Starting a gaming store (?)

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Presto88

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I am interested in someday starting a games store and was wondering if anyone knew if gamestop/ebgames was on a franchsie basis or not. I still might consider opening one but am worried about recognition.


thanks in advance.
 
Interesting, do you have any suggestions for game boutiques that do have a franchise program?
 
Presto88 said:
Interesting, do you have any suggestions for game boutiques that do have a franchise program?
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GameStop is pretty much the only big one that will get you recognition.

I really don't see how you can make that much money anyway (and niche markets will only get you so far)..

Then again, I don't have a business plan made up anyway. :rolleyes:
 
The only two major game-oriented retailer chains out there in the states now are Gamestop and to a lesser extent, Gamecrazy (tied to Hollywood video), but I think HV also stopped franchising years ago.

You might have to go it alone, though selling new games and new hardware is not very profitable, which is why the Gamestop wants you to buy the used version missing an instruction manual, with possibly scratched discs, for a mere $5 less than new. ;)
 
They make next to nothing on the new stuff, but make a grip on the used. It could be a very profitable business if you could pull it off.
 
StorageJoe said:
They make next to nothing on the new stuff, but make a grip on the used. It could be a very profitable business if you could pull it off.
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Yeah, as in offer better incentive to trade in and buy used compared to Gamestop. Sure, it would eat into potential earnings, but you buy a used game back for say...$5 more than Gamestop and sell it for cheaper than Gamestop sells a used copy for, and you can start cutting them off. :D

Also hire hot college girls.
 
BillLeeLee said:
Yeah, as in offer better incentive to trade in and buy used compared to Gamestop. Sure, it would eat into potential earnings, but you buy a used game back for say...$5 more than Gamestop and sell it for cheaper than Gamestop sells a used copy for, and you can start cutting them off. :D

Also hire hot college girls.
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See, now THATS a buisness plan. :D

Undercutting Gamestop would be a good way to go, especially if you decided to start one near Gamestop but they also offer 10% off with a membership card...you might have to offer something similiar as well.

Also...OFFER PC GAMES.

Gamestop is about to discontinue selling PC games in stores. Only online now.
 
There is a small chain in my area (nebraska and iowa i think) called Gamers, www.gogamers.com and that place is pretty cool. They have tons of old games and their used games are priced better than gamestop for newer stuff, but their rare things are more expensive, probly a bit closer to ebay prices. I think they have 10 stores now, not sure if they franchise or not but it might be worth looking in to.
 
JonnyK said:
There is a small chain in my area (nebraska and iowa i think) called Gamers, www.gogamers.com and that place is pretty cool. They have tons of old games and their used games are priced better than gamestop for newer stuff, but their rare things are more expensive, probly a bit closer to ebay prices. I think they have 10 stores now, not sure if they franchise or not but it might be worth looking in to.
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I followed the website but when reading about franchising they spelled merchandising "murchandising" then I checked out.
 
RancidWAnnaRIot said:
we have a small chain called Rhino games.. maybe they can sell you their name..?
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checked them out and they're not currently franchising. thanks though.
 
Presto88 said:
checked them out and they're not currently franchising. thanks though.
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then just open your own store..

call it "Presto88's fucking bad ass video game store.. and if you don't come in you're a bitch"


:D

that would go over well with moms
 
RancidWAnnaRIot said:
then just open your own store..

call it "Presto88's fucking bad ass video game store.. and if you don't come in you're a bitch"


:D

that would go over well with moms
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"Come on Timmy, we'll prove that bad man wrong. I'd like to see him take ME for a fool!"
 
RancidWAnnaRIot said:
then just open your own store..

call it "Presto88's fucking bad ass video game store.. and if you don't come in you're a bitch"


:D

that would go over well with moms
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LMAO, that sounds pretty good.

On a serious note, I'm thinking about starting my own which leads to the problem of distribution. In the ways of getting the games
 
Gamestop is a chain. Gamestop would eat you alive if you do open one near it. Here is a question for you. Can you be sure you will get new releases? Can you afford to have a very generous return policy? Although selling used games are somewhat profitable, Gamestop/EB stores also sell tons of pre-orders and hosting midnight events for major titles. This is to ensure customers will always come back to them. Most of the clients are parents and alduts who have jobs, not your smartass 16 year old who plays WOW all day. They have no time to list their used games on ebay and would rather sell them to GS or EB.


