I don't know if people saw this article, but as someone with a business background I wanted to throw my $.02 USD into the ring after reading it:

• Mr. Petersen articulates his points well. Even if there are disagreements, I respect that he has laid out his case clearly and with a minimum of jargon. This sort of transparency is rare in modern companies, but helps build the trust of both consumers and suppliers, so I wanted to lead off by saying we should probably all applaud this, as Asmodee/FFG are private companies and have no obligation to do this kind of stuff, but are doing it anyways.
• I do agree 100% with the comments on demand generation and the unique nature of tabletop gaming for online vs. non-online retail. To my eyes, as I eyeball the retail segment, there are three blocks that are going in different directions:
  • Commodity style products, where the retailer does little/nothing for demand generation, and where moving things to online retail is almost always a strict positive or neutral at worst. Amazon is perhaps the best example of the scale at which this can happen.
  • Luxury products, where the level of customization and touch required to sell properly is simply not available online (and won't be until we have VR that can represent reality with 100% fidelity). For example, I wouldn't expect Ferrari to move to an online sales model.
  • Experience products, which by definition cannot be sold online effectively because the core product itself is the experience. Live music, for example.
  • Gaming exists in the weird spot (along with a few other things) of having attributes of all three of these things. Anyone who thinks it can be cleanly defined as any one of the three is mistaken, as it's truly a hybrid. However, that means that both the non-commodity products have real value for on-site/in-person interaction and demand creation. Or, in other words, gaming shops that actually build a community.
• To that end, incentivizing with larger discounts for stores that do a good job of fostering a community is a net positive for all of us who enjoy the game, even if it results in marginally higher prices, as it should result in a lot more people playing in the long term and thus more value from the things we own. I will say that even though I expect to pay slightly more, I am not upset by this decision.
• Not having minimum prices to allow retailer flexibility (if they want to sell at a loss for some temporary reason, for example) is also a wise move, tactically, given the legal framework around this.
• The decision to retain large chains (e.g. B&N) and other online resellers as opposed to trying to internalize everything purely to FFG is also wise, as you always want a broad distribution net, all else equal.

Overall, I have minor nits to pick (Should FFG be doing more itself to build the community and thus offering discounts based on level of partnership with stores? What about areas where the LGS really is just terrible? Given that Asmodee and FFG clearly see the issue with the erratic gaming store coverage in the US and they have broad product scale and the ability to play nice with others, has anyone ever considered the value of a roll-up/standardization to essentially create professional gaming stores with scale advantages?), but I was surprised to see something where I had this few disagreements come out of a gaming company (which are, on average, notoriously poorly run).

A net positive for our beloved Armada, I hope. This should be long-term good for gaming communities, in my view.

What about areas where the LGS really is just terrible?

I believe that if FFG can do something that makes the LGS more profitable, this could very well sort itself out. A bad LGS will do little to foster community, or market a product. That means the only reason it can survive is due to a local monopoly. But that means competition will make for a more healthy market.

In the Twin Cities area for example there's a number of gaming stores, and most of them are I believe pretty good ones. That means a bad store is unlikely to ever gain enough traction to get off the ground, in fact anyone thinking of opening a store in the area would have to really give some serious thought to how it could compete with the existing stores, one of which is the FFG Event Center itself, which is IMO the best gaming store I've been to.

But in areas where there aren't many options, often only one, and that one is bad. If the LGS can become more profitable, that means it's more likely to see competition... Even if only a single store can be supported, having a bad one makes opening your own even more desireable because it would be fairly easy to steal the customers from that one by virtue of being better.

So I think perhaps this an issue that could sort itself out. But per the owner of my LGS, FFG products are now limited to 5 distributors, so perhaps FFG could and based on that interview sounds like they might, try to offer the good stores a bigger break on product.

I think you've got the whole of it.

Here in Pittsburgh we've got quite a few really good local stores that give good support for the game, in different ways. The Armada community has pretty much come together around one of the smaller stores with one of the most awesome owners I've had the pleasure of working with, just due to geography - the core group of players are all closest to his store, and by playing there we have brought more people that frequent his store to pick up the game and play with us. Meanwhile, the other stores in the area are the big X-Wing hubs, with ImpAss being spread around fairly evenly.

Still, we have a lot of people that play the game at the FLGSes in the area who buy some or all of their ships from online retailers, Target (when it was the only one offering X-Wing TFA Core Sets), or the local store that gives a great discount, but has no playing space. This leaves the FLGSes that actually have playing space to only get paid by those players for supporting the games by running tournaments once a month.

The Armada store tries to get around this by having a "membership" fee - just $5 a month or $30 if you want to pay for a year in advance - that you can't play in the store without purchasing. It also gives a small discount on store prices - 10% off everything in the store. In my opinion, well worth the fee, and as the owner himself said "If someone isn't willing to give me their business, why do I want them hanging out in my store?"

Nevertheless, there are quite a few people that are VERY against this business model, avoiding the store outright just because they can't come and play (and not buy anything). And they pretty much match up with the folks who buy their stuff online, or at the store that doesn't have playing space.

