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Death of the Indie Game Store
tjmcgee writes "Independent game stores are usually hard to find, and when you do they are generally overpriced. An article on the Next-Gen site explains why the independent game store is all but gone. The article is very funny but kinda sad." From the article: "There's a lot of competition out there. There's no getting around it. Everyone is selling games now. Chances are your grandmother is hocking copies of Vice City every Monday between Bingo and Salisbury Steak night at the Shady Tree rest home."
Give me a break.
Is capitalism and the concept of bulk buying purchase power new to the author? Wall-mart, Home Base, Home Depot, Office Max, Office Depot, SEARS, Hollywood Video, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Costco and countless other major businesses have been succeeding for years based on being able to drive costs down through bulk purchases and sales. I don't see what the big deal is.
Does the author somehow expect the videogame sales business to use fundamentals from a magical world from fantasy land where it's seperate from the health care, medication, car sales and food industries?
Looks like it's a good opportunity for them to move all web. After all, it did work for Netflix - if somebody could come up with a similar system for games, we gamers/geeks are fairly notorious about going after new tech/stuff.
It may not have the appeal of a brick and mortar store, but you can offer so much more.
__________
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All the independent software shops I've seen are quite marked up indeed, it isn't much of a loss, sad as it may be that Uncle Barney or whomever is out a wad.
;)
Things to think about for those geeks who dream of opening a comic book + gaming book + software store... leave the software out
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http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Independent game stores are usually hard to find, and when you do they are generally overpriced.
=
WAL-MART SELLS FOR CHEAPER
The days of mom and pop shops of almost any kind are gone. The Internet has killed profit margins. Forget service and anything else. The bottom line is who's got it the cheapest. Kind of sad, really.
Its a shame really. In my experiance the only place to get games that aren't mainstream, i.e. imports or lesser known systems, is through the indie stores. There isn't much money in these titles so gamestop and EB don't carry them.
The only way that the current game retailing situation is sustainable is through collusion between the game distributors and the big retailers. One of two things is going to come out of this.
Either game distributors are going to start realizing that the physical box and media for games are cheap and they're going to move to a magazine sales business model (Buy a bunch of copies... Send back just the disc for whatever doesn't sell and we'll refund most of your money... Probably all but the $2 or so the distributor would have made for profit anyway), or Wal-Mart and EB will work up some deal with the distributors such that they're able to make a profit and any competition that springs up will have such thin margins that they can't stay in business.
One of those two business models is legal. My bet is on the second one until all the small game stores are 10 years out of business and some moderate sized vendor that wants a cut of the profits fronts the money for a lawsuit.
Because of all the great stories you get to tell people!!11
Yeah, right.
You probably mean Shady Acres :-)
Indie games are alive and well on the macintosh, I doubt that I have any mainstream games on my computer.
What I'd really like to see is a PC gaming specialty store. Not just with new games, but with classic games, and with hardware upgrades for your computer - video cards, memory, processors, etc. I grant that it probably wouldn't be profitable, but it sure as hell would be nice.
It's not the price issue that finished off independent games stores; it's the fact that the owners generally just didn't understand their role in the market.
I used to know some pretty decent indie games shops here in the UK. All but one of them have now either closed, or have become so dire that in any just world they would be closed. Go back 4 years or so and maybe a third of my games purchases were from independent stores. I've only bought a single one in the last year (compared to about 20 purchases from major chains).
So why? I don't think it's at all fair to blame the big chains or the games industry for this; by and large, they have a role and they do it well. If you want to buy a major title, or indeed any release from the last 12 months or so, you go to a big chain store. You'll get the same game here for less money, as they can take advantage of economies of scale.
What indie stores used to do was offer a range of imported, obscure or simply older titles that wouldn't get shelf-space in the big chains. Sure, you'd pay a fair whack for picking up a US import, but it generally wasn't much more expensive than importing it yourself, plus you didn't have all the associated worries about imbecillic courier firms and zealous customs agents. Plus, it's just... nice... to be able to walk into a shop and buy what you want right there and then.
