Purchasing a Videogame store: What would make you want to come to my place?

Maybe additional trade-in value for tournament players, that way, you are giving them more for their games and you are increasing your inventory.
 
[quote name='hufferstl']Maybe additional trade-in value for tournament players, that way, you are giving them more for their games and you are increasing your inventory.[/QUOTE]

I have been to a few local tournaments and the thing is sales are actually down during the tournament. Again it is used to bring people into the store, but during the tournaments, seem like you really have to throw a big sale to get those extra sales.
 
Retro and imports, then you have something that gamestop and EB dont have. Also you would have to rely alot on regulars alot on that. + people would go that extra bit for good service.
 
cps2's-appleidog;4430853 said:
Retro and imports, then you have something that gamestop and EB dont have. Also you would have to rely alot on regulars alot on that. + people would go that extra bit for good service.
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One thing that has come up a little is the pricing of retro games. The system has pricing for older titles but store owners have noticed rare games coming in and not getting priced correctly. They are looking at ebay and other websites to gain a price. They have also had success with this upcharging for these rare games. Now I am not into these old old retro games, but having a game from the early 90's getting marked for over $50 seems weird till you see the ebay prices is over that plus shipping.
 
PlayNTrade is a great concept but the company itself is GARBAGE!!!!! I guess you cant expect too much out of people that live in CA. Oh by the way they are ripping you off every single month on your royalties just so you know....
 
[quote name='jerseyhuckster']PlayNTrade is a great concept but the company itself is GARBAGE!!!!! I guess you cant expect too much out of people that live in CA. Oh by the way they are ripping you off every single month on your royalties just so you know....[/QUOTE]

Thank you
 
Wow, it's been over a year to get your store to open,huh....... hope you've been working another job til this opens........ by the way, what is your expected payback period and IRR ( internal rate of return)....

Thanks.
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier']Wow, it's been over a year to get your store to open,huh....... hope you've been working another job til this opens........ by the way, what is your expected payback period and IRR ( internal rate of return)....

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Yeah right now I still have my job at Office Depot, so I'm good for now. Its just a long process at least for me, right now we are reworking a quote from the G.C. and I also need plans drawn by an architect. Its more or less stuff that you have no idea about and your 2 steps behind or waiting on other people. I just want to get the store open. As far as my expected payback, I honestly will not know until I open my doors have really have my store open for at least a year. That will give you a better understanding of your customers and the way business is throughout a year and where it can grow.
 
IRR, brings me back to my Finance undergrad days.

Its funny to me that I learned all of those types of valuation models, but most business' that I have dealt with in the last 10 years do not do half the analysis that we did everyday in those classes. Sorry to go completely off topic. Can't wait to hear more about your business-opening adventures.
 
Hurry up and get your store open dude, the location is like 30 secs drive from my apartment :).

As a fellow CAG I promise I'll buy something the first time I come in the store.
 
[quote name='benjamouth']Hurry up and get your store open dude, the location is like 30 secs drive from my apartment :).

As a fellow CAG I promise I'll buy something the first time I come in the store.[/QUOTE]

Trying, trust me I want to get the store open ASAP but doesn't work like that. There is no real exact road map so we will see, I am still hoping to open this summer but everytime I get close to nailing down a date, I have to wait on other things to happen first.
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']Yeah right now I still have my job at Office Depot, so I'm good for now. Its just a long process at least for me, right now we are reworking a quote from the G.C. and I also need plans drawn by an architect. Its more or less stuff that you have no idea about and your 2 steps behind or waiting on other people. I just want to get the store open. As far as my expected payback, I honestly will not know until I open my doors have really have my store open for at least a year. That will give you a better understanding of your customers and the way business is throughout a year and where it can grow.[/QUOTE]

Wow, so you have no plan ( or care) as to how many years you'll get your investment back? Dude, you must be rich or something .......

"taking care of business"
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier']Wow, so you have no plan ( or care) as to how many years you'll get your investment back? Dude, you must be rich or something .......

"taking care of business"[/QUOTE]

No, I do have a plan but again, the plan is to be successful and no I am not rich. Its just because this is a new type of business and I have seen struggles in some areas and great results in others. The overall plan is to be profitable in at least two years. Now how profitable, I cannot say because it will take us a while to get definite numbers.

