Are our Friendly Local Game Stores coming to an end? Many already have over the last few decades, from takeovers by Games Workshop to the advent of internet shopping. But it is possible that for many small, often family-run stores a new existential threat could be the final straw.
My FLGS would be Orc Nest or Dark Sphere. The Waterloo branch of the latter seems to be permanently closed, and their other branch has eccentric opening hours now - mostly evenings. ON seems to be managing though. I suspect that the electricity costs will be more damaging than rent for shops outside areas of high footfall, simply because landlords risk pricing themselves out of ANY tenants so need to respond to their local market (and any tenant is better than no tenant). Electricity costs do not work that way - the electricity companies will not notice an empty shop like a landlord will.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. Your description of erratic hours strikes a chord. My local shop closed probably over 20 years ago but erratic hours and rapidly changing formats was the first indication all was not well.
DeleteGW are parasitic, with an awful product.
ReplyDeleteI don't play any of their games, and aside from a few pots of contrast paint (which I bought out of curiosity) I haven't bought any of their products in at least 20 years.
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ReplyDeleteIndeed. The option to buy from a physical store may become even rarer.
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