The recession has hit the gaming store

[CaroPhoenix]

As of January 17, I am no longer working at the gaming store. The owner has decided that because the economy is bad, rather than closing the store down, he's laying off the part-time people and reducing the store hours.

Instead of 3 full-time people and 3 part-timers, there's going to be 3 full-timers. Also, the hours will be reduced from 12 hours per day to 10 hours per day, 7 days a week. (There's a sign on the doors telling about the new hours - starting January 19, but as we all know, customers don't read - so I'm hanging out in the parking lot and watching the idiot customers trying to get in. Yeah, I have no life. )

[SG15Z]

Yeah, I have no life. )

Well you mean not anymore...

So that's another man down. My dad just got laid off himself. All the refinery plants have been laying off thousands of workers for months now. Only a matter of time before the grocery stores get hit too. As if our hours hadn't been cut enough already.

:sigh: It's only gonna get worse before it gets better...

[CaroPhoenix]

You're right.

The owner works his wife & and daughter at the store too. He told me that he was slashing his own personal wages in half too to keep the store afloat. He hopes once the recession is over, he can re-hire the part-timers. I'm hoping to go back as I really like the store.

Part of the blame I think though, at least for the gaming store, is that people buy their gaming supplies on-line for the discount. But then again, they always complain that: 1) there aren't enough gaming stores around and 2) the gaming stores that are around are either not well-stocked or are going out of business. I just roll my eyes at them.

[lordlundar]

Ah yes, another manager using "the economy is bad" as an excuse for getting rid of people. I'd be more inclined to think the reason is that it's January, the deadest time of thee effing year when it comes to game releases.

[CaroPhoenix]

For this store (it's locally owned so there are only 2 stores in the Northern Virginia area) and others like it (read: non-electronic gaming stuff), there is always new product coming out every week. I think Magic: The Gathering is coming out with a new deck soon. And the Call of Cthulhu CCG has come out with a new 2 player box that introduces players to the CoC CCG.

The owner had to do some layoffs back in 2004, not in January, but later in the year. The owner's wife works full-time at the main store and the owner works full-time between the 2 stores.

The store also had a Loyalty Points System. For every dollar spent at the store, you got 2 points. That accumulates quickly as minis, CCG's, etc., can be expensive. If you used your loyalty points to buy something, the only thing you'd be responsible for is tax ('cos that's the government & not us and as we all know, the government loves to have their money ). Last year, I had a guy buy between $40 and $50 worth of dice, but because he used his loyalty points, he only paid the 84 cent tax. The loyalty point system, though great, was practically giving away product. That was suspended on November 1 (due to the economic crisis just coming to a head). Then the recession hours came up. And right on the heels of the recession hours came the lay offs.

I completely understand where the owner is coming from. If he hadn't started the lay-offs of the part-timers, I was going to talk to him and let him know that if he needed to cut payroll to keep the full-timers, I was volunterring to lay myself off. I saw the writing on the wall and I'm okay with being laid off.

He's not using the "recession" to cut hours & fire people. We're lucky if we get a full house on Saturdays (the other days, it's a literal ghost town). The store is definitely hurting more than normal. No one has the money lying around to spend $100+ on gaming supplies (even though Warhammer &/or Dungeons & Dragons books are expensive). We mainly make our money on the 75 cent snacks & sodas that we sell.

[Kiwi]

even our local wal-mart has reduced it's hours it used to be open 7am-10pm now its 9am-9pm everyday

almost every store here is reducing its hours or store numbers, the local paper today has 3 wanted advertisements THREE it usually has an entire page

[cinema guy]

I'm sorry to hear you got laid off.

I hope the games store survives. They are few and far between these days.

[Nashida]

So sorry to hear that the same ill fate befell you as it did me. *hugs*

[Dreamstalker]

*hugs*

If things were overall better, I would suggest all us ex-gamestore employees starting our own store, but as it is...

My former store may be on the brink as well, Cool Manager has been passing along some not-good tidbits. The owner is deciding to start a "Boston gaming web portal" when that niche was filled by another store long before he even thought of it (irony is that his store was in existence first). If he wants to snag the other site's traffic he needs something new and different and I don't think he has the imagination to do that.

[CaroPhoenix]

Come next year, family & I will be moving to Anne Arundel County in Maryland. The only major gaming store in Maryland (that I know of) is in Rockville called Dream Wizards and we have plenty of Maryland folks to come down to our stores rather than go there. Not sure how that store stays in business.

I'd like to start a gaming store. Either zoned for family entertainment during the day and then in the late evening, have alcohol for the adults.

Or, which would be even better, have part of the gaming store be a coffee shop. Not sure which one to go with as of yet.

As for the laying-off thing? I was part time part time. (I worked Saturdays only). However, it does suck that I'm out of the job as I got a 20% discount for being an employee. I told the Owner that he can't get rid of me that easily as I'll be coming in as a customer like before. I'll just miss working with Darkness, the Rawking Manager. *le sigh* Ah well. Thems the breaks, as my Grandpa says.

[Evil Queen]

I think you'll make more money with the game store with a coffee shop rather then a bar-type thing.

I wish there was more game stores in the world. I get tired of buying stuff off the internet.

[CaroPhoenix]

EQ - I think you're one of the very few people who get tired of getting their gaming supplies off the internet. Everyone was so excited about the discount they were getting when Amazon was selling 4.0 for D&D. Then they were ticked off that we had the books (2 boxes of each book) and they were still waiting because WoTC had to do a second printing of everything and they had to wait almost a month! About half of the Amazon customers ended up buying the books with us and cancelling their orders.

But you're right ... I might do the coffee shop thing over the adult entertainment thing. At least coffee cups can't poke holes in the Magic cards.

[Dreamstalker]

When I still had relatives in MD, I'd go to Dream Wizards. I could never actually find anything on the shelves.

I still run/play (GM duties generally rotate) a Ghostbusters RPG over IRC sometimes, and am constantly on the prowl for older used sourcebooks--any system--to use. Sometimes I'll see/hear of one that sounds good, but until I actually flip through it I have no idea if it will work or not. So I like buying in person so I can see the stuff. I've also been burned before on Amazon wrt condition.

Yeah, I'd go with coffee shop too.

[Nashida]

Heck, I'd go with a coffe shop game store myself, but I'd be afraid of spilling my caffeine-y goodness on my Chandra planeswalker. Or my Eladrin rogue's stat sheet.

There's a game store..no..a couple of them close by, but I can never find D&D at those stores. I can get my Magic fix there (Heck, I can still buy Invasion boosters there for the price they used to go for), but if I need new dice or minis I have to try eBay or go elsewhere.

[CaroPhoenix]

My gaming store would be similar to the gaming store I work(ed) at. It has a little bit of everything for everyone. CCGs out the wahzoo. Dice galore. Puzzles. Board Games. Warhammer 40K and Fantasy. D&D. White Wolf stuff. Gurps. Battletech. Some comics. I don't think I'd be as heavy into historical minatures as not many people want to re-play the battle of Waterloo or whatever. *shrug*

I'm seriously considering the Gaming/Coffee store. But it depends on where we'll be living next year.