GamingRetailer.com Podcast episode 2.

Today’s show is an interview with Gary Ray from Black Diamond Games in California. Gary talks about using facebook as a means to connect with your customers. Also included with this episode is a bonus video (only available on the site) in which we walk you through the process of setting up a Facebook page for your local store.

You must be logged in to access the podcast and the video. Click read more to get there.

I have created a forum topic for discussion on using Facebook or other social media to market your store.

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Gamingretailer.com wants to build a game industry wiki as place to hold information useful to retailers. While new pages will need to be created by the admin, exisiting wiki pages will be editable by any member of the site of who is logged in.  We have seeded the wiki with the names of some publishers and distributers.  Ideas or requests for new pages to be added should be emailed directly to gamingretailer@aol.com

Welcome to the Gaming Retailer dot com website version 2010. Our first podcast episode is now up. Several more are in process. Feedback, comments and concerns should sent to Gamingretailer@aol.com.

While this is not a new concept, it will continue to dominate the minds of small business retailers until one of two things happens. Either A) some form of change reduces the competiton on price alone or B)the small business is out of business thus making it a non issue.

The fundamental concept of a free market is to let the market set the fair price. However, that concept is dated as it was written prior to advent of the internet.  The internet has created a venue for near perfect competition. That is competition based on price alone.

As an example of what we are up against, ill give some actual product info but change the name to a widget. This widget has a suggested retail price of $39.99. My wholesale cost is somewhere in the range of  $21.00. This product is typically available online for  $23.99 or 40% off retail.  At MSRP my gross margin is about $19.00. To make that same gross margin matching the online price i have sell 6.3 units. (Assumes a cash sale,  a credit card sale makes the math worse.) 

For the last 10 years, my personal philosophy has been to hold out for MSRP. The argument goes something like this: If i match the online price and only sell five units, of which one was to a customer who was willing to pay MSRP, i just worked harder for less money. Add to that the fact that the products sold in my store require some expertise to sell and now we have a situation where the local retailer is educating the consumer who then takes that knowledge and buys the product online.

Basically, I’m not getting paid for the work I do selling the product.

There are many industries who are susceptable to this, pet stores, camera stores, book stores and hobby shops to name a few. Something needs to be done to protect the value of the  knowledgeable local retailer.  I’m not sure what the something could be, and i hear the masses screaming “free market”. But what would Amazon do if store like mine no longer were around to educate consumers? Would they hire staff to do that work? More than likely they would just just stop selling that particular widget and move on to something else.

Full disclosure- I do operate an online store within the same industry as my retail store and products are sold below MSRP- i would give it up in a second if all the other online stores went away,  but mostly would love to see an online sales venue where products could be sold but not at such deep discounts.

As I drive by a local quick oil change business, I notice two people standing on the roadside holding up signs that read “no wait, $5.00 off”.  At first I think to myself what a great idea.  If they have no customers, they stand out road encouraging customers by offering “no wait” and a $5.00 discount. Over the next few weeks, I begin to notice these guys more and more. I wonder if they have always been thereor I just didn’t notice before. In the end, I realize that the oil change business has changed ownership recently and the road waving must be a new strategy brought in by the new management.

Let me say, I know next to nothing about the quick oil change business.

I do find this concept interesting as on the surface, it appears to accomplish the immediate goal of filling an empty bay. After seeing these guys out on the road for several weeks, I quickly realize that if I should ever decide to get my oil changed, I should wait until I see them out on the road. For in my mind the sign actually says,  “no wait $5.00 off unless we have a car in the bay already at which point you should wait until no one is here again”.

This seems to me to be a classic example of short term gain, at the expense of long term gain.  Put another way, being on sale is only special until it becomes regular price.

I have not asked this oil change place anything in regard to this. I admit that I am unaware of the nuances of the business model. Perhaps their regular price already has $5.00 worth of coupon room built into already. The $5.00 off could be “not valid with other offers”.  If it occurs that a high percentage of oil change customers use coupons then perhaps this offer is not so bad to the long term business after all.

Discuss in the forums.

I am in my early fourties, married and have been self employed since I was 20. I have owned business in food service and current own a specialty retail shop. I am not wealthy, in fact you could say i live paycheck to paycheck.  At times i struggle to pay the bills. So why do it? Why not give it up and get a job? The reason is simple; Im really that happy! I love my work.

I am fortunate to have 3 great employees. They have been working for me for 12, 9 and 4 years. It is because of these guys that i can live the lifestyle i choose.  Maybe I got lucky. Maybe I just have an eye for good people. I honestly don’t know.

My current retail store I would consider a specialty retail store. We service a very niche market we refer to as tabletop gaming. We sell miniature war games,  collectable card games, role playing games and board games.  We have table and chairs set up in an area where we organize tournaments and play of the products we sell(known in our industry as in-store gaming).  While some of things we do, might not cross over into other types of retail stores, im guessing a lot of things will.

We constantly struggle with credit card processing. Hidden fees, undisclosed rate changes and generally bad service. We are under constant attack from big online discounters like Amazon.com, not that all online sales are bad. We have an online store for the products we sell. But we also have to make money and places like amazon.com  can hurt us with predatory pricing, if they choose.

We are always on the lookout for new things we can try. Diversification seems to apply to almost every business. While I probably wont be selling bread, milk and eggs anytime soon I’m always on the hunt for something we can add that will help us grow.

So this website is built, the core is finished. Now we need content. I thought about hiring some writers to generate a bunch of articles on various (quite generic) topics. But as i began jotting down some ideas for these topics i quickly realized they began to fall into two categories.

A) topics I , as a business owner, already knew

B) topics I, as a business owner, didn’t really need to know.

When I say topics I dont need to know about, a more complete statement would be “topics I dont really need to know to improve the day to day situation at my business”. While every business owner should, and probably does know the difference between an S-corp and an LLC, to sit down and actually read a blog about that topic is likely to force me to switch over to ESPN.com and follow up on the World Series.  It’s boring! Plus topics like that always have some sort of disclaimer text about checking with a local lawer or accountant.  If you’re starting a business, by all means study the difference between S-corp and LLC. But as an existing business, i want something more.

I want to read a blog post that gives me an idea, that I can use today to improve something in my business. No matter how small or insignificant it might seem. I realize life changing revelations are few and far between, but just slightest improvement, even if its just to put my mind on a concept for a few hours, only to be shelved as something that might be useful at some point in the future.

Many small business owners feel alone when it comes to their business. I know i did for a long time. I was able to find a horde of people who were willing to consult my business. Most of the suggestions, were so far out of the realm of what I was doing, they might as well tell me to go to the moon. In the end I realized I didn’t really need to change anything, I was only looking for other people to talk to, who could relate to my situation.