Buying Video Games in Bulk Wholesale

[dsullo]

Does anyone on these boards no how or where one might buy videogames at wholesale for a small business ?

[DRJ555]

If you have a legitimate B&M game business contact Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft and ask for a list of distributors.

Also note that wholesale for a $50 game is about $42-$45 depending on quantity.

[jetblac]

That can't be real??? how can you make money when your profit is onlt $6 bucks and what about 3 months later when the games are going for $39 bucks??? Hell!! what about when their going for $7 bucks!!??

[Wshakspear]

amazing, isnt it? thats why places like Gamestop and EB sell action figures and used games, to make up for that very small profit.

[MaxBiaggi3]

That can't be real??? how can you make money when your profit is onlt $6 bucks. . .

If getting brand new games for $5-$10 was as easy as going to a distributer (instead of a retail store), we'd all be doing it, and all of the retail game shops would go out of business in no time. Unfortunately, the retail business is much, much more complicated than that.

[JimmieMac]

You think video games is bad imagine grocery stores, how much do you think they're making on a 53 cent can of beans? That's why they have started selling games, movies, lawn chairs and 3 man canoes.

[E-Z-B]

But grocery stores sell massive quantities of food. Ever notice those lines, and how much people throw into their carts? What boggles my mind is how gamestop stays afloat. We have several of them in my area, and whenever I'm in one, I see maybe one sale per visit while I'm in there 10 minutes. Assuming a $6 profit on a transaction, they make $60 an hour? Amazing that they can survive after paying the employees, lights, heat, for the store location, taxes, and new stock.

[grayghost81]

On that note I have to chime in. Grocery stores have only a 1% profit margain. Thats right, we only make 1 penny per every dollar paid to us. Why is Wal-Mart such competition for grocery stores? Because they have a 2% profit margain. That one extra cent makes all the difference.

As said before, the retail business is amazing.

[btantra]

How can Wal-Mart got a 2% profit margin while all the other grocery stores only makes 1%?

[dinovelvet]

That can't be real??? how can you make money when your profit is onlt $6 bucks and what about 3 months later when the games are going for $39 bucks??? Hell!! what about when their going for $7 bucks!!??

Very few of the games make a lot of money for the stores; only the huge sellers like Halo, Zelda, GTA etc are a good investment for them. Most of the time, the average game barely breaks even or takes a loss. Where EB and other videogame stores make their dough is on the accessories like controllers, memory cards and cables etc; these are much cheaper for them to get hold of and there's a much higher markup.
It's impossible for a small/independent videogame store to compete with Walmart and Best Buy etc; these stores aren't making anything on games, and they DON'T CARE! What they do care about is getting your ass into the store because of their low prices, as hopefully you'll buy other merchandise along with the games.

[btantra]

I have to disagree with 1% profit margin on grocery stores because prices vary a lot between stores like say

1lb of Cherry is $4.99 in one store
and
1lb of Cherry is $2.99 in another store

so the store that is charging $4.99/lb of Cherry should make more than just 1% profit, in fact they are making $2.00 profit per pound bought by the customer.

[E-Z-B]

I've heard from someone who worked in purchasing at a grocery store headquarters (Giant Eagle in Erie, PA) that the biggest markups that he could remember were watermelons. They paid maybe a penny for them, then sell them at $4. He said that if you drove up to a farmer, offered him $20 to fill up the bed of your pickup truck with watermelons, he'd jump right on that.

[DRJ555]

"I have to disagree with 1% profit margin on grocery stores because prices vary a lot between stores like say

1lb of Cherry is $4.99 in one store
and
1lb of Cherry is $2.99 in another store

so the store that is charging $4.99/lb of Cherry should make more than just 1% profit, in fact they are making $2.00 profit per pound bought by the customer. "

Stores will frequently have "Loss Leader" sales where they actually lose money on one item to get you into the store so you buy other items. Since most people will not walk out of the store with only a pound of cherries.

