Lots of good suggestions. One I'd add would be a Facebook Group (see FB link in my sig). We use it to organize pickup games, remind each other about league nights, talk lists, gab about new releases & rumors, etc.

I run our local X-wing group and am responsible for setting up the regular play nights, and (starting next month) I will be running the tourneys, leagues, & other one-off events at the store. I am not the store owner, but I work with him constantly on what works best for his schedule, what he wants to see from the local group, etc, and he works with me about what he can do to better support the local players, including stock, prize support, play space, etc.

If you can find a competent, dependable individual to do this for you, great. If not, I think it would pay off for you to take the reins on your own for a while, until your local group grows enough that the right person emerges who can take it over for you. Please note -- I think it's very important that you don't just tell the first idiot who volunteers to go for it, especially if he/she will be running events. Ultimately, this person will be representing you and your store.

Whatever happens, having someplace where your customers can get together to talk & set things up should be pretty beneficial to getting things moving in your shop. As much as I detest facebook, lots of people use it, and it's a great tool for organizing gaming groups.

Best of luck!

folks who haven't may want to visit said thread.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/138659-x-wing-card-packs/

That's not really relevant. Please respect that the OP is trying to hit the reset button and get some community feedback on what we've seen that's worked, and what we'd like to see.

It's completely relevant...the OP has certain views which may color how he looks at certain pieces of advice...I was not being disrespectful...I was informing the community that is trying to help him.

Nah you were being rude. The community gave him feedback and he heard it. The other thread is done. No need to drag him through the mud. This is a new topic.

As for advice, I was considering X-Wing one time when a store manager told me that they play the game here at his store, every Sunday. He told me that peopel were friendly, and they were happy to loan ships if I didn't have enough. So that concinved me to buy. Knowing that there is a dedicated day to play, a community of players, playmats provided, and occasionaly tournaments - was a huge draw to keep me going back to that store (Even though there are some other stores closer).

There's also a negative experience with a separate store - they tried to set up an X-Wing night, but there was only like 2 or 3 people the first night. Only 1 person the second night, and the 3rd night I went, nobody was there. I sat there alone for a few hours and was kinda bummed. The Manager was the one trying to get the whole thing together, but he himself was a no-show 2 weeks in a row, so by then I just stopped going. Even though they had cheaper prices for X-Wing stuff, I would go to the other store because I at least had someone to play with.

Oh, and consider 3-player games as well, because sometimes you'll have an odd-person out.

It's completely relevant...the OP has certain views which may color how he looks at certain pieces of advice...I was not being disrespectful...I was informing the community that is trying to help him.

One thing about advice is that it's often better received when asked for, as the OP has in this post. Another is that even though it has been asked for, there's no obligation to accept or act upon it.

Cheers

Baaa

As to the actual thread topic, there's lots of good research out there that says cost is the overwhelming primary driver of purchasing decisions. The problem for an FLGS is that it's hard to compete with online outlets that offer a 30% discount and free shipping, so in your place I'd offer a moderate discount--maybe something graduated like 5/10/15% off if you buy $50/100/150 on X-wing, although I don't know your margins--and emphasize the fact that when they buy off the shelf there's no shipping delay.

Other than price, I agree with those who have said that having a dedicated time and place for X-wing makes the biggest difference. I don't have a particular prejudice against Magic, but it makes a difference to have a space full of people interested in doing the same thing you're interested in doing. And making sure that dedicated time happens, even if you don't establish a league or a periodic furball night (although those are great ideas), is a very good way to build a community.

Set two days a week for X-Wing: a weeknight and a weekend day.

Invest in some play mats. (Extra Large Yoga Mats on Amazon for $25 each, cut them into two 3x3 foot mats.)

Use social media. Start a MeetUp. GO TO AN OPEN-PLAY MEETUP AND DEMO THE GAME. This will probably be the best way to find new and existing X-Wing players.

Create a Facebook page and use it wisely. Call it something like "[Your town] X-Wing". Make it very clear when and where players can get their game on. Post pictures of the game being played.

Print fliers and posters to put up in your store. Include the links to your Facebook page.

Offer a 10% discount on X-Wing stuff to anyone who shows up to play. Take a little more off pre-orders.

When you have six regulars, set up a tournament. Charge $10 and give out a majority of the collected fees as prizes. Order the seasonal tournament kits when they're available and hand out the tokens and alt-art cards like candy at events.

I'd be happy to help (and you don't even need to fly me out there)

Some good ideas so far, and some caveats for some of them.

I looked at your FB Page and it's a good place to advertise your store and monitor your traffic to your page. However, it's not really a great place for discussions with your customers. As a few people noted, a FB Group is better for that. You don't need to run it specifically, but a trusted customer who's active in the tournament scene can be very beneficial for you. However, remember that they can very easily poison people against your store if it's not carefully managed and with clear goals and communication strategies.

I also looked on Google Maps at your trading area, along with relative community sizes. You're in a small city, and close to a school. Do you get much traffic from them? Is that why (if I'm reading it right) you don't open until mid-afternoon? What kind of pull does your location have with the other three small cities that all appear to be within a 30-minute drive radius? Have you considered marketing in those communities? Are there other game shops that you'd be in competition with in those locations?

