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I Want to Support my FLGS but after today...........
Mark Paul
United States
Springfield
Massachusetts
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Look, I wanted to pick up an extra copy of Warhammer:Invasion for a gift and I was going to order it online, but after one game store in my town closed down and another one in a town over also bit the dust I decided I had better support some local shops before they also close. So I walked into one shop about a week ago and asked if they had a copy, the owner said:"Oh that's been discontinued, but I have a copy around here somewhere." He leads me to a glass case with old CCG's in it. Under an old set of TSR's Dungeon Dice, was a Warcraft CCG. As it ends up he had no Fantasy Flight Games in his store and he had never heard of any "Living Card Games".
So I checked the web site of a store in a city about ten miles away. According to their online site, they had several of the games in stock. So I went there only to find several Expansions for the game, but no core set. When I asked about it, they said they said they rarely update their website. They said I could they could special order it for me, but they would have to charge extra for shipping?!!!
So I called a store about 50 miles away and they promised to hold it for me. I was able to go there and pick it up. When I asked if they had any expansions for it, the owner responded, "Is there any expansions for this?". A family member who my wife and I exchange gifts for at Christmas, is a Memoir'44 nut. I asked if he had the latest expansion for it, to which he replied, "What's Memoir'44?"
Let me tell you some of my past encounters with game stores and feel free to add some of yours.
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Mark Paul
United States
Springfield
Massachusetts
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I love Martin Wallace's games, in particular the Age of Steam series. I would drop by a store and purchase a new expansion at a store from time to time. One day the store owner told me,"If you like Age of Steam, I have a game you are going to love." He then produced a copy of Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot. So I bought it. I don't have to add that I hated the thing and later traded it away, but can someone out there in BGG land tell me why this game is similar to Age of Steam?
(Mr. Wallace was brought back to Earth.)
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Mark Paul
United States
Springfield
Massachusetts
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The cousin I talked about in the intro always wants to play Memoir'44, I wanted to purchase Tide of Iron for him as a Christmas present (In hopes he would make the switch}. I was at a training in another state and walked into a big game store. I noticed a display for Tide of Iron, but it was filled with other games. I asked the owner if he carried the game, he said he never heard of it. I asked about the old display and he asked me to show him what I was talking about. When I pointed the display out he said,"Oh yeah, that was this huge wargame we set up at Christmas time one year, I sold out of them within a week." When I asked he he thought about ordering any more he said: "I don't have much call for it." I walked into his playroom and discovered two games of Tide of Iron in progress (although most of the people were playing Munchkin). I asked the players where they got their copies, they said they ordered them online. Everytime the owner comes into the room he asks how the Squad Leader game is going.
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Mark Paul
United States
Springfield
Massachusetts
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Twilight Struggle is one of my favorite games. When the new edition of the game came out with the improved mapboard I had to have another copy. So I called a local store and asked, "Do you have GMT's latest edition of Twilight Struggle?" I heard the guy who answered the phone yell to someone,"Is the new edition of Twilight Struggle in the store?" A voice answered back, "Who makes it?" The guy on the phone asked me, "What company publishes it? I said,"GMT", I want the new edition with the solid mapboard." After a long pause the guy said they have it and they would put a copy aside for me. When I got to the store, this is what they put aside for me.
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Pete Hooper
United States
Machesney Park
Illinois
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...or Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or any other TCG.
My FLGS went out of business at the end of 2009, and was sold and reopened under new name and ownership at the beginning of this year. It's now a "Friendly?" local game store.
The clerks who now work there don't even bother to pay attention to you if you don't play one of their favorite games (Magic, Pokemon, etc.)
They stock boardgames, but don't know jack about them. I've made several overtures to them that I'd be willing to volunteer my time to demonstrate some boardgames in their play area, but their response is always the same: "maybe we'll take you up on that sometime" with, you guessed it, no follow-up on their part and no further interest when I remind them. I've since stopped offering to do this.
*EDIT* My goal wasn't to spark a debate regarding the profit potential of CCGs vs. other forms of games. This could just as easily been titled "The clerk has his biases, and acts dismissively toward customers who don't share them."
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5.
Board Game: Risk
[Average Rating:5.62 Overall Rank:6464]
Lewis Goldberg
United States
Bonnots Mill
Missouri
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I was a non-gamer for a number of years. When I got back into wargaming in 2003, I tried hitting the FLGS's to see what's new. But when I would ask the clerk where the wargames are, the response was generally something like "Oh, you mean like Risk?" At best, they would mention Axis and Allies, which I had never heard of, and looked a bit like Risk with hexes.
Having previously bought every game I owned at a FLGS, this situation was quite a shock. Then again, finding out that Avalon Hill and SPI were both out of business was a shock too.
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Ben Foy
United States
Ellicott City
Maryland
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During the summer I went to The Family Game store in Savage, MD to get the latest RftG expansion. While I was there, I mentioned my other RftG cards were getting worn around the edges. The cashier said they sold sleeves to protect the cards and opened up a spreadsheet to see what type of sleeves to sell me. The spreadsheet also listed the number of cards in the base game and each expansion. So the cashier was able to tell me how many sleeves to buy. While she was finding out all that information, she gave me a status on when the next expansion was coming out.
