What it costs to run an independent game store

>>4128365
>directly linking to polygon
fag

also it's not just game stores, all brick and mortar retail shops are dying off these days

>>4128365

Why would anyone maintain a brick & mortar store for anything but food or necessities?

There's no reason not to make eBay your official storefront. No employees, no rent, no overhead, your customers are EVERYONE in the country, instead of just your local douchebags, etc...

Having the storefront gives you the benefit of people coming in to give you trade ins

>>4128382
>>4128383
I work for FedEx, and they're having to open up a new delivery terminal in my area every 3 to 4 years to keep up with all the growth. it's incredible the common stuff people have gotten too lazy to go to Walmart to get. Dog food. paper towels, bottled water...

>>4128383
>Shill for ebay

Ebay is literally cancer for both reseller scum and their retarded hipster buyers. The normie scum deserve each other.

>>4128382
>all brick and mortar retail shops are dying off these days
Not really. There are three malls near me that are always packed with people.

There will always be a demand for getting your purchases faster than online shopping can provide.

>>4128383
>There's no reason not to make eBay your official storefront.
I agree, the mere concept of a retro game store is somewhat irrational given that we have eBay. If they sold games for, say, $5 or $10 over eBay prices, then I think it would be worth it for the convenience, but they usually seem to mark their prices up by a good $20 at least, and the more expensive/rare the game is, the worse a deal they give you.

But I love the concept of retro game stores. I miss the way the world was before the internet, back when if you wanted something, you had to physically go out into the world and get it. And I just love the feeling of seeing shelves full of SNES and N64 and Dreamcast boxes. It just makes me happy. That's why I keep supporting these stores (as long as they don't price gouge TOO much).

I think these stores should try and reinvent themselves into something more like "game destinations" rather than just game stores, if they want to justify their existence in the long term. Host tournaments, have speed running competitions, whatever. Build a community, be a cool place to hang out, and also just happen to sell games. I would love to visit an arcade/retro store hybrid, although I don't think anything near me fills that niche.

File: Buggy.jpg (55KB, 640x457px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 640x457px

>>4128365
BUT WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE BUGGY WHIP MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY??
LORD SAVE US, THE ECONOMY IS HELD UP BY THOSE BRAVE BUGGY WHIP PRODUCERS!!

>>4128395
>Pretending an eBay reseller is any different than a B&M reseller

If you are selling used items, you are a "reseller", period. Enjoy those garage sales.

>>4128365
>every pre-ps2 console
>a handful of dated sports games and shovelware you can't even give away

>newer systems
>all sports games, cod, and licensed bullshit

>90% of your day is spent dealing with meth heads trying to sell you stacks of ICP CDs, PS3s and LG phones

Have I just described the struggle? Got a store that focuses heavily on retro vidya but wheels and deals all electronics in my city. Cool guys, I buy a lot of spare consoles and whatever curiosities I come across when I'm in (weird controllers and such). They're fun to bullshit with and know their shit. But for every person like me there's dozens of wiggers trying to sell them the most pitiful shit.

I love retro vidya as a hobby, but it'd be soul crushing to me to run a store like that.

>>4128438
I mean, it's not like they're asking for a government bailout or anything. If you don't shop at retro stores then you don't have to care about them. I personally like retro stores though, and I hope they find a way to continue.

Maybe once we've progressed beyond video games as merchandise to buy and sell we'll get to a point where there are just places that you can go that don't need employees where you can just hang out and pay money to play video games, like maybe about twenty-five cents a game? They could build coin mechanisms into them and put them into dedicated cabinets. That's the new economy right there.

>>4128680
I have that, it's my house. Instead of quarters I pay utilities and rent.

>>4128687
Cool I guess. You'll just go hang out at somewhere with a different ambiance when and if you decide to go outside.

>>4128625
You know what I used to like?
Going to book, comics and music stores, xmas shopping.
But now I can do that at home, and get massively better prices.
Nostalgia makes you feel loss, but progress is good.
The world changes, if we work with change and adapt, we will be happier for it.
If we fight progress and cede the future to assholes, we get an asshole future full of shit.
I like buggy riding but also a car is better and doesn't negate the buggy.
You just won't have buggy whip factories any more.

>>4128365
>Not shipping from home.

I hope you want to waste money on rent for a good reason.

>>4128698
I go out almost every day, but there are so many nice places outside to go to besides an arcade. More power to you though, it is allowed

>>4128701
>muh pricez
>giving a shit what things cost

>>4128714
More money means more ability to buy more stuff.
Frugality isn't for poors.
Haven't you ever read The Richest Man In Babylon?

>>4128714
>thinking money has no value

Mommy and daddy will refill my credit card forever!
I don't know WHY people bitch about money!