I have done financial plans and they were all very positive and well received but from what I have learned is that until you open your doors and get to know the customers, its hard to gauge if the numbers will match. Might do better than expected and god forbid, do worse. With a store like this, its more about growth potential so getting people into the store and growing with the community is key.
 
I am in Boston and I had an idea for a gaming store too. I called it RePLAY and it was a social gaming bar that would feature 6 game stations. The game stations would feature a 90 in HD projeciton screen, and a living room set up with a love seat, 2 chairs and a table. and each of the 3 next gen consoles. Each gamer could play by the hour and either bring their games or play one of our featured titles. Selected New Releases woud be available to try before you buy, and on the weekends, we would alternate tournaments. The area would have a central bar area serving soda, coffee, small snacks, smoothies. Players could also purchase the games new and used once the titles had been released for about a month. - Any thoughts? I gave up the idea cuz people told me I was stupid.
 
[quote name='GSwagg']I am in Boston and I had an idea for a gaming store too. I called it RePLAY and it was a social gaming bar that would feature 6 game stations. The game stations would feature a 90 in HD projeciton screen, and a living room set up with a love seat, 2 chairs and a table. and each of the 3 next gen consoles. Each gamer could play by the hour and either bring their games or play one of our featured titles. Selected New Releases woud be available to try before you buy, and on the weekends, we would alternate tournaments. The area would have a central bar area serving soda, coffee, small snacks, smoothies. Players could also purchase the games new and used once the titles had been released for about a month. - Any thoughts? I gave up the idea cuz people told me I was stupid.[/QUOTE]

I think you'd have to have more stations set up to make any money. Having only 6 consoles would probably not pay for rent/electricity/etc...... I wanted to set something up like this but have strippers serving drinks and entertaining those who aren't playing or are playing with themselves :)
 
[quote name='GSwagg']I am in Boston and I had an idea for a gaming store too. I called it RePLAY and it was a social gaming bar that would feature 6 game stations. The game stations would feature a 90 in HD projeciton screen, and a living room set up with a love seat, 2 chairs and a table. and each of the 3 next gen consoles. Each gamer could play by the hour and either bring their games or play one of our featured titles. Selected New Releases woud be available to try before you buy, and on the weekends, we would alternate tournaments. The area would have a central bar area serving soda, coffee, small snacks, smoothies. Players could also purchase the games new and used once the titles had been released for about a month. - Any thoughts? I gave up the idea cuz people told me I was stupid.[/QUOTE]

I think you would be better off trying to go for a videogame restaurant/bar idea. People renting time on a HD tv will be limited and the area might get very loud. Also over time, and especially now, the growth of HD TV will get better and better. Eventually you would loose out on the WOW factor of the tvs and might need to upgrade.

Instead go for a fun sort of adult Chuck E Cheese. Have social games like Rock Band with say a real stage area where people can play. Use Singstar for a karaoke set up. Wii would work great in the bar area too. Would work well for sports games especially now that Boston pretty much has a lock on the major sports with a few championships recently.

You would make your money instead on food and drinks, not the videogames.
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier'] have strippers serving drinks and entertaining those who ... are playing with themselves :)[/QUOTE]

:(
 
dont be like the douche bag over here in Santa Fe Springs, CA that tests out EVERY SINGLE GAME you bring in to trade, and when customers come in, has you wait.
 
I want to open up my own strip club that has video games in it to play. I figure, dads can drop their kids off in the video game room while they go and enjoy the strippers. I would charge like $20 per kid and if they dad spent over $200 on lapdances, I would comp the $20.......

I always wanted to do this so I could audition the strippers in depth :)
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier']I want to open up my own strip club that has video games in it to play. I figure, dads can drop their kids off in the video game room while they go and enjoy the strippers. I would charge like $20 per kid and if they dad spent over $200 on lapdances, I would comp the $20.......

I always wanted to do this so I could audition the strippers in depth :)[/QUOTE]

I could see that working in a more liberal future heh. Me and my fiancee want to do the same thing minus the strippers but dont have the start up money. We went to the humane society a few months ago and noticed a small place called something like Gamez for Kidz or whatever. Anyways when we went in the place I was suprised to find they didnt sell games.....they watched peoples kids for a set amount of time giving them games to play. The guy had a bunch of hi def TVs hooked up and several PS3/Wii and 360s running popular games of the moment like Guitar Hero and Halo 3. He charged parents about $10 an hour per kid or something like that.

