The Demise of Local Game Shops
I don't really know what things are like where you live, but everywhere I have lived had at least one local hobby shop every gamer knew by name. It may be a comic shop, or a collectable card shop, or even a bookstore. But every community seems to have at least one, and some places more. When I moved to Santa Rosa in the mid nineties our shop was a place called Fantasy Books and Games. It was huge, and carried every comic, RPG product, miniature, anime, or card game you could hope for. It was the gaming Mecca for Sonoma County, and of course had the requisite bulletin board I used to meet many of our group members over the years.
The Demise of Local Game Shops
I don't really know what things are like where you live, but everywhere I have lived had at least one local hobby shop every gamer knew by name. It may be a comic shop, or a collectable card shop, or even a bookstore. But every community seems to have at least one, and some places more. When I moved to Santa Rosa in the mid nineties our shop was a place called Fantasy Books and Games. It was huge, and carried every comic, RPG product, miniature, anime, or card game you could hope for. It was the gaming Mecca for Sonoma County, and of course had the requisite bulletin board I used to meet many of our group members over the years.
Still, if Fantasy was the four star restaurant of gaming stores, then Castle Games was the greasy burger joint all the locals hung out at. Fantasy never had the friendly atmosphere that gamers seek, whereas at Castle at least ten people could be found playing various games or just hanging out at any given time.
After a couple of years Castle moved right across the street from my college. This was good for me in that it was much closer to my house, and for a while the shop seemed more popular than ever. Unfortunately, while the gamers loved the shop, and loved to hang out there, the place simply did not turn a profit. The owners ended up sinking more and more money into the place, and eventually gave up and let it die.
This was quite a blow to our gaming community, and seemed to shock many people. For something like four years Castle was the place gamers went. If you wanted to find players for your group, or were new in town and wanted to find a group, then Castle was the place. Its passing left a void that has not been filled since. Many of the gamers I knew lost touch with each other, and our whole community seemed to fragment. Still, at least we had Fantasy. A number of people I knew began to frequent Fantasy again, and Fantasy even went so far as to set up a few gaming tables to encourage gamers to hang out there.
They may even have succeeded in nursing life back into the gaming community, except for an unrelated event. The owner of Fantasy Books and Games also owned a local radio station and several other establishments. Rumor said he needed quick cash, and had to pick something to liquidate. That something ended up being Fantasy. The shop was in its prime, making more money than it ever had. It was the most popular shop in the area, and had practically a monopoly on gaming. There were very few other places that carried anything gaming related, and none of them held a candle to Fantasy.
When Fantasy went under they held a huge three-day sale. Just about every person I knew who had ever gamed, and quite a few I didn't, showed up. Not just to buy (although we all left with armloads of books), but to be there. In some way, we wanted hold on to the last gaming store as long as we could. A huge group of us ended up going out to dinner, and I saw many of them exchange phone numbers. But you could tell as they did it, they knew they would never call. Without a game store as a nexus, hell as an excuse to hang out with other gamers, our little culture was dying.
It's been almost four since Fantasy closed and nothing has really come along to take its place. What are things like where you live? Is your local shop in trouble? Also, what are your theories on why game shops are a dying breed? Is it online shopping, or the advent of computer games taking people away from the hobby? What's your opinion?
- Login to post comments
I know what you mean. Around here we have a hobby store, Lion and Unicorn, but its about a 45 minute drive from here. The only thing closer that sells anything game related is Books a million and I dont like going in there anyway. I wish a nice place like Castle would open up closer. Oh well.
Game stores aren't incredibly profitable, unless they diversify into other things. Roleplaying games generate very little revenue. Sure, some game groups by supplement after supplement, but I know that my group, at least, has one copy of each of the three d20 core rulebooks, some dice, and that's it. We'll be going on those for probably a couple of years. Magic the Gathering and wargaming hobbies help keep sales up, as do comic books. Still, the store in my hometown, which isn't such a small place, (college of 20,000 students less than a mile from the store) is slowly changing from a game shop into a miscellaneous quasi-wiccan paraphenalia shop. They just don't make enough money as is.
I know what you mean. I just moved, and where I used to live there had been 1 or 2 card shops. These weren't like Castle, more places where RPG's were extras. One being Hastings, which was a place where RPG paraphernalia was barely existant, and where Card Games like Magic were almost definitely dead (save starter packs) and another being a tiny, owner-run shop that was barely even that. Couldn't have been more than 200 square foot, but had quite a bit for itself. It never closed down, but the owner just stopped caring about RPG's and started caring about Cards. Eventually, the place became just another baseball card shop. Why do all the good ones gotta go?
