[Marcus King]
Hey. Marcus King here, game store owner of 29 years. I've owned game stores from Anchorage, Alaska, to Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan, as well as owning or managing stores in Corbin, London and Richmond, Kentucky. I've been a speaker at several GAMA Trade Shows and various conventions and distributor open houses. I've vended at over 500 conventions, and have run various online forums for retailers.
I'm going to be writing a regular column for ICv2, as I am retiring from speaking at shows and such. I will need your input to determine other timely topics of interest. So, hit me up on Facebook or by email.
This week I wanted to give some relationship advice.
Yeah, I know. Ick. But I am not talking about your relationship with your boyfriend or Mom, I am talking about the relationships between various people in the game industry. See, it's been my opinion and belief that "success" within the game industry, in particular, is all about relationships.
Here is one such instance I have been thinking about and discussing with other retailers recently: A customer comes into the game store, tells the owner they can get a box of Magic cards online for a nice cheap price, and asks the retailer if they can price match. Many retailers will not only say no, but they will be upset to have been asked. But, some of those same retailers think nothing of asking their distributors for the best price, sometimes calling one distributor and saying they can find those Magic boxes for cheaper, and will the distributor they would prefer to order from price match.
My question is: Is this the same thing, or is it different?
The customer wanting to buy one box wants it faster than waiting a few days, so they are asking the retailer to price match to earn their money. The retailer in turn is likely asking their closer or favored distributor to price match some other distributor’s price (or maybe the Wizards of the Coast’s direct price), giving their distributor an opportunity to earn their money. Sounds like the same exact thing to me.
I never price match competition. If they are better for you, I respect that and hope later you come back. Then again, I never shop by price, either. I want service. I order from distributors based on my rep, not the company or the price. My reps can help me in many ways, and have many times, which is why I place my orders through those distributors. I have one rep, John (The Preacher) Sheppard who I have ordered with for 15 years, from Game Board Distributors, to Blackhawk, then on to GTS, and now at PHD. Every time he moved, so did my desire to work with that distributor. He has never been my main distributor account, but he has always been my second choice – as none of those distributors has everything I needed. But, all gave me outstanding service, and Preacher made sure of it.
I hope that most of my customers feel that way about my store. I hope they shop with us because we have a great store, convenient hours, great play space, reliable pulls and holds for them, because we buy used merchandise at good prices, and because we have qualified staff and judges. Because there is no way I will ever be the best price on anything. It’s always cheaper somewhere.
My old platoon sergeant, SFC Luther Johnson, said the warrior who chooses the place of the battle, wins. And I choose to battle on every piece of terrain I can. In my business, price is not one of those places. Selection, convenience, staff, customer experience and even the appearance of my store--I can win those battles.
From a retailer’s stance, I recognize that you, gamers, have many options. And, if you are mainly motivated by price, that is absolutely your right. But, the fact is that if you really ARE motivated by the price, I can never meet that expectation, I can never win that battle. There is a race to the bottom (price) mentality that online sellers can fight over, because they can reach a lot more people than I can in London, Kentucky--a town of just about 10,000 people. Many, not all for sure, but many online retailers are one or two people operations, and they're okay making a 10% margin. I employ 8 people, and cannot sustain my costs on that margin. And, really, even if I did hit the best price, someone else would just beat it.
In one of my former stores in Michigan I used to sell a lot of paintball stuff. I had a great selection, and fairly high prices. A paintball team in the Michigan area came to me semi-regularly to get things they needed on short notice. They did most of their business with another shop that had better prices. When the team captain came to me he asked if I could beat the other guy’s prices. I did the math. It turns out that they spent $200 a month with me, and $1000 with the other store, their main supplier. And I made $80 profit, and the other guy, selling as cheap as he could, made about $110 in profits.
I made $80 profit on $120 (cost of goods) risk. The other guy made $110 profit on $890 (cost of goods) risk. As the math tells the story, I made $80 while risking and tying up only $120, and the other guy made an additional $30 a month while risking an additional $770. I declined to beat the prices the other fellow offered, because I didn't want to be the guy whose prices the team was trying to get someone ELSE to beat. I was literally better off being their second choice.
And this brings me full circle.
I am okay with the customers who want to price shop. But, the only thing I can offer them is a great store with a great staff, and great selection. Someone can ALWAYS beat me on price, and so I will not fight the battle I simply cannot win.
My time is better spent doing something that actually matters. I would have to save 12% of my costs to cover my own salary. No distributor is going to beat another distributor’s prices by that margin. On the other hand, could I increase our sales by 12%? Could I increase our customer base/head count by 12%? Yes, I believe I can.
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.