Back to game sales. If a store like Wal-Mart buys lets say 100,000 copies of a game and sell them for $5 profit each, thats $500,000. Even if they bought 50,000 and sold them for $2 profit that is still $100,000. The point is money is made by selling high quantities at low profit (versus low quantity at high profit).

[video_gamer324]

If grocery stores only made a 2% profit margin, they'd all go broke. I've heard that they make more like a 200% profit margin, and that makes more sense. That's why homeless shelters can get food for what we might call dirt cheap.

[DRJ555]

"If grocery stores only made a 2% profit margin, they'd all go broke. I've heard that they make more like a 200% profit margin, and that makes more sense. That's why homeless shelters can get food for what we might call dirt cheap."

2% of billions of dollars still adds up. The info below was taken from:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=ABS&annual
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=WMT&annua

All data is for one year.

Albertson's
Total Sales = $35,626,000,000
Net Profit = $485,000,000
Percent Profit = 1.36%

Wal-Mart
Total Sales = $264,525,000,000
Net Profit = $8,039,000,000
Percent Profit = 3.04%

So look at Wal-Mart, they only made 3% profit, but that is on sales of over 264 BILLION DOLLARS. That still adds up to over $8 Billion profit.

[AvidPs2GMR]

I dunno about groceries and games,but jewelry has a 300% mark-up.

[DRJ555]

"I dunno about groceries and games,but jewelry has a 300% mark-up."

But how much businnes do they do?

If you buy an item for $100 and sell it for $200 that is $100 in profit.

If you buy 20 items for $45 each and sell them all for $50 each that is $100 profit.

Specifically for games: The games and consoles sell very close to cost. The accessories are sold for a higher mark up.

believe me if you could buy games wholesale for $25 (MSRP = $50) everyone here would be in business on eBay.

[Persain]

i dont by that buy for 45 sell for 50. my uncle runs a grociery store and he buys movies for $7 sells for 15-20 and video games at 30 then sells at 50. so when stores sell games like final fantasy x-2 for 29.99 in a few months they will be losing only a peny per game.
ie when they sell them at full price they make 20 a game not 5.

[CheapyD]

I'm no expert, but I doubt any retailer in the world can buy a new FFX-2 for $30, unless its stolen

[Pizzicato Five]

if a wholesaler is charging you $42+ for a MSRP game of $50 you are being screwed. It has been ages since I bought wholesale - it was for the Atari Jaguar. Carts are more expensive with less manufacturer room for profit and I remember $50 games were costing somewhere in the range of $29- $36. This was for a ma & pa operation.

[ronfear]

It's true there is no profit margin for games. As a previous video game store owner that lost his shirt. I have researched pretty much 90% of video game wholesalers price lists and you make $2 to $7 max on all video games. Walmart and other big box stores make more money cause they buy so much. They make about $5 to $12 a game and also have price protection, so when a game gets marked down they get credit towards future orders. But they don't get credit all the way thru the markdowns, just once or twice, depending on the contract with the publisher. There is all kinds of other benefits big box retailers get for making shelf room. Anyway, I was paying $57 for zelda 64 when it came out and it retailed for $59.99. That was the best price i could get. These wholesalers want you to buy lots of every title to get the best price and even then it's only a $2 to $7 profit. Don't forget you have to pay shipping too and overnight it if it's a hot new release. Most orders i would pay 1,500 for and net profit would be like $40. You do he math.

EB and Gamestop stay in business beacuse they make decent profits on used games and accessories.

[Mr. Rhee]

DRJ555, everything you posted is supported with facts/links. great job. just curious, if you don't mind me asking, what industry do you work in? grocery? video games? financial?

[chosen1s]

if a wholesaler is charging you $42+ for a MSRP game of $50 you are being screwed. It has been ages since I bought wholesale - it was for the Atari Jaguar. Carts are more expensive with less manufacturer room for profit and I remember $50 games were costing somewhere in the range of $29- $36. This was for a ma & pa operation.

