Behind the Counter
A couple weeks ago, having been gone to GenCon for a week, and having taken Monday off to recover, I came to my store for "the first time" and hoped to see things as a new customer might. I warned my manager to treat me like a new customer when she saw me on Tuesday.
Then, I want to my competitors store in town, and a couple similar stores in a nearby town. I shopped, bought a couple things, and enjoyed their stores. Now, I was ready to visit Titan Games for the first time.
Tuesday morning, I waited outside for the staff to open the store. When they turned the OPEN sign on (at 9AM), I came in.
I saw: A store that was well lit, and clean. A staff that was friendly and responsive - to me as well as other customers that morning. A store that was chock full of interesting items. Games of every type, comics, novels, music, movies, and more.
Sadly, I also saw a store that had some faded posters, some half full displays, some unattractive displays, and some games displayed so poorly I didn't want to touch, shop, linger or do anything except walk away from those displays.
Over the next couple days, I tried to figure out what I want to do about this problem. I mean, those displays have sucked for more than a few days, and I need to fix them - but, I need to do it more than just a knee jerk reaction. I want to fix the displays, and fix the cause of the displays not looking good, too.
Now, partially, I am just thinking out loud (or, in this case, in print) at the moment, but I think what the problem is, is: we have too many games in stock. Is that even possible?? Can a game store have too many games? Heck, are we still operating a game store?
First, I looked at our store. With over 4000 DVD movies, and 2000 VHS movies in stock, one could say were are a video or movie store. We don't rent them, mind you, just buy and sell. But, many of our customers who come in for MOVIES probably think of us as a movie store that carries other stuff.
In the MUSIC area, we have nearly 4000 CDs, and over 2000 record albums. I suppose a lot of our music customers think of us as a music store.
Hmmmmmmmmmm...
Our Video Game Selection is the best in town, and that included FYE and GameStop - we have over 200 each of the PS2 titles, Xbox titles, and every older system including game boy, all Nintendo systems, PS1, and others - going all the way back to Atari Jaguar. We also stock all systems (used only) including, at the moment a PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, and going back to the earliest video games, even those which didn't have cartridges, but simply played PONG and TANK games. So, and I know this to be the case for certain - nearly ALL of our Video Game customers think of Titan Games as a video game store, what sells some other stuff, too.
We have 5 large racks of new comic titles. About 400 titles in all, and we stock graphic novels, trade paper backs, some manga and anime stuff, and have 20,000 back issues of comics, and about 100 designs of Comic related T-shirts and hats. Though we don't have the best selection of pure comics in town, we are solidly thought of as a comic book store that sells other stuff, by our comic customers.
We also stock coins, and coin collecting (numismatic) supplies. We have a range of old pennies to silver dollars, and all the flips, books, binders, pages and price guides. As the only shop in town that actively buys and sells rare coins, many of our customers think of us a coin shop - though, as a life long coin collector, our selection is pretty dismal. We are the best game in town, simply because we are the ONLY game in town. But, I do love coins, and enjoy dealing with the coin customers.
Puzzles - we stock about a hundred different puzzles, both jigsaw, and brain teaser puzzles, and we have a lot of puzzle customers (though none of them likely think of us as a puzzle store).
Which, brings me to GAMES. Traditional games. Board games, card games, miniatures and war games. Battletech, D&D, Star Wars, Magic, Hero Clix, Mech Warrior, a nice selection of REAPER miniatures, 6 or 7 sets of D&D boosters available. A LOT of games. In fact, more games NOW than when were a purely game store.
And, maybe that is what is wrong. As our customer base has migrated to mostly non-traditional games customers (meaning, most of our customers are not interested in traditional games) our stock has diversified. However, our games selection has grown far faster than the game customer base. We now have, again, about 1600 RPG books, about 600 titles or so. And about 500 board games, about 300 titles or so. And, while the D&D figures, Star Wars miniatures, Hero Clix and other miniatures earn their keep on a space/$ Sold basis - the board games do not. Currently, we make more money per dollar invested on selling used novels (science fiction mostly) at $2 each, than we do on board games or RPGs.
So, I am considering - frankly at this point, nearly concinced that I should - culling down our selection. Important note - I am not saying I would take up less space with RPG books - I am saying that I would stock maybe 50 titles, not 600 - and that I would restock them more accurately, and cull them more often, ordering what sells, and discontinuing what does not sell.
Lets talk RPGs for a second.
1600 books, averaging a $25 cover price (or more, mostly I have hardcovers) that is 1600 x $25 = $40,000.00 MSRP in RPG books. I don't turn those even once a year in my store. While I might sell 20 D&D Player Handbooks a year, I may only sell 4 or 5 HERO games books in the store a year (yet I stock every title as they come out). If I were to try to earn a turn rate of 2 on my RPG books (my DVDs turn about 6 times a year), then I would need to cull down my RPG section to a value of about $10,000 MSRP - about a 75% drop in inventory level. Going further, if I were also to drop any title I didn't already turn at least twice a year, I would probably have only 50-100 titles in at any time - though I might have up to 6 or 8 of some titles, and no less then 2 on anything I kept. This would likely give me about the right inventory level for what I sell. These titles could then be nearly ALL shelved face out, instead of spine out. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Okay, on to the board games.
My original complaint was with the way the board games looked, if we recall. They look terrible.
Honestly, I think board games should NEVER be shelved edge out, always displayed face out. 100% of the time. Always. I will go count how many games I can display this way in the space I use, just a second. (Hum or whistle or something).
Okay, I'm back. Miss me?
Anyway, I have space for 91 board games to be face out. I guess this might blossom to 110 or so if I keep a lot of little stuff (Apples to Apples, Munchkin, etc). And, I will dedicate 2 additional shelves for games that are smaller in profile than, say, Munchkin. Lunch Money, Guillotine, Fluxx - stuff like that.
So, lets say 100 board games, and larger boxed card games. And, 20 card games smaller than, say, the 2-player Settlers of Catan Card Game.
In this way, I could stock 2 or 3 of each title, so have LESS out of stock time per title. I would also not have so many games that I knew NOTHING about a majority of them. And, they would not look embarrassingly poorly organized - they would all be face out!!
So, patient readers - what do you think?
Is 100 board games enough to choose from, or do you require 300? Are 50-80 RPG titles enough to choose from, or do you really NEED 600 or more?
Thanks for reading
Marcus King
Titan Games
637 Capital ave SW
Battle Creek, MI 49015
269-963-3773
I buy all used games, please email for our list to:
titangamesinc at aol dot co
