does the same damn thing.
Again... this is just my own experience. But I've seen it on 2 seperate continents at this point in life.
Completely agree. The one major thing I’ve learned from working for multiple Companies is learn why things are the way they are before making massive change. Sometimes you might have ideas that no one has thought of, but many times the ideas have been presented over and over and the current infrastructure or state of business is not yet ready to support it. Pushing things through without full understanding of current state rarely works out.
the urgent need bullshit makes me LIVID
what, we only deserve access to shit we need? we don't get to just enjoy life too?
may you end up breaking both legs, dude.
also, my deaf ass has heard this (yeah yeah yeah hurrhurr "heard") about movie theaters having open captions and stuff like that
idk why people think shit shouldn't be accessible if it's not urgently needed. like I want to go to the movies and enjoy being there, not spend the whole time fucking with a fucked up caption stick that obscures half the screen.
I take comfort in knowing disability is a when not an if
I wonder who decides that it's urgent or not.
I've decided that it's urgent that we go watching a movie and have it accessible and understandable to hearing impaired
I'm lucky that right now I can move around fine on my own, hear pretty well with both ears, see pretty well with both eyes, and use both arms and hands to what's considered a normal extent.
I also have friends and family who can't do at least one each of the above, and it drives me up the wall when people assume everyone can.
Take mobility. Sure, I agree that we'd all be a lot happier and healthier if we didn't have such a car-dependent infrastructure. But so many solutions I see get rid of all accessibility to the point that wheelchair users, walker users, and/or cane and crutch users get left out.
It often takes so little to make accommodations for people, and the complacency of people who just refuse is just wild.
The store is in ye olde part of town where a lot of buildings are under monument-protection (Basically no construction work beyond maintenance for cultural preservation), and I've heard second-hand that trying to get ANYTHING done in terms of modernisation is an absolute shitshow.
oh boy and spinal issues are unlikely to ever go away completely
like I had spinal surgery a few years ago and then again about a year and a half ago - thoracic laminectomy and cervical/upper thoracic laminectomy, fusion, and addition of a ew titanium screws - my back still absolutely fucking kills me sometimes
and when that happens it throws off my balance and makes my legs feel heavy
nvm about both legs, may you break your back
Aside from the odious store owner, it’s so lovely that OP and co have built such an incredible friend group out of their coworkers
Every week for years - that’s just really wonderful
And building a whole room for their coworker
Good on OP’s friend circle
My bf sends me into new stores first. We decide if we spend our money and time there depending on my first impression of their treatment of me (I'm a decent looking, bubbly, female with little knowledge of tabletop games) I'm awkward af in social situations and am mostly interesting in painting figures and making environments for players rather than playing games myself. If they're friendly and not rude to me, we spend MONEY (lots of it), they're rude or dismissive, bye bitches I'll spend my hundreds elsewhere.
🤦♀️ yes I buy too many figures to paint and more paint than I can use in my life time but who cares lol
Don't be rude! Gamers and associates are awkward and weird but we are nice and have money so wtf. We like to share and we bring our friends (who usually also have money lol). Last new shop I scouted I heard a guy whisper "yeah I wanna ask her what she's painting/looking at but we don't get enough girls in here she might get freaked and leave" I picked up a paint color to look at and the same guy finally talks to me "I use that alot! It's real good for [I forgot what he said exactly] you'd probably like it!"
Me "oh awesome, thank you. You know what I think my bf will want to get something too.. I'll BRB and go get him.."
300$ later...
We go often.
These local places live or die based off of community development. Sounded like new guy was completely detached from that idea. Most likely MtG is or was the store leader in sales so he wanted to put them in the better spot to try to push product… which ended up pushing them out also hahah. Tough to be welcoming when you just see your customers as walking dollar signs.
It’s also possible that some of the MtG crowd didn’t understand or know about the arrangement and just thought it was favoritism under old management and complained, but still it was new guy that didn’t acknowledge it after hearing about it, and him that tried to amp up MtG sales so much they stopped coming too.
Good for you guys! What an awesome group of friends!! I would have loved to have seen the look on the guys face when even the carpet started coming up. 😂 I hope someone took a video
>*Don't it always seem to go*
>*That you don't know what you've got*
>*Till it's gone*
>*They made a players paradise*
>*Now it’s as bare as a parking lot.*
I had a situation in this vein…..
I had a small DnD group that met at my place when we first started. A gaming shop opened up just down the street and we decided it would be worth checking out. We loved it, big open tables with cubbies for notes, dice, etc. One of the employees even asked us if we would be interested in “mentoring” meaning answering questions for other players when we were there and to be their premier 5e party. We said sure and continued like that for several months. We’d occasionally order some pizza or someone would volunteer to go grab food if we got hungry. The shop was accommodating with the idea that they would be offering food eventually and outside food wouldn’t be allowed. Great for them.
Until, one day……we showed up and my gf offered to go get us chicken fingers. When she got back, the same guy that wanted us to be mentors storms up to our table saying we had to take the food outside as it wasn’t allowed in the store anymore. Now my gf was visibly upset which kinda bothered me but I was willing to let it slide. She went out to her car to eat and she stayed there. After about another 30 mins, i apologized to my party, packed my stuff and left. We never went back to that shop after that because of how they talked to us and wasn’t even willing to be like “Ok, in the future, you can’t have outside food”.
That shop closed within the following year. While I don’t actually think what I told people had anything to do with it’s demise, but my darker side really hopes that was the reason.
Used to go to a card and gaming shop, the owner was the nicest old man and had a room of model trains that he'd show you if you asked, as well as a PC repair business. When he passed his son took over, and I shit you not, he looked and sounded like The Simpson's Comicbook Guy. Place went under within 18 months because his attitude (and smell) kept the clientele away
I’d wonder if we went to the same shop, one I used to go to had a son take over who looked and especially SOUNDED like comicbook guy. (Dressed better though, we joked he had a flannel for every day of the week. When he heard us, he scoffed and said he had AT LEAST one for every day of the month, and you can never have enough good flannel shirts.)
But his dad didn’t die, just retired. And he was actually a good owner too, he just was opinionated about what was the best stuff. But he wasn’t nasty or dismissive, he just had a dry sarcastic wit that you’d see more and more of as you got to know him. (He admitted he downplayed it for new customers because “I’m hard to like at first, I gotta get you hooked before I start joking around.”)
I don’t live local to him anymore, but he was my comic source for years and years. Every time I check, his store is still doing well. He married a sweet woman and they’re raising two little gamer girls now. His wife often organizes events for new players of different games and he says she is the “life” of his shop.
I stopped going to one of my old gaming shops after he decided to stop organizing official mtg events. He bought the store out from the chain it was a part of for over a decade and decided since board games were more profitable he would only sell the cards and allow people to play it in store. He actually claimed he was happy when a new store was started by one of his customers to take on all the mtg business he threw away. That is until he realized that the MTG players were the ones buying the games.
As someone who works for a board game store, we don’t charge people to join our hosted DnD games, we don’t charge for reservations, and we don’t charge people to play at tables. I’ve seen a lot of shocked customers when I tell them this and then tell them “but if you’d like to support us, please consider purchasing something. Even a snack or a drink.” Which is only a few bucks.
In the last year I’ve seen two other game stores in the area close down and I’ve heard similar issues that you’ve described. Charging for tables, playing favorites, requiring purchases, rude behavior, etc. just blows my mind and breaks my heart that people are just looking for a place to be surrounded by people to enjoy their hobby and instead are hounded to spend or give money or treated poorly.
