What If Your Friendly Local Game Store Isn't 'Friendly?'

If your FLGS (friendly local game store) isn't actually "friendly" or welcoming, what can be done? Uncle Atom is here to help.

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[ApocryphalPress]

The only gaming store in my home town was unfriendly to anyone who wasn’t a Magic player. Now there is no local gaming store in my home town.

[incandescentdream]

The bigger store in my town has some very abrasive employees. There is a second, much smaller store with very talkative, friendly employees. The smaller store tends to not carry as much product, but will offer to order you anything they don't have. I'll go back to them every time even if it takes them a little longer to get product.

[Wroehammer]

Really makes you realise how lucky you are to have a friendly local game shop.

[deanm]

years ago I befriended my FLGS owner who was a former history teacher. I realized quickly he was only running his store to support his hobby because he was constantly opening brand new mini's during his weekly in store D&D game each time the GM needed a specific creature or npc. His store was completely disorganized. It was only because of the loyalty of his customers that he was able to stay in business as there were several other stores nearby. He was an example of a store who had a lot of "Friendly". Sadly he passed away from bladder cancer. Miss that guy.

[ryanswartout]

I wanted to share my story about my local game store.


A bit before 8th edition of 40k came out my GF's teenager showed interest in learning the game. So, we picked up some models for him and I dusted off mine. When we went to the store all of the patrons and most of the staff were a bit cliquish and stand off ish. So, basically being gamers. Every Friday we went to the store picked out a table played a game and went home. After about a month and a half of just going in and playing each other, the teenager could not come with me. So, I went by myself. One of the regulars noticed my regular play partner was not with me and came up to me. He asked where the teenager was I said he could not make it . . . then the guy who had never said much to me before asked if I wanted a game.


Now after playing at that store for 2 years I have noticed that many of the regulars there do not like to approach new players, because they themselves are not very social. But if you show yourself to be a regular just by showing up for a month or two, then you might find your self naturally part of the in group. I suggest if the crowd is not very welcoming to just show up every week on the same night at the same time and hang out for a few hours. Bring your army, some paints, maybe some models to put together. And once the people at the store see you as a regular and not a one time visitor you may feel more welcome.


Just my two cents.
Gamers are traditionally not the most socially skilled people out there. So, give them time.

[Xion_Toshiro]

Short answer:
Inform the Inquisiton.
There is Heresy afoot.

[mariomariolemieux]

My FLGS owner was a fantastic crack dealer in another life. He knows exactly what to say, mention or offer to get me to drop $100 more than I was planning to on any given day. He's also largely responsible for my Shelf of Shame.

[alexhope]

Like a month ago I was at a library in the city and I saw one of your videos being played on a big screen in the arts section

[Jayk]

As an owner of a FLGS I can say that everything Adam says in this video is spot on correct. I would CERTAINLY want to know if one of my employees wasn't welcoming to anyone. I want everyone in our store to feel welcome and comfortable in our place because as a customer I've always HATED that "record store snob" mentality you get in some game/comic shops because what you're into isn't what that stores staff personally like. I would also add that IF you game at an unfriendly store because it's the largest community for your game in town, don't be afraid to move stores. Sure your play group may be smaller but if the new location is welcoming then in time new folks will join your group at the new store because of a more positive atmosphere.

[NotTheWheel]

That whole "Store Run by Bears" Gave me a terrific idea for a shop in a Role Playing Game. That be so funny.

[Endrak_]

My first FLGS was not local or friendly. I went there once when I was in high school after convincing my mom to take a detour while we were on a trip. I had never been in a dedicated game store before, so I was gawking, and the guy at the counter decided that this, and the fact that my mom was with me, meant I was unworthy to shop in his store.

I went up, asked if they had a particular Magic card in their singles catalogue, and the guy informed me they did not sell singles while standing in front of their display case of singles. I asked him if he was sure, and he got angry. I bought a booster pack and left.

The rare in the pack was the card I was looking for, and the store went out of business a few years later.

[karlff]

I remember walking into a FLGS in a city I just moved to. They invited me to a 40k tournament the following Sunday. I'm no expert but through sheer determination and focus I managed to win with my Chaos Daemons. They weren't happy that I, an outsider of their clique, had won their grand tournament. They spent months passing me between owners, managers and retail assistants trying their damned hardest not to present me with the trophy and prize money.

Safe to say I never returned there again and have found other friendly places to wargame.

[Xonthos]

I'm very fortunate in that Brian, the amazing owner of one of the only gaming stores in my little southern state, is incredibly polite and more than willing to accommodate players from either Warhammer, to Star Wars, to Magic. He understands that the prices are better online, he knows that better deals are out there. So his service and the welcoming air he has about him is always a nice thing.


You rock Brian. Thank you for being cool.

[neonube]

As a FLGS owner I appreciate comments about myself and employees so that we can improve.