I have personally seen the invoices for these games that everybody is talking about. It's true - $43 - $46 on the new games (Even the new suck games). Yes, after a while when there is stock left over, they will drop the price on these games. Ever notice how all the games at the grocery store, etc. tend to suck (Or at the very least have been out for a long time?). That's because yes, Pa's grocery store won't buy the games at $42 and waits until he can get a deal.

Incidentally, I work in the grocery industry and it's true that grocery stores make a very slim margin overall. However, they make fair margins on groceries. It's not until you tie in wages, heating, lighting, etc. that the profit margin drops to ~1%.

The reason Wal-Mart makes more than grocery stores is:
1) The way they go about doing business. Grocery stores will sell certain foods for, say, as low as $1/box every so often because the food manufacturers give them a better price every so often. Wal Mart says "Screw that, take all the money you have to offer for deals this year and give it to us now (paraphrasing obviously)." Then they apply it across the entire year. So they never sell these food items for $1, but they do sell it for $2.29 all year instead of the $2.59 that everybody else sells it for when the "deal" is over.

2) They have a LOT of clout. If a grocery store walks on you, then dang - that stinks. If WAL-MART walks on you....!!!! So you can imagine they always get the absolute best deals.

3) They have their own warehouses and trucking companies for distribution. Grocery stores have to pay an upcharge to large warehouses for everything they buy. Yes, Wal-Mart has to pay employees just like other warehouses. But, the "profit" from the warehouses goes right back to Wal-Mart's bottom line -- Whereas the "profit" to warehouses never comes back to most grocery stores.

These are the reasons that grocery stores and most small-town business people get so frustrated and occasionally you will hear on the news about a small town "standing up" to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is SO huge they have advantages that only a company of such a massive size can have.

[tholly]

I worked in a grocery store for over a year. It is locally owned and is not a major chain. The owner said that they make $1.00 profit on every $100.00 of grocerys sold. The thing is, you don't realize how many $100-200 orders you see in 1 hour. Most people that come in buy that much. The $1.00s add up quick in a grocery store setting.

[grayghost81]

Its true, and on a busy week a high volume store can make nearly a million dollars. But then you have to factor in all the costs of operating the company. And remember that there are career employees (who I call "old-timers") who can make over $25 an hour (+overtime if its sunday).

Its true, there are crazy markups on a lot of products. A fresh bake department in a store makes about 50% profit but the non-foods wont come anywhere close to that.

For those who "dont believe" the 1% profit margin, call any major grocery chain and ask the store manager, or go to school and take an economics or business course.

[OutlawJT]

You people do realize that any retailers 'profit margin' is the percent of profit after ALL EXPENSES ARE PAID!!!!! Meaning that is the money they have left after paying their employees, rent, utilities, stocking, etc. Otherwise it'd be called the overhead margin.

[pukemon]

man, there are some ignorant posts in this thread. grocery stores operate on a different level than wal-mart and X game store. walmart is a mix between a grocery store and vg store. grocery stores have some high markups, but they also bring you in with great deal on a 12 pack of cokes or beer or even meat. they're also hoping you buy that high ass price on cereal or a bag of chips or whatever. wal-mart can charge lower on everything and do it by the great quantities they sell with their buying power. as for vg stores, 42-45 dollars is not too bad an estimate, but if you have the buying power you can get cheaper. but because of that, vg stores do have to rely on used games, and action figures and anime and blah blah blah, to get into that safe profit margin area. there are also incentives for the stores when they do agree to buy a certain amount even if the don't want to or have the buying power. i'm sure defender and cheapy d can elaborate on this more but they aren't around now. i would like to get in vg business myself just like every entrepreneur wanna be on here, but it takes some serious capital, commitment, and finding the niches, what sells, and incentives for gamers to come and buy from your store.

[Medium_Pimpin]

there really isnt profit in selling games when you buy from wholesale. I did some research a few years back, and my findings came up short of a profit, so i left the idea behind.

