New Book/Gameshop in Charleston

[mike_houghton98]

Spread the word guys. I have just found a local shop that opened up today that is going to be trying to get games started.
It is located in Washington Street 3 Blocks from the Capitol across from the dog park. It used to be open under other managment and currently has older sets of YuGiOh, Magic, VS, Heroclix. I talked to the owner today and she is wanting to start running events in various games and she herself is a role player. It looks like it is primarily a book store but she does want to start games there.
Anyone that could offer any advice and or judge events in those games may want to contact her and let her know.
Her Name is Michelle and here is the stores email address
thebookexchangewv@gmail.com

Thanks for the help guys lets try to keep this one open.

[Doug James]

Spread the word guys. I have just found a local shop that opened up today that is going to be trying to get games started.
It is located in Washington Street 3 Blocks from the Capitol across from the dog park. It used to be open under other managment and currently has older sets of YuGiOh, Magic, VS, Heroclix. I talked to the owner today and she is wanting to start running events in various games and she herself is a role player. It looks like it is primarily a book store but she does want to start games there.
Anyone that could offer any advice and or judge events in those games may want to contact her and let her know.
Her Name is Michelle and here is the stores email address
thebookexchangewv@gmail.com

Thanks for the help guys lets try to keep this one open.

I know that place. I stopped in there when I was looking for somewhere in Charleston that was going to demo 4th ed D&D on Worldwide gamesday last spring. They didn't, but they payed lip service to getting some games going. They had a tiny table with two chairs beside the register that they called the "gaming area". I never went back because, frankly, I thought they were rude and thier selection of merchandise was sparse and uninteresting.
They seemed pretty fly-by-night.

I'll check it out again sometime and see how the new management is doing.

[mike_houghton98]

I know that place. I stopped in there when I was looking for somewhere in Charleston that was going to demo 4th ed D&D on Worldwide gamesday last spring. They didn't, but they payed lip service to getting some games going. They had a tiny table with two chairs beside the register that they called the "gaming area". I never went back because, frankly, I thought they were rude and thier selection of merchandise was sparse and uninteresting.
They seemed pretty fly-by-night.

I'll check it out again sometime and see how the new management is doing.

yeah the guy that was there last time wasnt very helpful.. she was much more friendly and had a few questions about things. She said she wanted to do National Games day or something... she showed me a poster for D and D but it had last november as the date :P

[Dilbian]

Hi guys, and yes it's The Book Exchange. I live a diagonal block from it, and work down the street another 1 1/2 blocks. Joe used to run it, but couldn't make ends meet. I was worried that it would become a regular book store alone again, but this gives us gamers in the area hope again. We'll see. Maybe do something for National Game Day this year with Charcon as a guide.

Dilbian

[MorsDraconis]

At least it's in the general area where the Ogre's Lair used to be. That's a great area. Right on the bus line and lots of food options down toward the Capitol.

Any idea what the place is called? A phone number? A physical address?

[Charlie Davis]

... Anyone that could offer any advice...

Here is a paraphase of a message on another board that I suggested to the owner of the Dragons Stronghold before he opened. I use quotes but I have changed some of the text.

"Good luck. Another game store is a good thing. Join the CharCon web site. www.charcon.org
We are trying to consolidate all of the gaming in WV under one banner. Hopefully it will help everyone. The CharCon game convention is Oct 18-19. Get some advertising flyers for your store to the CharCon staff immediately, at the least.
As for a store name - Who are your customers? What else are you going
to sell? Retail brick and morter stores are a challenge. You probably
should bite the bullet and go with a family friendly name. No wizards
or dragons or hobbits in the name. Sure it is not as cool as the
Dragon's Castle but you want customers, ALL CUSTOMERS. All of us geeks will show up anyway. You won't survive with just us, so broaden your
perspective. At the least put something like "Games for the Family" as
a sub-title. My 2 cents."

The Book Exchange is a fine name for a Book/Game store so that is not a problem. Pulling in customers is. Michelle needs to be open to suggestions from people that have been playing games and selling games. She needs to do some research! She needs to make contact with a couple of the game distributors. She needs to invest in a lot of stock, which is not easy to do. Then she needs to try one or two things at a time. She does not need to buy stuff on a whim. She needs a business plan for the next 2 years. Simple anyone can do it.

All joking aside, this is a hard business to enter and I wish her the best.

[mike_houghton98]

I sent her to alliances website for distributing. She said she didnt have one yet, and thats the only one I can think of that deals in the games she has.

I also recommended she sign up to be a venue for Wizkids games since I can volunteer my time to judge most of their stuff. I also should be able to get her customers locally that other stores have lost for various reasons.

I told her I would try to help in any way I could... mainly because there isnt a game store that feels to ME like home anywhere around here except Beckley. Getting this one running and advertising can help with that since she seemed genuine in here desire to see things done right.
I dont know her financial status or how she may order things, but I do feel its in a decent area given its proximity to the capital and the delis and stuff around there. She just needs to spread the word and that is what i am here for.

[MorsDraconis]

Anyone that has a myspace page and wants to contact her that way, I'm pretty sure this is her page though it's friends only so you'd have to become a friend first: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndid=292977129

But yeah, she definitely needs to get coordinated with CharCon with some flyers or something to pass out or hang up or somethin', especially if she plans on being a gaming store.

As Charlie said, she needs to pick her direction and go with it and it's pretty much determined by the size of her establishment. If she doesn't have the room for tournaments of any type, then she definitely doesn't want to advertise the business that way.

Lots of big decisions that could determine the success and failure of her store.

[mike_houghton98]

well if she got the right tables she looks like she could have room for magic, yugioh, and anything wizkids as long as they all werent on the same night :P

As for the flyers I told her about charcon and mentioned that I would be willing to pass some out so she is working on those now
thanks guys.

[Buck Chrzanowski]

someone should try to get her to come to Charcon and meet all the gamers she can. Just walk around and try to get some word of moth going.

She can also get an idea of what games are being played and where she can head with the store.