I thought it was bloody brilliant. I mean honestly your expenses after the intial start up are low and the place was hopping. Think about it, you can take your kids someplace like putt put and spend $50 in an hour easily.......or you can take them there and have your kids out of your hair for 5 freaking hours for the same price.

I wish we had the money to try and start up something like that here in Toledo(we saw it in Michigan)I bet we would make a killing.

Edit - And to the O.P like someone else said introduce something like edge cards....but think about instead of giving them to just anyone that pays for the card making it a VIP card for your best costumers. Treat those people like the loyal supporters of your establishment they are by giving them the good discount in addition to other things like first play at game night/tournies or if you sell soda/chips or other refreshments on those nights(which you should you can make a freaking killing)comp them the refreshments.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']I could see that working in a more liberal future heh. Me and my fiancee want to do the same thing minus the strippers but dont have the start up money. We went to the humane society a few months ago and noticed a small place called something like Gamez for Kidz or whatever. Anyways when we went in the place I was suprised to find they didnt sell games.....they watched peoples kids for a set amount of time giving them games to play. The guy had a bunch of hi def TVs hooked up and several PS3/Wii and 360s running popular games of the moment like Guitar Hero and Halo 3. He charged parents about $10 an hour per kid or something like that.

I thought it was bloody brilliant. I mean honestly your expenses after the intial start up are low and the place was hopping. Think about it, you can take your kids someplace like putt put and spend $50 in an hour easily.......or you can take them there and have your kids out of your hair for 5 freaking hours for the same price.

I wish we had the money to try and start up something like that here in Toledo(we saw it in Michigan)I bet we would make a killing.

Edit - And to the O.P like someone else said introduce something like edge cards....but think about instead of giving them to just anyone that pays for the card making it a VIP card for your best costumers. Treat those people like the loyal supporters of your establishment they are by giving them the good discount in addition to other things like first play at game night/tournies or if you sell soda/chips or other refreshments on those nights(which you should you can make a freaking killing)comp them the refreshments.[/QUOTE]

I still think you need strippers....... that is essential to success
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']I will have to handle that situation when it happens, but honestly I don't have too big a problem with it unless it becomes a problem. If not they would just bring their kid to one of our competitors. If they keep coming, more than likely they will buy something. Also it is a way to get the parents to interact with their kids with playing the games together. If you get the parents and kids, well thats just another customer vs. just the parents.

Also another thing I have noticed is as gamers have got older, they get sort of slanted in that "parent" shopping mode by other stores. So you have a kid, you want to buy a game for yourself. But employees think your buying something for your son or daughter, its all about customer service.

If it becomes a problem you just have to talk to the parents and explain that it might be a safety issue and security issue.[/quote]


lol, there are kids that come in my store by themselves and would just stay there for the whole day, everyday.
those are dropouts from schools and have bruises and cuts on them everyday. Their parents? I don't even know if they have any. They just come in and play everydya and so far has never bought anything and have broken a few controllers which just aggrevates me everytime they come in.
calling the cops on them might be a good idea.
 
Quick update, I just got more detailed floor plans which I believe should help out with getting a better quote and hopefully faster. Also after reviewing the lease, a suggestion of a GC, the landlord is to cover the cost on a few things including bathroom, ceiling title and HVAC. This saves me a ton of money. I am surprised our first G.C. didn't even mention this at all. Right now I have 4 companies bidding and hopefully we get some good results. Again, it was my fault for relying on one guy too much and didn't really become proactive in getting other people on board. I would recommend talking to other store owners and just look around to see if any construction maybe happening in the area. It seems everyone knows a G.C. also so ask around. I think the Chamber of Commerce would have helped with this as well so I will be joining that next week.

Also I have a twitter account if anyone is interested I will put updates on there and answer questions.

http://twitter.com/saleemnoorali
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']I could see that working in a more liberal future heh. Me and my fiancee want to do the same thing minus the strippers but dont have the start up money. We went to the humane society a few months ago and noticed a small place called something like Gamez for Kidz or whatever. Anyways when we went in the place I was suprised to find they didnt sell games.....they watched peoples kids for a set amount of time giving them games to play. The guy had a bunch of hi def TVs hooked up and several PS3/Wii and 360s running popular games of the moment like Guitar Hero and Halo 3. He charged parents about $10 an hour per kid or something like that.