You know what? I don’t have that problem here in Houston, TX. We have 4 major stores to go to for RPG stuff, and then at least 15 to 20 more comics, cards, and war gaming stores. I think the problem with the stores not turning a profit is dude to the image of the gaming community as a whole. RPGs, no matter how open people say they are, are still the territory of the nerds, geeks, and dorks. The same people we call friends, and gamers. People still do not want to admit to the general populace that we are gamers. We are not seen as a profitable market. That brings me to my example of the mold breaker.
One place we have here is called Horizon games, a complete RPG shop. They took drastic measures to advertise, to bring to light the fact that gamers to exist. They helped support a large local music venue call Buzz fest, where a ton of Alternative bands come to Houston and play. Plus, they even had radio giveaways on the Buzz. Advertising is the key. Advertising will open up markets, and allow the product to reach more people. New people don't play because they don't know. Kids do not get exposed to the game because parents still look at gamers as freaks. If more places advertise the general view of these gaming stores may lessen. Also, on the same note, if gaming stores held classes that where geared for the beginner (i.e. beginners Miniature painting, or Intro to RPGs) it might help stimulate new markets.
Most often times game stores open up because of the owners love of gaming, comic, or etc. It is almost never looked upon as a profitable business; it is a labor of love. The gaming industry is a weak market, and I point to the fall of TSR, and the rise of Wizards (a card company). The community does not support it market, because even we are ashamed to admit that we are gamers. Case in point, the Dungeons, and Dragons movie, which we all hate to clam. There is no real way to know the gains that the RPG market can produce until we have a serious effort by both the producers, the suppliers, and us, the consumers.
I still think the problem is in the product, and in the stores.
Face it, the required materials for role playing are essentially a collection of books. Books are not a high profit item when they are sold in small quantities, and gamers only need small quantities of their materials. It sucks to say it, but for rpgs, it might be a better fit for the books in question to be sold online or at larger, non gaming exclusive stores. The only thing a gaming store provides for me as a roleplayer that I cannot get at Barnes and Nobles is dice.
That being said, I think its important for roleplaying stores to branch out into wargames, and then to OPEN UP IN HOUSE TABLES FOR PLAY!!!
I don't see why stores don't do this more often. I know it takes space, and is stressful for the staff. But I can tell you that, at least in the gaming stores I'm familiar with, the ones that are thriving are the ones that sell miniatures, have in game stores for war games, and have "new player" days for the more popular war game systems. Little kids spending mommy and daddy's money are they key to keeping the hobby profitable. Older players spend less money because they already have the basics. New players still need to shell out $400 dollars for a new army, and the only way to get new players is to 1) teach them how to play, and 2) make sure your store is somewhere their parents won't mind them hanging out in for hours on a saturday. Put in a pop machine, carpet the place, put up good lighting, keep everything clean, make it a nice, friendly place, sell comic books on a rack for the impulse purchasers. None of this dark, dank gaming store stuff.
I could never get into the LGS scene. The one in Chapel Thrill is actually scary. It stinks of unwashed bodies and I see some freaky goth type in the store every time I have stepped inside.
Maybe it's not the stores, but the stereotypical gamer "geek" that frightens potential customers away.
My personal favorite is a place called Games Galore. They have all the rpg stuff you'd want, but they make the profit by selling puzzles and boardgames.
My FLGS has turned into a veritable junk yard; over the last 5 years the store owner has let his store and merchandising decay to the point that it is simply awful to go there any more. It is sad, because the store used to be really nice, and a real hub of local games.
When I DO go there, the owner complains about how his ancient stock isn't worth anything, and how things are going nowhere fast. He waited a good year before getting any Whizkids stuff, because he didn't want to devalue his lagging Warhammer mini sales.
Luckily, some enterprising folks banded together to co-own a little new store, which doesn't have much stock, but is actually quite pleasant to visit. They send out a weekly e-newsletter and host an in-house game per night. They keep their store clean and well lit, so that parents feel okay about letting their teens game there.
The other store could do it all, if they just had the energy or interest. All they have left is boredom.
Over here in Albany-MIT area we don't have much... the odd game store such as Flights of Fantasy or Dragon's Horde has a few nice handouts (Bout time I got my hex map), but they don't thrive too well and make more money off comics and gaming cards than anything else.
