Opening A Hobby Store Part 2 - What Kind Of Business?

[@wazupshaggy]

As someone who accidentally bought a hobby business (I went to buy an rc battery, learnt business was closing down, I didn't want it to disappear from the area, so I bought it, lol), it's interesting to hear your perspective from experience. There's so many challenges you've mentioned that I can see already, even in the smallest of things. I think a key point you make is the vibe or experience/feeling created by a store - whatever its configuration, that can make such a difference for the customer, as you say, is covered by several elements.

[@HB2K-h8m]

The boardgame café section made me laugh. One local to me relocated within the town and it was clear on relaunch day they were not ready. Contractors on site, food items unavailable. Payment system not up and running. We ended up playing on a tiny table and got our food for free. Customers were late because they could not find the new location . Not a simple business!

[@tomkelley2649]

Fun podcast theme, I've often thought about opening the ol' hobby shop. You guys are fun to listen to. No need to keep the conversation short on my account. I like to listen to people hanging out while I paint mini's and such.

[@daiviet]

Snakes & Lattes also had the spark of luck in being the Canadian distributor of Cards Against Humanity for years. Also looking them up after the mention, they're so successful they now franchaise their brand. LoW franchaise when?

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

Worth noting too their OG Location is like only BLOCKS away from U of T Bloor Campus. So they've got allll that student loan money coming in initially during the Catan/ CAH / Carcassonne Boom of the Oughts.

[@tomtricity]

Interesting series. I came really close to opening a collectibles and gaming store way back in the late 90s in Austin, TX. Ended up in corporate America instead. Now that I'm running out of years and looking at "retirement", been kicking around the idea of finally opening one.

[@Sycoa1]

Recently found your channel and have been enjoying this series. As a business owner with no intention on opening my own flgs, I have still always been curious about the back end. The commentary about Pokemon was interesting. I very often find myself purchasing packs for my kids when I'm in my local flgs, but even they seem to treat it as an "easy money" thing that they just plop on an endcap and need to put no effort into selling, it sells itself. Glad I found the channel, love the Tim's, surely couldn't do retail without it some days! Perhaps some of these questions are useful to you for future videos in the series? -Hobby space/Gaming space. Would you agree its mandatory to supply a gaming space in today's market? Given GW's stance on not having games in their retail locations, do you feel this has helped your business gain a core customer base? I see from your website you have a fairly large and honestly well-done gaming space. Was it always this way? Curious how long it took you to see a return on the investment of tables/terrain/etc if you did at all? -How has the e-commerce side of your business changed from pre-pandemic to now? Would you agree that a strong online presence is mandatory in 2024? Do you see a lot of volume online? How many of the orders are for clients outside of your local trading area? -Obviously if you're in the miniatures market, GW is your main supplier/seller. What type of margins does an independent see at store-level? Does it vary between lines (ie 40k vs specialty games vs supplies? -What would your top 5 skus be? Do you track things in that manner? -What would you say was your most successful test/new brand? What was one you thought would do well but didn't? -Paints and supplies. With so many new players entering this space, do you find it difficult to decide who to support? Can you cover how you decide if you want to try a new line of products? Customer demand/Ease of supply? Do vendors reach out to you? It is unlikely you want to carry too many brands due to investment and space. Out of what you carry, how would you rank them? GW/Vallejo/AK/TTK//Scale75/AP/etc.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Thanks so much for the insightful questions we will do our best to tackle these in future videos!

[@krzysztofmathews738]

Excellent talk. You speak from real experience and cover a number of important issues there. I enjoyed this discussion.

[@imperialminis857]

Great series! I hope you'll keep them coming. It's a very honest and enlightening look at a business that many of us in the hobby have, at one point or another, considered diving into.

[@ApocryphalPress]

Greetings. I am aware of your store from your interactions with Ash but was only recently aware of your own channel. I am really liking your content. As a gamer who grew up in small town Ontario, I have seen stores come and go which was extremely frustrating. I wonder if any of them might have lasted longer if they had some of the knowledge you brought out in this video. All of the stores were started by gamers who wanted to succeed but didn't seem to easily grasp the concept of business.

[@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905]

Thanks for tuning in! Yea the deck is stacked against any small business with how our economy operates, so you really have to do the work ahead of time to prepare yourself for those realities (to the extent that you can). We are happy you like the videos :)

[@ApocryphalPress]

@@lordsofwargamesandhobbies3905 Keep up the great work. Some day I would love to make it down to your store.

[@marastarbreaker6327]

Great series. Lf to the next instalment