Get In The Game is a weekly column by Dan Yarrington, managing partner of Myriad Games in Manchester & Salem, New Hampshire, Treasurer of the Professional Game Store Association, and Editor-in-Chief of GameSalute.com.  This week, Yarrington discusses how to make your store a true showroom.

Welcome back to Get In The Game, a column that explores proactive ways we can improve the games industry.  This week, we discuss how to make your store a true showroom.

On The Road Again
During my recent road trip from New Hampshire to Wisconsin (to attend the ACD Games Day), I had the fortune of visiting several stores and talking with dozens of publishers and store owners.  I also had a lot of time on the road. I mean a lot.  One of the things I do during these long trips is think about a wide variety of topics.  And the more I traveled, observed, and thoughtfully considered, the more I realized that something is lacking in my current layout plans at our stores.

What's In A Stockroom?
Product.  A lot of product.  Organized in a way that makes it easy to retrieve.  Order and display are afterthoughts in a stockroom.  Accessibility is key and fitting as much as possible into as small a space as possible.

What's In A Showroom?
Product.  But not a lot of product.  There are examples of the product in use, displays featuring the product in an ideal setting, and lots of space around the product to navigate and explore the items in question.

How Does Product Live In Your Store?
Most stores are setup in some combination of stockroom and showroom.  We need to fit a lot of product in a small space, so most tend more toward the stockroom than a showroom.  We may have small displays throughout the store, but those are not the focus of the store--they're usually afterthoughts--fit in where we can find space for them--next to the shelves stacked high with product.  And most of that is spine out or three-quarters turned.  Face-out product is not the norm in most stores.  We need to move to more of a showroom than a stockroom.  Make interacting with the product an integral part of the experience of being in your store.

What's Your Popcorn and Cocoa?
Recently, while visiting our local Honda dealership, I found that they had a large carnival-style popcorn machine which was going all day with complimentary popcorn.  They also had complimentary coffee and hot cocoa.  These were simple, fun, inexpensive touches added by the dealership and were greatly appreciated as we were awaiting service.  Whenever a car sold, the lucky buyer was trotted over to a bell hanging on the wall and rang it loudly, whereupon everyone on the floor in the dealership would clap and beam with positive reinforcement for the person who'd just make their purchase.  Where's the popcorn and cocoa in your store?  Where are the games on display for people to fondle and gawk at?  How often do they change? I s your event space a bunch of empty tables or is it an awesome place to show off games and celebrate the fun of checking out games in person?

More Show, Less Room
We don't need more room, more space, more shelves, or more product.  We need more show.  It doesn't take a ton of space and it doesn't have to redefine your entire store.  But we do need to refine the experience of being in a game store to feel more like a show and less like just a room with big piles of games in it.

Talk Back!
What have been the most successful ways you’ve had of making your store (or parts of your store) a showroom?  Talk Back today!

What are you waiting for?  Get In The Game!

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.