Charge for game tables at a local store. Good or bad?

tylermo · Post by **tylermo** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:39 pm

Greetings, all. A new brick and mortar just opened yesterday (in my backyard). This store comes on the heels of another store that had nice owners, but practically no on-shelf merchandise. The store also suffered from being dirty, and having one or two customers who were among the stinkiest, reakers of the gaming world. Imagine the worst gamer you've ever smelled x 10. You could be 5-10 feet from the guy, and whoof! But, that's another story. Either way, one store closed, and another opened. This one should be in good hands. Due to other work restrictions, this store will only be open from 4-10pm Tue-Fri, and 12-10pm on Saturday. That's not so bad in a smaller town, I suppose. There's only one thing this store is doing that seems to bother me. They have two rooms (one for 7 people and the other for 10 people) that can be rented for 15.00 for 5 hours usage. A smaller fee will apply if more hours are needed. I'm not sure if they're going to charge for D&D 4th sessions(since it's a bread and butter product) and there is a lounge that will be open (for free) for card games, and (I think) rpg demos. The owner is an acquaintance of mine, and a wonderful guy. His thought is that this will help pay the rent ,and other bills. And(my thoughts, not his) it will keep the "unwashed" masses who have little money for corebooks and cards, and even less for deoderant, toothpaste, and soap, from living in the store 24-7. Bear in mind, the owner is NOT a rich man, works another full-time job. He and his partner had to take a loan, as well. All of that said, I hope he drops the table rental idea. The idea is to have people play in your store, while buying dice, books, cards, pencils, pop, and candy. Any thoughts?

cinderblock · Post by **cinderblock** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:53 pm

This does not work. I've been to several stores that have tried this. It made me so angry I never bought product from them, in several cases never returned to their store. IMHO this is like DDI or any other con job that soaks money from gamers (MMO's). Beg your friend not to do it.

As far as stinky gamers coming to his store....its gonna happen. I think the stinky gamers believe its their right to annoy the rest of the world with their horrid funk.

Matthew · Post by **Matthew** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:14 pm

Better to simply place a sign on the door. "Please be mindful of the sensibilities of others. Discourteous individuals will be asked to leave."

You could also have a 1 drink minimum for people who want to use rooms.
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Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:24 pm

The Green Dragon in Charleston charges $2.00 per night you go into the gaming rooms. That is per person. At first I didn't like it, but I came to accept it. Plus the unwashed ones did disappear. Besides, I figured $2.00 to go game at and mess up their place, or have people come over and mess up my place. I decided it was worth the money to not have to clean up after the players.
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nittanytbone14 · Post by **nittanytbone14** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:34 pm

I don't have a problem with it.

Welcome to the real world, folks. Stuff costs money. A typical group of 5 people will have to fork over $3/session each to play. That's a small fraction of the price of taking five folks to see two movies, playing minigolf all afternoon, or paying for a gym membership.

After you use his place, he needs to clean the room. He also needs to replace the furniture occasionally and maybe even pay the rent!

Plus, if the owner is smart, he'll have some alternate pricing schemes...

- "Frequent visitor club" or somesuch that lets you schedule a regular weekly session and get one free every month or something.

- Discounts for regular customers that actually buy stuff.

- Not look at the clock too closely at the end of the 5 hrs for regular groups of good folks that you want to keep in the store.

- Discounts for groups of folks that you want to reward/keep around. 20% off for military folks in a town with a base could draw clientele that have some disposable income and are less disposed to causing trouble/being obnoxious. 20% off for folks who bought a book in the last 6 months from him. 20% for students at a local university. Whatever groups you want to attract.

Deogolf · Post by **Deogolf** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:20 pm

Charging for gaming space? Don't like it. If that's the case, just game at someone's house, probably more fun anyway.
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DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:23 pm

Not a big fan of charging for the area either. Back when I actually had local game stores, I wouldn't have played at one that charged.

Homes or the conference room at the local library are free.

GameOgre · Post by **GameOgre** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:21 pm

Have him make a RPG club for his store. Not only does the club give you a small discount on games and books(small) but it also gives you the option to game in the back rooms. The club membership is free to those who buy product at the store.

You're friend can make a lot more $ off selling soda and candy ect to those who use the rooms than he can off charging a fee for the use of the room and will not insult any of his customer base in doing so.

Also the freeloaders have to buy product in order to use the space.Maybe not a lot of product but at least some.
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jamesmishler · Post by **jamesmishler** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 11:14 pm

I have no problem with that at all. It will indeed keep out the riffraff, and as others have mentioned, he has to pay the rent.

