Get good staff. Friendly, helpful staff make the difference. I have two local game stores. One has friendly staff. One has annoying staff. I shop at the former.

The brick-and-mortar store I go to most often has the friendliest staff of the three local game stores.  They’re also the farthest away.  It takes me about 20 minutes to get there.  They’re friendly and helpful, but not pushy.  They also offer a 10% discount to members of our game group.  I think at least one of the other stores does, too, but I’ve never bothered to find out which one.

My worst experience is in a store that had the counter guy running an event.  He brushed off my questions so he could get back to running the event.  I had a gift certificate, which I ended up giving away because I couldn’t get them to sell me what I wanted.  None of the staff at that store are friendly, though, even when they’re not running anything.

I don’t have any interest in game store gaming because I have other places to game.  All three of the local stores have space, but I think it’s used for mostly RPGs and/or CCGs instead of board games.

I purchase most of my new games online or at conventions because they are cheap and/or convenient.  I also browse Barnes & Nobles, Borders and Toys R Us when we are there for other reasons.  During their sales and occasionally for full price, I’ll pick up some games.

When I’ve had a game store that I supported, I’ve driven up to forty minutes purely to shop for games there.  When on road trips, I’ll detour twenty to thirty minutes to see unknown (to me) stores.  When staying in Toronto, we visit the one downtown by walking ~ a mile from our hotel. It usually isn’t the only stop on the walk.

Play space, viewing game(boxes) and immediate pickup are the only advantages a brick and mortar store offers over online options.  For the second to matter, they must have a large, diverse inventory.  They must have a reasonable inventory to make the third viable.  The play space doesn’t have to be actively unpleasant to make it worthwhile.  In the pre-Internet days, I greatly valued discussions with the owner of Napoleon’s in Milwaukee to know what was coming and what reactions people had had to games he sold.

At Napoleon’s and at a local Wizard of the Coast store we actually became friendly with the owner/staff.  Since BGG and its precursors, I’ve not come across a store that had broad gaming information that I couldn’t access.  In specialized areas, like Pokemon CCG, the WotC guys helped informationally.  The guys at a store in Indy (whose name eludes me at the moment) are friendly, interesting and stock lots of games.

Negative experiences are usually sales staffs that just aren’t really interested in helping. I’ve rarely, but occasionally even had trouble getting attention long enough to check out.  Stores with lots of immature CCG-er’s (note, I didn’t say young) are turn-offs.

Stores must have good selection of games.  I am in relatively indifferent to non-game related stuff, but my wife likes looking at jigsaw puzzles and knick-knacks, including possibly game related figurines.

There was a fairly local store (twenty minutes or so) that provided open gaming and several BGG’ers had our initial meeting there.  We scheduled a gathering every two weeks until the store went out of business probably ~4 months after we started.  It had a large gaming area with several “regular” tables as well as a few set up to run miniatures.  It was well lit, had a soda machine and pizza could be delivered.  They also had a small game library which I think was the owner’s personal collection that was available to play.

To attract my business, a store would have to provide some discount (10-15%) from MSRP, at least for the volume of games that I purchase. 
(Each gaming session at the store mentioned above, I always picked up something from them.  They declined to provide any discount even for multi hundred dollar purchases, so I continued spending the majority of my gaming dollars online.)

In addition to that, I’d like to see an open gaming area and friendly staff.  Even with that, I’d probably not frequent them much. I have access to enough gaming groups, private and public that I don’t need gaming space.

I wish anybody starting a game store good luck, but hope they are prepared for an uphill struggle to remain solvent.

Not to be a party pooper (to tie in to another recent article), but I think that Linda should first find out whether we are the people she should be researching. Are there enough people like us (those who would read BGN) in her area to support a store? If not, what people should she be aiming for? Are the things that those of us here would like complementary to or antithetical to what would serve her larger customer base?

Will making her store BGN-user friendly increase the chances of the store surviving or doom it from the start?

Maybe the people to ask are not us, but those who own successful game stores (like Game Parlor in VA and some of the stores in the SF Bay Area).

We know what we would like, but they know what works.

Thank you for the comments, Guys! 

Scott, what did you mean by “The play space doesn’t have to be actively unpleasant to make it worthwhile.” ?