Nevertheless, there are quite a few people that are VERY against this business model, avoiding the store outright just because they can't come and play (and not buy anything).

That is something I just don't get and smacks of seriously childish attitudes. Retail space has to be paid for somehow... Either by selling things, or renting the space out to people.

A friend of mine is a manager at a retail store and he told me one way to look at it is sales/sq foot. You have to sell X$ worth of stuff per square foot to make it.

Table space is effectively a net drain on a retail store, because it's sq footage that isn't selling anything, at least not directly. Idealy the table space helps draw people in who will in turn buy stuff.

The other way to do it is like that store, and offer some sort of rental program. That helps offset the cost of that space, and $30 year is really quite reasonable, especially when there's a discount involved. Myself I buy enough stuff at my LGS that a 10% discount would likely pay for itself in a year's time.

But I can't see how any reasonable person could feel that this is a bad deal. If you don't like the fee buy something... But either way I think it's completely fair and reasonable to expect people to pay for a service they're getting in some way. Which is exactly what tables at a store are, a service.

The Armada-meta chats in this forum are the most exquisite and sophisticated of any game community I've haunted. Not sure what sort of nerds that makes us.

Nevertheless, there are quite a few people that are VERY against this business model, avoiding the store outright just because they can't come and play (and not buy anything).

That is something I just don't get and smacks of seriously childish attitudes. Retail space has to be paid for somehow... Either by selling things, or renting the space out to people.

A friend of mine is a manager at a retail store and he told me one way to look at it is sales/sq foot. You have to sell X$ worth of stuff per square foot to make it.

Table space is effectively a net drain on a retail store, because it's sq footage that isn't selling anything, at least not directly. Idealy the table space helps draw people in who will in turn buy stuff.

The other way to do it is like that store, and offer some sort of rental program. That helps offset the cost of that space, and $30 year is really quite reasonable, especially when there's a discount involved. Myself I buy enough stuff at my LGS that a 10% discount would likely pay for itself in a year's time.

But I can't see how any reasonable person could feel that this is a bad deal. If you don't like the fee buy something... But either way I think it's completely fair and reasonable to expect people to pay for a service they're getting in some way. Which is exactly what tables at a store are, a service.

$30 paid for itself once Wave 2 dropped.

Edit:

The Armada store tries to get around this by having a "membership" fee - just $5 a month or $30 if you want to pay for a year in advance - that you can't play in the store without purchasing. It also gives a small discount on store prices - 10% off everything in the store. In my opinion, well worth the fee, and as the owner himself said "If someone isn't willing to give me their business, why do I want them hanging out in my store?"

How does the owner enforce who is/is not buying stuff in his store versus playing on the tables? I have talked to a number of retailers who have wanted to do such a thing, but haven't been able to answer that question.

Also, seeing as how our local area (Indianapolis) has plethora of stores in which to play, if only one charged a fee, people would just go elsewhere.

The Armada-meta chats in this forum are the most exquisite and sophisticated of any game community I've haunted. Not sure what sort of nerds that makes us.

The upper echelon of the Nerd society obviously. . . sadly it also makes many of the dregs to other nerds. . .

The Armada store tries to get around this by having a "membership" fee - just $5 a month or $30 if you want to pay for a year in advance - that you can't play in the store without purchasing. It also gives a small discount on store prices - 10% off everything in the store. In my opinion, well worth the fee, and as the owner himself said "If someone isn't willing to give me their business, why do I want them hanging out in my store?"

How does the owner enforce who is/is not buying stuff in his store versus playing on the tables? I have talked to a number of retailers who have wanted to do such a thing, but haven't been able to answer that question.

Also, seeing as how our local area (Indianapolis) has plethora of stores in which to play, if only one charged a fee, people would just go elsewhere.

Some stores have separate rooms dedicated to this. One is a sales room the other is a game room. The Crazy Squirrel did this when I lived in Lemoore California.

The Armada store tries to get around this by having a "membership" fee - just $5 a month or $30 if you want to pay for a year in advance - that you can't play in the store without purchasing. It also gives a small discount on store prices - 10% off everything in the store. In my opinion, well worth the fee, and as the owner himself said "If someone isn't willing to give me their business, why do I want them hanging out in my store?"

How does the owner enforce who is/is not buying stuff in his store versus playing on the tables? I have talked to a number of retailers who have wanted to do such a thing, but haven't been able to answer that question.

Also, seeing as how our local area (Indianapolis) has plethora of stores in which to play, if only one charged a fee, people would just go elsewhere.

It's easy enough to do when there are only 3 tables in the entire store, and he is the store's only employee. Basically he has a membership card / database system, but he just knows everyone's names and faces.

Not as doable at the big store of the region, that has room to seat 200 player MTG tournaments / 60+ player X-Wing Regionals.

How does the owner enforce who is/is not buying stuff in his store versus playing on the tables?

Depends on how big the store is. At my LGS the owner knows who buys stuff and who doesn't. But at the FFG event center there's no way.