I thought it was bloody brilliant. I mean honestly your expenses after the intial start up are low and the place was hopping. Think about it, you can take your kids someplace like putt put and spend $50 in an hour easily.......or you can take them there and have your kids out of your hair for 5 freaking hours for the same price.

I wish we had the money to try and start up something like that here in Toledo(we saw it in Michigan)I bet we would make a killing.

[/QUOTE]


I can see some problems with this, first of all if they are running Halo 3 its a mature rated game, now chances are people who are dropping their kids off are likely under 17 years old. I am not saying that people under 17 cannot play this game, I am just saying there could be some problems with this legally and from other customers, but then again the parents who are dropping their kids off at this place probably could care less what the kids are experiencing when they are there. Is it even legal to run game consoles for commercial use like this?? The concept of a babysitting service using games is brilliant though. From my experience I have seen that most parents drop their kids in places like D&B without any money and just let them run loose, the D&B here has restrictions on age but they are never followed, so parents are basically using these places as free babysitting services. Parents also like the fact that they can let the kid run loose at the arcade, then go to the bar and have a bunch of drinks, then pick the kid up and drive them home (seen this a billion times). The demand for a pay per sitting service would depend on the area, if you have an arcade like D&B nearby that allows kids to run loose with no supervision and non caring employees its doubtful that this would work well.

Gamestop here does a really good job with throwing the kids out who have stayed on the demo's too long, they make it very clear that if they are not buying anything they cannot be in the store playing games for more than 15 min.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I can see some problems with this, first of all if they are running Halo 3 its a mature rated game, now chances are people who are dropping their kids off are likely under 17 years old. I am not saying that people under 17 cannot play this game, I am just saying there could be some problems with this legally and from other customers, but then again the parents who are dropping their kids off at this place probably could care less what the kids are experiencing when they are there. Is it even legal to run game consoles for commercial use like this?? The concept of a babysitting service using games is brilliant though. From my experience I have seen that most parents drop their kids in places like D&B without any money and just let them run loose, the D&B here has restrictions on age but they are never followed, so parents are basically using these places as free babysitting services. Parents also like the fact that they can let the kid run loose at the arcade, then go to the bar and have a bunch of drinks, then pick the kid up and drive them home (seen this a billion times). The demand for a pay per sitting service would depend on the area, if you have an arcade like D&B nearby that allows kids to run loose with no supervision and non caring employees its doubtful that this would work well.

Gamestop here does a really good job with throwing the kids out who have stayed on the demo's too long, they make it very clear that if they are not buying anything they cannot be in the store playing games for more than 15 min.[/QUOTE]

I bet the guy made them sign something when they dropped their kids off though. That should cover most of the legal ends. And man your gamestop kicks ass. We have 4 near here, the first is in a horribly ghetto area right next to a Walmart. Its impossible to play games there because every damn family drops their kids off at the gamestop while they go shopping or to the salon next door. The other 2 are in and just outside a mall.....nuff said with those 2. The last one is just too damn far from my house.
 
To me, there is a very fine line with letting kids play too long and kicking them out. The thing as an owner you want to consider is how customers feel. While that 12 year old may be a brat now... 4 years later he is 16 and wanting to buy more games. Keeping them a customer for life will help your business. Play N Trade is a little different cause there are 8 consoles ready to play instead of just 3 not including handhelds.

Most the time, if you treat the kids with respect they will show it back, especially if you are friendly with them. I know that there are some punks out there so, you just handle them accordingly. I don't intend to become a daycare. Having a sign stating that children are not allowed to stay without parental supervision is ok too.

With tournaments involving M-Rated games, you similar just need to get written consent from the parent and most don't have a problem because you tell them what is in the game. They can make their own judgement.
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']To me, there is a very fine line with letting kids play too long and kicking them out. The thing as an owner you want to consider is how customers feel. While that 12 year old may be a brat now... 4 years later he is 16 and wanting to buy more games. Keeping them a customer for life will help your business. Play N Trade is a little different cause there are 8 consoles ready to play instead of just 3 not including handhelds.

