"WANTED - Store Manager - Southeastern Wisconsin" Topic

We believe the era of the brick-and-mortar game store is not over. We believe that a fantastic game store, created as a hub for gamers of all stripes, unbelievably well stocked, with a great look and feel, a sense of community, ridiculous amounts of space for gaming and sponsoring a wide range of tournaments, game days, demo games and campaigns can thrive!

We will soon open a large game store in SE Wisconsin carrying a wide range of products ranging from 40k to Fantasy, from Magic cards to board games, roleplay and a wide range of historical and other games.

What we need is a great manager to help run it and help make it a destination store.

Responsibilities would include:

• Day-to-day store operations
• Hiring and managing employees
• Interacting with customers
• Organizing tournaments, campaigns and events
• Working with local gaming clubs
• Managing inventory

What we are looking for:

• A person who loves gaming
• Ideally a person with experience in game stores and/or the gaming industry
• Someone smart and creative
• Someone who is charismatic and interacts well with others
• Someone organized and self-starting
• A person from the area or willing to move to the area

This position will have good starting pay, benefits and perhaps housing. If interested, please message me on TMP and we can discuss further.

You know it's cold in Wisconsin from September 1 to May 31,
Right?

Most gaming is done inside

I am kidding of course, have a few on-line friends in Wisconsin and kid them often it's winter 6 months in the year

As I live in that area, where will the store be located?

Well I can tell you that it WAS 5 months of winter this past season.

So glad to see you opening a store. We need more of that. Wishing you nothing but success.

"What we are looking for:

• A person who loves gaming
• Ideally a person with experience in game stores and/or the gaming industry
• Someone smart and creative
• Someone who is charismatic and interacts well with others
• Someone organized and self-starting
• A person from the area or willing to move to the area"

You might also want someone with the follow skills:

1: Retail experience.
2: Customer relations.
3: Retail management experience.

I've learned over 3 decades of being on both sides of the counter in the industry, that "People who work in game stores and love games, usually don't have the business skills, or people/social professional skills to run it properly", (this is why you get the counter monkey with his fan boy standing in front of the register arguing about "Who the next villain in the next Batman movie should be", while completely ignoring the customer with 150.00 worth of product in their hands wanting to pay for it.

Also, whatever you do, please don't do the following:
1: Hire the guy that hires his girlfriend to work at the store.
2: Hire the guy that hires a woman to work at the store, simply to draw in the lonely boys, because "gurrrrrlllll"…
3: Hire the woman that is willing to work there simply because she can't get a job anywhere else and knows nothing about about gaming and the moment a place, any place calls her, she is out the door.
4: Hire the guy that has a girlfriend that really wants to work at Hot Topic in the mall instead, but can't get hired on, so she is determined to make the game store into a hot topic…

Yes I can name game stores with managers and employees that have done all of these things….

Sorry but you should take Monopoly money and make stack equaling to your starting investment. Look at it and then set it on fire. Only you can deside if its a good idea.

Bill D

Who has 26 years retail/Mail order exprience with both large and small companies,

I think that's great, and I agree that the B&M storefront still has a place. That said, Murphy raises valid points. IMO, you need a good retail manager who can learn the gaming arena instead of a gamer who needs to learn how to be a manager. Hopefully, you can find the candidate who has management and gaming knowledge. You also need to look at the business acumen of whoever is financing this operation, and how involved they will be in day to day operations.

One of my friends is the owner of a successful B&M game store.

He shares a lot of his ideas about that business in his blog.

Some parts are about things like his vacation trips, but others are about business.

blackdiamondgames.blogspot.com

Wisconsin pros: great ice cream, warm summer nights that don't get dark until late, bike-friendly Madison

Wisconsin cons: распу́тица, subzero winters, having to shovel your driveway

Thank you Joedog

Subzero winters kick ass!

Any hints about the part of SE Wisconsin? I live in this area and am interested if a new store is opening.

I have all of that experience and have actually done that job well. It is too close to Racine and Milwaukee for me to be comfortable working if it is in SE Wisconsin. A shame really.

I live in Madison and I think this is a fine idea and I'd be happy to support this store in any way I can. Noble Knight here in Fitchburg is very successful as a physical store AND online retailer. Nothing beats a physical space for display of products and a gaming area to promote the products and establish a local community of gamers who in turn support the store and recruit and network with other gamers and new blood (i.e. new customers). Like other posters here, I'm also curious where exactly this location is to be?

We moved her last year from Austin. This past winter was very snowy, but I can handle winter better than Texas' eternal summers of 95-degrees plus, the chronic water shortages, the traffic congestion, skyrocketing cost of housing, bugs, cedar pollen, and reactionary politics. Winter helps keep out the riff-raff, far as I'm concerned. Or else everyone would move here and ruin the place.

PS: Murphy's comments are SPOT ON!

Austin ran thru a half-dozen game stores in my time there and most fell afoul of those rules sooner or later.

Thanks Piper. Total agreement.

Don't forget the cheese-wear.

Choice of a full size cut-out?
Whom should they depict full size as you enter the store?

Hello All. We are starting to compile a nice list. thank you. Anyone who is interested, please do PM me.

OG Gamer,

Since I no longer pay TMP's recurring fee, I am unable to PM you… but you can reach me at MinBiz1@aol.com. My experience and person checks all of your boxes, "notably deally a person with experience in game stores and/or the gaming industry," and I have lived in both SE WI and NoIL. Look forward to hearing from you.

We are still actively looking in case any new people should stumble on this thread!

Sweet!

Can I work from home?

I also love that 70s show, so I'm made for the role.

Considering a road trip to Lake Geneva, next Spring/Summer. Wondering where this store is located, so I might swing through it, if it is nearby.

BTW, I live in tropical SE Minnesota. When the temperatures warm up to 32+ F, in the Winter, we come out of our super-insulated homes and buildings (R-19 walls with R-30 ceilings, per building codes), wearing T-shirts, shorts, and Flip-flop footwear, to bask in the warmth! Actually, we really do this, as our bodies get accustomed to the sub-freezing, and sometimes sub-zero, temperatures -- when it rises above freezing, it feels amazingly warm! After a week, or two, of constant sub-zero temperatures, +10 F feels balmy, and enjoyable.

We hit a high temperature of 102 F, two weeks ago. We have burning hot Summers, and arctic-like Winters. Don't like the current weather conditions? Just wait a couple of hours, days, or months… It'll change. Guaranteed.

Minnesota and Wisconsin are two of the most beautiful States out of the Lower 48. Thank God the Coasties consider both States to be fly-over zones! We love being ignored, so we can relish what we have! Cheers!

Wisconsin pros: great ice cream, warm summer nights that don't get dark until late, bike-friendly Madison

The 2nd one must be a blessing, it's hard to sleep when it never gets properly dark in summer.

"…don't get dark until late, bike-friendly Madison."

Madison is at 43 degrees North Latitude. It gets dark around 10:00 PM, local time, in the Summer. I live at the same latitude, just further West, in Minnesota. In the Winter, it gets dark around 4-5 PM.

Fairbanks, Alaska, however, at 64 degrees North latitude, gets daylight, in the Summer, for 24 hours! That would be tough to sleep during the Summer, without blackout shades… I believe they have 24 hours of darkness, in the Winter months, as well. That would be harsh. Cheers!