I can completely understand the desire and need for him to charge for game space. I've seen guys who've never bought from the local store game there continuously, hanging out there from game to game like they live in the place, paw through and read all the books on the shelf (to decide what to buy from online discounters) and, during their games, tell other players where to find the best discounts online. And yet if the owner shot these guys, he'd be the one in trouble!

If I were the owner, though, I'd start up a "buy and play" program. He can get a ton of specially-printed tokens cheap, like the old arcade slugs, and give them out to people who buy product, say, one token per $10. These tokens could be used to pay for room space, each worth a dollar, for playing and snack purchase purposes only (maybe two tokens per $1 can be used to buy games, up to half the MSRP). That way people who buy from the store regularly get to game there free.

As others here said, stores have to pay bills. With people buying online all the time, yet still wanting gaming space, I see no problem with charging for it...
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Post by **Breakdaddy** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 11:39 pm

jamesmishler wrote:
If I were the owner, though, I'd start up a "buy and play" program. He can get a ton of specially-printed tokens cheap, like the old arcade slugs, and give them out to people who buy product, say, one token per $10. These tokens could be used to pay for room space, each worth a dollar, for playing and snack purchase purposes only (maybe two tokens per $1 can be used to buy games, up to half the MSRP). That way people who buy from the store regularly get to game there free.

This is a good idea, and would be less likely to put people off than a straight charge fee for everyone, great customer and freeloader alike. Also, charging a nominal fee for drinks and snacks is a must for this kind of business. Good luck to your friend, tylermo, this is a tough business to get in to anymore and I wish him the best.

Harry Joy · Post by **Harry Joy** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 11:54 pm

cinderblock wrote:
As far as stinky gamers coming to his store....its gonna happen. I think the stinky gamers believe its their right to annoy the rest of the world with their horrid funk.

Nope. Doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Shouldn't be, actually, in my opinion. As a manager of small businesses for years, I restricted the access of customers who didn't comprehend basic hygiene. Kicked them out to be honest. Now that I am a manager for a large company with even vaster numbers of the general public coming through on a daily basis, I find that I still can and need to keep the stank out of my store. If you don't wash, I don't want your money. The folks who DO bath regularly tend to be better customers and spend more money overall, because they tend to have better jobs and more friends.

hth

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:22 am

I wouldn't mind payed $2 to $5 for a night but $15 for five hours is something I wouldn't pay. Besides I like gaming at home. In rooms you have groups playing on top of each other and each interfering in the others games not on purpose mind you but just by design. It's much easier not having those distractions.
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tylermo · Post by **tylermo** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:28 pm

Thanks to all of you for your input. I'm becoming somewhat more of a believer in charging for the space(IF a store has to do it). I agree about not watching the clock closely, if there's no other group scheduled to play. And, for weekly campaigns, I like the idea of cutting players a small break, particularly if they're buying product. Some have said they won't frequent stores that charge for gaming tables. I don't think there will be a tremendous amount of backlash in this community. It's a town of about 35,000-40,000. There are a couple of comic stores, that typically don't stock games. The owner of the new game store used to work at one of the comic stores, and I think(as friends) they decided that his game store won't sell comic products(not that he was intending to), and the comic store will forgo(a few gaming special orders-except for Marvel and DC Heroclix). Sounds like they will use the referal network to help each other. The only other competition in town for rpg's and boardgames(excluding Milton Bradley, Parker Bros, etc) is Hasting's, and Barnes and Noble. The gamestore owner has a good base of friends and acquaintances who will shop there despite the rental fee. Plus, I think their MAY be exceptions for D&D. I may be wrong about that. Either way, I think he'll do well. Back to the table rental issue, I'll probably have to use his facility, because I live in another town. Only 2 or 3 gamer friends live here. A bulk of the players live near that store. Some may not be in a position to host at home, so...Either way, I do appreciate the input.

Go0gleplex · Post by **Go0gleplex** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:01 pm

A friend of mine had a game store for a few years. He charged .50/hour for the table...usually it was the responsibility of the DM to collect for this. so if you had 5-10 folks show up, they were paying a dime to nickel each for playing there. They helped offset utility costs which they weren't when not purchasing merchandise and it wasn't overly onerous.

Now...the $15.00/hr that the OP is mentioning is a bit silly. I could see maybe $1 or 2 tops and not per person but per table.
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tylermo · Post by **tylermo** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:31 pm

It was 15.00 per 5 hour session. I think 5.00 or 10.00 would be somewhat more appropriate.