For the most part, they do need to change, badly

However in my area we only have 2 major game stores, Both being Gamestops. They are really nice and always have a few game demos for each console, people are always nice there.

But I have seen some bad ones around too, Im just lucky with where i live.

I don’t think local stores are trying to steal business from big stores, they are just trying to survive. I just think stores like the video game stores can jazz it up a bit. Style up the joint and see if it works - its about time to buck the stereotype. I just think a few hundred dollars can go a long way and not break the bank.

Plus it just gets down to that I, if I was an owner-employee, would not like to spend my day sitting in a game store that is covered in wood paneling, has faded posters in the window, dim lighting, and feels like a garage. I figure if I don’t like that type of feeling, then my customers probably don’t either — but that all depends what type of customers you’re trying to get, and I would want to get people like me.

I think Big G’s store is a lot different than the case I’m trying to make because a hardware store serves everyone - from contractors to senior citizens - so you don’t have the leeway I imagine game stores having. When you’re trying to target a very specific group of people I think you can be more flexible in your ideas and solutions.

(We’ve shied quite aways from the fact that I was complaining about my experience as a customer in video game stores. It had nothing to do with business management, but it’s that’s half the fun.)

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They think that because they’ve shopped before, they’re experts in retail management.

There is a lot that goes into running a retail store. Much of which you never will see. Painting the walls, keeping floor spotless, and keeping the shelves neat and tidy is just one small part. I’m telling you from experience (from trying to turn around a store that was struggling long before I took over), not simply expressing an opinion. When budgets are tight, these are the first things that begin to slide. It’s a big indicator that “hole in the wall” used video game stores can barely keep their doors open, let alone actually compete.

Absolutely you’re going to know if a store is “having financial trouble” when you walk in. Especially if the store in question is a small business instead of a large chain like Target, Walmart, or CompUsa (who just closed all their stores). Why on earth would you think that “You shouldn’t be able to tell” Business, just like people, can only live above their means for a little while before everything falls apart and they go bankrupt. In an ailing store, spending money on enough help to keep the place sparkling clean qualifies as living above ones means if sales and margins don’t support it. It it comes down to eating dinner tonight, or paying a high school kid to come in for an hour to sweep the floor, I have a feeling I know which the owner will choose. If things are that tight, he probably had to make the same decision the previous day, and the day before that, and so on.

If you don’t believe me, draw up a business plan for the video game bar you described in the article above. Do some sales projections, look at your overhead expenses, come up with some estimates for your payroll. Don’t forget to factor in taxes and insurance.

If you think you could make a go at it, let me know. I’ll help. Maybe you can make it work where others have failed. If you can do it better than the mom-and-pop shop around the corner, go for it.

In the mean time, suck it up and spend your money there. They’re not in “win customers away from other stores” mode, as you seem think they should be. They’re apparently in “Keep the doors open, and dinner on the table” mode.

Priority to the owner could probably be summed up like this:

Continue living indoors.
Continue eating regularly.
Keep shop doors open.
Have something on hand to sell when somebody straggles in.
Have an employee to help customers find items and ring sales.
**Sweep the floors and make shelves pretty***

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I don’t believe managers *have* to micromanage anybody. Sometimes it’s necessary, sometimes it’s not. I’m one that believes the supervisors have a big hand in determining if their employees need micromanaging. There are exceptions, but if you give your employees the right opportunities they won’t need micromanaging anymore, regardless how much they’re making. Everybody wants responsibility and challenges.

And I never said anything about any sort of “suffering” business-wise. I’m not assuming anything about the money situation at a video game store, I know it’s not a lot. But as a customer I shouldn’t know if the store I’m in is hurting financially or not. Just by walking in the door I should have confidence that the store has what I need and that they’ll be there tomorrow.

Presentation if everything. Period. Nobody wants to be in, let alone shop in, a store that “looks like crap” when they can go across the street or down the block for the same thing. Even if 95% of people that walk through the door don’t buy anything, I’d rather have them come back often and not buy anything than not come back at all. Chances are they’ll buy something eventually and it also puts that store at the front of their mind when they think of needing something. A clean and nice-looking store makes me want to come back just to window shop if nothing else. It’s like rock and roll — it really doesn’t matter how good your music is; if you have a good show and good characters, people will believe it, buy it, and like it.

When everyone has the same product, you need to provide something different than everyone else. These video game stores have an opportunity to be a real one-on-one store — and most of them are — but no one over the age of 15 wants to go in there to shop because it’s disgusting and kind of creepy. What you get out of the experience is not worth the trouble when you can go elsewhere to find the same thing even if you’d rather not give that other place the business.

The general public doesn’t care if they buy the items at a small store or big chain. They care about price and experience. Bad experience means I don’t come back. Poor value means I don’t come back. You could add convenience to that list, but I will go slightly out of my way to find something I want just so I can get it locally - especially if I need it right away.

And lastly, employees should never be alone, ever. There should always be some sort of supervisor person at the store, even on the slowest day. Not just to keep tabs on employees but to handle customers if it gets to that point. By all rights the customer should rarely see the manager. They need to deal with the floor staff first and only see the manager in extraordinary situations, be them good or bad. Direct interaction with the manager on a regular basis undermines the floor staff’s ability and credibility and the result is a floor staff that never gets any better.

Are there supervisors who ARE ABLE to dedicate their time micromanaging these employess while they are running the whole place by themselves basically?

Do you think that the employee, especially when alone, will, on their OWN, “clean” anything but the videos off the shelves for their own use?

I hardly think so… If anything, they are doing the bare minimum that the owner can pay them for and nothing else… and the owner, who is obviously suffering business wise as is, has much bigger problems to worry about if his store looks like crap!

What does that floor person do when there aren’t any customers? You’re not sending him home. So he is “there anyway” and he is who you can put to work cleaning/organizing, even if for 20 minutes before the next customer walks in.

Video game stores are even worse. They probably don’t have 10 customers a day for a regular 9-5 business day. And there’s only usually ONE dude at those stores. That guy is sitting doing nothing for seven hours out of eight…so let’s say 5 good hours of doing nothing. You can do A LOT in five hours…that’s more than enough to clean and organize. So then what? You improve what you have - constantly - and work towards the next big step.

You have to balance having the right number of employees in the store vs. your sales. No retailer can afford to have staff that “is going to be there anyway”, especially a small store. If you have too many people scheduled, your payroll is going to be too high a percentage of your sales.

I still maintain that the first thing to suffer when you’re trying to reduce payroll costs is keeping the store neat and tidy.

The employee’s job, first and foremost, is helping customers. If you run on a skeleton crew, you keep just enough staff in the store to help the customers. That is the job that is necessary to make money. Having enough people on hand to keep the store clean as well will cost extra.

I imagine that a used video game store operates on a pretty thin net margin (not gross margin). Honestly, I don’t know how those guys can survive these days. A dirty store is just an indicator that the market is barely enough to support keeping the doors open, and little more.

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