If you want to support your local store, help them clean the place up, install a few tables, make the place look in one side like a shop (I.E. nice and clean, safe) and the other a true gaming hall, filled with all the creepy things you'd expect in a good one. Introduce some friends over to it once in a while, and dare you ask the principal, announce that you'll be leading games there *hint hint this helps get members too* at your local highschool or middle school, even colleges will sometimes let you post on campass.
Tung Lei - If you head kind of toward Belair area (Surrounded by the ring of Houston) and out a ways, forget the direction, there was a blue store called 3rd Planet where I always got my MTG cards, Munchkin cards, D&D Rulesets, and, behold, the master of all old things, RIFTS and TFT were still there. Good place to go if you can find it.
Yep practically the same thing happend to me. Last summer, me and three other friends met up every sunday To play warhammer. It was fun, until the franchise owner got in a fight with the games-workshop merchandise dealer (or this is what we heard). After the half off sale, it became more of a baseball cards shop.
All of the anime was sold off (not that thery're stock was great to begin with) and they stopped the regulated tournaments. Long story short, one of my friends moved away, another went goth-punk and shaved his Eyebrows.
Hey, Dave by any chance do you live in the Metroplex? I remember a coll shop called Games Galore here, only it moved and got pretty bad, so we went to Lone Star Comics instead.
The sheer amount of rent one has to pay on commercial square-footage makes it tough on game store owners that want to give gamers free table space.
It's nice to support the hobby and all, but expecting half the store to be full of gamers when it could be full of inventory.... That's asking a lot sometimes.
How many of you would support the store by paying to game there?
I live by the Fantasy Books and Games in Livermore. It's still going strong,
although the most common patrons are little kids looking for Yu-Gi-Oh cards
and creepy adults also looking for Yu-Gi-Oh cards.
Houston also has several active gaming groups, including the local LSHM chapter, the Houston Gamers, the Rice club (Fastwarp-AKA those guys who run Owlcon), and enough people who are getting free product to try and demo new games.
Volunteering to run demos, even in a small space, is often enough to keep the wheels turning. Gaming stores need to sell a lotta product, true--that's a lot easier if Mommy and Daddy are buying Yu-gi-Oh stuff at the register while I'm demo'ing cool Cheapass stuff at a nice table up front.
One thing about Houston is the simple fact that it's one of the top 5 largest cities in the U.S. A city with THAT many people is bound to support a handful of gaming stores. Even with such a large population, I can think of several shops that went out of business (Gamemasters north, Genesis Comics and Games, and an unknown comic/game shop off of Veteran's Memorial just to name a few).
One thing that Horizon North has going for it is that it's right off the interstate 45. It pretty much dominates the north Houston commerce zone.
Heh. I'm not sure what I contributed to the discussion. I guess I wanted to point out that Horizon's success lies in having no competition and being located in a great place with a large population.
I live in the Metroplex. Games Galore is right across from my school and can be described in one word: Ghetto. Lone Star is pretty good, but a little too impersonal for my tastes. The people that work there don't seem very friendly and knowledgable, and I kind of feel uncomfortable there. Earlier today I went to a store in Ft. Worth called Y2 Komics, and wished we had something like that closer to where I live. It's clean, well stocked and very friendly.
Starhawk said
"It's nice to support the hobby and all, but expecting half the store to be full of gamers when it could be full of inventory.... That's asking a lot sometimes.
How many of you would support the store by paying to game there?"
That is a good point, and it is the reason why, I feel, a store should not feel obligated to provide space for roleplaying games. After all, they don't seem to me to be high profit items, and a large social scene isn't necessary once you've actually got your gaming group put together and you don't need any new players.
However, wargames might be a different story. I'd pay dues to join into an organized league of wargamers, if it provided me with the location at which I could play the game, meet new opponents, and chat with others in the same hobby. In addition, I would buy my miniatures at that store, since I was there anyways, after all.
There are three local hobby stores. Riders focuses mostly on traditional stuff like plastic models, astronomy, etc. with a small selection of RPGs. Fanfare is a full service (comics, cards, RPG and minis) store with a sideline in original fantasy art. Game Shop is also full service, but much smaller.