I like eating out and will try to support the local restaurants. That doesn't mean I will eat at bad restaurants! Simularly, when I say I support my FLGS, that doesn't mean I support crappy game stores. I don't see why there is a disconnect. Don't support crappy game stores! Hopefully they will go out of business and be replaced by a better managed store.
Sounds like there aren't any good restaurants game stores where you live.
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Joe
United States
Maple Valley
Washington
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I had purchased a couple games from a local store. Several months ago, I was in line waiting to buy the Kingsburg expansion, and the person in front of me got a discount on the game they were purchasing.
When I got to the counter I asked about it, and was told if you play a game in the store you get 15% off your purchase (the guys in front of me sat at a chess table and pushed chess pieces around for all of about 40 seconds). I said I had been in before and not heard about that, but would keep it in mind.
So during back to school shopping this year, my 6 year old son and I wander down to the game store, sometime after the 23rd visit to the dressing room by my wife and daughter.
We see Labrinth sitting there on one of the play tables. I open it up and we sit and play it, twice. My son asks if we can have it for home. I find it on the shelf and take it to the counter, the guy asks if we liked the game and points out it won the award for kids games this year (•2009 Kinderspiel des Jahres). I said yes we did and since we played a game in the store could we get the discount.
I was told that it did not apply to families, I was shocked, actually speechless. Was I not getting the discount because it was a family (Childrens) game or because I played it with my family? I did not care to find out, I paid and left the store for the last time.
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Mark Kittel
United States
Albany
New York
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Zombie Planet - in Albany, NY
Zombie Planet is probably a rare case of a small FLGS that has actually improved over time. Originally the store occupied just the first floor of a rented building, cramming in board games, minis, comics, RPGs, and gaming space on that floor. They've since expanded to the second floor, which now houses the video game systems, a large open gaming space, and the comics, allowing more room for board games and miniatures on the first floor. They carry excellent board game stock, have ordered out-of-stock games for me in the past, and don't mark-up games above the box price. While it is possible to get games cheaper online, that just doesn't compare to the fun of outright buying a game and taking it home immediately.
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Sean Westberg
United States
Ventura
California
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Some years ago, my friend wanted to get into Warmachine in the worst way. He went to our FLGS, which had recently split off from the comic book shop.
Back when it was all one business in the mid-90's, it was awesome. I could walk in on any day, with almost any amount of money, and could walk out with something awesome that I probably didn't even know existed. But that was before the gaming side of the shop sold out.
First thing the new owner did was gut the entire store and replace all the shelves and product with cheap card tables to play Magic on. 80% of his product went to his *other* gaming store 60 miles away. The remains were D&D and Magic more or less. Any available shelving space after that was devoted to rows upon rows of anime, which you could rent for 10 bucks for 2 or 3 nights.
Anyway, so my friend wanted to play Warmachine. He went into the gaming store, and produced a list of books and models he wanted. All told it was 2-300 dollars. The clerk (who was, like an above post, playing a game of magic and was upset that he was being interrupted), took the money, made the order, and gave him an estimation of 3 weeks to get the stuff in.
3 weeks goes by, and my friend is told it's not in. Repeat for a couple months (all sales final, no refunds of course) and finally he goes into the store instead of calling. Wouldn't you know it? All the books and models he ordered are in the store, on display, with dust collecting on them. He asks about them. The same fat bastard clerk looked my friend in the eye and straight up said without checking that they had no record of my friend ever ordering/purchasing any of that merchandise. The receipt my friend had only contained a list of numbers because the register was one of those really old ones that only printed up a price tape. The clerk said that didn't prove anything. The owner backed the clerk up, and that was the last my entire gaming group ever did business with them.
It's been bought back in the last year or so by the guy who still runs the comic shop. I occasionally go in there now, but the selection is still crap and it's lost most of it's magic that it used to have. I really regret it. Thankfully, the asshat of a clerk is gone, so I actually get service when I go in there. Maybe in time they'll get better. They're certainly worlds better than the fraud they used to commit. They also get confused when I absolutely, steadfast refuse to special order *anything* from them. That I simply will not do any more.
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Jeremy L
United States
New Hampshire
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Thought I'd add a positive story I have
 . I recently read a review of Castle Ravenloft in our weekly paper which listed some local game stores at the end. One of them is a comic shop that now includes a selection of board games, which is nice, and it's a place I frequent on occasion. But there were 2 other stores on the list I'd never even heard of. So, I went to both of them tonight and at the first one the people there were friendly, willing to demo games (to be fair the comic shop has a few games to demo as well, as well as a large gaming room), and there were a couple of racks there with board games. It was also a video game store but the selection was not bad. But when I got to the next store my jaw dropped. I felt like a kid in a candy store... Games everywhere, from Ghost Stories to Cash'n Guns to Roborally and Summoner Wars. Everywhere I looked there was something I wanted. They even had Space Hulk. Of course it was 150 bucks, but still, it's cool they had it at all . The staff were super-friendly, and one of them started chatting to me about their Thursday night gaming session. He said they'd be playing Alien Frontiers, and that people could bring in any games they were interested in playing. After all that, I felt like I'd found a new home . And the great thing is, it's only 10 minutes away! So, I ended up leaving with Cosmic Encounter, but I'm looking forward to going back.