Most the time, if you treat the kids with respect they will show it back, especially if you are friendly with them. I know that there are some punks out there so, you just handle them accordingly. I don't intend to become a daycare. Having a sign stating that children are not allowed to stay without parental supervision is ok too.

With tournaments involving M-Rated games, you similar just need to get written consent from the parent and most don't have a problem because you tell them what is in the game. They can make their own judgement.[/QUOTE]

Compltly agree and thats again why I think that you should offer comps to your best customers on tournament nights. We had a local comic book shop that did that with the magic card and table top gamers and it brought great business to them. First off they made a killing selling sodas, chips , candy bars etc etc for like $1 when you know they got the damn things whole sale for like $0.30 at sams club. Second though it was great because it encouraged kids to spend as much money as possible just so they felt like hot shit being a VIP on game night.

With that sad though....the types of kids im talking about are not the types that come in and buy stuff, they are the types that come in with a stack of 6 year old games and expect to be able to trade them in for a new copy of GTAIV getting $10 a game. When I say it was a ghetto area im talking like ghetto in the sense of few people work and those that do probally make under $12k a year.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Compltly agree and thats again why I think that you should offer comps to your best customers on tournament nights. We had a local comic book shop that did that with the magic card and table top gamers and it brought great business to them. First off they made a killing selling sodas, chips , candy bars etc etc for like $1 when you know they got the damn things whole sale for like $0.30 at sams club. Second though it was great because it encouraged kids to spend as much money as possible just so they felt like hot shit being a VIP on game night.

With that sad though....the types of kids im talking about are not the types that come in and buy stuff, they are the types that come in with a stack of 6 year old games and expect to be able to trade them in for a new copy of GTAIV getting $10 a game. When I say it was a ghetto area im talking like ghetto in the sense of few people work and those that do probally make under $12k a year.[/QUOTE]

That comes with the demographic you decide on and more than likely you will pick an area where the income is better than that. There is an Insider Club which is a membership club with perks but really its just treating everyone great. Why treat a handful of people with the best customer service when you can treat everyone like that, doesn't hurt you or your business. If you start giving out privileges to certain customers then they take advantage and expect certain things all the time.

A customer over here that buys a ton of games got upset he did not get a copy of WiiFit on day one even though he didn't preorder it. He just assumed he would be on the top of the list.
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']That comes with the demographic you decide on and more than likely you will pick an area where the income is better than that. There is an Insider Club which is a membership club with perks but really its just treating everyone great. Why treat a handful of people with the best customer service when you can treat everyone like that, doesn't hurt you or your business. If you start giving out privileges to certain customers then they take advantage and expect certain things all the time.

A customer over here that buys a ton of games got upset he did not get a copy of WiiFit on day one even though he didn't preorder it. He just assumed he would be on the top of the list.[/QUOTE]

Im not saying to treat them like spoiled children and give them what they want. Treat all your customers great of course, and naturally you dont let someone get away with something stupid like not pre ordering and thinking he gets a copy. Its more along the lines of keep a list of your top costumers and then the 3 or 4 that spend the most get an extra 2% off their purchases and again on tournament nights comp then a beverage and snack and first play.

Its something small enough that it doesnt piss off other costumers, but big enough that it encourages your regualrs to spend more. Like I said that local comic book store that I used to play at did it and it got all of the geeky kids that hung out there competing to see who could spend the most just for those small perks.
 
You should have a classic game section where you sell games for older systems (Nes, gensis, SNES, PSone, N64, dreamcast, etc.). Gamestop and EB sold them in their stores until about 3 years ago, and I know a lot of my fellow CAGers are looking for classic games but find it hard to locate a spot that sells them at a reasonable price.
 
[quote name='EDiddy0042']You should have a classic game section where you sell games for older systems (Nes, gensis, SNES, PSone, N64, dreamcast, etc.). Gamestop and EB sold them in their stores until about 3 years ago, and I know a lot of my fellow CAGers are looking for classic games but find it hard to locate a spot that sells them at a reasonable price.[/QUOTE]

Yeah we have that and we also offer Retro systems, originals and new consoles that play the games. It isn't an emulator, just the patents ran out on the hardware I guess. They play pretty well and can be plugged into AV cables not the old style. Right now it plays the 16 bit games. We do offer all types of games if people bring them in.
 