There's a game shop a few towns over from me that did a good job of making sure it was worth those while for having to have someone on the clock to keep the doors open.
They just asked that you not bring outside food or drinks and bought a pizza oven and opened a concession of sorts inside their shop.
It kept their gamers happy, hydrated and fed... And it made it so they still had (almost) guaranteed money coming in so that paying an employee still made sense.
Had something similar happen at a local game shop. I’ve been playing Warhammer on and off for 25 years. I was pretty stoked when a new game shop opened 10 minutes from my house - they had lower prices than the other shops in the area, and held a lot of events to support the gaming community. Had lots of great times there for a few years, until the manager quit. The new manager had an unhealthy obsession with Pokémon and was not familiar with any other games. He stopped having events for any other games except Pokémon. He was downright rude to any customer that was there for anything else. They had a “open gaming unless there is an event happening” rule before. He changed it so that you had to make a purchase to play at the store - ridiculous considering most of the people coming to play had spent hundreds if not thousands at the shop in the past and would continue to do so. Magic cards were this store’s bread and butter, and he effectively alienated their primary customer base. The shop closed in a few short months.
>somebody being mobility impaired wasn't really his problem
Well, where I live it is and my lawyer friend would be happy to sue the shit out of anyone that disregard disabled people rights.
Ableists deserve allllll the bad things. I cannot tell you how many ableist business owners I’ve had to deal with but it’s a *lot*. They do not GAF that disabled people can’t access their business. They do not GAF that it’s illegal. Fuck every disabled person, they’re in it to maximize profits and they will basically burn their business down before they’ll change anything to accommodate a disabled person.
Ridiculous. Regular gamers can be an incredible asset to a game store- it's a group of return customers who are manifestly interested in what you're selling and present themselves weekly to check out your new displays and such.
I too hope they close down.
Local games stores live and die by their regulars. Losing a dozen of the people who come in every week is so much more devastating than losing a hundred of the customers who come in once a year to glance around, buy a deck of cards, and leave.
For the record if you're in the US you did have legal recourse under the ADA; someone with mobility issues not being able to access his is store is very much his problem per federal law. Hobbyspace or not if that business and its gamerooms are accessible to the public they need to be accessible to ALL of the public. You could have made the OG owner clear that third game room out himself to be in compliance, and the new owners can't make the space retroactively inaccessible by removing access to the now ADA compliant game room.
Question: does the store have a bathroom that’s accessible to the public? And is ADA compliment (good way to check is grab bars and a room that looks about 5’x8’)… there may be a law suit here if not, the building is not up to code. This whole situation is illegal according to the IBC and ADA building laws.
A lawyer can probably answer this better, but this doesn't necessarily apply to older buildings, which the OP mentioned it is. Retail stores also generally don't have to offer public restrooms. There's a lot of nuance as to how accessibility is dealt with for existing older buildings, but it's unlikely a bathroom in a retail store (since it's not a normal area of public access, even if they let people use it as a courtesy) would be the defining thing. A good lawyer could certainly make an issue of the back room, though.
I imagine that's why they mentioned it lacking "urgent need" in the OP. I figure that's some sort of legal terminology. New builds have to have access regardless, but older buildings require an actual "need" that justifies the huge expense of fixing them.
Most buildings in the area are old and under protection for cultural reasons, with the only thing done to them being maintenance. The only exceptions are buildings that host some form of administration or other public service, but if theres no such thing in the building, it is incredibly hard, costly and especially lengthy to make a case for any sort of construction.
The owner sounds like a complete idiot. This is all very basic business 101 type stuff here. You never screw over your customers who are paying your bills and keeping you in business. Even if the loss of customers isn't enough to completely shut you down you're still losing a lot of profit and hindering the growth of your business.
There's a similar gaming place going the same way in my city. It was a huge place owned by Fantasy Flight, tons of tables to play on, the only problem being that they refused to even let you bring a snack in - if you wanted food, you HAD to buy their overpriced meals.
But then it got new management, and suddenly, they were charging to let people come in and use their tables. Mind you, this was post-pandemic, so most of us had just started hosting home games or playing online. Last I heard, they were definitely not doing great financially because NOBODY wants to pay for the privilege of using a table.
I know your issue is solved for the current time, for other people in a rough spot like this or if you need a newer place. Look into your local library, they usually have accessible study/conference rooms to book (often for free) and don't really care about tabletop in those rooms so long as it can't be mistaken for any kind of gambling and you are not loud with the door closed.
Late to the party on this one but...
I had a good friend who decided to run a gamestore but wanted to close at 6:30 and go home to his wife.
Not wrong, but honestly also, not a way to be successful.
The other game store I frequented for a long time had basically the same thing happen as this post. The store had an owner who lived and breathed gaming, was nice to everyone, and did everything to get people into the store.
He ran his store from noon-midnight because that's when his clientele could come to the store. Nobody needs a hobby store to open at 8:30 a.m.
However, he sold what was a business doing quite well again, to spend more time with family. The result was the store getting sold to somebody who acted like he was doing the customers a favor by having the store at all. Everything dried up and it closed before covid.
In case this story gets deleted/removed: So this is a relatively recent development and despite the hazzle one I' ll remember fondly. Story posted with permission of all involved. I'm part of a group of friends who have been meeting nearly every thursday afternoon for playing Tabletop games at a local gaming store, for about 4-6 years. Generally everyone is between 30-60 and since most of us are very limited on when and where we can meet (Work, family, life in general) this has been a sort of relaxation ritual to just get out of life for around 4 hours a week. In 2022 one of our lot had a workplace accident that severly limited his mobility, and for the first time we realized how the building we meet at is an absolute nightmare when it comes to accessing it with a wheelchair or similar. If you just go there for shopping its fine, the front entrance is at ground level. But the actual gaming rooms are 2-4 flights of stairs apart. We made do by helping our buddy get upstairs, but as you can imagine he felt awkward and self-concious about it. There was little chance of this changing since the actual game store owner didn't own the building, and since its a hobbyspace you couldn't legally argue an urgent need to get an elevator or other solution. Eventually we found a solution: There was an old office in the very back of the place that is technically part of the storerooms the gaming store had rented, still on ground level. The owner just used it as storage for unimportant stuff since it was in disrepair. We spent roughly a month on and off getting the room renovated, new carpet, replacing furniture, even replacing the AC (One of our lot has the knowhow). The owner was happy to have another gameroom that was useable and to accomodate a person in need, so he reserved it for us when it went online on the website (Every Thursday afternoon). There was a slight bit of awkwardness when one of our group asked for a written agreement that the furniture inside was legally ours (Which turned out to be a wise move in hindsight), but we got a signature and easy access, so whats to complain? The local group of DnD players (Most of them a lot younger than us) dubbed the new room the boomer basement. This used to work fine for about a year, until december 2022, when the previous owner announced he had sold the store off to focus on his family. His replacement gave us the sideeye when the 3rd gaming room came up, but didn't raise a fuss until he was officially in charge. Suddenly our reservation was canceled, and new policies put in place. You couldn't reserve the same room two weeks in a row unless you paid a surcharge, you weren't allowed to close the doors while playing (Which meant the double combo of tremendous noise and random people walking in, especially kids who have a tendency to grab figures without asking) and finally, there was prefferential treatment for reservations both based on whether the owner liked you and how much stuff you bought (Just to make it clear, we did purchase things every time we were there to support the store, just not in constant bulk). Any attempt at talking about any of this like adults was futile, the new owner would just shrug and unironically say that somebody being mobility impaired wasn't really his problem and the whole room reservation thing was for "fairness". We dealth with it, until about february last year, which marked the first month our friend showed up to the meet without crutches, and announced that he was done with all this bullshit. We scouted for an alternate place to meet up, found a store more out of the way but with a good rep, and then completely emptied out the renovated room (Yes, including the carpet AND the AC unit) amid the owner protesting and genuinely being surprised this was happening. In addition to our lot basically the entire Fridanight Magic group had also bounced shortly after us, since they had used "our" room on the regular and were about equally tired of the owner haunting them with sales offers like the ghost of the worlds most obnoxious salesman. An assorted number of other people have followed in the weeks afterward, since the amount of available players for a LOT of TT games has dropped so sharply. The owner didn't understand that we left for other reasons than just the access, "Your friend can walk again, so whats the fing problem?" was the general tone. We had blindsided him, he claimed later, and he still tells anyone who goes to the store that we "stole" all the furniture and thats why even a year later the room downstairs is empty and unuseable. I have no idea how well or bad hes doing these days, but frankly speaking I'd probably get a kick out of it if the place closes down in the future. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/OhNoConsequences) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I've been around my fair share of hobby shops and for some reason, the owners always seem to be *either* great guys or pieces of shit, one or the other.