I used to browse Fanfare but buy at Game Shop mainly because I wanted to support the little guy and ensure that there continued to be competition. The past year or two however I have seen Game Shop's service go right down the toilet. The owner started forcing his staff to use high-pressure sales tactics. So now whenever you go into the store they follow you around and tell you how great any item your eye falls on for more than a half-second is. If you dare to pick something up to look at it the clerks will start shoving armfulls of similar (but more expensive) product at you. A friend of mine started a comics pull list and was charged the "back issue" price for comics less than a month old because the clerks forgot to pull them.
Things finally came to a head for me one day last winter. I was browsing around and when the clerk asked "May I help you?" (the usual prelude to a string of inane salesbabble) I responded "No thanks, I'm just looking" with a bit of an edge in my voice (hoping against hope that he would pick up on my "don't talk to me" vibe). This worked, but apparantly caused the owner (who was standing by) some discontent because he turned and stalked toward the back of the store muttering something sarcastic about how he'd like to go to his customers' homes so that he could tell them he was "just looking" when they asked why he was there.
You know how they say it takes a second to lose a customer? They're right. I realize that retailers are under pressure from online stores, but being a dick to your customers is not the answer. The manager probably suspected me of browsing at his store then buying on the internet, but the truth is I've never purchased an RPG book on the internet in my life. I have been a loyal customer of this shop since long before that asshat bought it. Maybe I'm not in there every month buying hundreds of dollars of merchandise like the people he probably considers "good customers", but over ten years even sporadic purchases add up. In a college town full of kids losing their jobs and becoming too destitute to buy games or moving away because they changed schools I'm a local with a steady job who isn't going anywhere.
So if any FLGS representatives are reading this: Make sure your store is continually earning the "F" in FLGS. Part of this is realizing that when a 20-something gamer comes in there's a good chance he knows EXACTLY what he's looking for and neither needs nor wants your clerks hounding him. Save that shit for the Poke-moms with the screaming pre-teens and the grandparents with the glazed expressions.
Well, I guess we're pretty lucky here in OKC. We've got two pretty good game stores. New World over in Del City is oky, with a decent stock of games and comics, but they're a bit cold. Now Game HQ in OKC is a great fully stocked game store. The folks are friendly, it's the nexus for RPGA play and they rent the stores on either side just for playing. Cool place.
We used to have a place called Grand Slam where they held all types of tournaments and role-playing sessions. the place was kinda dirty, there were boxes of old porn that said "If you're under 18 don't look in here," it smelled of weed and every once in a while there would be dirty clothes by this suspicious door in the back. Random women would exit the door. About 15 minutes later, so would the shop owner. And, yeah, this happened during Pokemon tournaments. I remember the one guy that ran everything was dubbed Chuck and was kinda nice... sorta not really nice, but he got worse as time went on. And then he got busted for kiddy porn. The shop inevitabley closed. Their stock was fine, they had it all, even the seperate gaming room, but it was just too nasty and dark. People just need to care about making their shop good.
(Ooh, forgot to mention, there was comic book porn on the walls in the guys bathroom.)
Yeah, GG is pretty ghetto now. You shoulda seen it in it's heyday though. It was really the prime spot for pokemon players all over the metroplex. If I'm not mistaken several regulars there went to the nationals (including my friend who won reigonals here). I also think lots of new decks debuted there (a lot of haymaker variations saw their birth here).
Now that everyone is talking about where you can all sorts of stores and whatnot for gaming groups... does anyone think that ANYTHING exists in ShmAlbany?
Mugajak: A couple of years ago there were about 5 game stores in the Albany (NY, I assume!) area. By last year, I think there were only one or two left. If I could remember the names or addresses, I'd post 'em for you, but I can't :(. At a little over an hour away, those stores are the closest game stores for me (in southwestern Vermont) and consequently I shop almost exclusively online.
Over the past couple of years we've had two stores spring up and go quickly out of business. One was due to owner cash-flow problems; he simply couldn't keep the store going and make a living, too. Someone up above said something about a game store being a labor of love, not a profit-maker -- and that's all warm and fuzzy, but people have to live on something, and warm fuzzies don't buy groceries.
The other up and moved to Albany, as I hear it, for a shot at a bigger market. They had anime, RPG stuff, new-age paraphernalia, wargames and card games, all in a college town, and couldn't keep it going. We were just too small a community, despite the fact that I've found more gamers here than anywhere else I've lived.
If I had a lot of money that I didn't know what to do with, I'd figure out how to keep a game store open. Until then...