I have been talking to a few general contractors about the build out and have learned a few more things. Basically I will miss my summer opening and hopefully will be opening instead this fall. The landlord needs to complete some work before we can begin ours and has yet to secure their own contractor to get it up and running. Sucks but there is little that I can do. We don't need a permit to start painting so we should be moving forward on that pretty soon to at least speed up the process.
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']I have been talking to a few general contractors about the build out and have learned a few more things. Basically I will miss my summer opening and hopefully will be opening instead this fall. The landlord needs to complete some work before we can begin ours and has yet to secure their own contractor to get it up and running. Sucks but there is little that I can do. We don't need a permit to start painting so we should be moving forward on that pretty soon to at least speed up the process.[/QUOTE]

As long as you're open before the massive fall rollout of games that we see every year, or at the very least before the holiday season (early Nov).
 
[quote name='Backlash']As long as you're open before the massive fall rollout of games that we see every year, or at the very least before the holiday season (early Nov).[/QUOTE]

Yeah the problem is now that holiday season seems to creep earlier and earlier... I now believe it begins with Madden 2009 this year, that typically is the first game that really starts the rush and you do see big titles start rolling out after that that sell throughout the holidays. You are going to see it more and more now with Rock Band 2 and Star Wars Force Unleashed coming out fairly soon.

The one positive is that hopefully I might get some of these titles back in as used copies which will help. Another problem with starting later is capital, I have to buy more product than I would say in June because the demand has increased. So instead of say spending $35,000 a month on product I will be doing double that. Another thing is that it will be harder to show how different I am from competitors during the holidays because it is harder to do tournaments during the holidays and a packed store or letting people try games.

I will more than likely pick a certain time to do tournaments when the store is slower or at night so we can focus on that.

BTW, the next PNT (International) Tournament will be Halo 3 "Lone Wolf" 1 vs 1 vs 1 vs 1 and I think the grand prize might either be $2000 or $5000, i forgot exactly. I won't be opened for it, but right now they are adjusting rules and such. They had wanted to do a Smash Bros. Brawl one due to voting, but the Nintendo Wifi connection seemed like it was not extremely dependable for what they wanted to accomplish with lag issues.
 
Just wanted to add an update, we are still working on this thing but at least getting closer. We have a firmer date of being open in late September to October. Once both sides begin work, landlord and my general contractor, I will have a better idea.

I have also ordered a couple of costumes for advertising and promotional efforts, they are Mario and Master Chief. Because of the location we are at, we can't do alot of things I would have liked to do for grand opening expenses so instead we will try to use different ways which could include better prizes for customers or more of them. I am hoping to have a grand opening at Halloween and the week after it. Grand opening is different than a soft opening because when you first open your doors, that is your soft opening to get adjusted and train your staff.

Another thing I would like to talk about which has come to my attention is Gamestop is increasing marketing efforts in certain areas and targeting certain Play N Trade stores. They are using major marketing efforts and specials for select stores around Play N Trade stores in San Fransisco and Huston.

This includes 10% off all new games, $30 additional credit for all hardware trade ins and 50% off all used games.

These are only for select stores but they end I believe October 31st. Again, not advertising them, just trying to explain how the industry works. They are trying to get these select locations to close before the holidays and we shall see if it works. Hopefully it doesn't because I think competition is good for everyone in the end.

If the stores do not close then I doubt they will continue this nation wide or again to other stores because this sort of promotion really hurts a store's bottom line. These are some pretty drastic moves and I know many of us wish we were near one of these stores. The promotion itself would actually cost the store more money than a PNT opening near the store especially 50% off used games.

Would just like to hear your thoughts if any :)
 
The biggest thing for me to want to frequent your store is make sure that you hire real gamers to work for you. A lot of the times I go to EB or GS, I get someone who doesn't know a damn thing about gaming at all. I would like to go in and have the people working there be at least as knowledgeable about gaming as I am.
 