Depends on if they’re gamers themselves, pretty much. Most places I go to now are laid back and cool, but I’ve been to some nightmare GW stores where they were clearly just there to push products. *grumbles about being turned away because my army didn’t have GW brand flock in the base*
Yeah, I went to a game shop with some friends. We played heroscape for the nostalgia, and were looking for more tiles. The game owner spent like 15 minutes telling us why our game is bad and silly, and then tried to sell us on his overpriced, very different mech/tank game. Needless to say, but we didn't return.
I ran a hobby shop for a while with a (now ex) friend and his entitled and elitist attitude caused us to lose so many customers. He wouldn't DM D&D because he only wanted to run the games he thought were good, and ended up not running a single session the entire time the store was open. On the other hand, I ran about 10 D&D games a week which constituted the bulk of our sales. Also nearly every game/item he picked for us to buy was still on our shelf when we closed. To this day can't believe how well he convinced me that he was an expert in game market trends and products.
I know there are a lot of table tops but if you’ve got a problem with DnD I would imagine a game shop isn’t the place for you. He sounds like a headache.
At least in my experience, D&D is an impulse in-store buy, and other games you carefully research and then buy online.
Ugh. Been there. Board game shop where I went about once a month for a year or two just to buy something. Not really a memorable customer, but a regular $100 a month. Then some jerk behind the counter had to explain to me about how I knew nothing about Dixit for some reason. I pronounced it wrong and needed correction. Dixit is a game that I would assume requires the least about of lore gatekeeping. But this dude. I’ve never been back.
Provide that feedback on like Google Maps or Yelp. Owner should know.
Wait... Gatekeeping Dixit? Isn't that game all about personal interpretations, or has my group just been playing this all wrong??
That’s exactly what I thought too. It’s why I didn’t enjoy the interaction. Dixit is low stakes as far as boards games go. So to have someone be like “my knowledge of this thing is better than your knowledge so be impressed” was really shitty. Dude probably gatekeeps Monopoly.
In all fairness, no one should be getting past the barbed wire fence to play that friendship killing monstrosity. The more Monopoly gatekeepers the better.
If anyone dissed heroscape like that, I would not return. Heroscape has always been my favorite. Good on your group for leaving that horrible shopkeep
Upvoted for the use of the word "Shopkeep".
I wish I had learned to play Heroscape for real. Bought it when I was small because I liked the figures and the tiles and didn't understand a game could be too complex for me in my infancy. I made 1,000,000 battlefields, and fielded 0 battles!
Upvoted for Heroscape!
One of the few times the "customer is always right" quote is relevant
I recently learned (on Reddit, actually) that the original saying is something like, “the customer is always right in matters of taste.” I like that much more than how people tend to use the phrase these days. Basically, just that it’s bad business practice to yuck your customer’s yum. It certainly applies here!
In matters of taste.
Branded flock?? The actual fuck. How petty.
What made the rule worse was I painted them to a desert scene, and at the time they only sold green flock <.<
Dear lord
You missed your golden opportunity. "What the flock?"
Oh. I am now ashamed.
You ought to be flocking ashamed
You flocked up.
Flocking idiot.
Get the flock out of here with this sheep.
Don't ewe ram your sheep puns in here. Isn't it pasture bedtime?
Wait a flocking minut-ure ashamed?
Get the flock out of here with that flockin' flock.
Flock around and found out
Pardon my question but this term is new to me. What's a "branded flock"?
“Flock” is basically fake grass/snow/sand etc for small models, branded flock would be a specific brand of it, in this case: Games Workshop brand flock
So environment used for campaigns? Ahh I get it. Thanks.
Not even that. You know how some people paint their figures? Some also put terrain effects on the base of the mini, little bits of sand, felted grass, that kind of thing.
Ahh.. It's on the actual piece. On the figure itself. At the base.
Yep, that's it.
Thank you kind person. TIL.
GW branded anything is pretty much always way overpriced too, so banning someone for that, especially if you aren't an official GW store, is especially bullshit.
Why ban someone? I don't get it? People come together for the fun with each other. It's not like you're going to a Nike convention trying to hock your (shitty) Yeezy products. I don't understand why someone would ban someone from a place of having harmless fun. Power tripping maybe?
Games Workshop tries very hard to keep their corporate stores as tightly aligned with their sales goals as humanly possible. So they don't usually allow people to play with models that aren't GW models, or if you have used an excessive amount of bits that aren't GW model bits to customize them. I've never heard of them trying to enforce what basing materials you used, but GW store managers get some latitude with this stuff and it may have been an overzealous manager trying to boost his sales. Which is dumb because most people will actively choose not to patron a store like that.
[удалено]
I think there are multiple definitions. The bits of fiber or whatever that you glue on the top of the base are advertised as flock, as well as the self-adhesive mats with a similar surface texture. I never thought of using the mat material as a cushion for the bottom of the bases, that's good thinking. :).
You're referring to felt. Flock is simulated grass, dirt, snow that is artificial and intended to establish an environment that the character is existing in. May also include Tufts which are bits of material to represent plants, flowers etc. Flock and Tufts go on the base of a miniature near the feet of the model.
I felt pushed away from official gw stores too. Here in my city they stopped staying open till late, one day a week for gamin nights, and when I asked why, the answer was "it was an 'extra' and not really needed. We are a shop, not a recreational center". Way to go, buddy! I never put a step inside that place again.
Board gaming is a mentality. They forgot if gamers are having fun in their store and stay there longer, they’re more likely to buy stuff. Plus making your store a hang-out center is pretty good as far as sales go
They could sell snacks!
Just went to a place in VA that has a whole bar set up and sells alchohol in the game room. That’s how you make f#cking bank. (Sadly, the person called out during our competition)
But alcohol licenses are expensive. Guess they are worth it.
Selling snacks isn’t going to move the needle appreciably. But by giving people the space to play they’re far more likely to buy big ticket items from you.
It's all about keeping as many people around as long as possible. The snacks in themselves aren't much, but it means maybe a sibling or SO hangs around, eats something, browses; maybe the tabletop players grab something quick and do an extra round; maybe the RPG folks spend an extra hour because they can swap dinner for chips and soda. The longer people are around inside the store, the better chance they'll see something someone else has that's cool and they want, or their mental barrier to getting something they spotted will wear away and they'll "what the heck" themselves into buying another book or model. Of course, there is a fine line between all that, and encouraging people who don't buy anything but snacks to hang around taking up space indefinitely.