[dragonfireflys]

Wholesale on video games for game stores is around 35 dollars per unit (depending on msrp of 49.99). Mass retailers like walmart (actually just walmart) negotiate prices lower to around 30 dollars per unit (hence walmart has lower prices). Electronic stores purchase games around 35 dollars per unit as well.

all are based on msrp of 49.99

If you buy from a distributor/wholesaler expect to pay upto 40 dollars per unit (it all depends on how many titles you are able to buy/sell).

[dragonfireflys]

By the way, retailers like best buy offer huge discounts on items (almost to near/at cost) to get you to buy their higher end items that have better profit margins. Heavy electronics like: tvs, stereos, washing machines, etc... make best buy the most money, they make literally nothing off of cds (at least those on sale) and very little off of games, there is some money to be made off of dvds.

[sexdrugsandrocknroll]

Heh, no wonder EVERY vg store you go to, they keep the games behind glass or something. Imagine of someone stole just 1 new game! Imagine how much money they will lose! They would have to sell soo much games just to make up for that ONE game that got stolen. I'm surprised that ANYONE would want to be in a business that's so much trouble.

[sexdrugsandrocknroll]

And also, don't the workers get like around a 10% discount? So on some games they will be LOSING money?

[frenchmovietheme]

i've worked retail that has sold videogames before, and it's completely true. our discount used to be "cost + 5% markup". i bought games from time to time, and i basically paid around $48 after taxes for a $49.99 game. the company made about $2 profit when i bought the game from them. also, i had a teacher once who worked as an accountant for a videogame company. he said often times they will sell the games to any given store for $42 or whatever, but there MAYBE a discount clause written into the agreement. i.e. they sell 100 copies of Joe Adventure to Videogame Store A, but after 3 months it has only sold 10 copies. they won't give the money back to Videogame Store A, but they will give that company a credit on their next order of videogames.

[sman113]

On a side not, I worked for CompUSA for a while and they make nothing on computers. Its the salesmen pushing the replacement guarantees (100% profit) and printer cables and cartridges that make the store money. Employees got to buy items at cost and where computers often sold for at or below cost already, cables and/or cartrdges that were $30 at cost were only like $5.

which is why EB (or Rhino Videogames by me) will give $25 store credit for a used 'new' game and then turn around and sell it for $40. Thats huge profit. The problem i see there (and why i wouldnt want to own one of these shops) is that what happens when you buy, say, GTAIII for $25 when it just comes out, but havent sold it yet when new ones drop to $20 retail. You then have to sell used copies for $15. Then you lose money.

A complicated business indeed.

[jetblac]

Go to a hostess store... you get those snacks for 50% - 75% off
Go to Entenmanns... 50% all day long
I read somewhere in this forum that you can go to the EA Head Quarters in (San Fransisco??) and get any of their titles for $19.00 bucks!

But then again if the profit margin is low for new games ($5) and higher for used games ($10- $20)... It makes all the sense in the world to get 4 used games in trade and giveaway 1 new... even if they did just sell them to you for $8 each and gave you one for free and you then gave them right back and walked out with NFL Street....?????!!!!!
Think about that

[dragonfireflys]

Go to a hostess store... you get those snacks for 50% - 75% off
Go to Entenmanns... 50% all day long
I read somewhere in this forum that you can go to the EA Head Quarters in (San Fransisco??) and get any of their titles for $19.00 bucks!

But then again if the profit margin is low for new games ($5) and higher for used games ($10- $20)... It makes all the sense in the world to get 4 used games in trade and giveaway 1 new... even if they did just sell them to you for $8 each and gave you one for free and you then gave them right back and walked out with NFL Street....?????!!!!!
Think about that

Used (late model) stuff is where the profit is. That's why they give you dirt in cash for your used games.

As for prices at headquarters: a)those are mostly only for employees. b)companies set the price for a game and are still making a lot of money on a 19 dollar game.

[grayghost81]

kind of off topic: I dont know which walmarts you all go to, but Ive hardly ever seen any games at any walmart priced below msrp.

