Support for the Local Game Stores

I want to make it abundantantly clear to everyone on the boards and in the gaming community of my intentions as a gamer and promotionalist.

First and foremost i want to gather awareness of the local stores and support them by visiting and making purchases whenever I can and influence others to do the same. I want to introduce new people each and everytime I visit a store.

I do not condone nor participate in any activity that may directly or indirectly result in the "black listing" of a store or place. My comments that were posted on the forum about the "not going to to visit anymore" were posted not with malicious intend towards any of the stores but with an honest opinion of my experience of each of the stores I visited over the last month. I spoke about some issues that I felt could be improved upon but I did not qrite any store off as saying never again. If I spoke any inaccuracies that have offended anyone please bring it to my attention.

I do not have any affiliation with any one store and as far as Matt and I know neither does the CAG forums. Everyone who is on this forum has something in common the love of gaming. Some of us favor some stores over others, not just a CAG thing. The idea of CAG having a Brick and Mortar Home would be great but just isn't going to happen anytime soon, and without the intent to harm the local gaming stores. I plan to have events at several if not all the stores in the area at some point in time over the up coming months before the May Tourney.

I order online for some of my stuff because hey i want to save money!!!
But I also am a huge impulse buyer, I see something shiny I buy it! (giving that I have enough of an allowance, Love you Cherry Darling!!!) If you don't carry the items I am looking for its no big deal because I am obviously not your target customer, people should not get angry at this each store has its following taht it wants to target. It does not mean I will not visit the store to play especially if the staff is good and the atmosphere is good.

The tournaments that I put together are put togther with love of the hobby and community in mind. I want the community to flourish as well as the hobby and thats the best way I know how. I really enjoyed having the 40K tourney last year and the community willing, the Fantasy Tourney in October. But I cannot do it with out trust and and support from our sponsors, the local gaming stores and the players of the community.

I hope that none of my actions nor words brings disgrace to the community or the game. I hope to continue to get the support and offer the support of our Local Gaming stores in the up coming months as I make another trek through Cincinnati to each of the gaming stores in the near future.

My two bits worth... Thank-you

You are a true Matyr for the Local gaming community Sean. You give of yourself to grow this community. The results of your efforts should be felt as increased sales, or at least increased OPPORTUNITY for sales at any of the LGS outlets in the tri state area.

If there are any complaints about your efforts (especially from store owners) they are not justified.

Whether CAG organizes gamers at an LGS or the gamers organized themselves via this site (which is occuring all the time)....CAG is a huge boon to the LGS in the Cincy/middletown/Dayton MSA.

It is also well within the rights of CAG visitors to question the quality and efforts of an LGS to attract our business or whether they have the "attractive and available space" for us to participate in gaming endeavors.

In 18 years of managing people...some folks just can't handle a truthful discussion about their performance. Also, they don't take well when someone increases or changes the expectations surrounding that performance. However, given time to look in the mirror they may understand the criticism is not for the sake of complaint but for the sake of improving a situation to everyone's benefit.

CAG has many active voices on this forum but they are only a small percentage of the gaming community in and around Cincinnati. However, discussions on this forum should give "Notice" to LGS what gamers are looking at and what they want in the locations they visit.

A business may not be able to provide the environment to suite everyone's needs and I respect the owners who need to balance many types of patrons who visit their shops to buy, browse, play....etc.

We aren't looking for LGSs to say: "you're right CAG....I'll tie up $10K in inventory on the shelves".... "or Yes....Miniature business is superior to CCG".

I believe we are looking for owners to say.... "those are some valid concerns, maybe I can make some accomodations b/c I do appreciate the opportunity to earn your business."


Anyway.... I do want to say "shop local". Especially for your GW stuff which is availble in all the LGS locations. Remember...alll those 20% discounts from your online stores don't provide you gaming space. Now...if savage orcs hadn't moved to Direct only.

Regards,
John

I think CAG as a whole has been a fantastic boon to the Cincy table top gaming community. Props to Matt. After WoHaG closed down, many of us could have wandered away, but Matt quickly made a blog which transitioned to this forum which not only kept us together, but allowed us to grow.

And secondly props to Sean, who after finding our little home on the internet has gone on a store touring, tournament organizing, extended family conscripting rampage. I think this has really been key to the leap from 30-40 members, most of whom knew each other from before to our 120 members with contacts from northern Kentucky to Dayton.

We all love stores and want stores. We want the stores to be as good as they can be, which is a benefit to both the LGS and ourselves. We as a community are also motivated to help out both through constructive criticism and in some cases, actual sweat equity.

In terms of online retailers, I know it is sometimes hard, especially for new players to keep paying full price. It adds up fast. WoHaG was really nice in that it gave a 20% discount. Whether a store can do that really depends on the overhead and such. But that type of discount pretty much levels the playing field between on online retailer and an LGS, sometimes less when you include shipping.

Another good way we can help out the LGS, if GW is willing to be somewhat flexible in terms of orders, is to perhaps make a poll of how many of each army we as a community have, and how many we are actively collecting. We could even get down to what units we are interested in. This can help prevent the problems of store owners who are not players getting stock which no one wants, because lets face it, some units are just terrible gameplaywise. Every one loses there, the owners have too much stock, players don't have models to buy and it spirals from there.

Anyways, I've started to ramble, so lets summarize. Props to Matt and Sean, support your LGS when you can, give good comments and criticism and owners, please listen to our advice knowing we want you to be successful, and owners if there is something you want to know from us, just ask.

I agree with JMarv and John, Sean. You and Matt are really making gaming in the Cincinnati area easier and more enjoyable! I'm not a "play every week" kind of gamer, but when I played shortly up in Toledo, there wasn't a local store, and I had to order everything online, and the only other person I knew who played was my roommate, and we couldn't go anywhere to play. It's nice to have the ability to meet up with a bunch of people and stand around and shoot the shit while playing a fun game! I do get things online from time to time, but it's usually something on eBay that a local store wouldn't be able to match price on (and, I don't find that very often). But, like when we played at Acme, I spent probably close to 60 bucks on stuff and had no problems with it. No wait, no shipping costs, and I could start assembling/painting when I got home. To me, as a novice/part time player, that is awesome! Up Up & Away and Sci Fi City are great in that regard as well. They have a great stock of stuff, and it's difficult to walk out of there without have a bag full of stuff, having played or not (I don't know about the other stores, as I haven't been to them as of yet).

Anyhow, Sean, you are very active with all of it, and we all benefit from your passion in all things gaming. (You too, Matt) So, keep up the good work!

Props to Sean for everything he has done! My job was easy by comparison

We are a totally 'nomadic' gaming group. We are not affiliated with any store or online store in the area, and we hope to keep good ties with all of them. Even the ones we are critical of. All of the LGS stores are important, and we want nothing but to support them with our business.

Hopefully LGS's can see criticisms on the boards as a good thing rather than a bad thing. We want them to succeed as much as they do. Criticism is perfectly fine, let's just remain cool about it. If CAG can do anything to help the LGS then we will. Just let us know.

As John G mentioned, buy locally when you can. In the past i have been bad about doing this, but it's not too bad really. If you can't buy locally, then at least do what you can to support out LGS's... a box of dice here, and set of templates there. It ALL helps.

Thanks guys.

Okay, what have I missed that this love/hate fest started?

A few things:

1. Sean, Matt. Thanks. That's all I have to say.
2. If the 20% thing is an issue....remember the U-Card.
3. Orcs smell, and so do the people who play them.

But seriously, I'm stoked this is a community I found and I really love it.