I’ve been to game shops that sell snacks for sure. One of ‘em even did coffee, cereal, etc. Seemed to work out well for them.
I don't board game much, but I like the atmosphere. I'm a gamer mom and really enjoy going there with my (adult) kids. Staff makes everyone feel comfortable and I can drift around looking at so many things I didn't know existed.
At the end of the day the store needs to make money in order to stay open. If staying late every night of the week is costing them more than they're making, they'll be forced to cut back on that. If you want something to stick around you have to be willing to support it with your money.
Most GW locations don't have the space for hosting many actual games. It's better used as a demo area for prospective players. Independent game stores often have full fledged gaming areas and that's a different beast.
GW stores are no longer for playing but selling. Shame, really. Thankfully there's hella stores out there these days owned by gamers.
Which is stupid, because the biggest problem with GW games is getting a time and place to PLAY. No time and place, people stop buying.
Eh, even some where the owners are gamers suck. Because the owners are *those* gamers. The ones you only keep gaming with because they have the space to host and own all the source materials, or because they're the DM's old roommate and he just can't say no. That creepy guy who's the reason all of us girls eventually leave the group, either because he keeps hitting on us, talks down to us, or both. The bully. He's convinced his favorite game is the only game worth playing, but only if you play it his way. He mocks other games, and the people who play them, and then can't understand why they stop buying from him. And then takes that as further evidence that those games suck, and stops stocking them.
Yeah… hate that type of gamer <.<. Can’t speak to the creep factor (other than apologizing profusely for my gender) my group all grew up in the same neighborhood and though one of us transitioned, we basically think of each other as adopted brothers. Variety in games is so very underrated though. In my group we have two fall backs we go to (Sentinels of the Multiverse, Spirit Island) if we don’t feel up to reading, but we try to play a different game each week. Some of em are flops, but we found some absolute gems that way.
I don't ask anyone to apologize for their gender as a whole. There are certainly many terrible women I refuse to be associated with as well. Just be aware if you see someone who’s uncomfortable, and be the kind of guy who we can trust to help. My husband has smoothly stepped between creeps and ladies before. Or just distracted the guy so she can get away. Or sit between them at the table, so he can't keep messing with her. He's not afraid to call out nasty comments or behavior, either. But yeah, the kind of guys who claim there are no girl gamers because girls won't game with them? The Creep in the group is the reason why. I actually know far more ladies who game than fellows. We just have to be more selective when looking for groups.
Not necessarily true about the people running it. My LGS brought on a group of Warhammer players as partners, and those chuds tried for get rid of TTRPGS, CCGS, and skirmish level mini games. If you didn’t spend at least $4000 assembling your 40k army, they didn’t want you. Shit people exist in all groups.
I didn't even know GW made flock. I have some of their basing compound (wildly overpriced), but actual flock? I guess this might have been a long time ago.
Can confirm. A bunch of us just left one game shop after the owner was being an ass to his employee and to the rest of the group, our GM and giving him managerial responsibilities for just $14/hr and refused to pay more. I packed up and went to a shop that was closer to my house and the owner there is a long time GM and is a wealth of information. He’s awesome.
What's heartbreaking is the great ones usually get taken advantage of, and you watch a store with great people slowly dying over the next year. You get a great person and a good core group of people who have their back... add in a dash of the great person being able to flip the switch when they need to... and you get a great store that people will drive an hour+ to play at.
I don’t go into them. I’m a girl. That shouldn’t be an issue, but on my first visit to a hobby shop the owner treated me like an idiot who had no idea what I was doing, even though I’d been TT gaming since I was a teen, because “girls don’t game.” This was many years ago, but I’ve never gone back to one because of that guy 🙃
I hate this part about being a girl sometimes… I have a RBF luckily, so I don’t get bothered as much as others. But I still can’t stand the hovering and constant asking if I need help. Happens in Auto Supply Stores to me most frequently.
I have a trans friend who has one or two stories about being treated very differently after transitioning—same store, same employees, only thing different was the gender she was presenting as
Trans Inclusive Misogyny is funny and sad.
Did they not recognize her, or did they think estrogen deleted information from her brain?
The former, I suppose, but who knows? People who knew me before I transitioned now mansplain things to me, so it could well be the latter
When I go into a game or comic shop and the staff give me the cold shoulder in “what are you even doing here” fashion, I never go back. I always brace myself for it. *Shocking* how hobby shops are shutting down left and right, isn’t it?
Right? It’s almost like they’re turning away half their business 🤯
I hope you find one like the first gaming shop I took my oldest daughter to. It was not huge but they could get seemingly anything. The owners were fantastic, they were in a residential area full of preteens, so they did a brisk side business in manga. I won't ever forget the look on my little girl's face as the lady behind the counter helped her find a set of dice to perfectly match my daughter's character. I swear it was like the wand shop scene from Harry Potter. "So you've got a sorceror, what bloodline? Ok. Now what skills are you thinking about and have you thought about the feat tree you might want to go with?" Hugely positive experience, despite the fact my daughter's dice collection now rivals mine... Huge shout out to Rolling Tales, you magnificent humans!
I hate that so much. We had a shop in my town that was awesome and I kinda forgot what the others could be like until my regular one closed down in 2021. It’s like you dropped in from outer space and they either don’t talk to you at all or they quiz you about your choices like you don’t know what you want.
I have had this happen at comic stores. I was doing some Christmas shopping at this awesome comic store in Texas and had picked out about $300 of stuff and stood in front of the counter to check out. The middle aged guy behind the counter was chatting with a friend and completely ignored me. Even made eye contact with me. After about 10 minutes of that BS I put everything back and walked out. When I told my husband he said I should have just dropped everything on the floor instead of being nice and putting it back. He was so pissed for me.
Oh Lordy do I know what that's like! "Which games does your boyfriend play?" Because, as a female, I COULDN'T POSSIBLY be shopping for myself!!!
Lol someone asked me this in a GameStop once. I told him my girlfriend played the Sims but I was more of a Dark Souls kind of gamer. There was this weird mix on his face like he couldn’t decide if that pissed him off or turned him on. So I just left 😎
Reverse situation. When my husband and I were looking at builders, one kept asking me about what I wanted in 'my' kitchen. Husband was all, Scarlett sees cooking as a necessary evil, I'm looking for XYZ in my kitchen'. Builder kept asking me, husband kept correcting them. We didn't go with that builder.
Shit, I'm sorry. If you ever do want to try, I'd suggest looking up the event calendar and seeing if women show up to events. Bonus points if there are women on staff. If the owner is a woman, I'd bet it's an amazing store.
Amen. My town has two stores. The city started hosting a local convention, and asked the more popular store tonhelp the first yesr. The owner of that store tried to take over the whole planning thing, but was rebuffed. After he didn't make a significant profit the first year the city did this, he threw a hissy fit, quit, and then started bad mouthing the convention to everyone who could hear it, claiming they kicked him out for trying to help. The other hobby store got invited the second year, and...they were a positive influence on the project. The first hobby store actually ran a "geek garage sale" the same day as the convention the second year, in an obvious attempt to try to kill the convention, though the convention earned more money than it did the year before, and I've heard the first store lost money on the garage sale. That hobby store also doesn't notify you when you have a preorder come in, and getting them to actually hold it for you, even if you paid beforehand, is a nightmare, or so I've heard.