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Matthew Cordeiro
United States
Cumberland
Rhode Island
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I visited my FLGS for the first time a few months ago looking to buy Dominion. My experience can be summed up in one question: "Do you even want my business?"
The first obstacle was actually finding the place. It was in an old mill building complex, and there were no signs whatsoever. I had no idea which entrance to go in, what floor it was on, or even if I was in the right building. The only reason I knew it existed was through word of mouth.
I finally found the place and asked the owner about Dominion. I had done a little research on my own, but I had never played it or even seen the game in person. He gave me an apathetic response that included the sentence, "I'm tired of playing it." To his credit, he did correctly tell me that the base set and Intrigue were standalone games, while the others were expansions only. I then asked what the difference was between the base set and Intrigue, and all he said was, "They have different cards." I also asked about playing with more than 4 players, and he said I could buy the base set and Intrigue or 2 copies of the base set (wrong!).
At checkout, I asked him about sleeving the cards. He pointed me towards some outrageously priced sleeves, which I chose not to buy. After I paid for the game, he broke out a complete set of all the Dominion cards to show me. In my head, I was thinking, "Where were you with your box full of cards 10 minutes ago when I was peppering you with questions about this game?"
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Chad
United States
Minnesota
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I have a positive story to tell as well. I have a friend who owns a copy of Zombies!!! and was hoping to add to the experience (read: find an excuse to buy a game) and grab Humans!!! to get both sides of this epic conflict. So, I started popping into a few of the local shops during lunch to see if anyone still had it. None did. One of my stops early on had been the Armored Ogre in the SE end of the Twin Cities area, but unfortunately they did not have it in stock and since I was early in my quest, I thought nothing more of it. Yesterday, I called to see if maybe I missed it when I was there and talked with the owner. He said that while he didn't have it, he could get for me by the next day. Sure enough, I stopped in tonight and walked out with my sought-after game. Not only that, but he pointed that he had also picked up a few copies of Dominion: Prosperity and thought I might be interested because I had bought a couple of the other expansions a few months earlier from him. Though I had to turn down the offer, just the fact that he remembered not only me but my previous purchase is a huge bonus in my mind.
Props:
- Being conveniently located between my office and my home
- Catering to requests quickly and without any extra charges or nonsense like that
- Showing interest in customers beyond the present sale. (I've also even talked old school Star Wars Customizable Card Game with him)
- Knowing and using BoardGameGeek
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I have a GREAT FLGS I normally go to. There's another one which is good, and one with good employees, but horrid prices.
This summer vacation, a friend found a store, which had lower prices than what we are used to here in Copenhagen. It was about an hours trainride away, so we thought we'd make a day of it - go to a new town, have some good food, you know...have some fun, right?
Wrong.
Once we arrived at the store, and went in, all happy to have finally found this shop (in a seedy backalley, down several streets off the main road). We walked in, and our hearts sank. There were no games to be found - only Magic Cards, Yu-Gi-Oh (or however you spell it), Pokémon cards...if it was a trading card, they had it. Now, I have nothing against trading cards - it's just not a thing for me.
Eventually, we found a shelf of boardgames, tucked almost behind the counter. They also had a small shelf near the ceiling, but most of what they had were various Munchkin games, a couple of Blood Bowl games, and an expansion for WoW:the adventure game.
Oh yeah, and the low, low prices from their website? Not the same as in the shop. It appears that they had had a sale at some point, and simply forgot to fix it on their website.
All the time we were in the shop, the owner was more busy talking with one of his buddies, discussing (I'd almost call it arguing about) the price of a particular M:TG card, while a line was forming behind the counter. Note that the guy wasn't trying to buy or sell this particular magic card: they were just arguing about what the price was online. Many of the 9-10-year old kids waiting to buy their Magic cards ended up leaving, without buying anything.
I was quite surprised when the local book shop actually had a betterslection of board games, than the "F"LGS in this particular town. One thing is certain: We won't be making a day of going to this shop again 
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Jason Tucker
United States
Las Vegas
Nevada
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I wanted badly to be able to support my FLGS... but the prices are just so much higher. They all want to charge MSRP or close to it. I just can't justify paying $99 for a single game when I can find it for $55 online with no tax and free shipping.
I finally found a store who said they were willing to do price matching, but after emailing them to clarify their policy, they told me I needed to:
-Place an order on their website (so I am still ordering online anyway??)
-Note that I want a price match
-They will match the online price PLUS SHIPPING, even though the game is already sitting in their store.
I'd still end up paying $15-$25 more than the online price after they added tax and the faux shipping charge.
I guess no more FLGS shopping for me until things change.
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Posted Sun Oct 17, 2010 3:49 pm
would have been better...
