Pimpcron: Stores Love 40k Clubs
Pimpcron explains why you need a gaming club at your store.
Well if it isn’t my darling readers. It’s good to be here this week, and I have an important message for you all. If you own a friendly local gaming store, you need a steady 40k club to attract new business. Here’s why.
It Takes Two
It, it, it, it takes two to make a thing go right. It takes two to make it out of sight.
There’s not a person living who can sit still while this song plays.
Sorry, eighties flash back. I was a toddler, but a song like that sticks to your ribs. But now that I’m thinking about it, maybe Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock were on to something. It takes two friendly, supportive parties to make a successful relationship. And that works for any relationship, even romantic ones. Though exchanging romantic relations with your store for discounts are frowned upon, I’ve learned. That one store still won’t let me in.
You need a supportive gaming club that does more than just show up, play for free, and buy everything online. It also takes a store that does more than just try to sell you stuff and offer no incentive to buy from them. Hopefully you can find a friendly local gaming store that is willing to work with you. And hopefully as a store, you have access to a friendly and organized gaming club that has leadership.
Why Are Clubs Good For Your Store?
Well for one, they are good for defense, also you could start a softball team if you had one.
Oh dear.
I will admit that that joke was pretty bad. I apologize for the readers who literally just read that sentence and clicked out of the window. Despite my stellar record of gut-busting puns and head-exploding musings, every once in a while a real carcinogenic one slips out. After exposure to that one, you’ll want to incorporate more anti-oxidants in your diet.
Anyway, for those of you who are still reading: dependable gaming clubs can have many benefits for your income stream. In truth, most gaming clubs are already established gamers who won’t be spending a ton of money with you as a new player will be. But we all know that even established gamers still spend money, and if you make a spending-friendly environment they will gladly spend money with you. But the big money is that people attract people.
Have A Set Day
Store owners constantly have new customers come in and ask if they play X game at the store. These games are social games and while it is fun to constantly play your two friends in your basement, it is even more fun to be part of a larger community. A gaming club should have at least one scheduled day of the week that they play on (if not more often). This allows stores to direct new customers to that night/day so that they can be part of the group.
The store that my group just moved to had a small but not very organized group that slowly dwindled over time due to lack of leadership and organization. Everyone just kind of showed up and hoped to get a game in, and you weren’t ever sure if anybody would be playing the game you play. Once my group (led and organized by this sexy chunk of robot your reading) moved to the store, it has only taken about two months of our weekly meetings to attract a literal metric butt-load of new players. Don’t scoff, I did the math. And metric makes it more scientific.
In the past three weeks we have had TWELVE new players either show interest in joining us or come and playing with us. And all because we have an organized, communicative, friendly gaming group. We gladly run demos for new people, and our member range from seal pup to Khorne on the gamer ability scale of “Sea pup-to-Khorne”. Now, twelve people may not seem like much to you city-folk, but I live in a barren wargaming wasteland. We have had to do everything in our power to keep a roster of roughly twelve people in our group for the past eight years. So the potential of DOUBLING our group attendance is baller.
I take that back, I feel like I’m too old to use “baller”.
It’s the bees’ knees. Nope. Too young for that.
It’s totally radical, man!
Give & Give, Not Give & Take
So if you want a friendly buying environment, you have to order things on time, have at least some stock for impulse buys, and giving some sort of discount wouldn’t hurt. Online is roughly 20% discount and yes I understand that many of those online guys don’t have a storefront to pay for, but that is the environment you are working in. Just because it isn’t fair doesn’t mean that you can ignore your competition. However you manage to do it, if you can give incentive for your players to buy from you, they will. Most people want to support their home store anyway, so a little nudge won’t hurt sales. And of course all of the new players your club will attracting will bring the big bucks.
So clubs, support your stores and make it fun for new players.
And Stores, incentivize your club to buy form you and be welcoming to new players. It’s as easy as that.
Or contact me at [email protected] for the latest rules if you don’t do the Facebooks.