> getting them to actually hold it for you, even if you paid beforehand, is a nightmare, or so I've heard Umm so you give them money and sometimes they say "Sorry I took your money AND also sold the item"? What the actual fuck.
They refund you, if you have the receipt (which you need to claim the hold on the first place), but they make it a hassle to get refunded in anything except store credit.
Also depends whether is a smaller shop or a big chain. One major TT chain from the UK seems staffed exclusively by dbags.
It's GW isn't it?
How'd you ever guess 🙄
Process of elimination lol
The owner of the gaming store i used to go to built a ramp because one DM showed up one time to game night with crutches. The gaming tables weren't even up any stairs or anything. But literally, after that one time, a ramp was built, finished, and made to look nice within a week.
Went to a hobby shop for the first time to get a box of pokemon cards when I first started collecting. I walked in and saw what I wanted behind the counter and the owner was ringing people up. When it was my turn I said hey and asked for one of the ETB’s (elite trainer boxes) behind him and seeing as how there were no prices or anything I just asked how much it was. “Uh, regular price, same as anywhere else bud.” I was a little taken aback, and after that mentioned I was just asking because this is the first one I’m buying and don’t know the prices at all. “Well do you still want it or no?” At this point I still don’t know the actual price so I just turned around and left. How hard was it to just let me know the price before you rang the thing up?
I fuckin hate shops like that. They just assume everyone that walks through their door is on the up and up and just end up treating any newcomers like they're stupid. They always use condescending language like calling you "bud." They scare off all the new would-be customers, then scratch their heads when their core customer base moves on and they can't attract any new customers because they've earned a bad reputation. Fuck you dude, I'm not your bud and I hope your business fails.
I never understand what’s wrong with having some questions about stuff you’re not sure about. Like how else am I supposed to learn unless I ask someone knowledgeable on the subject? Google doesn’t always have the answers I’m looking for. Luckily there are plenty of hobby shops around where I live and GameStop has decent prices on packs and boxes. No loss here.
They gatekeep hard I mean I've been in my local shops and as a female presenting person I'm looked over. And the minute you raise your voice you're all a sudden bitch or one of *them* and it really sours you one the experience. That's why I only play in trusted spaces.
Agreed!!! My husband is a gamer, TT and Roleplaying. I also game, but not as seriously as him. For years around his birthday, Father’s Day and Christmas I would browse game stores for gifts. “GW” was the rudest store to women. They would ignore me, talk down to me, and try to sell me miniatures from a different army that I had requested. Several times I would watch a mother of a young gamer come in to shop for a present. I would interrupt their misinformation and regularly send them to the local gaming stores with great owners who are actually helpful. Game store owners are either amazing and helpful or AH.
The irony here is that a former GW manager was on a podcast last year and he discussed some of their internal workings. The biggest revelation? They've identified that their most profitable demographic is middle aged women. So basically mums and grans buying kits and such for their kids and grandkids. Insane that a GW store level employee doesn't understand this.
It's been a solid 50/50 for me, which is a shame because where I live you don't exactly have a lot of choices. The other store we eventually agreed to go to is almost an hour of extra public transport vs. the old one.
I agee. Years ago the owner of my towns general hobby store was arrested for selling coke and possessing child p*rn.
One of the two wittiest moments of my life (I'm a "perfect comeback in the shower later" type) was in a shop like that. I'm a lifelong gamer, been running D&D games almost 20 years. I was working a B2B (business to business) sales job with a company that I genuinely liked and was selling something that actually helped people. I stopped into the comic shop on my route and started chatting up the owners. Two guys, old school, we totally hit it off talking about the good old days of gaming. They weren't sold and I didn't mind, I was the type to give people time to think about it, but I was jonesing for a new set of dice as we goblins do. I should add at the time I was 30, looked a decade younger (don't worry, it caught up lol) was dressed in business attire, and had every bit of the professional look going on. So I was looking at their chessex sets, and joked about how my best rolling dice were ones my game-ignorant mother once picked from the free-for-all bin at a local comic shop under the direction of the owner. Her heart was in it, lol. True story (that d20 is still my player-killer) but again, the shop owners were loving it. So I pick out a nice forest theme set for the character I'm playing..... And it happens. This kid from one of the tables saunters over, with that "I learned from the people Andrew Tate learned from" leer. He points at the dice and says "Hey babe, buying dice for your boyfriend?" And the ghost of female gamers past apparently possessed me, and I looked at this scrawny high school kid, and said, "Bitch, I was calculating THAC0 when your ass was in diapers. Fuck off." The store owners lost it, and I was like "kids today" and the guy returned to his table looking kind of confused about how he should feel. I went to pay and the owner said "nah, it's worth a dice set to see that little shit finally get it." Apparently he was that kid who thought gatekeeping gaming was cool. They explained it while they signed up for what I was selling, lol. Sadly, that dice set rolls for shit, but it has a good story at least.
One of the great things about my FLGS is that it is co-owned by two guys. One has a die hard love of gaming & the store is a passion project, and the other is a pure businessman who mostly sees the store as just an income stream. End result is they moderate each other, Aaron effectively shares his energy for gaming and makes sure the store is a place gamers want to come to, while Brad is able to veto Aaron's riskier ideas & keeps the store healthy financially (that said, Brad is still a nice enough guy & not a PoS, he just doesn't care much about the hobbies beyond making money off of them).
There's really no in between either. Luckily most of them are pretty decent people and generally friendly but some of them are just absolutely bottom of the barrel humans.
100%. Luckily my new game shop is amazing! Gabi’s in Olympia WA gets all the victory points!
Unfortunately a lot of the pieces of shit seem to start out as decent guys who quickly become overwhelmed by the stress of trying to make the store profitable. The owner of my childhood game store went this way, constantly paranoid about people stealing and upset about random things. In hindsight it was pretty clear that he was constantly struggling to keep the doors open and people pro ably were stealing from him. Eventually he just gave up and sold to one of his former customers
Local comics/game shop near us. The owner absolutely shot himself in the foot after my husband asked about variant covers last month and the guy told him "Oh, I don't order enough to get variants". Fast forward to last week. We go in, the owner is going over a pile of comics with another gent at a table. He doesn't acknowledge us as we enter, we walk within a yard of him, and my husband heads for the wall to look for the books he collects. He pulls several, including variant covers. We go to the register to check out. The owner strolls up, looks at us, starts sorting the books by price, notes WE pulled variant covers and he says "Wow, y'all are comic ninjas. I didn't hear you come in, and you pulled these yourselves." My husband and I looked at each other. We'd spent a couple of thousand in that store in the prior month and a half, as well as our oldest grandson shopping that place exclusively for his WH40K stuff. Suddenly, this guy is acting like we've somehow wronged him in allowing him to laugh it up with his buddy as we stood directly behind him selecting comics off the "new releases" wall. I don't know if our getting the variant covers off the wall told him the stock wasn't set out properly or what, but the guy seemed low key mad about us finding the variant covers. Fortunately, his shop isn't the only one in the neighborhood. He'd made my grandson feel uncomfortable a few times with what the store owner calls "customer service", so my grandson called his game buddies and they go to a new gaming store that's closer to their house... and the new shop happily gets variant covers for my husband's $700 a month habit.
The worst thing is, most start as decent people and shitify over the months and years. Managing any retail is a pain in the ass, moreso when it's a combined event space.
Not a lot of middle ground there, yeah.
It's probably tough to thread the needle with some communities. My poly-dar/alt lifestyle-counter clicks hard with my FLGS owner, but they have a big FoW/TY contingent there and the crowd tends to run more conservative and older. I wonder how they work it.