Oh, yeah, and by the way? We don't claim the D&D movie because it is an incredibly poor representation of the game that we have grown up loving. It reminds us of the way we played as 10-year-olds, and we're ashamed to admit we ever played like that. So is it any surprise that whenever someone says "D&D Movie", all good gamers cringe?
Pretending that the D&D movie was good is not the way to gain acceptance for our hobby. A better use of our time would be to try to convince the producers and script writers to do better for the sequel.
People in the business will tell you that (like any other business) game stores need to be run like businesses first and foremost. Run them like labors of love and you'll be amazed at how fast you go out of business. It seems there are a lot of gamers who open stores and stock the products they like instead of the ones that sell.
Calle Telcumcare said:
Pretending that the D&D movie was good is not the way to gain acceptance for our hobby. A better use of our time would be to try to convince the producers and script writers to do better for the sequel.
Convincing them to do better might help and even, supposing we are lucky and overwhelmingly lucky, successful. Although I must admit I shake and shiver at the thought of a sequel. Please inform me they have NOT gone to such desparate measures as a means of discrediting gaming. Skadi forbid.
If any of you stop by Salt Lake City, Utah make a trip to Hastur's Hobbies (and no, I'm not affiliated with them in any way). Amazingly enough it's a great game store that's been around a while, and it remains profitable by doing the following:
- great big inventory of figs, paints, rpgs, ccgs, boardgames, comics, dice, dicebags and junk, collectible swords and weaponry (which I think are lame but some people like them), you name it.
- lots and lots and lots of tables, and you can schedule times for your group. Gaming there is free.
- they sell drinks and snacks. You can't bring your own stuff in of course, and it's amazing how much junk food my group puts away in a couple hours. Diabetes here we come. Wish I could get them to brew coffee.
- Online and LAN gaming. They have an island of about 12 pcs set up where you can deathmatch or play co-op. They charge a nominal fee per hour and it's a good way to get in the electronic gaming crowd to come in... and notice all the other people having fun playing RPGs and tabletops.
-opens early and stays open late, seven days a week.
- they advertise on the radio all the time.
Salt Lake has an interesting counter-culture that promotes a thriving gaming community. It only has a few game stores, but the gamers I've met have been great people.
Altered States Game & Hobby in Syracuse, NY is where I game. we used to have Twilight Book and Game. That has long since closed. Altered States is doing well with its main store, and two branch stores in area malls.
Wow, that's bizarre Fluffy. I used to live in Syracuse back when I was in high school and I remember Twilight. When I went back last winter I couldn't find the place. Its sad to hear that they went under. They were an awesome shop...
One more horror story boys! We used to have a few shops that had a fairly good selection of Role Playing Periphinalia but as a result of Fate's cruel irony, two large stores opened about the same time that focused on a wide range of gaming products. To make a long story short. They closed their doors about a week apart and the other stores that used to carry stuff had changed their product mix to comics and cards to survive. Now, we have a city of a quarter million and not ONE place (besides Chapters that is) where you can even get the core rule books for AD&D. *sigh* I HATE that when that happens!
Up in Sudbury, Ontario (that's in Canada for you Americans), we've got one game shop that seems to be fluctuating in how it's staying open. Warhammer is what keeps it alive but Warhammer's not doing well as a game - as a business it's ok FOR NOW, but it's gonna get hit hard in the next year or so and I figure that'll be bye-bye Adventures in Gaming. Luckily I'm off to Ottawa, and I'm going to be within walking distance of Entertainmant Ink - supposedly it rivals the Silver Snail. BTW, the Silver Snail is in Toronto, and is the greatest game shop in the country - some say in the world. Drop by if you're in the area...I've never been there myself but even my aunt says it's great, lol!
On July 18, 2003 10:00 PM, Aron Figaro said:
"Warhammer is what keeps it alive but Warhammer's not doing well as a game - as a business it's ok FOR NOW, but it's gonna get hit hard in the next year or so"
We live in hope. $50 for one model is pushing it just a little
See article at http://www.svcn.com/archives/lgwt/20031217/lg-at1.shtml or
go to www.wildwords.us
Such a tragic article *sob*
My heart goes out to you, Arkelias...
I am fortunate enough to say that I am privey to an overabundance of gaming-shops in Big-D (Dallas). It seems that every shop I visit has hidden campaign rooms somewhere in the building (I can hear them through the walls).