[Puzznic]

Things like new games, DVDs and groceries always have really low profit margins. The reason is that they usually sell themselves. People go into stores knowing pretty much exactly what they want beforehand.

[spankmenow420]

cost on new releases is usually 20%, new releases retailing for $50, company sheet pricing is $40 plus shipping, add distributor markup $1 or $2. Really hot game markup $5-$7.00. I'm in the industry and i know first hand experiences, big retailers are given advertising allowances, markdown allowances, and other funds to promote titles which typical game would cost walmart approxiately $36-$37 versus $41 for a medium sized game retailer. This business is run on niche products which can be quite profitable sometimes.

[basketkase543]

How can Wal-Mart got a 2% profit margin while all the other grocery stores only makes 1%?

First its important to establish that Wal-mart is a different type of stores than grocery stores. But it is important to note that Wal-mart has a greater profit margin than store that sell the same items. There was a great 3-part article in LA Times that went into how Wal-mart was created on the basis of saving as much money as possible which included low wages for workers and small perks for management (small in comparison to other retailers). Another way that Wal-mart is able to offer such low prices and still make a profit is by contracting workers from so called third world countries, including many countries in Latin America, and giving them often only about $10 a day for their labor. Wal-mart is then able to sell their products at inexpensive prices and still make profits because they payed small prices for their merchandise. This is why the supermarket strke is going on here. Wal-mart is about to introdue their Super Stores, which are a hybrid of their retail stores and a grocery store, here in the greater Los Angeles area and are using the same practices used in their other products to obtain their grocery foods, including cheap labor. This causes other grocery stores like Ralphs and Albertsons to lower their wages for their workers and to deny things like healthcare in order to compete with Wal-marts prices and maintain their own profit margins. Whew. Sorry about that long answer but i hope that clears up most questions about Wal-mart.

[defender]

That was about right back then...not anymore.
$42 is average cost of a $50 game
$35 is average for the $39.99 games
$17 is cost of $19.99 games

These are averages and can fluctuate...I been in the retail side of games for 10 years.

if a wholesaler is charging you $42+ for a MSRP game of $50 you are being screwed. It has been ages since I bought wholesale - it was for the Atari Jaguar. Carts are more expensive with less manufacturer room for profit and I remember $50 games were costing somewhere in the range of $29- $36. This was for a ma & pa operation.

[GameDude]

I used to work at Best Buy and our discount was 5% above cost. I used be able to get a discount on a $50 game for about $42 or so. TV's, except Sony models, usually were about 30%...while Sonys weren't much off at all.

As others have said, accessories is where the money's at. For instance, I bought a $30 or so ethernet cable for $5 after tax! I believe things like controlelrs were about 30% off, too.

[GameDude]

oh yeah, and I talked to the Xbox rep and he told me that Walmart gets the best prices on games...and then stores like Best Buy. So, Walmart maybe get a game for $38, Best Buy for $40, and smaller stores maybe $42 or so.

[defender]

This is the reason most small game retailers are assholes about customers who GRAB at things they are not suppose to. I have signs all over my store about not leaning on my counters to reach for games...and people still do it. In what store and society are you allowed to reach behind a counter to grab something. Of course they always say " I just want to look at it" but do you know how many games that are stolen from me each year? LOTS! And yes...if 2 copies of a game get stolen I have to sell 10 copies just to break even on that. It's incredibly frustrating and that's why I go ape shit whenever someone is out of line in my store. While you might be some innocent guy just wanting to see the back of a new title...to me...you are a potential thief and at minimum you are stupid and rude. I would NEVER reach over a counter for something.

At this point I cant imaging having my store open for more than the next year or two..I am about done. Time to consider a new career and move on. Anyone want to buy a store? This whole thread just depressed the hell out of me.

Heh, no wonder EVERY vg store you go to, they keep the games behind glass or something. Imagine of someone stole just 1 new game! Imagine how much money they will lose! They would have to sell soo much games just to make up for that ONE game that got stolen. I'm surprised that ANYONE would want to be in a business that's so much trouble.