Presto88 said:
I am interested in someday starting a games store and was wondering if anyone knew if gamestop/ebgames was on a franchsie basis or not. I still might consider opening one but am worried about recognition.


thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
VictorChan said:
Gamestop is a chain. Gamestop would eat you alive if you do open one near it. Here is a question for you. Can you be sure you will get new releases? Can you afford to have a very generous return policy? Although selling used games are somewhat profitable, Gamestop/EB stores also sell tons of pre-orders and hosting midnight events for major titles. This is to ensure customers will always come back to them. Most of the clients are parents and alduts who have jobs, not your smartass 16 year old who plays WOW all day. They have no time to list their used games on ebay and would rather sell them to GS or EB.
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Basically if I start one I'm going to do everything that gamestop/eb doesn't do ie customer service, creative events.
 
Don't.

I'm eventually gonna start my own bussiness as well, but a Game Store? Forget it, its more effort then its worth, and even then you'll still be losing money. the thing that kills you isn't the low margin on games, the ammount of stock you must have and pay up front for, iots the bank loan, now if you have a couple hundred g's (about 100-150 would be MORRRREE than enouigh for a gaming store, probbly closer to 80-90 ya need) with no bank to pay back, it would be feaqsable, but the bank loan will kill you, your not gonna make enough money to pay the biulls, keep some money for your self AND pay the bank back.

A gaming store can be profitable, but only if you don't have to pay someone back.


Sorry, I've done a lot of research, theres still plenty things you can do and enjoy (open a lan centre and sell games secondary, open a geek shop, comics, etc, rare games, action figures, and a limited selection of games, lots of ideas) but as a gaming store, unles you have no bank to pay back its not feasable.

Just my 2 cents, anythings possible, it may not be easy, but almost anything is possible, while a gaming shop is in the realm of possiblity, it is not in the realm of easy feasiblity.

Cheers and Good Luck if you ever do, hope you open a kick as one :D.

Chilly
 
Is easier said then done. Have you ever managed a retail store or worked in the retail industry? Customer service can range from "I want to exchange my PSP because I crack the LCD screen" to "I want to exchange for another PC title that would run on my computer."

Creative events??? For major titles??? You could do it only if you do get the games on time. You can definately do gaming tournments. Most stores are generally too busy to run the store than to devote couple of payroll hours to host gaming tournments.


Presto88 said:
Basically if I start one I'm going to do everything that gamestop/eb doesn't do ie customer service, creative events.
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Sounds like you want to start up a lanesque type store and not a video game store.

A place where you buy gaming time on various PC's, consoles, would likely be more profitable in the longrun.
 
Presto88 said:
I am interested in someday starting a games store and was wondering if anyone knew if gamestop/ebgames was on a franchsie basis or not. I still might consider opening one but am worried about recognition.


thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


Have you ever actually managed a retail game store? I can already tell the answer is no, as you wouldnt be wanting to open one if you had. Thinking you're going to make money as a small game store, enough to make it worth your time..is completely absurd. Trust me, you'll do nothing but waste a lot of time and money both, and likely end up with a lot of debt.
 
Tutelary said:
Have you ever actually managed a retail game store? I can already tell the answer is no, as you wouldnt be wanting to open one if you had. Thinking you're going to make money as a small game store, enough to make it worth your time..is completely absurd. Trust me, you'll do nothing but waste a lot of time and money both, and likely end up with a lot of debt.
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Who shit in your cereal? As inexperienced as I am lets assume that you have managed a retail game store and you had a bad experience, how do you presume to think what would work for me? How is it a waste of time if I could make money selling things that I enjoy researching/discussing etc.

Sooo uhhh thanks for the threadcrapping.
 
Presto88 said:
Who shit in your cereal? As inexperienced as I am lets assume that you have managed a retail game store and you had a bad experience, how do you presume to think what would work for me? How is it a waste of time if I could make money selling things that I enjoy researching/discussing etc.

Sooo uhhh thanks for the threadcrapping.
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the problem is you have absolutely NO idea what you're even in for. You, according to your own post history have no credit cards, therefor have no real credit. You have no idea what profit margins are like, etc. You can shit on me all you want, but trying to start up a videogame store is a quick path into bankruptcy. As for "how I presume", I have actual experience managing a store of this type, you do not, thats "how I presume". Its a *really really really* bad idea.

Its really sad when people get so hostile over you telling them "LOOK OUT! THERES A CLIFF THERE!" "DONT FALL OVER!"

You somehow think you're a magical exception to the rules, and guess what? You arent. I gave you a warning, as have several other people in this thread. Take it or leave it, but remember in the end, you were told.
 
:D Let's see. There are currently over 300 active PS2 titles. Assuming you can a copy for each title at cost, $40, that will add up to $12000. That's to having 1 copy of each title. How can a game store only have 1 copy for each game. Times 2 with that. Total cost comes out to $24000. So, you would have $24000 worth of inventory goods sitting in the cabinet not knowing if they would ever being sold. That's only on the PS2 platform alone. There are currently 74 active Xbox 360 titles. 80 on the PSP. 80 on GBA. 300 on Xbox. Maybe 100 titles on the GC. For the original poster, guess how I know these. :D


Tutelary said:
the problem is you have absolutely NO idea what you're even in for. You, according to your own post history have no credit cards, therefor have no real credit. You have no idea what profit margins are like, etc. You can shit on me all you want, but trying to start up a videogame store is a quick path into bankruptcy. As for "how I presume", I have actual experience managing a store of this type, you do not, thats "how I presume". Its a *really really really* bad idea.