Also, seeing as how our local area (Indianapolis) has plethora of stores in which to play, if only one charged a fee, people would just go elsewhere.

That's fine. But for some people a $30 to save even 15-30 minutes of travel time may well be worth it.

The membership system is one I think we may see more of, I think it's a decent way of dealing with people who buy online but want to play at a store.

The trick is to incentivize people to shop at the store, and build personal relationships with your customers. That's the real value add to all of this. Being able to play at a store I can walk to, with the owner that knows my face and is able to recommend me games he's be fairly sure I like is enough of a value that I won't even look at Online as an option. That he gives out discounts to us for membership and deeper discounts for pre-orders is, to me, nothing more than a bonus. I've told him before, I'd gladly pay full price if it means he keeps the lights on.

That being said, I know that my priorities aren't shared by everyone in the gaming community, nor even in my local circle of gamers. So a balance is needed - he offers the playing space for membership as a stick to get people to support his shop, then he offers the discount to members as a carrot - they want to make the investment in the membership worth their while. Assuming the membership itself doesn't scare the customer away (and it has) he gets a lot of repeat business from people that sign up for the membership.

That's fine. But for some people a $30 to save even 15-30 minutes of travel time may well be worth it.

The membership system is one I think we may see more of, I think it's a decent way of dealing with people who buy online but want to play at a store.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of the membership system - it is a great way of rewarding people for shopping at your store.

I've told him before, I'd gladly pay full price if it means he keeps the lights on.

I do, and more actually. I live in a little town in rural Wisconsin, about an hour from the St. Paul MN, that means the next closest game store is 45-50 minute drive one way. So when I found out there was a store only 20 minutes away, that's a huge deal to me.

But because of low population of the area and miniature wargaming being a fairly small market to start with... He doesn't make much money at it. In fact the owner has to work during the day because the store makes little profit. But he's a gamer and so he's willing to do that.

To be frank, he's could run the store a lot better than he does, he tends to buy a lot of product 'for the store' for demo purposes... But it's his money so I don't say anything.

But because he offers an amazing service to me, I pay full MSRP and even run leagues and such at the store to help draw in more customers. To me if that's the price I pay to avoid a 2 hour round trip, then it's well worth it.

I think I should mention the membership idea to him and see if he'd have any interest in it.

This whole topic is just rejuvenating my desire to run a LGS. . .

This whole topic is just rejuvenating my desire to run a LGS. . .

I've always wanted to... But only after I won the lottery or something, and knew that I could afford to make 0 profit.

This whole topic is just rejuvenating my desire to run a LGS. . .

I've always wanted to... But only after I won the lottery or something, and knew that I could afford to make 0 profit.

That is the hard part. . .I would have to get into the business with some friends and crowdfund the money together.

I realize I failed to make a point with my story above about my LGS.

My point was, that even if Online sales are reduced, they're still attractive and compete with the LGS. They will in fact pretty much always be able to undercut a LGS for price.

So what the LGS' need to do is offer added value that makes the increase in price worth it. For mine it's mostly location, but the owner is very good about ordering stuff when requested and letting people use in store stock for demos and such.

But whatever it is, LGS need to come up with some sort of service to offer people, and then perhaps find a way to charge for that service if needed.

Oh god. It SEEPED over hereeeeeee. Save me. Off topic forum you are my only hope.

In my area two stores just folded. Which means we went from 5 to 3. There alot of folks that buy online and say they cant afford store price. And i pointed out that why we now have 3 stores that are packed. Cause folks only buy online.

Would like to see FFG follow WOTC policy and let the LFGS have a two week jump on products before the big box stores and online shops.

In my area two stores just folded. Which means we went from 5 to 3. There alot of folks that buy online and say they cant afford store price. And i pointed out that why we now have 3 stores that are packed. Cause folks only buy online.

Would like to see FFG follow WOTC policy and let the LFGS have a two week jump on products before the big box stores and online shops.

This whole topic is just rejuvenating my desire to run a LGS. . .

I think Ackbar would have something to say about this.

This whole topic is just rejuvenating my desire to run a LGS. . .

I think Ackbar would have something to say about this.

Interesting topic, thanks for the read.

Over here in Aus I live in a major capital city and while there are a number of game stores only one really has playing space and that space is mostly devoted to the real money spinner (MTG). Though they do have warmachine/hordes days. I guess I should try and kick off an Armada league

Depends on which capital. And I speak from personal experience to say, sometimes, its worth driving outside the Limits... But that's probably because I helped officially found the Best 40k Club in Victoria, back when the Victorian Inter-Club Challenge was Starting up as a Big Thing

Here in China, LGS are run out of apartments. There is such a construction bubble that you have buy-1-get-1-free offers on 2/3 bedroom apartments. My local LGS owner bought a 3-bed for his family, and uses the 2-bed apartment he got for free as a side business, and runs it as a hobby on the weekend. His startup costs were minimal, as he had the 40k terrain already, X-wing and armada need no terrain, and I did all of his bloody DIY for him as he doesn't even know which way around a screwdriver goes.