[sandwiches99]

To anyone that owns a video game store (Defender, maybe you can answer this):

Why do stores order bad games?.. like the games you just know will be bad and won't sell. Is there some contract or discount with the publisher or what?

[drone8888]

Uh, it depends on the distributor I think.

When I worked at Best Buy, we got everything for cost, plus 10%. (I don't know if this has changed) I think it was called an EPPR, or something.
Anyway, I got a shit load of games, and never payed more than $35.

Some games were much cheaper.

EA games were always $35, but smaller houses were sometimes as cheap as $10-15.

I got most of the PS2 launch releases for half of what everyone else was paying. It was awesome.

Those days are long gone though.


I have an idea.....


Maybe CheapyD, would like to start up a privatized store, or a group buy setup.
They do it at Agoraquest.

The website owner finds a distributor, who will take a minimal-to-significant amount off of the price, if enough people sign on.
It acts like an advertisement for the company, so it all works out.

This is what Agoraquest does with ABT Electronics.

Its sweet.

If we all put out money in to something like this, we could make out quite well.

[Kaijufan]

Job shadowing at a local videogame store(there are about 6 of them total so far) I was scared out of owning a game store. Seriously, $5 profit is horrible. We sell things like Hummels and Department 56 where I work, and we buy them for half the sugested retail price.

[defender]

I can only speak for myself...

I buy only one or two copies of a game likely to sell poorly. I have always thought to carry a full selection of games and what some might judge poorly someone else might actually want. Although in the past 2 years it is really getting hard to even carry one copy of a bad game and so I find myself turning down a lot of games. I cant afford anymore to take a game at $42 that sucks and will get reduced to $17 in a couple months. I think this is getting to be the trend. The retail end of the game industry is a mess.

Because it is so bad and retailers are just getting pissed..Microsoft started to offer certain retailers price protection. So now on all MS products I am protected against price drops. Also I am being offered price protection from a major wholesaler since I am an awesome account with a long history. They want to see how it goes. So in the summer this will begin and I will be in a stronger position.

The retail end of gaming stinks but it can only get better from here. Things need to change and soon. VideoGames are the only industry that has such poor release dates. In movies, books, and music they know a couple months ahead the exact day of release. With games there are constant changes in dates. Even up to the last day games get delayed. I dont even bother to care about release dates until I know the game is on a truck on its way.


To anyone that owns a video game store (Defender, maybe you can answer this):

Why do stores order bad games?.. like the games you just know will be bad and won't sell. Is there some contract or discount with the publisher or what?

[spankmenow420]

Small retailers are usually forced to buy bad games so they are able to get good games later on, which often is the case in this business since good titles are allocated only for big boys, ie walmart, best buy, etc. and small retailers end up getting the short end of the stick. Retailers never know which game will do really good either, since the hype is what makes a title sell and no knows for sure what title will do best. Defender, let me know what you are thinking, if you want to liquidate entire business, let me know.

[IcyDeath]

When I worked for a Ma and Pop shop... of our 5 suppliers.. the average game was in the 40-42 range before shipping.

When we got sick of getting the latest titles days after the big chains, we worked something out with EA.

Before shipping with EA the games costed about 38-40 before shipping. And after shipping with them it jumped to 41-43 per game with them.

But going through EA we had to purchase mininum quantities of 120 pieces per game..which hurt big time. We got into reselling excess of what we didn't need to our 3rd party suppliers.

[jetblac]

What about returns? I mean if a product sits on the shelf to long can you get a reimbursment or something like that?? Even hostess takes their stale cupcakes back.

[defender]

Havent you been reading this thread...NO RETURNS! NO CREDIT ON REDUCED GAMES!

These aint cupcakes.

Defectives are the only thing that's returnable and even that is not 100%. I can't take back broken consoles. They have to go direct to Sony, MS, or Nintendo from the end user. With a reciept you can get it repaired for free if its within warranty (normally 90 days).