A recurring game night is very helpful, and not (as also mentioned) would be that X-Wing would be the exclusive game you feature that night. MtG can be very over-whelming for space.

In your comment's about the price point, maybe a discount deal when someone buys a core set, that you either discount the core set if they buy "X" amount of add-ons with it, or discount the add-ons themselves. Personally, I'd rather discount the core set (as we discussed in the other thread), and encourage them to buy more add-ons. Depending on what your gross margins and unit sales for the add-ons are, there may be more wiggle room with the core sets than the extras.

Having staff that can actually *sell* product, and that's very different from someone who *knows* the product. I've seen some very knowledgeable staff that simply can't sell anything. That's a fast way to kill your sales and customer loyalty. Good selection, good prices can both help your store, but someone that knows how to sell really helps. Same goes for merchandising. Sure you can just dump everything into a pile on a table and hope it sells, but a well merchandised store with a good customer flow plan can easily bump your sales 10% without doing anything else.

There's a start. Can you post some photos of your store so we can get a better idea of the layout?

Good luck!

Clean space with lots of light, children well managed by their parents, prices slightly less than MSRP (all stores in this area except 1 charge less than MSRP and support that with online sales), loyalty program to get store credit after a certain amount of purchases

Plenty of snacks and drinks on hand, plenty of space and helpful employees

Nah you were being rude. The community gave him feedback and he heard it. The other thread is done. No need to drag him through the mud. This is a new topic.

Edited for strange words.....**** autocorrect

I found themed games work great. I had done it with some epic demos, but I think you could do it with Dagobah Dave's Trench Run scenario. You can find free paper turrets and some death star pics to make a table. Pre build the lists to recreate blowing up the death star. Who can resist that? It just costs you some ships to use as demos and the paper to print off

It's almost shameful - but you can offer Free Pizza on X-Wing Day - once in awhile. It could help draw people in, or at least reward those who do show up. Maybe do the first one as a surprise when you happen to have a good turn-out.

You need people to attract people. Have some buddies come in to fill tables but also to play easy games against new players and to teach them the rules.

Keep it to 30 minute games so brand new players won't be afraid to commit a lot of time. If they want more, then by all means let them play a longer game.

If they play give them a good deal on a starter set with a one-time coupon for a percentage off expansion ships.

Start a referral program. Where they will get a discount for however much they get their friends to spend in the store. You'd have to set a reasonable limit too. e.g. $1 off their purchase for every $10 their friend spends up to a limit of $100 per friend.

A little bit about the store: we are located in a small town (6-7k population) but are within walking distance to both the high school and the small private college. We have seen a drastic uptick in costumer frequencies due mostly to High school kids finally figuring out there is a comic book and game store in town. We don't have a large marketing budget mostly because its a small town and word travels fast. I've had two to three people buy some scum and villainy. I think I'm going to adopt the " for every $100 spent get a free small based ship" idea, which will put a smile on those customers faces when I tell them they can pick out a free ship because they've each spent $100. I also like the aces leader board. I defiantly need to try to get more posters out not only for x wing leagues but magic, netrunner, and other games I would like to have a reoccurring league for. I have also wanted to try a " beat the boss for 20% off. If they can beat me they get 20% off.

I can elaborate on what works in our area.

In our case, we have a private Facebook group for X-wing players in our city (Montreal, huge city). There, the usual spots where we hang out as well as times are listed. If someone wants to play at an unconventional time and place, they make a post and see if other people are on board.

Store owners are allowed to post in our group as well to announce events or tournaments (but not make publicity or list their products). If they list a tournament, it's almost a garanteed 6 - 8 (or more) players coming from our group alone. Player or store bashing is prohibited.

I think the greatest fears of an X-Wing player is showing up at a spot and no one else doing it. By having a group that is affiliated with an area/hobby instead of a perticular store, it minimizes the amount of junk in one's mail, promotes games all over the area and help any store that wants to promote X-Wing related stuff.

It might be worth investigating whether creating such a group would be worth it or if there are other similiar groups in neighboring cities. A single post in our group for the Regionals got 20+ people, despite the fact that it's a 2 hour drive

Also, in the "Seems obvious" part: Use the Organized Play forum! It's essentially free advertising, and can help get the word out.

Hosting weekend tourneys can also be a good draw and help raise awareness of your store. The local shop held a "Tis the Season" tourney before the Christmas holidays, with vouchers good for Scum and Villainy ships among the main prizes.

If you're doing a tourney with a buy-in, you may want to consider scaling the prizes up depending on the number of participants. A 6-player tourney could be good for $10 in store credit to the winner, while a 20-person tourney could see $100 in credit divided amongst the top 4.

Scaling the prizes would help protect you against small turnouts. During the Imdaar Alpha event, I went to one venue that had prizes of $50, $40, $30, $20, and two $10 store-credit vouchers for the Top 6, in addition to the Wave 4 pre-release ships. They only charged a $5 buy-in, and six people showed up (we wouldn't have been able to fit more than that anyway). They effectively paid us $130 to play X-Wing for five hours. It was great for me, but I still feel bad for the store.

