Ever want your own videogame store? well I'm doing it!

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:24 pm

Sounds like a great idea! But how are you going to get people to go there instead of gamestop? Are you really going to be able to buy NEW SEALED games in bulk and make your high profit margin?

PS: I love the idea of the gamers louge. You could just set up every system that you sell/sell game for, and allow people to play. Even if its a little corner, with maybe a mini-fridge soda machine. It would be a great way to get customers.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:42 pm

One problem John. The problem with the gamers lounge is why most companies dont use the idea. They want buisness, not people to loaf around. (Which is 100% True. Coming from my Co-Op boss at my local gamestore.) He has a gamer lounge, but limits time and its really just to test games and such. Unless your willing to charge per 15 minutes of playing games (Or something), its just gonna be a hangout for people who dont wanna even buy a game. (Yet it has its upsides, as buying through osmosis.

)

I hope it works out for ya.

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 1:59 pm

Make the people have to buy the game or pay a small fee to sit and play it.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:02 pm

A gamer's lounge alone would be enough to make good income, if you had enough customers.

Charge $7/hour, and have offline systems like N64, PSOne Multitap (more customers!) SNES, Dreamcast, hell, even NES. Allow the use of specific games they can play (Your N64 collection, for example) and people will come to chill for a bit. Or charge $5/0.5 hour.

If you have 3 systems set up, and you have a steady flow of customers for 6 hours a day or whatever (Might want to open shop at 10 AM or later), that's about $720 a day. Tournaments would attract customers too.

Custom NES Dude · Post by **Custom NES Dude** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:05 pm

This has also been a dream of mine. I wish we lived nearby and could go into business together LOL! We need more retro stores! Maybe one day I will open a store. Good luck with yours its a lot of responsibility!

Post by **Triton** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:51 pm

where abouts do you live? i would be THRILLED if i could get some suppliers for various things, and customized absolutly beautifully painted systems would probably sell fairly well! also looking for investors for the not too distant future!

as to the gamers lounge idea, i really do like it! but as has been mentioned people would tend to hang around and not buy anything. what i will probably do is set up playable demo kiosks (really looking for the old system display unit/demo unit things! that would be nice, failing that build my own) and some actual arcade machines (i have a friend with a few that im sure he would loan to me on condition of getting some of the money) and so forth

as to the parts tools etc, that would be something for my online store as the demand for that type of thing is VERY low in ottumwa

and finaly as to the stealing gamestops customers, im not positive i can get brand new games at first but i can get large lots of ps3 wii and 360 games in like new or slightly used condition for a fairly low price through various sources, roughly 50% of my starting funds (if not more) will go to getting a decent stock of current gen games accessories and possibly hardware, the classic stuff is FAR FAR cheaper and easier to obtain in large ammounts

most likely will have various junk foods for sale and a pop vending machine if i can get a can/bottle vending machine cheap. oddball stuff will also have a place in my shop (pocky, japanese stuff and anime, posters, game related trinkets etc)

PLEASE keep the ideas and suggestions coming! and if anyone of the older crowd would be interested in possibly investing in my store please let me know via PM, i can probably guarentee a decent return on your initial investment, your money back plus 10% or something along those lines, or a percentage of the sales of items your investment paid for!

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:13 pm

Maybe you can make some portables to sell there too? Or contract deal with some of use here to make you portables to sell?

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:18 am

Ugh. I told you before.

GET A GOVERNMENT SMALL BUSINESS GRANT. IT IS MONEY THE GOVERNMENT WILL GIVE YOU TO START YOUR BUSINESS, WITH NO REPAYING NECESSARY.

It's moreso for Ontario and Canada, but the States also has such a thing:

http://www.sba.gov/services/financialas ... index.html
http://www.government-cash-grants.com/

Post by **Triton** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 1:04 am

the whole matthew lesko GET FREE MONEY LOL type crap is mostly a myth, and these "small business grants" pretty much DO NOT EXIST, loans etc yes but the requirements are usually pretty heavy, not exactly targeted at the 19 year old prospective business owner market . most government grants are for non profit organizations etc. Directly from one of the websites you linked me to

Please Note that the U.S. Small Business Administration does NOT offer grants to start or expand small businesses, though it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. While the SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments.

trust me, when i first got the idea this stuff was THE FIRST THINGS I LOOKED INTO, yes i can probably get a low intrest rate loan through the state or federally backed but it is a LOAN and it would probably have to be my mom doing it (through the program she is in with the ebay business)

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:30 am

How about you do small mods for a small amount of money? Like region unlocking SNES' for gamers who want to play PAL games
and maybe small LED mods (perhaps even just switching red to blue)

Post by **bicostp** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:30 am

One thing you want to watch out for is not catering to too small a niche market, especially if you're going to deal with the overhead of a physical storefront. Sure old games are fun, but from a dollars-and-cents standpoint carrying current items is a necessity.

You might also want to consider doing PC repairs as well. I know a guy who has been doing that for years and does steady business. (Just don't accept CRT monitors unless you can get rid of them. I don't know about Iowa but here in MA we have to pay for each one because they're considered "hazardous waste" thanks to the mercury in the tube. He's got a mountain of them taking up a good chunk of the customer area and can't do anything with them because disposal is too expensive.) The way I see it, as long as there are people using them, computers will get screwed up. I'm thinking of doing this on the side once I get my own place and can support it.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:45 am

That's a great idea! You could surely earn quite some money with easy fixes by doing that. The problem is that it doesn't really fit your store's topic, but who cares, eh?
Somebody in my year once had a problem because his new self-built computer, it wouldn't turn on. I visited his house and as it turned out, he connected power to a fan power OUT on the mainboard. (He got lucky, the mainboard was still fine afterwards)
After I asked him why the hell he would do that he answered "because the plug fit"

ghosstt · Post by **ghosstt** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:48 am

Well, for your Soda Machine/Candy Machine, at one of the costco's near my old house they had them for sale. Near the registers on the highest shelf. They were good sized too, just a little smaller than a standard one. Like bic said, you can't just go for a specific demographic, your going to need to be doing everything. I think I would be able to do a few custom paintjobs possibly.

Post by **Triton** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:37 pm

One thing you want to watch out for is not catering to too small a niche market, especially if you're going to deal with the overhead of a physical storefront. Sure old games are fun, but from a dollars-and-cents standpoint carrying current items is a necessity.

because of previous examples (cosmos game store that went out of business etc) i am well aware of the dangers of catering to niche markets, more than 75% of my business will be dreamcast and up generation wise (psone n64 ps2 xbox gamecube ps3 wii and 360 and of course dreamcast) because that is all that is really readibly marketable. less than 50% of my storefront area will be the classics because they just dont sell as well

r4p1d · Post by **r4p1d** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:13 pm

Hey man, I currently work at the largest growing game franchise in the USA, It's called Play N Trade, you should look into opening this, you need about 200k to get trained in California, open your store, and pay all the general fees pretty much. I work at the store at the tech guy fixing consoles, personally friends with the owner/ my friend. Look into it man the franchise fees are very reasonable.