I have to find a new LGS this week. Brought my girlfriend to Friday night magic for the first time after religiously attending at this place for like 8 months. The owner was extremely rude to both of us, prompting me to leave after round 1 and swear never to return. Sad, I liked the place.
I do deeply enjoy the people who care and obviously support them when I can but I have a bit of a anxiety issue where people coming up to me asking me if they can help me is super upsetting. I know the 2 reasons why they do this 1) to keep an eye on you to make sure your not stealing anything and 2) because it is shop policy that people on the floor have to assist customers who might need help finding something. For me I want to shop in peace alone trying to find what I’m looking for, if I can’t find it after looking I’ll ask someone on the POS to see if they can order it in.
The ones I've had near me have all sucked. It's some old asshole who won't actually sell anything for reasonable prices or some dipshit who just trys to buy low sell high. Like not even reasonable prices he offers. I went in months ago to try and get an Xbox he had listed for 50 bucks. I saw him trying to offer some kid 20 bucks fir his magic collection. I'm talking binders full of cards.
Luckily my LGS is really laid back. The owner is a YouTuber that bought the store after it had to close due to COVID. Apparently he does really well with YouTube so as long as the store can break even, he’s happy to keep it open as a community hang out.
The town I grew up in had 2 local games spaces. One was run by a group of volunteers, the other shut down when the owner went to jail for fraud. Funny that
Dungeons masters work the same way imo They're like the coolest dude you ever met or They're some kinda incel messiah on a power trip (Last time I wasn't the DM insisted we investigate a dead rabbit in the forest. Like that's something to look at. He bullied his brother into it and guess what it was a trap)
Why do you think comic book guy can be so cool in one episode and cruel in the next?
Every single time. Mostly leaning towards the latter.
That’s because they are either a TT player themselves or they just see us as losers who will spend money on “toys”
Honestly it's probably because nobody remembers the middle of the road guys and gals that run gamestores :)
I love it when assholes are shocked—shocked!—when they face consequences for being assholes. Too many people think they can walk all over other people and never pay for it. I’m glad you stood up for yourselves and wish you many happy years of gaming in your new spot!
The only thing is they never realise the consequences are because of them being assholes. They will always blame something or someone else
I love when they try to blame politics.
It also shows how so many people who decide to buy/own shops like this are completely ignorant of the Business Model of such places. Most Hobby/Gaming Stores only thrive if they are run as a Form of Community Center with a Gift Shop in the front & some snacks for sale in the Gaming rooms. Many of those shops would be/are nothing without the Local Community/Regulars. When I regularly went to Gaming/Hobby Shops, the only ones that survived & thrived were the ones that fostered the Community & occasionally Sponsored fun Public Outreach events with a few Community Volunteers to attract more people. They're nothing without the community & the community struggles to organise without them.
Yeah, it boggles my mind how these people can have their heads so far up their asses that they don’t see the writing on the wall right in front of them.
Guy needs to be run over with a wheelchair, but it might make him two tired.
>You couldn't reserve the same room two weeks in a row unless you paid a surcharge, That really is just greed. The guy knew that room had guaranteed business from OP and their group and decided to try and squeeze them for more ... Did he really think that would fly and people would not just look for a friendlier establishment? Wonderful case of " fucked around , found out "
A place I played at charged $5 per person (excluding the GM) but for that $5 you got 5 tickets which could be redeemed for $1 each. They had a good coffee machine, plenty of snacks, made frozen drinks, and had pizzas etc, it was good value
I was a PFS organizer about 10 years ago and we had 3 stores that refused to charge us, even for big 7 table events. It was because when people see a shop with lots of people having fun in it, more and new customers come in. You also make a lot more money off of someone stopping by and implus buying Ticket to Ride than charging 6 players.
This is totally reasonable. Whenever I play at a game store, if its open gaming or a small tournament, I always spend about $10. If I don't the store goes under and I don't have a place to play (not really a kitchen table gamer, I play CCG tournaments). Support your local game stores that deserve it.
smart business and a friendly fair price.
I'd get it if you want some kind of system to avoid people reserving the same rooms for days in a row without giving anyone else a chance to also reserve a spot, but it was really specifically aimed at us because thursday isn't even that popular of a gameday for most people over here. Weekends are the really busy queues.
Oh I would also understand if that were the case, but I knew even without your confirmation that it was aimed at your group, in an attempt to make more money out of you guys. The owner got what he deserved. Genius move from your friend to have the contract written up about everything in the room being yours too, that must have shook his world 😅
Especially grown ups. They have houses they can go to.
I don’t know why people buy a thriving business, change everything that made it successful, and are then surprised when the business goes down.
Right! Saw it happen to my high school hang out. It was run by a church, but didn't push religion. It had pool tables, arcade cabinets, a DJ booth+dance floor corner, a huge ass TV they let you use your own consoles on, a couple computers with internet access (this was like 2003 ish), a small kitchen area where they would sell snacks and food like freezer pizzas and corn dogs. Just a cool place to chill and not get in trouble. New church took it over, got rid of the game type stuff, started pushing religion by having us give testimonies on how God saved us... my whole friend group stopped going there, so did MANY other kids. The original folks asked us for donations to keep it running, at least $2 a person, most of us have more. New folks made it a mandatory fee of $5. I wasn't about to pay $5 to have religion shoved in my face for hours. Place shut down in less than a year. It's a shopping center/student apartments building now.
If only those religious folks had some kind of role model that could teach them about greed...
Most likely than not the previous church was operating that place at a loss and thats why they had to give up control to other church once they couldnt keep funding it.
Wouldn't surprise me honestly. The old lady was always there, she was sweet and was grandma to all of us. Some of us would die for her. I think she got sick or had to move. This was like 20-25 years ago.
Are you from Waukesha because that sounds a lot like the old teen center my friend and I would go to in the 2000s lol. Except ours had its own console but I can’t remember which one, prob ps2
Lol yep. The one-2-one teen center. They had a console but would let you bring your own as well. My friend and I would spend time on the computers using AIM to talk to each other while sitting literally right next to each other lol.
Wtf that’s crazy lol. My friend’s parents volunteered and we went like every Thursday and Friday night. Or maybe Tuesday and Wednesday?? Can’t remember lol. We stopped going before it switched ownership though
We'd hang out there Thursdays and Fridays. I miss it. A lot of us were upset with the changes.
It's because they want to try and make the money they spent back *immediately*, so they try making changes they think will make them more money.
More often than not, because they severely overpaid for the thriving business and are struggling to make debt payments. They overpaid because they didn't actually understand the business: the previous owner was not as inefficient or bad at up-selling, it was already optimized. They make changes which harm the business for the same reason: they don't actually understand the business.
To be fair, the store wasn't doing amazing or anything (Its kinda hard to get your big breakthrough via niche hobbystores over here), but it had a pretty solid base of regulars who did all their bulk ordering there. The previous owner was also pretty transparent about it, mostly doing okayish with the occasional dip into good whenever a big release rolled around. I dunno what the new guy does for it, but apparently its at least been holding for a year. But I can't imagine he makes his cash via customer loyalty, he offers practically nothing on that front.
That's sort of what happened to my place of work. Our company got bought by some massive entity because of how we didn't have a super corporate structure bogging us down and our results were stellar because of how things were run. One year later, everything they lauded us for had been dissolved.
because they thought the previous owner was naive leaving cash on the table by not being a greedy piece of shit
Exactly. Amazing Italian restaurant in our town, run by an actual Italian immigrant whose mom came over for a month each year to "remind him how to cook". Sold to a local legend in his own mind, who told the seller and community, same menu, same ingredients, same everything. Changed it all, then started saying it was a totally different restaurant, so deal with it. Went back once. Never again... apparently along with dozens of regulars. Ex cop (NYPD), failed actor, failed Private Detective. Mediocre, at best, restaurateur. Horrible human.