What would get me into a store is to have someone at the store actively trying to get me into the store. I have felt that my presence is unwelcome in some places, mostly because ownership has seemed like X-Wing is not 'the game' that they really want to support. If they're really into Warhammer and painting clubs and stuff, that's fine, but if you've got some X-Wing supplies and tables in your shop, you should actively try and get me to play there, not just sell me your high priced FFG shipment.

Dunno if this applies to you. Seems like you actively want X-Wing in your place. Just reaching out, giving a first timer discount, making sure you have prizes so that everyone who comes to play walks home with something, even if it's just a Alt art TIE pilot card or something.

Jacob

I was looking at the ins and outs of running a game store a bit last year. Have you read some of this guys articles:

http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=businessofgamingretail

A little bit about the store: we are located in a small town (6-7k population) but are within walking distance to both the high school and the small private college. We have seen a drastic uptick in costumer frequencies due mostly to High school kids finally figuring out there is a comic book and game store in town. We don't have a large marketing budget mostly because its a small town and word travels fast. I've had two to three people buy some scum and villainy. I think I'm going to adopt the " for every $100 spent get a free small based ship" idea, which will put a smile on those customers faces when I tell them they can pick out a free ship because they've each spent $100. I also like the aces leader board. I defiantly need to try to get more posters out not only for x wing leagues but magic, netrunner, and other games I would like to have a reoccurring league for. I have also wanted to try a " beat the boss for 20% off. If they can beat me they get 20% off.

I like the beat the boss idea. I would give that a try if i lived close. And I wouldn't limit the discount to xwing stuff (maybe put a price cap if your worried about losing) if it's not limited to xwing discounts you might attract other game players who want a discount for their other addiction.

Also it's down the road but next year apply for a store championship. That got me into several stores that I didn't play at before and I've gone back to the closer ones since I know that they're there.

Also. Running thematic nights and doing scenarios like degobah daves trench run would draw a group.

In our case, we have a private Facebook group for X-wing players in our city

I was going to recommend the same thing. It works great here in the twin cities, people can post when and where they'll be, and others know they can find a game.

For a store, you can post dates for events, what you have in stock, answer questions ect... All great ways to get people into the store.

Only read the first page but I can offer this...if pulled me from a store I played at for years to a different one...

They had a deal going for about 2 mos to pull xwingers in...

3 small ships for $35

Core + 2 small ship or 1 large ship expansion for $60

It was a huge hit...though he prices his stuff closer to online prices usually. He has a solid magic community pumping money into his store and subsidizing his xwing. He also has awesome prize support and goes out of his way do make sure WA have somewhere do play...even during those mtg preview and releases tournies...we always have a spot to play.

He has a larger store but the attention he gives us even though he himself doesn't play xwing is great.

But I would start w a deal like what I mentioned above....make a worthwhile starter pack. You may take the hit on your initial sale, but you will build up both loyalty and interest...and they will make their future purchased from you.

I would also suggest that you strive to have everything in stock that you can for impulse buys. He had a falcon available when they were impossible to find. He picked one up at B+N and sold it for $40 to $50 I think...above msrp but less than you would find on Ebay. He adequately ended up selling it. If he hadn't the price was going to drop to msrp once they got back in stock.

He currently has bwings (super high prices at $25 right now due to supply issues). While I don't think they will sell as they are the same price as rebel aces he does have them if someone is desperate...and if they don't sell the price will drop when supplies return.

Those were just some of the things he does that have impressed me. Maybe you could emulate some of them...

What actually got me into a game store was the atmosphere and environment. The small shop I go to the most in Madison is super clean and modern, and has really nice tables and chairs laid out in a spacious game room area. The game room area is separated from the main part of the store (in the back) but it doesn't feel like it's in the back, because there is no door or narrow corridor to get to it. It's just a slight narrowing to demarcate space. It is well-lit with a high ceiling and is meticulously clean. Most of the other game stores I've been to have been like a man's basement, and the clientele reflected that. This store seems much more of an inclusive atmosphere, and it just seemed super inviting. So, now I go there a ton, even though it's not the closest store to me. Also, the owner and his wife are very involved in the store, and they give their customers personal attention and are super friendly and outgoing. I've been turned off from game stores because the employees or managers were very gruff unwelcoming introverts. A lot of gamers are introverts, but being a store owner and manager is an extroverted activity.

Run a starter box tournament. We ran a tournament were only the starter box was used for each table. Everything was already set up for the players, and they did not have to bring anything. The prize for the winner was a starter box. This added several players to our area.

This is going to sound really corny, but have a no swearing in the shop rule. It's a very small thing, but it makes the shop more family friendly and it's a thing you can control. Friend of mine had his daughter with him when he went to the LGS. He opens the door to hear a stream of profanity from some kids playing some CCG or other. He turned around, went home and ordered about a hundred notes of stuff off the net.

Also, make sure people don't block customers from getting to the counter. Sure, chat to friends and regulars, but if that gets in the way of selling there's a problem.