Paul, you’re not a party pooper.  Linda let us know that we(experienced gamers) were not the only group that she is getting data from.  She would like the store to be accessible to non-gaming families as well.  (which makes sense as that demographic has a greater potential of growth) She has been looking at different stores around the country to see what works and doesn’t.  It’s nice to know that she’s putting a lot of care into her store.

I agree with Paul that I don’t think BGG/BGN members are a large enough market to sustain a game store.  The two stores that I enjoy and that my non-gamer girlfriend also enjoys have a few things in common.

Bright colorful, eye candy front of the store. (attracts lots of non-gamer types, looking for monopoly and puzzles and hopefully converts them to games)
Super friendly staff with good knowledge of games.
Massive selection. (for my browsing and purchasing enjoyment)
Open gaming tables.

Le Valet de Coeur http://www.levalet.com (website could use some work)
and Drexoll Games. http://www.drexollgames.com

Drexoll is run by a couple.  Darcy is a big game geek and I’m sure was the main driver for opening the store and Tamara brings an artistic, colorful, balancing perspective to the duo.  The store is really well laid out and appealing to enter, provides a large selection and knowledgeable staff and open gaming tables in the back.  I’m personally a big fan of the Friday night board game night.  I’m sure if Linda contacts Darcy and Tamara they’d be willing to share their experiences.

-Mike

> Where do you usually buy your games?  Why there?

A mix of FOGS and FLGS.  I like the service at both stores.  I prefer the pricing of the online store but I think the local store serves a purpose and I occasionally participate in their board game events so I feel like I should give something back.  Honestly for some games losing the discount isn’t a big deal.

> How far would you drive to go to to a game store?

15-20 miles.

> What are the characteristics of a good game store that you have been to?

Clean, spacious, wide selection of games, good layout, plenty of area for game play, a game library and staff that are friendly and knowledgeable.

> Have you had any positive experiences at a game store?  What were they?

Friendly staff willing to teach games or that will go the extra mile to help me get what I want.

> Have you had any negative experiences at a game store?  What were they?

I dislike stores where the staff clearly don’t know or care about the merchandise.

> What types of game-related, or non-game-related items would you like to see in a game store?

Dice!  :D Games.  Not much opinion otherwise.  My wife enjoys the Ugly Dolls found at one LGS.

> If a game store provided open gaming, would you use it (the gaming area)?  Why or why not?

Yes so long as it was at a convenient time and the staff or some other group organized it.  There needs to be someone at the heart of it teaching games to new players for an event like that to truly blossom.

For me, probably the most important feature in a FLGS is selection. As with other purchases (books for example) if my local Brick and Mortor (B&M) store has it in stock, I will buy it there. If it is not in stock, I will buy it online. I almost never special order from a B&M store. I feel, if the local B&M store doesn’t have it in stock, they lost their chance. Unlike several of the other posters, I am fairly price insensitive. As long as it is not above MSRP I would buy from a FLGS if the game is in stock, even if I knew I could get it cheaper from a FOGS.

How far I would drive to a FLGS? Depends on the selection. If the selection is great, I would drive 1 hour maybe more. If the selection is mediocre, I probably won’t drive more than 20 minutes (assuming I was going just for the FLGS).

Currently I buy most of my games online because there are no good (meaning: have large selection) FLGS in my area. If I see a game I want in a local store (Barnes and Noble for example) I will buy it there.

Oops, I meant the game area must not be actively unpleasant! :) But it needn’t be luxurious.

By that I mean the chairs shouldn’t have sharp edges, but folding chairs are fine.

I don’t need absolute silence, but music loud enough that you can’t hear each other take wouldn’t be acceptable.

As long as the tables are spaced out enough that my chair isn’t constantly getting bumped and no one is continuously yelling, I don’t really care about other patrons.

Thanks for catching my goof, so I could clarify.

Hopefully Linda will be successful and will inspire others to open game stores in other parts of the Chicagoland area as right now Games Plus would be over an hour drive for me coming from the fringe of the western suburbs.

And I’m also hoping her location is convenient for those coming to Chicago by train so that I can stop by once in a while (although somehow I’d guess those rents are quite a bit higher than what a game store would want to pay right now).

Best wishes to Linda!

You can read my two articles about relatively successful game stores in Berlin.

Both have very friendly owners/staff who are always helpful and never condescending.

Both stores are bright and inviting, with a large selection and open gaming tables, with the chance to play in-store.

And one is a cafe with espresso bar, snacks and drinks.  What more could you ask?