Opening A Game Store?

[oxymoron]

I'll start by giving a little background. I'm currently in Junior year of Highschool and am looking to apply early to colleges. I have a passion for business and videogames so I thought I'd make a hybrid of both. I've recently been researching a lot about the retail video game industry and want to know as much as possible.
I already have my foot in the door as my father is a franchisee in the retail food industry. He can tell me a lot about the food industry but not much about the electronics which is what attracts me. That's what I want to know from you guys who have been patrons, employees, business owners in the retail video game industry. Things like if it's better to open an indie store or franchise, costs, potential profit, is it a good sector of the retail work, etc. Thanks in advance.

[Violent By Design]

Really depends on where you live.

Can't say independent gamestores are doing too hot in New York. Most of them had to close down with Gamestop standing tall (with many of them closing down as well). Gamestop dodged a bullet with Microsoft taking back its digital download only clause, but assuming hardcopies are going to become a relic of the past I'm not sure if an actual physical store is worth investing in.

If you sell other electronics in general, you can stand a chance but you'd have to find a nice niche I'd assume, other wise you'd be bullied by other companies. Maybe a camera store or something.

I worked in Staples and it gets a lot of business, including the tech departments, but that obviously has huge name brand attached to it.

Opening up a gaming store doesn't seem like it has a high chance of being a long term business at all.

[Metal Jesus]

The Seattle area has over 10... yes 10 Retro Gaming stores in our area. Each one is a little different than the others, but they are all great!

Here's a map with all their info and contact info if you want to know more:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=21 ... cb69&msa=0

[oxymoron]

The Seattle area has over 10... yes 10 Retro Gaming stores in our area. Each one is a little different than the others, but they are all great!

Here's a map with all their info and contact info if you want to know more:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=21 ... cb69&msa=0

I guess thats one example were indie trumps franchise. I saw some of the stores in your videos.

[Metal Jesus]

I guess thats one example were indie trumps franchise. I saw some of the stores in your videos.

We have a cubic buttload of Gamestop's in the Puget Sound area too... Probably 15 or 20 of them...but they don't really compete with retro gaming stores, because they don't sell the same thing. The bigger question is: Do you have a lot of retro game collectors in your area.

See, we have Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Valve, EA, Big Fish, Bungie and over 250 other gaming companies in Washington state... so the gaming culture is already pretty big.

[oxymoron]

I guess thats one example were indie trumps franchise. I saw some of the stores in your videos.

We have a cubic buttload of Gamestop's in the Puget Sound area too... Probably 15 or 20 of them...but they don't really compete with retro gaming stores, because they don't sell the same thing. The bigger question is: Do you have a lot of retro game collectors in your area.

See, we have Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Valve, EA, Big Fish, Bungie and over 250 other gaming companies in Washington state... so the gaming culture is already pretty big.

Theres no shortage of gamers of every creed in Los Angeles. Granted that most are modern gamers. That and the fact that we're are moving at the speed of light towards the all-digital era is what scares me.

[SpoonyBard]

Probably the most important thing would be to have a consistently fresh inventory. When customers stop bringing you new/interesting things, you need to have another way to bring them into the store through forum trades/deals, or buying in lots.

You probably wouldn't need to be so concerned with tapping LA out of stuff, but there will definitely be times where everything you see coming in is Madden XX and dollar atari games. And if all your customers see is the same Combat carts and dollar sports games every week, they're going to stop checking in as often.



Also, to address the other thread...

The franchise fee is $30,000. That's a lot of money that could be better spent on inventory and advertising in my opinion.

As a customer I don't care if i'm shopping at Play 'N trade or Billy Bob Billiamsons Game Emporium and Welding Service - if they've got games and i'm aware of its existence i'm walking in every time i'm in the area.

I may be in the minority in this of course, but i've never felt that a franchise name has been that important. If anything, i'm more likely to visit the non-franchise store simply because I don't know what i'm getting.