I know of one shop that has fully-furnished "gamer's hide-away" that is a perfect copy of the conference room on "The Death Star." They apparently rent that room out and make a KILLING.
Funny thing, I don't believe I've heard from anyone in NY or NJ. I live in northern New Jersey and we are fortunate to have many great stores, all with open gaming space. Gamemaster in Little Falls, Dark Tower in Denville, Time Warp in Cedar Grove and of course Neutral Ground in the big NYC.
All are busy and offer a good collection of gaming gear and magazines, some have movies and books. Their owners all work hard and do a great job.
The biggest problem is that most gamers are pigs! Way too often we can see garbage left all over the place. Open and disarded wrappers and old food. Some stores have gone as far to outlaw food in the store because people don't clean up.
To all players please be considerate and clean up in your stores. And just because you weren't the one to drop the papers, wrappers or boxes doesn't mean you can't clean up as well. Don't think of it as cleaning someone else's garbage, think of it as helping out your store owner.
Happy New Year to all.
Lone Star Comics just announced they are no longer allowing free-play in their stores and are canceling all their regular weekly events. Seems they think having people actually playing games in their stores is distracting people from spending their money.
In house tables for play can open up a whole can of liability concerns, so not many stores do it. The lone WotC store that was in my area did, but it closed after two years.
Another problem with in-store gaming is that the store becomes a meeting place and social location, but not much product gets sold... at least not enough to maintain the store as such.
lets say theres a shop with a nice clean, well lighted store with tables with enough room to put my 3-ring binder and a couple decks, and a regular presence of other magic players (not warhammer or any of the dozens of magic wannabe games), I could definitely see myself paying a few bucks (2-3 dollars per hour or something) for the use of some public tabblespace. For a good shop with real magic players (not just newbie 12 year olds) that would be a reasonable deal. I understand they have costs, and I don't mind paying my fair share - I just dont think I should have to buy a whole bunch of new cards every time WOTC come out with a new expansion.
Again, there is that sneaky liability concern. What happens if someone falls out of a chair and gets hurt? Would the store then be sued? Even if waivers are signed, there are enough lawyers to go around to find out how to circumvent those.
I'm just saying that I understand why the stores don't set up gaming tables.
Locally, Grand Rapids, there is one Hobby store, Ryders, and one Comic store, Apparitions, and one Book store Argos. Each having an ok to fair selection of RPG goods depending on when you drop in. They all seem to have weathered well the onslaught of WOTC stores that assaulted local hobby shops for a while before WOTC folded that branch of endevor. (But not before some damage was done to some areas. But thats something for a diffrent discussion I likely missed out on here. heh...)
A lot better than when I was in Minnesota, RPG shops were much harder to track down or get at easily.
Aside from once getting ripped off badly by the book store. Its been a pleasure to visit each when chance allows.
As for in store gaming. The WOTC shops at least seemed to encourage it. Makes me wonder now how they covered potential liability or if they did enough checking to know they were ok unless something catastrophic happened.
Looking at the gaming shops then and now. At least locally they seem to be still kicking, some better than others. But still around just the same.
Omega
I remember Twilight Book and Game in Syracuse New York! I moved to Syracuse in 1987. There were 5 stores that I knew of that sold comic books. That's what I was into before gaming. There was this guy who looked like John Lennon who had a comic shop called Dream Days near the Syracuse Armory on Clinton Street that I shopped at a lot too! But Twilight had EVERYTHING for the nerd collector to go along with their comics; D&D, Sports Cards, collectable gaming such as Magic and Pokemon. I wish I knew why they went under. I still have my lifetime membership card.
I worked at a fairly profitable game store, but it had the distinction of being located in a very good and central location in a major city. It didn't survive on games though. It made most of it's money on collectible die-cast models, high-end chess boards, poker and pool tables.
Role-playing games did very poor business, in part because the wholesale price was too high for the printed retail price, especially once you factor in shipping charges (books are heavy). Also, there's an enormous amount of garbage being published. Even Wizards, who should set the bar for quality, put out too much unnecessary crap. I found most of the gamers who came into the store were looking for mint-quality first edition books, but we didn't carry resale.
Valet Du Coeur is Montreal is still going strong after lord knows how long. It's my very favourite gaming store, and possibly the best store in all of montreal.
This is my FLGS. Not one of those pictures does it justice though. You kinda have to walk in on a busy day while all the tables upstairs are being used to see that gaming is still alive and strong in Calgary.