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Blockbuster Boardgames?
- Sagrilarus
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- D20
- Pull the Goalie
Local game stores are starting to get a new footing and to some extent it reminds me of the days of movie rental shops run by small businessmen and women, often family owned. They got steamrolled by the likes of Blockbuster Video and in the time of Blockbuster's heyday it seemed to be the 300 pound gorilla that no one could stop. Things came to an abrupt end for Blockbuster, but that's because there was an alternative delivery method for their product that was much cheaper and much easier, and Blockbuster had so damaged their relationship with their customers that people actually wanted them to fail.
So last week a guy is whining about ordering 3000 copies of Wingspan for his stores, and Stonemaier not fulfilling the order. That debate has happened here already.
But back up -- this guy was ordering 3000 copies, indicating he was an umbrella for 22 companies. Sounds kind of franchise-ish to me. Best guess is he's not ordering 136 copies per store, so each company likely has multiple locations.
Here's the question -- is Blockbuster Boardgames coming to our towns? Are we going to get an "all stores carry the same core grouping of board game products" experience at some point in the next five years?
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- JonathanVolk
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- Chaotically Lawful
But wait—you aren’t suggesting a games rental chain, are you! And now I’m wishing it was possible, since so many of the games I buy only ever get played once, twice.
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- Sagrilarus
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All of that said I would like to see something like this. Buying used is less wasteful.
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A FOAF owns two game stores and an online game cafe*. When I asked how much that brought in for him, I was told, "He lives in a studio apartment, and has just about enough money to go to conventions and own a cat."
If I hit the lotto and wanted to run a board game store, I'd run it as a board game cafe instead. Maybe sell a few of the big hits and a few card games, and that's it.
ETA: I guess my point was that it seems like a bad way to get rich. Since this is more a labor of love than the way you'll make your first million, there isn't a particularly effective model to follow.
*They're really nice. Clean, friendly, good inventory; everything you'd want in your FLGS.
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Sagrilarus wrote: Local game stores are starting to get a new footing and to some extent it reminds me of the days of movie rental shops run by small businessmen and women, often family owned. They got steamrolled by the likes of Blockbuster Video and in the time of Blockbuster's heyday it seemed to be the 300 pound gorilla that no one could stop. Things came to an abrupt end for Blockbuster, but that's because there was an alternative delivery method for their product that was much cheaper and much easier, and Blockbuster had so damaged their relationship with their customers that people actually wanted them to fail.
I thought that the death of Blockbuster was due to DVDs being priced to own, where VHS tapes weren't. If you could even find videos for sale, they were $89.99. The exception was kid videos, because your little kid didn't mind watching (and would in fact insist on) The Land Before Time IV fifty times in a row.
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