TechgnosisWeb ReBoot

… or “Why I can’t keep my local gaming store alive, even though I’d like to”.

So, I bought myself the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition boxed set today. The one that includes all three basic books: the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual. I grew up with D&D, as I often tell people, I actually learned to read with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Ed. books (thanks, Dad!). I’ve bought every edition since then: 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, and now, 4.0. One thing is different, though, about today’s purchase. Up until the last one, I had always bought my gaming books at, well, a gaming store. Well, not just a gaming store: a comic book/gaming/card/collectibles store, but you get the idea. Almost by necessity, these types of stores are always small ‘mom and pop’ types of stores, run by geeks, for geeks. This is the place where you go and the dork behind the counter knows your name and has a bag with your weekly stash of comics already ready to go, the store where the employees know what your game is and tell you that the newest expansion just came out. The place where you can still get into an argument about who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman (pro-tip: Batman would mop the floor with Supes) with the guy behind the counter, and still leave happy.

It’s also a place that is doomed, and while it is within my power (and that of countless other geeks) to save it, we won’t. Why? Because as nice as the idea of the place is, the fact of the matter is that the ‘mom and pop tax’ has become unbearable. Case in point: the D&D 4th Ed. set I bought today. The local gaming store had it for approx. $105 (plus tax). Amazon had it for $66, with free shipping. Do the math, that’s nearly $40 in difference.. that’s a couple of expansions right there.

Blame the Internet, I suppose. Once upon a time, buying from the local store was the only way to get your books, unless you were willing to order from the back of trade magazines, which turned out to be as expensive, or more, than just buying them from the stores. But with the advent of the Internet, all of a sudden anyone can buy anything, at the same price as the local store buys it. And you don’t have to pay the store’s markup. Why bother going to the store to see if they have the book you’re looking for, and facing the crowds, finding a parking spot, and dealing with other nerds, when you can just click a few times, and its on the way to your house (and did I mention the free shipping?).

And yet, there’s that stab of guilt. Small though it may be, it’s there. I, for one, am always a little ashamed when I walk into the local comic book shop and rarely, if ever, walk out having bought anything. After all, these are your people, your geeks, the ones who, like you, always dreamed of having a comic book/gaming store, except, that they actually went out and did it. And you want to support them, much like you’d want them to support you if the roles were reversed, right? But the simple fact of the matter is that you have to be a moron to buy from the store instead of buying online. It’s one thing when the ‘mom and pop tax’ is only a couple bucks, but when the difference is dozens of dollars, either immediately such as in my case, or over time, as with a comic book subscription.

So, what can these stores do to grow and get back my business? Not sure.. Provide free-use computers for me to order books or comics, with a knowledgeable employee nearby to help with recommendations? Or perhaps rent out gaming tables for RPG or CCG players, along with snack/drink sales? Who knows.. but I get the feeling that it’s going to require a very major shift in the way they do business before I start bringing my own business back to them.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 26th, 2008 at 3:15 am and is filed under BedBlog, Dork!, Everyday Entry, RPG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.