My dream is to open up my own Game store... Any tips?

[Dime]

Disagree. Like what was said above, a local game store that’s closer to a high school than the nearest GameStop would be a great spot compared one in the middle of nowhere. I do agree that it matters less if it’s an arcade, though.

Even so, I would say “don’t do it” like a lot of the people have already said in the thread. It’s competition that you can’t really go up against and in all likelihood it’s going to just lose you money… Seriously. You’ll hardly make anything off each game sold.

If you do decide that, since it’s a dream of yours, you want to go through with it anyways… I’d advertise it as a hangout/arcade. Host tournaments and buy/resell used games. Probably don’t stock up too much on new games since you won’t really turn a profit there. Maybe do something similar to what the Cafe:ID KOF guys in Korea do with their place, charging $10 to play for the day and offer a food/snack bar.

… yeah i should have explained it better… basically if its a game store, then location does definitely matter… but your demographic is what counts… ive seen alot of mom and pop game stores and none of them were situated in malls, and most made most of there money via online overseas sales. gamestores suck, cause GS basically kills them so they have to find alternative ways to find revenue like breaking into the online market for obscure titles that GS doesnt carry. nd they still went out of business… its just that it took awhile.

i came out here to perth and a guy had just opened up an arcade about 4-5 months prior to me moving were from the states… i was interested how he was “making it work” i thought he was crazy. he had a great “location” lots of foot traffic at the citys main central hub ie a bus station,train station, multilevel parking and numerous eateries within walking distance… i asked him how much rent he was paying… it was i think 3500-4500 bucks a month… i was astounded… no way this can work i thought… long story short, his “location” didnt get people into his store… people just passed it by, or played a game or 2 and left… ive seen this happen many times over a long period with various game based buinesses… he of course went out of business a small time later. the best place to open an arcade or even a game store is NOT in a mall… thats pretty much a death call cause of the high rent plus the facvt that people arent going there just for the game store… they are ging there to shop and spend money on other shit… the kids that hang out go there cause they have no money… in small residential districts are the “gold” places to open up places… basically where kids can either walk or ride there bike to get to.

those places are the ones that have lasted the longest from what ive overwhelmingly seen. the problem is zoning and coding… you want these places where “liquor stores” would normally go… we all know liquor stores… they are close to us, we can walk there.

the idea of making people pay for an all day pass of like 10-20 dollars is a good one… it gets people in the store… i know from experience. but in the end the places still went out of business… it just took alot longer.

the only way i’d open up a game based store was if i won the lottery and didnt care about slowly losing money since i have plenty to go around…

winning the lottery and then opening up an arcade has been MY dream, like, forever.

but um yeah, real world… that shit aint happening.

-dime

[zferolie]

-dime

Well, this is still all a dream. I doubt it will ever happen unless I come into some serious money.

It may have been vacant for so long due to rent. It will be something I look into at some point.

Well, the store, while in a more, has 2 entrances, one inside and one outside. It may be possible, and I would imagine it would be, to have the mall one close when the rest of the mall is, but keep the outdoor one open late… And having some sort of food would be good, but we have a pizza place 2 doors down. Perhaps some sort or deal could be worked out.

Unfortunately, where I live is my mothers home(cheap ass rent haha), so that is out of the question. But that sort of idea is interesting.

And yeah, I plan to do more then just games. Arcade, gaming areas, and some tabletop and card games, maybe a small comic section.

Disagree. Like what was said above, a local game store that’s closer to a high school than the nearest GameStop would be a great spot compared one in the middle of nowhere. I do agree that it matters less if it’s an arcade, though.

Even so, I would say “don’t do it” like a lot of the people have already said in the thread. It’s competition that you can’t really go up against and in all likelihood it’s going to just lose you money… Seriously. You’ll hardly make anything off each game sold.

If you do decide that, since it’s a dream of yours, you want to go through with it anyways… I’d advertise it as a hangout/arcade. Host tournaments and buy/resell used games. Probably don’t stock up too much on new games since you won’t really turn a profit there. Maybe do something similar to what the Cafe:ID KOF guys in Korea do with their place, charging $10 to play for the day and offer a food/snack bar.

Yeah, not having too many copies of new games, but having a trade and resell system for older games would be better for cost reasons. And the $10 bucks to play for a day with food and drink is and interesting idea.

.

-dime

While I call it a mall, it’s just really a mall in name only.

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/17369275/25-Kinnelon-Rd-Kinnelon-NJ/

You can see with the photos and stuff it’s more like a shopping center, and not that big either. Still, it is almost always busy due to the theater and the Pathmark.

[ShinoBee]

I noticed you guys brought up schools…if you really want to open this game store/arcade, you need to also consider talking to your city council about store hours. In a lot of areas nowadays, your arcade needs to be open AFTER K-12 school hours on weekdays as a way for the children to not skip school to go to the arcade.

[DaRabidDuckie]

Another thing to consider is distributors and wholesalers. Do NOT piss these people off. Pay off your orders on time. Failure to do so will mean you don’t get games in on the day they release, which will pretty much kill your business. There’s tons of competition these days… Walmart, Gamestop, Amazon… don’t get your games in on time, and you’ll quickly lose business to these people.

Also, if you host tournaments, don’t pay in store credit. That pisses people off a LOT, especially if they had to pay a fee to enter.

[Whitney_s_Miltank]

Gamestop’s already been mentioned, but do you have a Walmart near you? If so, that’s a problem.

[Equin0x]

I’m not in business but some advice I have is to maybe start with an online store first. Another thing that I would recommend is to have some sort of thing that makes your store standout from big retailers like gamestop or bestbuy. For example play n’ trade allows gamers to try the game before they buy and they host tournaments. just food for thought