This all changed, of course. Most of the indie games stores seemed to start worrying that they were so much more expensive than the big chains. They started to try competing directly with them, buying large quantities of the latest AAA franchise titles at the exclusion of the lesser known stuff and lowering their prices. This was always bound to fail; no matter how low they went, the big chains were always going to be able to go lower. Hence, most of them went bust.
Capitalism is a great thing, contrary to what you often read on slashdot. However, it's also frequently misunderstood. To succeed in a modern capitalist economy, you do not always need to try to compete directly with the biggest fish around. You just have to be able to stake out a niche of your own and defend it. The major chains have never tried to offer the products that I used to be able to get in the indies. Hence, I can only conclude that most indie store owners either panicked unnecessarily or got too greedy.
"When a game sells for $49.99 at retail, expect to buy it anywhere from $41-43. Your cost will depend on the amount of units bought, and the frequency at which you buy them. "
What the hell is he talking about? I've *never* seen a new release that retails for $49.99 any cheaper than that *anywhere*. And yes, that includes Wal-Mart. If anything, Wal-Mart's prices are always *more* expensive than the indie shops. The indie shops are being threatened by companies that deal exclusively in games, like EB Games/GameStop.
The biggest problem I've noted with indie game shops is that they refuse to drop the prices of their older games, while other retailers do it quite quickly.
The one indie shop I do go to has a huge customer base because it uses a unique system for selling games. It acts as something of a middleman for selling used games. Someone will bring a game to their shop and set a price. When that game is sold, the store gets 25% of the sale, and the seller gets 75%. It seems to be working pretty well for them.
Indie shops need to leverage their ability to set up unusual business models if they want to compete with the large retailers.
/knows the theme song and all the characters names, first and last
///scary
hed.
GameStop buys and sells used games also. Most young men who shop there are looking to turn an old game into cash for a new game. I would think eBay would be more competition to GameStop rather than Walmart.
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I know a lot of independent game stores. Usually they are the only places to get your hands on old stuff, like if you need an NES controller. But the internet kind of beats them at that game. Also, they are mostly really overpriced. You'd think that the indy store would be cheaper, but no. The only ones that are any good are the ones that can undercut the EB/Gamestop in the used game market. But very rarely will you find a store that has that rare game you are looking for.
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Did you see the one where the Starbucks like company moved in to south park? Everyone got all up and arms to save their local store from the evil of the big company moving in right next door. But after they actually tasted the coffee, they found that Starbucks didn't taste like grabage like the independant stores. It seems this is the same to me. These stores offer a better price and more selection...so seriously, screw the independant store. The only thing he has a point about is still buying the old games. But if we get the "evil" company to buy the older system games and stock those we have the best of all worlds. It's cheap and centrally located. The only thing an independant store could be able to offer would be if they gave the consumer better quality of servce...they inspected games better, knew the games better, and have a friendly atmosphere. Honestly, though, quality is usually worse in these independant stores. So give me better prices...I won't shed a tear for the small companies. The big companies today were small companies at one point that did so well that they are now everywhere.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
I keep seeing everyone say they are overpriced. Maybe my area is different, but the indie stores around here aren't bad at all. They sell new games for the same as the major retailers, but they don't focus on that much at all. Several of the best don't even sell new games.
Where indie stores really shine is in the used games. I've found them to be MUCH cheaper than Gamestop, EBGames, etc. For example I recently picked up a complete boxed copy of Final Fantasy 1 in decent condition for the same price Game Crazy wanted for just the cartridge. I also picked up Dragon Warrior 3 for half of what the bigger stores wanted. I could go on and on with examples, but I've found them to always be much cheaper on the classic games. Also, you can actually haggle with them and get a better price for a larger purchase or a purchase with trade-in. Good luck with that at a major game shop.
