I was speaking with the shop owner on Sunday and he mentioned he is a programmer outside of the shop. Based on the layout inside the shop, the amount of time he gives of himself running three campaign sessions each week, and the paltry 10 supporters on Patreon (which is only $5 or $10 tiers), I'm guessing he's more a passionate gamer than a savvy businessman.
Not that I have a ton of experience running a business like this either, but I do want to see him succeed, I know it's a tough sort of thing to keep open, even before Covid.
Planning on swinging by his shop tomorrow to look through inventory and buy some stuff with cash to give my support. It must be tough when people will see a retail price and then go and buy it on
Amazon instead at a better price
I also started reading up on some helpful threads where people ask about opening a gaming shop, and others chime in with the challenges they'll face, creative ways to grow your community and revenue stream, etc.
I was planning to talk with the owner tomorrow and provide some hopefully helpful feedback:
1. STORE LAYOUT
When we go to play our D&D sessions, the table we play at is right at the front of the store when we arrive. There's no product or displays we pass by when we go to the table on the way in or out.
In addition, the product is mostly on shelving against the walls, and not all that enticing/attention-grabbing in the way it's displayed.
I think he'd score some additional sales if the gaming tables are further back in the store, forcing customers to pass by product displays going to and from. In addition, there's definitely missed opportunity in organizing the products in more attractive and attention-grabbing manners, especially with stuff at the front windows.
One big challenge is he's in a shopping plaza that has a number of empty storefronts. So there's not a ton of natural traffic, and he's going to be forced to get his store known in the gaming community to drive traffic to it, rather than piggybacking off of natural foot traffic in that area
2. MEMBERSHIPS AND BONUSES
So right now he has a $5 and $10 Patreon available, and you get:
$5 - Free GW Model and painting tutorial each month! Free paint use! Appreciation for supporting us doing our best to make an awesome game space and community for everyone involved
$10 - For those that want to support the store and receive some extra benefits from doing so.
Contains all benefits from previous tier
Ability to RESERVE a table for your group's use.
Ability to vote on what content will become free next!
Ability to vote on next raffle!
Additional 5% store credit back on purchases (Will not stack with promos)
Additional Raffle Ticket
So he's not really making any profit off the Patreon, because they take a cut and the free miniature I snagged retails for $7.99
He spends three sessions of 3 hours each being the DM for people who play for free, not to count all the time he spends outside those sessions updating everyone on social media, organizing the sessions, preparing the source material, etc. His time is valuable, so I think he needs to find a way to recoup that somehow.
I'll recommend he ditch Patreon and utilize an in-store membership of some sort, cut out the middle-man. The membership could include the various bonuses he mentions in the patreon. Maybe it even includes a store credit of some sort, possibly up to the value of the membership instead of the free miniature, etc. This doesn't make him rich, but it helps him move product, gets customers invested in the store and the membership and growing their collections of gaming things, etc.
He could also charge a reasonable fee to participate in the D&D sessions, but then provide that amount as a store credit to the participants to help at least break semi-even.