And anyone who wants to buy my store... 450k and it's yours. Dont bother me unless you are serious and have that kind of money.

[Tespo125]

When I win the Lotto, I'm going to quit my day job and start a Cheap Ass Gamer Videogame Store. I'm going to buy $50 games at wholesale for $42 each, and then sell them for $15 each to all the CAGs. That way even though I'll be losing $27 on each game, it won't bother me because I'll be rich, I'll be loving what I'm doing, and I'll be making hundreds upon thousands of CAGs happier than ever.

I can't wait.

[JibbaJabba]

When I win the Lotto, I'm going to quit my day job and start a Cheap Ass Gamer Videogame Store. I'm going to buy $50 games at wholesale for $42 each, and then sell them for $15 each to all the CAGs. That way even though I'll be losing $27 on each game, it won't bother me because I'll be rich, I'll be loving what I'm doing, and I'll be making hundreds upon thousands of CAGs happier than ever.

I can't wait.

Put me #1 on that list. :D

[master_evil]

Hey Defender you say you got your store in NYC right ? I'll have to go and check it myself and see how is it. I've never heard of independet videogame stores in NYC except for the one in Chinatown. Yours is in the upper East Side right ? Near the FDR or not ? How long have you been in business ? It's hell expensive to open a store in NYC, so needless to say I admire evry single person who manages to open any store in NYC since only 1% of the stores opened go on while the others fail and close. They say that the 1st year is were most of the stores go bankrupt. Oppps, sorry I'm going out of subject, sorry. Defender can you drop your store address ? I'll go check it out and see how different it's from the ones in Chinatown.

[joeposh]

I'd like to go see it too, I live in jersey but I go into the city every so often and I'm always up for supporting independent retailers.

[magilacudy]

Wait where's your store in NYC Defender? Is it by 51st and 3rd Ave by any chance

[m_d_amore]

its on st marks And 2nd i think down the block from Rays original famous Pizza & bagels

[magilacudy]

O ok. I always pass by this gamestore on the way to work, I thought by some strange coincidence it would be that store. Guess not

[eldad9]

VideoGames are the only industry that has such poor release dates. In movies, books, and music they know a couple months ahead the exact day of release. With games there are constant changes in dates. Even up to the last day games get delayed. I dont even bother to care about release dates until I know the game is on a truck on its way.

Give us a break....

Books and music are so much simpler than games. How many man-years go into a book? 5,10 tops? probably 1-2? Compare with at least 100 man-years to produce an average-sized movie. Think of all the things that can happen in an art form that's INTERACTIVE. Games are among the most complex software projects ever produced.

And movies, of course, are done a long time before the premiere - and an even longer time before they make it to stores - hence the predictability of the dates.

What would you have publishers do? Ship a game on a certain date no matter how many levels are ready and how many bugs couldn't be fixed in time?

Maybe when consoles allow patching titles, but not yet. And even whether this is preferable is not so obvious.

[andydukey]

A merchindise business of any kind is always going to have small profit margins. If you want to start a business start a service business all you gotta have is the equipment or knowledge. Look at amazon.com and all the other retailers they only make their profit at the end of year anyway the rest of the year they just break even.

[Circa2113]

A merchindise business of any kind is always going to have small profit margins. If you want to start a business start a service business all you gotta have is the equipment or knowledge. Look at amazon.com and all the other retailers they only make their profit at the end of year anyway the rest of the year they just break even.

Ummmm....

You do realize this thread is over 3 years old?

[Ziv]

Ummmm....

You do realize this thread is over 3 years old?

"wise fwum your gwave."

[postaboy]

I think yall should open a pc cafe/zone. I have several friends that owned a pc cafe and is making like $800+ per day on (Mon - Thurs 10:00 am - 12:00 am) and $1500+ per day on (Fri - Sun 10:00 am - 2:00 am). They charged customers like $2 an hour or $10 for 6 hours.