>>4128735
Wendys chef here with a 9 inch dick making a 200k salary
I dont have time to fret about spending 20$ on a game

>>4128742
Does your dad work for Nintendo?

>>4128416
There's a place in Cincinnati that does exactly that, and it's fucking awesome. They have 40+ arcade machines, a huge store with all kinds of weird stuff (the owner works with a network of collectors and buyers to get weird shit and is willing to take special orders to try and get rare or uncommon items), and they regularly host fightan tourneys and LAN events.

Great fucking place, if I lived in the area fulltime I'd be a regular for sure.

>>4128383
because you can't check out the quality of an item on eBay. you can't go idly shopping for nothing, just browsing and looking for something interesting. you can't get help from store employees when you have a problem. you can't take friends shopping with you and have fun just checking items out and playing with displays.

human beings are physical creatures. ( all creatures are physical) We like engaging all our senses. buying something based on a picture and description is nowhere near as compelling as picking up the actual thing and experiencing it before deciding to buy

>>4128680
the ones I go to have that, they just run the games free and sell booze instead. Way better profits and maintainability there.

>>4128771
Oh yeah
Its cool to try out the games in the store

>>4128701
yeah, but you are conflating buying with shopping. clicking a button and having a thing delivered, anonymously, to your door is completely different from going into a market and browsing wares.

when I shop Comixology, I am paralyzed by the stupid amount of variety. when I go to a physical store, I buy every goddamned thing in sight. in a physical store the item is not an abastract concept on your computer screen. its RIGHT THERE screaming TAKE ME HOME! IF YOU DON'T, I MIGHT NOT BE HERE WHEN YOU COME BACK

>>4128774
This is what I mean about thinking BEYOND THE BUGGYWHIP.
This is a great model for making money with social gaming.

>>4128383
I can't speak for every place, but the two local brick-and-mortar retro game stores near me both operate on the trade-in model. They get all of their product from trade-ins and consignment, so they don't have a large overhead for their product. If these stores didn't have physical locations, it would be much harder to secure games to sell at reasonably profitable prices. I also live in a pretty big city so these stores seem to have a really steady supply of games coming and going, which gives me some hope. However, I'm always nervous when I go into my favorite store that I'll see a 'going out of business' sale. I honestly just like having a place to pop in and chat about games, see what's new in stock, etc. So I try to support them as often as I can.

>>4128395
>eBay is for hipsters
Can you imagine being around someone like this in real life?

>>4128791
Impulse Buys = Clutter

>Buying your games in gaming stores

Wow, enjoy your overpriced retro games.
Online shopping all the way.

>>4128771
>because you can't check out the quality of an item on eBay.
This right here is the problem. I use eBay myself, but if I'm buying a console, controller, or power brick I really really want to test it out beforehand. I've gotten too many controllers with weak buttons, power bricks that couldn't hold spec, and consoles with problems not apparent visually. And I have no desire to ever buy a CRT online if I can avoid it. The prices are higher than eBay, but I can bring it home and use it that day and know it's working when I leave the store. I consider the higher cost to be the peace of mind fee.

I know there's some "It's the current year!" memespewers around here, but once you've purchased and had to get refunds on a number of power bricks over six months(for the same console) and still don't have a working brick, you'll be glad you have a physical store nearby even if they charge more.

>>4128392
>it's incredible the common stuff people have gotten too lazy to go to Walmart to get. Dog food. paper towels, bottled water...
Honestly, there is nothing wrong with this. I get all the groceries and toiletries that I can online and delivered because time is more valuable and it is cheaper sometimes. That way I only have to spend 10-15 minutes getting meats and other stuff that spoil fast in person at a store.

>>4128416
>Not really. There are three malls near me that are always packed with people.
Let me guess, you're in or these malls are in more upeer-middle class areas? The trend is these malls are expanding, but the smaller ones are dying like crazy. I didn't believe it until I actually took a trip out of state and saw how many closed or half-dead malls exist in Pennsylvania and Delware. Where I'm from, we have a couple malls that are big or became big because all the non-whites from the city flock to them on the weekends like a locust plague.

>>4128438
[standard purposeless and inflamed response] ++ [buggy whip comparison]

input on
wait for/
[$Curr_Year statement]
[lib_MemeWords]

loop

//like a clockwork, lol

>>4128383
When I can get fucking toilet paper delivered from Amazon, it's just one less thing I have to worry about when I go shopping.

I seriously haven't stepped foot in a shop outside of a grocery store or gas station in like 2 years. If you can just get everything delivered, for free, then save the fucking gas and wait.

These uniquely American things makes me wonder what the hell happens in the US.

I sure HOPE the issue here is that the vast majority of you people live in suburbs or something like that, because this doesn't make sense nearly anywhere else in the world.