The other place where they shine is the fact that they actually have knowledgable staff. I can go into one of those and find out the going rate for Waterworld for VirtualBoy and background on Neo Geo AES systems or anything else I ask about. The workers at the big stores don't have the faintest clue what I am talking about. I'm also lucky enough to have a major indie store that imports thousands of Japanese games, which I am a big fan of. Without them I would be stuck paying Lik-sangs massive markups.
I'm not saying indie stores aren't going to go away some day, but they definately have a place and if you are interested in classic or foreign games you don't have much of an alternative. If the ones around here ever closed I guess I'd be stuck with Ebay and importers.
You should watch the movie "You've Got Mail". Different product, but similar situation. Your best solution then would be to marry someone that owns one of the big electronic or game retail companies.
Just a couple of nits. I don't mean to beat on the guy since I'm in the same boat. I've managed independent stores for about 5 years now, and 6 months ago bought my own.
The key is that if you love games more than you love money, you should NOT be in this business. If your focus is on renting a 1400sqft strip mall gamer room where you can hold court and gab about games and do special orders, you have doomed yourself to failure. If you find your store slouching toward that ideal, turn that sucker around NOW.
If you're an independent and don't rent out games, you're committing slow suicide. Not only is it a nice side income that you can count on every week, but it also means that you DON'T have to stock every single $50 game that comes out.
"Hey, do you have that new Fleshreaper game?"
"Sure. But have you played it yet? I've heard mixed reviews on it. It's just $7 for a week, and wouldn't you hate to blow $50 on a game you'll hate? Lemme sign you up."
Bingo. Instead of having to spend $160 to get 4 copies to sit on your shelf and silently stare at you, while you pray for them to sell, you can spend $80 for two rental copies, maintain the appearance of a well stocked store and give the customer the impression that you care more about making him happy than making $50. If it's not Christmas, I only order new releases to get rentals and preorders. I do stock surefire stuff (GTA, Madden and other AAA titles), but everything else I do NOT stock deep.
Systems: Why should I bother losing money on these when I can send people to the Walmart across the street? "And please check out the fine selection of used PS2 titles before you go!"
Giving store credit for used stuff: This is where we see, again, that gamers shouldn't own game stores. If you don't have your banter down, you're in the wrong line of work. "Sure you paid $50 for that when it came out. But it sells new for $20 now. I can give you $8 for it, and that's about $5 more than what EB will give you for it!"
Anyway, while I don't think my business model will last forever, I also don't think properly run independent stores are going to burst into flames. I will continue to exploit the holes that EB, Best Buy and Blockbuster leave gaping open.
I bought my store 6 months ago from a guy who was augering it in because he wasn't willing to spend the time and money to turn it around. Income is up 20% this month from this time last year. So far, so good.
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In general I get this "death of the small retailer" thing, its an argument thats been around across all retailing as long as I can remember. Probably before I was born given the long standing existence of super markets.
But for video games, I don't see what an independent retailer offers. Its different for say, butchers vs. supermarket slop (its about sourcing) or bookshops and recordshops (indie retailers buy from indie niche publishers). But for video games, the indie studios hardly exist any more much less indie game publishers. Its not even like a hardware store/butcher/fish munger etc. where the product is generic but one is happy to pay a modest premium for expertise and advice of the owner. In the early days (early to mid 1980s) this was probably the case with computer software but not anymore.
Video games are the same wherever you get them and the inventory just isn't that diverse and the bigger names probably stock more because they can afford the shelf space. Its sad for people directly involved but as a consumer it leaves me a little cold to be honest.
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I've been in a lot of towns and smaller citys, both before and after they get a Wal-Mart Superstore. The empty store fronts are painfully obvious after the W-M SS has been in town for about 2 years.
I was looking into opening an indie game store last summer, found a great location (in a mall!!), had funding, everything... Then I went looking for distributors.
I had about $20k to spend on new titles. The cheapest I could find was 52.00 each (including shipping), for games I had to sell for 49.99! Yes, thats right... I'd lose 2.01 on each sale. Not exactly a profitable venture.
