View from the Game Store is a bi-weekly column by Marcus King, Director of Retail Operations at Troll and Toad Games & Comics in London, Kentucky.  This week, King talks about owning the responsibilities of store proprietorship, including responding to what sells to grow the business.

That's Not My Job!

This is a phrase I hate to hear.  If I am a customer, I don't want to hear the customer service person tell me this.  If I am the employer, I certainly don't want to hear my staff say it.  But, I recently was in a business where the store owner was kvetching about how his customers didn't clean up after themselves, and one of his customers said “Your business, your job. Not mine. Period.” And that got me thinking. 

Pondering.

All the times I have felt that it was thoughtless that customers didn't throw away their food waste at one of my events.  How often I had to pick up booster wrappers off the floor after an event.  Or wipe urine off the floor of my restroom.  Clearly: My customers don't think taking care of my store is their job. 

And, they're right.  OF COURSE they are right!

The store I own is my investment, not theirs.  The cleanliness is my responsibility.  Again, not theirs.  Even the food trash – not their problem.  That is MY Problem, my responsibility. 

So, knowing that my store is really ONLY my own concern, I am now pondering how to I change my store to be more profitable?  Because, I didn't invest my money into owning a store – nor my time – in order to make friends.  I did it to provide for my family.  Period.  

It's been a long road getting to this point – the point of owning my store in a nice shopping mall, in a great location and with all the fixtures, inventory and even the top quality staff I wanted to have when I started out – 30 years ago this March.  I started with just 220 square feet, and selling mostly miniatures and roleplaying games.  I remember it took me more than a decade to even consider carrying video games.  We went through a 12-year span where my store set up at conventions 20+ weekends a year.  And, now we do no conventions at all.  I never thought I would carry model kits, music or movies.  My stores have evolved, like a growing, learning organism, from 220 square feet, to 1200, to 4000, to 4800.  From table top games only, to including electronic games, and now to having toys, hobbies and even consumer electronics in my store.

Today a fair amount of my revenue is made from “entertainment” merchandise, collectibles, monthly publications and even toys.  And, yes, also games.  But, that customer in my friend’s business illustrated to me, yet again, that the profitability and even survival of my business is, literally, MY business, not anyone else's. 

And, as I head into my 31st year of being a retailer – I have to keep this in mind, as it is time to hone my skills, and allow my store to once again evolve into a more profitable model. 

My plans include dropping all merchandise I cannot turn at least 14 times a year.  To eliminate too many titles in our board game selection; to increase the selection of 'one-off' merchandise, those things we order once, and when we sell out move along; to add more diversity of product types; and to appeal to a broader base of consumers.

After all, Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart have moved into my bailiwick, so I may as well return the favor, and attempt to carry merchandise that every consumer will find appealing.

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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.