Right now there's one market 1 min of walk away from my house and 3 supermarkets within up to 4 mins of driving or 15 of walking, and usually I walk.

And this is a 45k inhabitants town.

>>4128383
>Why would anyone maintain a brick & mortar store for anything but food or necessities?

How are you supposed to get all your games cheap if you don't have a store for moms to drop off all their kids prized possessions so you can offer them spare change for in order to tag them at 5 times what you paid for them so you can afford to hire 16 year old dipshits to stand behind the counter "working" for you?

Seriously, every time I find myself in a retro store I find people selling their shit to the store for nothing. It's mind blowing. They use minions and staff to hit every yard sale and thrift store every week in order to stock their store and make sure they're the only resource in the area to buy games from but they still get a surprising amount of product from people physically coming into the store and taking the hit because they don't want to deal with selling online or through kijiji or something.

For my finance internsip i recently wrote a article on the future of retail.

Gamestop has been closing like crazy, i imagine independent stores have been suffering like crazy also.

For retailers to succeed, they need to offer things that can't be bought online...this can be achieved by cutting deals with suppliers so that a product can ONLY be bought in stores, this would certainly help.

They also need to cut back the size of these places, much of the product isn't really needed.

>>4129187
Most b&m sell for online market prices anyway, maybe a tiny savings.

>>4129495
Convenience will always win out.

Amazon has a huge stock of same-day, or next day delivery with prime. I don't need to drive to a brick and mortar store, find out they don't have something, and then drive to the other store to find they don't have it either.

Amazon, free same day, get the shit by 4pm. I've had seriously 2 hour turn around from ordering to delivery.

I don't have to deal with bad customer service, I don't need to deal with not having product, I don't need to talk to anyone, I don't need to drive anywhere. I get my shit, and it's convenience.

I don't think there's anything stores can do to stay competitive. Its the exact thing that happened to Blockbuster. It's just on a larger scale now.

>>4129512
Clothes and shoes are one thing that are better to buy in a store because you can try it there. Only the most unfashionable of faggots buy shoes and clothes online only.

Also food. No, even Amazon can't have a large scale produce distribution, it's only possible in larger towns.

>>4129483
Our geography makes things a major challenge, really. I live in suburbs, but my family lives out in the country and it takes an hour or more to get to a store. The suburb I'm in is super convenient though, but geographically is also compact compared to mainland USA. Long distances make the scale of public transportation like in Europe and Japan impossible. Also riding the bus is for poor people, socially. Most of our population actually lives in cities, but we have a big chunk of people in suburbs and the country because the city is incredibly expensive and for certain types of people like me just fucking unbearable. America is just fucking huge man. Certain shops and malls and such just cannot exist in certain conditions.

>>4128392
Just ordered a folder online for £3.50. Receptionist will bring it to my desk tomorrow or the next day. Took me 1 minute to order it.

The alternative is to sit through rush hour traffic tomorrow after work, roam through a giant warehouse sized shop, only to find they don't have the folder I need. Then pay £3.50 for a similar one anyway.

I'm not lazy I just have better things to do with my life.

>>4129404
This.

Only the upscale retail malls are doing well. Normal ones are struggling to survive.

Even in the higher ones, look how many people are actually buying product. A lot of people literally just use the mall to walk around and talk with friends or spouses. Not to actually buy anything.

>>4129404
>Let me guess, you're in or these malls are in more upeer-middle class areas? The trend is these malls are expanding, but the smaller ones are dying like crazy.
I'm aware of that too. There are two small malls near me that are all but abandoned, while the larger ones consolidate and thrive. But the person I replied to didn't say anything about small vs large stores, he said ALL brick and mortar stores were dying, which we both agree is false.

>Where I'm from, we have a couple malls that are big or became big because all the non-whites from the city flock to them on the weekends like a locust plague.
lol that's true. 15 years ago when one of the big malls near me opened, it was solid white, now it's solid black...

>>4129483
I live in the boonies, there's an overpriced convenience store about a five minute drive away but anything else is at least fifteen minutes away.
I still try to support local businesses but when I go out shopping it's a big trip and I try going multiple places.
Also there are no sidewalks near where I live, I would have to walk through the woods or on the highway, and both are illegal since there's no freedom to roam in the States and you could cause an accident by walking on the highway.
I don't plan on moving unless it's necessary to get a job though, fuck big cities I would sooner die than spend an extended period of time in one

Thread reeks of underageb& and bandwagon hipsters. Brick n mortar are important.

>>4132351
kk grandpa

>>4132351
No they're not. They served a people that it's no longer needed. You are just nostalgic. Stop being a faggot. There is nothing hipster about shopping online you piece of shit.

Local shopping now has competition and can't gouge freely like they could in the 90s. Boo hoo.