Lets talk common sense business logic, okay? After 33 years in retail store ownership and management, I want to tell ya - most people who have stores really don't come to it with any knowledge. This is why 80% of businesses last less than 18 months.

First thing is your hours. If you want to be successful, consider opening 1 hour earlier than your earliest opening local competitor, and staying open one hour later than your latest local competitor.

Price & Selection

If you have the best selection, you can afford to have the highest prices, because YOU have the best selection, and customers will think of you first (this is called top of mind). If your competitors have the better selection, you should have the better pricing.

With some customers TOP OF MIND will always be the best selection. Others will always think first of the place with the best price (and that is also TOP OF MIND). You want to be top of mind with either the selection crowd, or the price crowd.

But, hours are paramount. Closing too early means a great many of your potential customers CANNOT get into your store while you are open. Thus, your selection and price don't matter. Amazon, you see, is open 24/7/365, and why bother to come buy from you when amazon is always open, and always cheaper, especially if your hours force your customers to shop elsewhere.

Top of Mind

For example, I often sell single Magic Cards for the same price my competitors PAY for theirs, because I do not have the best selection, so I attempt to keep the best price. But I have a WAY better selection on POP Vinyl Figures, so I do not try to worry about prices, since I have the better selection.

Buying Stuff

Doing buys is key to most game/card stores, and certainly in most comic stores, too.

You have to be able to acquire old merchandise to have it to sell. Old stuff can often be bought cheap - after all, the customer who is bringing it in doesn't want it! Later, you can convince a buyer it is premium, after all - where else can they find it? This is how I buy NES Game Systems for $20, and sell for $60.

When I started doing video games years ago, there were 27 stores in my town that did video games. To establish our store, we opened one hour before the earliest, stayed open one hour later than the latest, paid about 10% more than the highest payer, charged about 10% less than the lowest priced, and were twice as friendly as the friendliest.

One year later there were 4 stores doing used video games in my town, and we were the only independent store left doing them at all. And, we were doing enormous volume.

You also have to be completely above board on things like labor laws, and taxes. Trying to be a tax cheat will mess you up. Quick, and bad.

These are all things that most retailers don't realize when they get into retailing.

And, I am posting them here, so that later when someone says I screwed them in business, there is a public record of my sharing knowledge freely.

Marcus
Owner of Mad Ox Games & Comics
London, KY 40741