First bumps

As you know, I'm into my way of getting a store opened.

And as most people should know (or already know) opening a store not only a dream or a way of getting money, it's actually a lot of work. And I knew that before even starting. But now that I have the money and the support, the first big decision arrived (and one of the biggest that is): where to open the store.

The first thing I realized when trying to get places and begin the search was to open the store where it was most needed or where some kind of geek community already existed (and you can read a little bit about the mexican geek community in my first post in this blog). The south-center area of the city is crowded with geeks and college/university boys (18-30) that are actively searching a place to gather and enjoy with their friends, but I also thought a place closer to where I live (south of the city) where the "community" is not that strong but it's a "younger" area (15-25), more open to new things  and where no other store offered  what I had in mind. So the first sub-decision is: where to put the store?

When I started thinking of opening a store I first thought of the places that already existed in Mexico city that ultimately would be my competitors, so this first sub-decision was complete when I realized that the south-center area has at least 3 stores that had a strong Magic: The Gathering communities and I wasn't able to compete with that. My first and most important thing is the boardgames of course, but the money-bringers are the CCG's and the connection that can be made with CCG player and boardgames. I had to offer a place where people could play their favorite games and where the option of boardgames was available, I wasn't going to shove boardgames down peoples throats "just because I only like boardgames".

So that first thing was handled: the center area had already a community of gamers and I couldn't take the few players and the area and divide them into several stores. It's bussines 101: if a similar place already exists there, why make another alike? If you open a 7-eleven right next to another one, it would be foolish to think both will make the same amount of money that the first made, instead the people will choose between one of both and decide which is "better", ultimately (in purely hipotetical terms) splitting the market in two and both of the 7-elevens will make half of the money that the first one made... And this in geek terms means: If I already have my trustworthy store where I buy all my cards, and I know the guy, and have my regular friends/colleagues/opponents  why go to your "new" store? (you know what I'm talking about, most of you have a favorite FLGS and are comfortable with it, even if the other store is "better" in some terms)

So, I recently decided the south area had a fertile ground for boardgamers to grow, and where the CCGs already existed, but there's no places where you can play. Today while walking in a mall I saw 5-6 Yugioh players sitting in the ground playing their favorite game, and realized I've seen those same guys (and more!) thousands of times in that same spot in the ground. I've seen players in food courts in malls, in the ground, outside of schools... Once I was playing MTG with a friend on a cafe and a 30-year old gentleman approached me and my friend and I and asked us if we got together there to play regularly. So the players are there, but there's not a comfortable place to play.

That done, I had to seek places and look for rent prices. This is the difficult part now. I've searched everywhere from small malls to places right in the street and the prices and locations vary, but one main (and here's the important one) decision that came to my mind is: should I go  rent a cheap place where the location is not that good (a few come to mind: a place that's like 100 square meters but is old and on a second floor) and then wait for the players to locate me (via-flyers or some other kind of publicity) or go to the safe but really expensive: I rent a premium location and pay lots of money for it risking to not to get enough money to pay the rent after the "first payments and emergency money" is gone.

This is a real nail biter. What to decide?