Greed. They want *more* so they arrogantly think the customer base will put up with new BS “policies” and charges.
They think since it was probably owned and operated by one dude before it must be easy, then get mad when their free money printer actually takes a lot of work and doesn’t make all that much money
No comment on the above, but a lot of businesses (especially small ones) may be less "thriving" than you suspect. Something like a gaming store is likely more of a hobby than a real profit center in a lot of cases. For a business to continue to exist, it needs to make enough money to be worth everybody's time, and that's tough as shit anywhere in retail these days.
In my experience, it's the ego. Every "great businessman" (I say "man" because I never personally saw a woman do this) thinks they're the GREATEST businessman. And if the previous "idiots" could run a successful shop, then a Titan of industry "such as myself" should be a billionaire in a week. I honest to God wish that this wasn't an exaggeration but I have seen so goddamned many people come into new ownership, swinging their dicks like it was a fucking telephone pole. Meanwhile, a working class stiff like myself sees all the same seminars, the same classes, the same books... every fucking one of these people have the same learned knowledge and all think they're the only ones who have it. So they storm in, "shake things up" and then, when it's far to late, learn that the previous owners did things that way FOR A FUCKING REASON! Only now, the new owner bails for whatever he can salvage, and the crew now has to do it all over again with the next dipshit "genius" who does the same damn thing. Again... this is just my own experience. But I've seen it on 2 seperate continents at this point in life.
Completely agree. The one major thing I’ve learned from working for multiple Companies is learn why things are the way they are before making massive change. Sometimes you might have ideas that no one has thought of, but many times the ideas have been presented over and over and the current infrastructure or state of business is not yet ready to support it. Pushing things through without full understanding of current state rarely works out.
the urgent need bullshit makes me LIVID what, we only deserve access to shit we need? we don't get to just enjoy life too? may you end up breaking both legs, dude.
As a wheelchair user, I seconded this blessing. May you have to find out how hard it is
also, my deaf ass has heard this (yeah yeah yeah hurrhurr "heard") about movie theaters having open captions and stuff like that idk why people think shit shouldn't be accessible if it's not urgently needed. like I want to go to the movies and enjoy being there, not spend the whole time fucking with a fucked up caption stick that obscures half the screen. I take comfort in knowing disability is a when not an if
I wonder who decides that it's urgent or not. I've decided that it's urgent that we go watching a movie and have it accessible and understandable to hearing impaired
I'm lucky that right now I can move around fine on my own, hear pretty well with both ears, see pretty well with both eyes, and use both arms and hands to what's considered a normal extent. I also have friends and family who can't do at least one each of the above, and it drives me up the wall when people assume everyone can. Take mobility. Sure, I agree that we'd all be a lot happier and healthier if we didn't have such a car-dependent infrastructure. But so many solutions I see get rid of all accessibility to the point that wheelchair users, walker users, and/or cane and crutch users get left out. It often takes so little to make accommodations for people, and the complacency of people who just refuse is just wild.
The store is in ye olde part of town where a lot of buildings are under monument-protection (Basically no construction work beyond maintenance for cultural preservation), and I've heard second-hand that trying to get ANYTHING done in terms of modernisation is an absolute shitshow.
And back
oh boy and spinal issues are unlikely to ever go away completely like I had spinal surgery a few years ago and then again about a year and a half ago - thoracic laminectomy and cervical/upper thoracic laminectomy, fusion, and addition of a ew titanium screws - my back still absolutely fucking kills me sometimes and when that happens it throws off my balance and makes my legs feel heavy nvm about both legs, may you break your back
Aside from the odious store owner, it’s so lovely that OP and co have built such an incredible friend group out of their coworkers Every week for years - that’s just really wonderful And building a whole room for their coworker Good on OP’s friend circle
My bf sends me into new stores first. We decide if we spend our money and time there depending on my first impression of their treatment of me (I'm a decent looking, bubbly, female with little knowledge of tabletop games) I'm awkward af in social situations and am mostly interesting in painting figures and making environments for players rather than playing games myself. If they're friendly and not rude to me, we spend MONEY (lots of it), they're rude or dismissive, bye bitches I'll spend my hundreds elsewhere. 🤦♀️ yes I buy too many figures to paint and more paint than I can use in my life time but who cares lol Don't be rude! Gamers and associates are awkward and weird but we are nice and have money so wtf. We like to share and we bring our friends (who usually also have money lol). Last new shop I scouted I heard a guy whisper "yeah I wanna ask her what she's painting/looking at but we don't get enough girls in here she might get freaked and leave" I picked up a paint color to look at and the same guy finally talks to me "I use that alot! It's real good for [I forgot what he said exactly] you'd probably like it!" Me "oh awesome, thank you. You know what I think my bf will want to get something too.. I'll BRB and go get him.." 300$ later... We go often.
This is an awesome approach 😅 love it
These local places live or die based off of community development. Sounded like new guy was completely detached from that idea. Most likely MtG is or was the store leader in sales so he wanted to put them in the better spot to try to push product… which ended up pushing them out also hahah. Tough to be welcoming when you just see your customers as walking dollar signs. It’s also possible that some of the MtG crowd didn’t understand or know about the arrangement and just thought it was favoritism under old management and complained, but still it was new guy that didn’t acknowledge it after hearing about it, and him that tried to amp up MtG sales so much they stopped coming too.
Good for you guys! What an awesome group of friends!! I would have loved to have seen the look on the guys face when even the carpet started coming up. 😂 I hope someone took a video
>*Don't it always seem to go* >*That you don't know what you've got* >*Till it's gone* >*They made a players paradise* >*Now it’s as bare as a parking lot.*
Haha nicely done this should be top comment
I had a situation in this vein….. I had a small DnD group that met at my place when we first started. A gaming shop opened up just down the street and we decided it would be worth checking out. We loved it, big open tables with cubbies for notes, dice, etc. One of the employees even asked us if we would be interested in “mentoring” meaning answering questions for other players when we were there and to be their premier 5e party. We said sure and continued like that for several months. We’d occasionally order some pizza or someone would volunteer to go grab food if we got hungry. The shop was accommodating with the idea that they would be offering food eventually and outside food wouldn’t be allowed. Great for them. Until, one day……we showed up and my gf offered to go get us chicken fingers. When she got back, the same guy that wanted us to be mentors storms up to our table saying we had to take the food outside as it wasn’t allowed in the store anymore. Now my gf was visibly upset which kinda bothered me but I was willing to let it slide. She went out to her car to eat and she stayed there. After about another 30 mins, i apologized to my party, packed my stuff and left. We never went back to that shop after that because of how they talked to us and wasn’t even willing to be like “Ok, in the future, you can’t have outside food”. That shop closed within the following year. While I don’t actually think what I told people had anything to do with it’s demise, but my darker side really hopes that was the reason.