So i'd say yes, an indie store would probably be a much more viable route.

But there's a reason that people open franchises instead of indie places. For one, they already have a customer base.

I'd definitely agree with that if you were talking about opening a Burger King. People will drive by that and think "Oh, it's a Burger King, I can order a Whopper and it will probably taste very similar to a Whopper I will get anywhere else. It will be the same price and I know it will make me not hungry anymore!"

I don't think that holds as true with places like Play N Trade. The prices can be different, the inventory will be different, and the owners decisions impact the store much moreso than a typical restaurant franchise. You can't count on (and typically don't get) the same experience. There will certainly be people that recognize the brand, and it may be true to an extent, but Play N Trade/Mega Media Xchange/Gaming Generations or any of the other franchise game stores carry the same recognition that restaurant franchises do.

Is the customer base that you get from the name Play & Trade substantial enough that you couldn't establish the same with $30,000 worth of advertising?

[ninjainspandex]

The Seattle area has over 10... yes 10 Retro Gaming stores in our area. Each one is a little different than the others, but they are all great!

Here's a map with all their info and contact info if you want to know more:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=21 ... cb69&msa=0

I was in Seattle a couple years ago for business and I stopped at Pink Gorilla near Chinatown, it was amazing! tons and tons of imports.

[oxymoron]

Probably the most important thing would be to have a consistently fresh inventory. When customers stop bringing you new/interesting things, you need to have another way to bring them into the store through forum trades/deals, or buying in lots.

You probably wouldn't need to be so concerned with tapping LA out of stuff, but there will definitely be times where everything you see coming in is Madden XX and dollar atari games. And if all your customers see is the same Combat carts and dollar sports games every week, they're going to stop checking in as often.



Also, to address the other thread...

The franchise fee is $30,000. That's a lot of money that could be better spent on inventory and advertising in my opinion.

As a customer I don't care if i'm shopping at Play 'N trade or Billy Bob Billiamsons Game Emporium and Welding Service - if they've got games and i'm aware of its existence i'm walking in every time i'm in the area.

I may be in the minority in this of course, but i've never felt that a franchise name has been that important. If anything, i'm more likely to visit the non-franchise store simply because I don't know what i'm getting.

So i'd say yes, an indie store would probably be a much more viable route.

But there's a reason that people open franchises instead of indie places. For one, they already have a customer base.

I'd definitely agree with that if you were talking about opening a Burger King. People will drive by that and think "Oh, it's a Burger King, I can order a Whopper and it will probably taste very similar to a Whopper I will get anywhere else. It will be the same price and I know it will make me not hungry anymore!"

I don't think that holds as true with places like Play N Trade. The prices can be different, the inventory will be different, and the owners decisions impact the store much moreso than a typical restaurant franchise. You can't count on (and typically don't get) the same experience. There will certainly be people that recognize the brand, and it may be true to an extent, but Play N Trade/Mega Media Xchange/Gaming Generations or any of the other franchise game stores carry the same recognition that restaurant franchises do.

Is the customer base that you get from the name Play & Trade substantial enough that you couldn't establish the same with $30,000 worth of advertising?

First of all I want to thank you for taking the time to write this. If i'm correct you believe that with the right ethic an indie store can strive past any franchise? In retrospect that would seem right but how come you always see indie stores closing and not franchises? By that I mean any franchise I mean a company w/ 5+ stores.

[skyknight]

Not easy to own your own business, and videogames are not easy to maintain. I live in Minneapolis, and over the last 10+yrs, I have seen plenty of small indie game stores come and go - the best they could do was last about 3~5 yrs.

The ones that were more successful did have playable units for pass-byers to try out, and had knowledgeable staff - thou it was the PASSION, not the PAY that the guys did it. I am pretty sure these indie stores didn't manage to break even. There's one that opened about two yrs ago (I guess?), that is still in the mall - that one does open house tournament from time to time for sports and fighting games. But I think the state of MN does not allow business to do a money pool tournament.