[donut]

On that note I have to chime in. Grocery stores have only a 1% profit margain. Thats right, we only make 1 penny per every dollar paid to us. Why is Wal-Mart such competition for grocery stores? Because they have a 2% profit margain. That one extra cent makes all the difference.

As said before, the retail business is amazing.
Actually it's less than a penny...

[soonersfan60]

If grocery stores only made a 2% profit margin, they'd all go broke.

The way grocery stores survive is on churn. They can re-use the money many times over because food is such a high volume business. Normal retail items (not video games, though) have 40%-60% profit margins because they may sit there forever until someone buys the item. With food, I can sell you a can of corn today and make only a penny, but I can re-use the money I got back from you to buy another can which I will sell tomorrow, and continue that for the entire month. The numbers and time-frame may be a slight exaggeration, but the penny or two profit is not. However, if I can keep making that same penny over and over again in the same month (basically using the same capital base because someone keeps buying the item and giving me back my original "investment" plus my small profit), my margin is still low but my return on capital is pretty good. Of course, this only works on items that are guaranteed high volume/high churn all the time, so really only grocery stores work well this way.

[addicted2games]

That can't be real??? how can you make money when your profit is onlt $6 bucks and what about 3 months later when the games are going for $39 bucks??? Hell!! what about when their going for $7 bucks!!??
Here we go again, there must be ten threads about this on this site. Just search and you will see your answer(s) in long ass threads about this.

[wubb]

I remember this thread. Still an interesting read. I didn't realize it was so old until I saw defender's post and decided to look at the date. Been a while since I've seen him post here. Although he is still around here and there. Posted this gem yesterday - http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129310

Here we go again, there must be ten threads about this on this site. Just search and you will see your answer(s) in long ass threads about this.

But, were any of those other threads around when he originally made that post? :mrgreen:

[Number83]

Lets talk Pizza...$.85 per pizza in materials that you sell for $8.00...NICE!!! And what about selling slices for $1.50 each?!? No wonder the grocery stores are now opening food courts.

[xtchuh]

Lets talk Pizza...$.85 per pizza in materials that you sell for $8.00...NICE!!! And what about selling slices for $1.50 each?!? No wonder the grocery stores are now opening food courts.

But with that .85 in material you have to add in Electricity, Gas, Equipment, Advertising, Tenant Fees, Employees.

I used to be an Assistant Manager at a Bagel Chain the Los Angeles, CA area. To make the DOAH for the Bagels cost around 85 cents a dozen. When you add in the labor, electricity, fuel for transport and additional supplies, it came out to $2.75 a dozen. Additonal Supplies came in as in toppings (Like onion, sesame, etc.. Now this is only at the Factory). Then you also have to add in what it cost for that doah which was transported to the location and stored, for it to made.

Now don't get me wrong, they made a hell of a profit. Mother's Day for example.. they sold 1,000 DOZEN Bagels... Yes... 1,000 at $6.75 a dozen paying there employee's a little bit above Min. Wage. That's not even counting the Wholesale which they sold to the local donut shops which amounted to another 1,000 dozen which were sold at $3.75. Even selling muffins that cost them around 35 cents each, they were selling them for a dollar.

Now the negative thing about this bagel place was whatever was left at the end of the day was stored away and not sold again. Meaning that alot of loss was left due to the fact the bagels needed to be almost stored the fullest until the end of the day, because the last you want is a customer to come up and complain that there wasn't anything for her. (Don't get me started on that subject, I mean who the hell buys bagels at 8 P.M?)

So all in all, just cause the materials cost .85 cents to be made, it doesn't mean that you will make a full profit off that .85 cents.

[Porksta]

If grocery stores only made a 2% profit margin, they'd all go broke. I've heard that they make more like a 200% profit margin, and that makes more sense. That's why homeless shelters can get food for what we might call dirt cheap.

They can't go broke if they are making a profit. The profit is after taxes and salaries and what have you.