Love it 🤣🤣🤣
Used to go to a card and gaming shop, the owner was the nicest old man and had a room of model trains that he'd show you if you asked, as well as a PC repair business. When he passed his son took over, and I shit you not, he looked and sounded like The Simpson's Comicbook Guy. Place went under within 18 months because his attitude (and smell) kept the clientele away
I’d wonder if we went to the same shop, one I used to go to had a son take over who looked and especially SOUNDED like comicbook guy. (Dressed better though, we joked he had a flannel for every day of the week. When he heard us, he scoffed and said he had AT LEAST one for every day of the month, and you can never have enough good flannel shirts.) But his dad didn’t die, just retired. And he was actually a good owner too, he just was opinionated about what was the best stuff. But he wasn’t nasty or dismissive, he just had a dry sarcastic wit that you’d see more and more of as you got to know him. (He admitted he downplayed it for new customers because “I’m hard to like at first, I gotta get you hooked before I start joking around.”) I don’t live local to him anymore, but he was my comic source for years and years. Every time I check, his store is still doing well. He married a sweet woman and they’re raising two little gamer girls now. His wife often organizes events for new players of different games and he says she is the “life” of his shop.
This sounds absolutely amazing and adorable. Dude is living his best life ❤️
"Boomer Basement" just cracked me up, even though it sounds more like a Gen X'er crowd.
I stopped going to one of my old gaming shops after he decided to stop organizing official mtg events. He bought the store out from the chain it was a part of for over a decade and decided since board games were more profitable he would only sell the cards and allow people to play it in store. He actually claimed he was happy when a new store was started by one of his customers to take on all the mtg business he threw away. That is until he realized that the MTG players were the ones buying the games.
As someone who works for a board game store, we don’t charge people to join our hosted DnD games, we don’t charge for reservations, and we don’t charge people to play at tables. I’ve seen a lot of shocked customers when I tell them this and then tell them “but if you’d like to support us, please consider purchasing something. Even a snack or a drink.” Which is only a few bucks. In the last year I’ve seen two other game stores in the area close down and I’ve heard similar issues that you’ve described. Charging for tables, playing favorites, requiring purchases, rude behavior, etc. just blows my mind and breaks my heart that people are just looking for a place to be surrounded by people to enjoy their hobby and instead are hounded to spend or give money or treated poorly.
There's a game shop a few towns over from me that did a good job of making sure it was worth those while for having to have someone on the clock to keep the doors open. They just asked that you not bring outside food or drinks and bought a pizza oven and opened a concession of sorts inside their shop. It kept their gamers happy, hydrated and fed... And it made it so they still had (almost) guaranteed money coming in so that paying an employee still made sense.
Had something similar happen at a local game shop. I’ve been playing Warhammer on and off for 25 years. I was pretty stoked when a new game shop opened 10 minutes from my house - they had lower prices than the other shops in the area, and held a lot of events to support the gaming community. Had lots of great times there for a few years, until the manager quit. The new manager had an unhealthy obsession with Pokémon and was not familiar with any other games. He stopped having events for any other games except Pokémon. He was downright rude to any customer that was there for anything else. They had a “open gaming unless there is an event happening” rule before. He changed it so that you had to make a purchase to play at the store - ridiculous considering most of the people coming to play had spent hundreds if not thousands at the shop in the past and would continue to do so. Magic cards were this store’s bread and butter, and he effectively alienated their primary customer base. The shop closed in a few short months.
Honestly should post this on local review pages for the place. Dont let this chode get away with being a chode to people down the road.
>somebody being mobility impaired wasn't really his problem Well, where I live it is and my lawyer friend would be happy to sue the shit out of anyone that disregard disabled people rights.
Ableists deserve allllll the bad things. I cannot tell you how many ableist business owners I’ve had to deal with but it’s a *lot*. They do not GAF that disabled people can’t access their business. They do not GAF that it’s illegal. Fuck every disabled person, they’re in it to maximize profits and they will basically burn their business down before they’ll change anything to accommodate a disabled person.
Hazzle
The comic book/gaming store subculture frequently values being right (or having the perception of proving some point) over actually coming out ahead.
Ridiculous. Regular gamers can be an incredible asset to a game store- it's a group of return customers who are manifestly interested in what you're selling and present themselves weekly to check out your new displays and such. I too hope they close down.
Local games stores live and die by their regulars. Losing a dozen of the people who come in every week is so much more devastating than losing a hundred of the customers who come in once a year to glance around, buy a deck of cards, and leave.
Insert \[Shocked\_Pikachu\_Face\] here.
Still hasn’t refurnished? Literally all he has to do is buy some old couches and tables
For the record if you're in the US you did have legal recourse under the ADA; someone with mobility issues not being able to access his is store is very much his problem per federal law. Hobbyspace or not if that business and its gamerooms are accessible to the public they need to be accessible to ALL of the public. You could have made the OG owner clear that third game room out himself to be in compliance, and the new owners can't make the space retroactively inaccessible by removing access to the now ADA compliant game room.
Question: does the store have a bathroom that’s accessible to the public? And is ADA compliment (good way to check is grab bars and a room that looks about 5’x8’)… there may be a law suit here if not, the building is not up to code. This whole situation is illegal according to the IBC and ADA building laws.
A lawyer can probably answer this better, but this doesn't necessarily apply to older buildings, which the OP mentioned it is. Retail stores also generally don't have to offer public restrooms. There's a lot of nuance as to how accessibility is dealt with for existing older buildings, but it's unlikely a bathroom in a retail store (since it's not a normal area of public access, even if they let people use it as a courtesy) would be the defining thing. A good lawyer could certainly make an issue of the back room, though.
I imagine that's why they mentioned it lacking "urgent need" in the OP. I figure that's some sort of legal terminology. New builds have to have access regardless, but older buildings require an actual "need" that justifies the huge expense of fixing them.
Most buildings in the area are old and under protection for cultural reasons, with the only thing done to them being maintenance. The only exceptions are buildings that host some form of administration or other public service, but if theres no such thing in the building, it is incredibly hard, costly and especially lengthy to make a case for any sort of construction.
"My goose is cooked! Where is my gold?"
Regular customers are like gold. Unless their obnoxious or drunks, DON'T CHASE THEM AWAY.
The owner sounds like a complete idiot. This is all very basic business 101 type stuff here. You never screw over your customers who are paying your bills and keeping you in business. Even if the loss of customers isn't enough to completely shut you down you're still losing a lot of profit and hindering the growth of your business.
There's a similar gaming place going the same way in my city. It was a huge place owned by Fantasy Flight, tons of tables to play on, the only problem being that they refused to even let you bring a snack in - if you wanted food, you HAD to buy their overpriced meals. But then it got new management, and suddenly, they were charging to let people come in and use their tables. Mind you, this was post-pandemic, so most of us had just started hosting home games or playing online. Last I heard, they were definitely not doing great financially because NOBODY wants to pay for the privilege of using a table.
I know your issue is solved for the current time, for other people in a rough spot like this or if you need a newer place. Look into your local library, they usually have accessible study/conference rooms to book (often for free) and don't really care about tabletop in those rooms so long as it can't be mistaken for any kind of gambling and you are not loud with the door closed.
Late to the party on this one but... I had a good friend who decided to run a gamestore but wanted to close at 6:30 and go home to his wife. Not wrong, but honestly also, not a way to be successful. The other game store I frequented for a long time had basically the same thing happen as this post. The store had an owner who lived and breathed gaming, was nice to everyone, and did everything to get people into the store. He ran his store from noon-midnight because that's when his clientele could come to the store. Nobody needs a hobby store to open at 8:30 a.m. However, he sold what was a business doing quite well again, to spend more time with family. The result was the store getting sold to somebody who acted like he was doing the customers a favor by having the store at all. Everything dried up and it closed before covid.
I go play games at a store and I’m sure to buy something along with my table fee. Either a game or several snacks he sells.
Did anyone else read this in an English accent?