Even a $20k purchase didnt entitle you to a bulk discount. That just shows you what it costs to get into this retail market as a startup.
Broke my heart really... My love of games, and my 'dream business' died right there.
nice article, as I was reading it I was thinking of the indie game store I frequent in Red Bank, NJ
then I noticed it was written by the owner!
Excellent shop; when there's a game I know I want to buy on release day, I go out of my way (there are 5 gamestop affiliates and a target that are closer) to go to red devil to buy them.
Why?
Because I like the atmosphere, the sincerity, the well-informed staff, and most of all I like being treated like an individual customer and appreciate it when my tastes are taken into account when being recommended something.
I also like that the store holds game tournaments, even if I don't play Halo or Smash Brothers (which appear to be the most popular.)
I'll correct you both, it was Shady Pines. Shady Pines was the home Sofia was in when it burnt down.
Back on topic, I'd kill to find The Longest Journey. Got the sequel coming out soon and I'd like to play the first one first. Big stores don't carry the small games.
"...you might as well straddle the son of a bitch like a nuclear warhead, smile, and watch the whole shitbox get blown sky high."
Pathetic. To think this all probably started with that Seanbaby idiot.
Anyhow, to get to the meat of the matter, I for one couldn't care less that these "indie" game stores are disappearing. I've experienced nothing in these stores but poor service (rude employees/owners who know nothing about how to treat a customer), high prices, and thieves who want to give me $4 for a used game I could sell for $15-20 on eBay.
Ah, eBay. Now why on earth would I walk into a local store and pay $40 for a game I could get, with shipping, for less than half that price on the Internet? In the past week alone I've bought four PS2 games, three of them new in shrink-wrap, for around $15-20 apiece, shipping included. These same games cost at least double that at my local games shop (I checked with them before using eBay). Sure, I have to wait a few days for the games to be delivered, but I'll gladly be patient if it means saving that kind of money.
Not to say that places like Gamestop/EB Games are any better. Compared to eBay, they're way overpriced too.
The author suggests that indie stores stock up on retro games that the big chain stores have forgotten, but this is a joke too: $3 Sega Genesis cartridges selling for $10 at the local indie shop, barebones NES consoles selling for $50. "Want this beat up Atari 2600 unit? Yes, only $40!"
And the prices on Turbo Grafx items are even more outlandish.
So screw indie game shops. They don't deserve to survive. I'm very thankful that, given my love of video games, I have somewhere else to spend my money.
I think it's the lack of distributors that the independent game stores either have or are able to get. There was a Microplay in my hometown (It's Canadian I think but this mom and pop bought a franchise and had it in Texas). I remember ordering Seaman for the Dreamcast. They could never get it in so you know what they did? Freaking bought it from Best Buy and then charged me their price for it (even though it was cheaper to get at Best Buy). Even worse, the Pokemon games...they would buy out the local Wal-Mart stock of games and sell them marked up to regular (non-Wal-Mart) prices. I think they also weighed packs of comic cards and special baseball type cards they got because they knew the ones that weighed just a little bit more had the "rare" cards in them (because they are foil, thicker, etc) Freaking bastards. They did sell me a Gamecube about a week before street date but that was the only positive for me.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
How about here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000 0507UR/104-6213860-2867917?v=glance
It would be presumptuous to conclude that Americans have no right to know what is being done in their name
I feel silly explaining this, but I really meant "Shady Acres", the resthome that advertises over one of the radio stations in Vice City. ...
Here in my underdevelopped european city, right down my door i've got thee oldskool game shop with a SEGA neon ... I can rent all the games i want (including dreamcast), buy them and trade them back for other ones, test them inside the shop, which is family owned and includes a LAN room for the youngsters to play ...
It also sells manga videos ( great deals on VHS nown a chance to see all these bad mangas you never got to buy and that are waaay too expensive in DVD) .
I pray it wont get replaced by one of those megachains, operated by burnt out teens on smacks with only the newest games and with bad techno music blasting from morning to night. Long Live the Independants !
With that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls.