Fraser McHarg: Tales of my FLGS

Melissa mentioned last week that a friend of ours had recently resigned from our main FLGS.  We still know some of the staff very well, but this would be the first time in living recollection that we haven’t had a friend working at the store.  My association with the store goes back to my university days, when I changed from being a customer to a staff member.

When I was at university I would stop by at this store on my way home to games night at another tertiary institution on the way home.  I got to know the manager quite well and he offered me a job doing the graveyard shift (Friday night and Saturday mornings).  I think the main reason he offered me the job was because he wanted to go to a concert one Friday and needed a part timer to fill in for him (also he probably wanted to sleep in on Saturday mornings).  Thus I started my career in retail.

In those days the big sellers were mainly the RPG stuff, the boardgaming renaissance had not really taken off.  The shop I worked it was part of a chain of what was then three stores, but it did the most business to gamers.  It was the best stocked games store in Australia in those days and probably still is, or at least in the top two or three.  As an example when Bushido was released 48 copies arrived for all of Australia, our store got 24 of them, as many as for all the other games stores in the rest of Australia.

I worked there for the rest of my time at university.  The staff discount on games meant that I spent a lot my pay in the store and if pressured may be forced to admit that I still have a few unplayed games from those days.  When my course ran out, I got a full time job elsewhere and so left my position at the FLGS.  When I did so I had the honour of being the only part-timer to have resigned in a four year period.  All the others had been asked to leave.

My original manager had moved on to open up a new store in the chain and the new manager was a friend of mine, so of course I kept going there after I left their employ.

After this a succession of employees consisted of another good friend, Melissa’s brother and the aforementioned friend who has just recently left. 

This meant that a) I would drop in to catch up, b) I was kept informed of new games coming in and c) was notified of specials.  I must admit it was also very handy to have a place to drop shopping off for safe keeping during Christmas shopping blitzes.

Our most recent friend there was really a gaming pimp.  He would ring up to say game X has come in and ask if I wanted it.  Since he had a good idea of my taste of games, he would usually be touting games that I was interested in.  He would put them aside for my next visit, or take the order over the phone and give it to someone else to deliver.

The ultimate in service was the time he rang up about Pillars of the Earth, which Melissa was desperate for.  I paid over the phone and he said he would deliver it to our house on the way home.  So later that night he arrived with the game, stayed for dinner and played the game with us.  Now that’s service!

© 2008 Fraser McHarg

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Awesome, I am lucky to have a great FLGS here in Calgary just like yours. They have great customer service and have a mezzanine loaded with folks playing games every weekend. Peace Posted by Brent Lloyd on Feb 20, 2008 at 01:15 PM | #

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