Its really sad when people get so hostile over you telling them "LOOK OUT! THERES A CLIFF THERE!" "DONT FALL OVER!"

You somehow think you're a magical exception to the rules, and guess what? You arent. I gave you a warning, as have several other people in this thread. Take it or leave it, but remember in the end, you were told.
Click to expand...
 
Tutelary said:
the problem is you have absolutely NO idea what you're even in for. You, according to your own post history have no credit cards, therefor have no real credit. You have no idea what profit margins are like, etc. You can shit on me all you want, but trying to start up a videogame store is a quick path into bankruptcy. As for "how I presume", I have actual experience managing a store of this type, you do not, thats "how I presume". Its a *really really really* bad idea.

Its really sad when people get so hostile over you telling them "LOOK OUT! THERES A CLIFF THERE!" "DONT FALL OVER!"

You somehow think you're a magical exception to the rules, and guess what? You arent. I gave you a warning, as have several other people in this thread. Take it or leave it, but remember in the end, you were told.
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All I'm really saying is that you came off as condescending. As for experience I have all around experience and education going for me. I'm a semester away from a degree in marketing and have been in leadership roles my entire life so I would think I would only really need to learn the ropes of managing a store like this.
 
don't bother.
sure, owning your own game store is a nice dream.

every mom and pop game store in my city died a decade ago.
ebay killed them all
 
Presto88 said:
All I'm really saying is that you came off as condescending. As for experience I have all around experience and education going for me. I'm a semester away from a degree in marketing and have been in leadership roles my entire life so I would think I would only really need to learn the ropes of managing a store like this.
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ahaha "all around experience".

1) You need enough money to do it. Have you even started figuring out rent, utilities, pay for the 1 or 2 people you'll need as part timers, amount of money you'll have to put into stock, etc? This stuff runs a lot more money than you think it does, I guarantee it.

2) Speaking of stock, heres where you start running into a problem. Versus a place like target, walmart, gamestop, you get your stock from a middleman instead of direct from the vendor. You're third in the chain instead of second, and guess what, the middle man is going to have to make a profit, drastically reducing your own. Large vendors are not going to deal with pissant mom and pop stores directly. This is also where you encounter problems with defective product returns and exchanges. You somehow think would be be able to be more liberal than the chain stores, and you would not be able to, by far.

3) Margin is slim on a lot of the items you're talking about selling. Margin on hardware is non-existent, you won't be able to sell new consoles at all.

4) You won't have an automated inventory system, something most large chains have had forever. I know for a fact that EBs system was superior to Gamestops in every way, so when Gamestop bought EB, EBs computer system became the standard. Automated inventory is important for the fact that the only person you can trust, is YOU. The moment you go home at night, x employee could easily be stealing from you, or giving things away, and in a mom and pop store, you wouldn't know it for some time. Don't think this does not happen, it happens *all the time, everywhere*.

5) Speaking of going home, you wont be very often. You will be at this place all the time, every day because all of a sudden, its your only cash cow. Have fun working all day every day, because that is what it becomes. Hell thats what it becomes in a lot of management roles when you dont even OWN the store.

6) Those things EB/Gamestop push like toys, strat guides, frequent buyer cards, game doctors, etc, that everyone hates them for...guess what, without those the margin on many items is simply not enough to get by. Used games might help you here, but you would have to offer more than Gamestop for a used title, and sell for less, all the time. This strat might work, but it gives you less profit while you're trying to carve out your niche.

These kinds of things are just a very small taste of the kinds of things you will run up against. If you're in marketing, you're being completely unrealistic in your goals. A video game store might sound good initially, but it is not a wise business decision. You will be throwing away your money, you will be throwing away your time, and in the end you will be in debt, and hate gaming in general.
 
Again, if you had looked into the margins for a store like this on computer hardware, games, consoles, you'd have already realized that margin on these is so small there is no hope of making a profit.

Huge overhead? Check
Small profits? Check
Employees? Check


AGAIN -- Your best bet? A LAN type store, selling gaming time, but also selling some PC games, some hardware, misc items with a decent profit margin but definately these sales are NOT your major cash source.

If you are going to fill a niche market, try to fill one that isn't completely dominated by chain stores and the internet.
 
Man, what the hell. You guys are talking like you know what you're talking about, but you are all forgetting one VERY IMPORTANT THING.

