Postby xnickbaranx » Wed Oct 07, 2015 1:03 pm
I have really strong feelings about this as someone who's worked in LGS' on and off for years.
Matt, if you are seeing this!
Absolutely do not encourage Sean to commit to any miniature game that he or his helpers is not going to immerse themselves in 100%.
It's as simple as that.
The buy in on 40K is worth it if he intends to live and breath it (and as I understand it is lower now as they have varied stockist levels. I watched a presentation on it at ACD Games Day in May). But if the store doesn't live and breath it, it will not net sales.
And though many of the other miniature game systems have much smaller buy ins, they also have much smaller communities that are very very cliquey.
Next Dimension, for example, carried Warmachine, Malifaux, Infinity, X-Wing, Attack Wing, 40K, WFB, Bolt Action, Mercs, Wreck-Age, and even a few others I am missing.
They actually sold 40K, WFB, and a tiny bit of Infinity (because there were 2 city bound Infinity players who supported both NDG and Draxtar) and X-Wing (mostly online sales but the occasional random/impulse sale). They tried to court other communities to come in and failed, partially because Marc was a weird/dramatic character, but partially because when people have a comfortable place to play that they are happy with, they don't uproot "just because".
Additionally, most of the miniature gamers who played 40K/WFB at NDG owned a little Warmachine or Malifaux because they got hyped on it for a minute, but then couldn't convince each other to commit to playing any of them, and there was no leadership in the store to guide and excite them. And the biggest difficulty in maintaining a profitable line is maintaining an interested player base. So Sean should carry only what he and his helpers are hyped to play because their enthusiasm for whatever game it is, is absolutely essential to it's success in the store.
If no one at Brainstorm feels a strong inclination toward anything, then he should stock games like X-Wing, Imperial Assault, Zombicide, and maybe Shadows of Brimstone. Games that require very little commitment, require no painting or assembly to play, and who's theme is enticing without all of the barriers to entry. Each of these systems have expansions as well, so people who play and like the games will likely expand on them a bit.
Carrying miniatures is not for the passive store owner. Either you live it or you don't unless your overhead is pretty low and you can afford not to care.