[quote name='micro44']The biggest thing for me to want to frequent your store is make sure that you hire real gamers to work for you. A lot of the times I go to EB or GS, I get someone who doesn't know a damn thing about gaming at all. I would like to go in and have the people working there be at least as knowledgeable about gaming as I am.[/QUOTE]

That is something that some stores have had problems with. Typically most the people that buy the franchise are not real knowledgeable gamers. This means you have to hire people who are but then also they may not be good at well working. So you have to find a nice mix of attributes for an employee instead of having a few that really know about games and a few that have good customer service. You want the complete package.
 
Mario01.jpg


We just got our Mario Costume in yesterday and it looks pretty good. Way better than some of the "plumber" Halloween costumes I have seen. I did order some white mascot gloves today because I don't like the flesh colored gloves that come with it. Just bugs me plus Mario wears white gloves. Otherwise I think it looks great.

I am expecting a Master Chief costume to be coming in later this month to early next month.
 
Mario01.jpg


this costume kicks ass...get me one plz


I guess I'm a little late on the suggestion track but your store (if you use everyone's suggestions) sounds like it's what everyone's been asking for, I'm mad your not in southern California.

Have knowledgeable employees and tournaments :D
 
[quote name='SuxoR']
Mario01.jpg


this costume kicks ass...get me one plz


I guess I'm a little late on the suggestion track but your store (if you use everyone's suggestions) sounds like it's what everyone's been asking for, I'm mad your not in southern California.

Have knowledgeable employees and tournaments :D[/QUOTE]

Thanks

There are a number of stores in Cali so you might want to check the main site, www.playntrade.com, to see if there is a store closer to you. The costume was a pretty good deal at $200 on ebay. The creator said that they can create different mascots including Yoshi to Sonic. Right now I feel Mario and Master Chief works out pretty good to cover videogame characters. Currently no plans on hiring a girl to prance around in short shorts and pretend to be Lara Croft :p
 
[quote name='bingbangboom']Currently no plans on hiring a girl to prance around in short shorts and pretend to be Lara Croft :p[/quote]


That is a travesty. Make plans. Plan on making plans.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']That is a travesty. Make plans. Plan on making plans.[/QUOTE]

LOL I was hoping to be open by Halloween and have a costume discount or a contest. I am sure that at least one boyfriend could convince his girlfriend to wear the Lara Croft outfit.
 
You should throw that costume in a freezer, put some animal guts on it, and take a picture. That would be cool :lol: :beer:


Seriously though, I'd like to see how the Master Chief costume turns out.
 
[quote name='Josef']You should throw that costume in a freezer, put some animal guts on it, and take a picture. That would be cool :lol: :beer:


Seriously though, I'd like to see how the Master Chief costume turns out.[/QUOTE]

LOL, don't think I would be doing that considering it was $200.

Here is a picture of the Master Chief costume. It is set to arrive in a few weeks. This is a pick from the vendor. It was over $600 including shipping. Not bad when retail is $1000 and I have heard of other store owners buying a costume for $5000! I am sure we will have some interesting pictures of Mario vs. Master Chief.

dragonballzcentral_2014_7626401


On another note, I am interested in buying a car for the store, Scion XB, for advertising. I don't really have alot of knowledge of buying used cars so any tips or tricks will help. Thanks
 
The costumes look good, and now that I am back in DE, I look forward to seeing a PNT closer then Middletown. Hopefully as it get closer, I will be able to put the opening on my calendar.

As for the used Scion XBs, I would say just stick with the Toyota dealerships, atleast there you get the inspection, manufacturer warranty and maintenance. Though, from personal experience, I have not had any issues or reasons to bring the Scion XB into the shop, outside of normal scheduled maintenance.
 
prices + selection, all that matters.

Whether it's the nicest place on earth or the biggest shithole, all that matters is price & selection.
 
letter-Rockband-mini.jpg


We are planning an event in the plaza at Java's Brewin', a coffee shop. Basically Free to Play tournament with prizes and swag for everyone. It will be October 4th, 2 - 5 pm. If you are in the area, bring people down. We want to generate some buzz and really don't know how many people will be coming down but the more the better.

As far as the store goes, we will start work with the landlord next week, hopefully, that will put us on the path to opening sometime in November now. Again, everytime we give a date, it typically gets delayed but we feel it is getting closer and closer. We will also be accepting applications during the event. Hopefully I will have my Master Chief costume there along with Mario so you can pose for pictures with them.
 
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