NOBODY KNOWS WHERE THE FUCK PRESTO88 IS.

From someone that OWNS HIS OWN DAMN BUSINESS - I will only offer this. Be very sure that you can supply a NEEDED product, to a market where the big guys simply aren't.

If you've got any of the big players within easy distance, don't bother - but if you are in a small town, with enough gamers that you are fairly sure can support you and your business, then go for it.

Christ, Rhino is the *only* video game store in Ocala, Florida - so guess where all the video game business in Ocala goes?

The three most important things for a successful business: Location, location, location.
 
Slartibartfast said:
www.actsofgord.com ;)
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Beat me to it.

I would advise going out and talk to some small independent video stores, as I'm sure there are some still surviving whereever you are at. Ask them about some of the issues listed above. After that, research, research, research. At this point you sound like this idea has just popped into your head, and while it sounds like a great idea, the reality is something entirely different. If it's your dream, don't completely abandon it because of posters on a hardware forum, but do more real-world research as I think what you are imagining, and what the reality of this will be are far apart.
 
Tutelary said:
ahaha "all around experience".

1) You need enough money to do it. Have you even started figuring out rent, utilities, pay for the 1 or 2 people you'll need as part timers, amount of money you'll have to put into stock, etc? This stuff runs a lot more money than you think it does, I guarantee it.
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Ok, first off come down off of your high horse nose in the air attitude, my guess is that it does nothing for your reputation here or in real life. Second what do you think all of this was? I am researching getting opinions since when did I say that I had a business plan that completely lacked the essentials of actually starting a business.

Tutelary said:
2) Speaking of stock, heres where you start running into a problem. Versus a place like target, walmart, gamestop, you get your stock from a middleman instead of direct from the vendor. You're third in the chain instead of second, and guess what, the middle man is going to have to make a profit, drastically reducing your own. Large vendors are not going to deal with pissant mom and pop stores directly. This is also where you encounter problems with defective product returns and exchanges. You somehow think would be be able to be more liberal than the chain stores, and you would not be able to, by far.
Click to expand...


again researching.

Tutelary said:
3) Margin is slim on a lot of the items you're talking about selling. Margin on hardware is non-existent, you won't be able to sell new consoles at all.
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whoa, researching again.

Tutelary said:
4) You won't have an automated inventory system, something most large chains have had forever. I know for a fact that EBs system was superior to Gamestops in every way, so when Gamestop bought EB, EBs computer system became the standard. Automated inventory is important for the fact that the only person you can trust, is YOU. The moment you go home at night, x employee could easily be stealing from you, or giving things away, and in a mom and pop store, you wouldn't know it for some time. Don't think this does not happen, it happens *all the time, everywhere*.
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Researching, see a pattern yet?

I'm done responding to your messages, all it was from the start was an idea. It took the least amount of effort to put up a post on here and could gain some decent information (which doesn't include thread crapping)

In conclusion if you dont have anything that isn't condescending then STFU. Simple.
 
Presto88 said:
Ok, first off come down off of your high horse nose in the air attitude, my guess is that it does nothing for your reputation here or in real life. Second what do you think all of this was? I am researching getting opinions since when did I say that I had a business plan that completely lacked the essentials of actually starting a business.
again researching.
whoa, researching again.
Researching, see a pattern yet?

I'm done responding to your messages, all it was from the start was an idea. It took the least amount of effort to put up a post on here and could gain some decent information (which doesn't include thread crapping)

In conclusion if you dont have anything that isn't condescending then STFU. Simple.
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What you call "thread crapping" I call giving you the short and simple truth. Dont pretend I'm the only person here telling you this same thing, over and over again. Dont make a post if you dont want others opinions. Not everyone is going to lick your ass and tell you how wonderful an idea it is.

Since you've insulted me twice now while I've done nothing to you but convey information, let me tell you how I see things.

You're 18 to 24, you're close to a marketing degree and have no idea what you're going to do with it when you get it. You have likely never even worked in the type of retail enviroment you're proposing opening. You probably know a decent bit about games as they are a hobby, you watch anime, know a smattering of japanese, and write fan fiction (aka you're an all around goofball). You suddenly think opening a game store would allow you make money doing what you love.

You've been told differently by many other people in this thread with a lot more experience than you. I gave you the short and sweet and provided you valid examples to advise you that its a complete waste of time, instead of being the least bit thankful you act like an arrogant self centered jerk.

Please, keep "researching", and get back to me when you realize how dumb an idea it was. Telling people you have "all around experience" is not impressive in the least. Telling people you have "taken leadership roles" blah blah blah is not impressive in the least. This is not your resume, stop buttering up what amounts to no experience, no funding, and no clue.

No matter how much you want to insult me for telling you that you're wrong, you're still wrong.
 
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