[wyattarthur]

When the owner is the manager well you're screwed lol

[joebaker]

We had a problem like this for almost 20 years in my area. We had one game store for years that had poor customer service, messed up orders, and wasnt very helpful. The problem was it was the only gaming store within a 2 to 3 hour drive. He never had to get better because there was no competition.

Eventually a group of folks from the store who had the money decided they were going to open their own store. It took it about 6 months to decend into chaos. None of then wanted to actually work at the store or pay someone to do it

Finally a retired guy decided to open his own store a little over a year ago, and its awesome. Hes extremely helpful and on the ball with preorders. Lets hope it lasts.

[saytobelwyyn]

My brother and I used to go to this shop called "Monstore". They were incredibly unfriendly and would ignore customers. They went out of business. We ended up driving 30 minutes to another shop called "The Realm". Super friendly and quite the opposite experience. Mentioned our bad experience at the other shop and they said "Oh that's where we bought our shelves from!"

[Archangell]

So, I don't usually comment on videos, prefer to lurk, but I'm going to chime in this time. It might be a bit winded but stay with me. TL:DR You do you, have fun, start your own club.

I understand this problem on a couple of different fronts. First, for quite a long time in my tabletop gaming career (roughly 10-15 years) the "FLGS" wasn't super friendly. Now, When I started I was excited and wanted to play and didn't really understand the rules as well as i probably could've (3rd ed. 40k) and whenever I went to the game store and wanted to see what was happening on game nights, or view other people playing. I usually got the vibe of "You're irritating, you don't know anything, get out of here you're annoying." This happened basically every time I went into the store.

Second, "local" I live in a particularly remote location where local means approximately a 4 hour drive (398 km, 247 miles) in one of two directions from my town. Now this wasn't an issue as my post secondary education was near the store, so I had an opportunity to frequent it, but see the above reason why I don't go there.

Both of these issues would compound into a particularly shitty situation of horrible human beings roughly 5-6 years ago when I was trying to get my wife interested in my hobby, and in TTG in general. We went to the store where I had been ushered out because I was annoying and new to the hobby and my wife expressed the same things to me that I had felt about the store. Now, I'm screwed, with the wife being my constant possible opponent/teammate there was no FLGS to go to that was welcoming enough. However she had expressed interest in MTG and so we got started on that and would grow into Shadespire just a couple years ago (more on that later). We did this via the internet, bought some decks for MTG, and just had fun. Which is the keyword here, fun.

Now, fast forward 3 or 4 years and upon returning to one of the two FLGS, ONE of the stores had been taken over by a business savvy individual and turned it into a proper FLGS. They were welcoming, fun, helpful, encouraging and etc. This is the game store that helped get my wife into Shadespire that we now play frequently. This Store, gets my business every time I go through. Additionally. (because if you hadn't gathered I have 2 "FLGS" in different cities approx 4 hours away.) The store that was helpful, grew, and got big enough to expand, and did expand to the not-so-friendly-game-store city.

Whats it all mean basil? Well, ultimately, sooner or later business will change, someone may get ballsy and make another store, that person might be you. OR another game store from a city over may get big in a hurry and see an opportunity in the market same as my example. However, I still don't really have a local shop so, an option may be make your own club with like minded people. My friends and I used to run a weekly painting session at the local library where we could share our hobby. Most municipalities usually have a space where this sort of thing can go down. Look around locally for a small space where you can host a small group of people, share your hobby, perhaps get a starter set with two armies/factions/crews/teams paint them up an run a workshop. Gateway games are great for this.

Bottom Line: Have fun. If you're local game store isn't fun, don't go there. Doesn't mean you have to give up on it. You don't have to be elitist. just have fun. Maybe you want to be elitist, maybe you see that as fun, I don't know. You do you. There is a way, it's just a bit more work. Just don't become the FLGS clique, but your clique, not theirs. Be the group you want to play with coming from the outside.

You do you, have fun, start your own club.


Thanks if you read the whole thing.


JT

[Lordofthedinnerrings]

This is honestly the best advice I've ever gotten, the area I now live in has only one game store for an hour and a half radius or so...for the longest time there were only two owners and one of the two of them worked every single day. For the longest time I thought they were very rude and didn't want to help....then I watched this and the next time I went in I asked them about the paints I was looking at and they both started talking to me and didn't stop giving me advice and resources for almost an hour, now whenever I come in they show me new things theyve ordered or showing me stuff online

[rayisawesoem]

A new store opened near me and I was thrilled went in there and grabbed a few pots of paint and an easy to build kit. The lady running the store at the time asked me seven times if I was ready to cash out and asked me to set the pots of paint I had in my hand on the counter. I set everything down and left, I’m not a thief and that’s what she was implying. I spend 100-200$ on this hobby sometimes every single month.... they lost my business and will just keep driving an hour to my regular store in the future.