Things at the store are still going overwhelmingly well. Tonight we had around 22 people in the store at once all playing games. Mostly Magic, but a few were playing other board games such as Ascension and Munchkin. The console side of things has only been mildly pushed due to limited amount of supplies. But the weekend of March 9th is when I'm going to host my official grand open and March 10th will be all about console gaming. So I really hope we can get it to take off the right way.
A few things that I'm having to deal with -
Kids using appropriate language. I need to put my foot down harder about kids using extremely vulgar language. It's a family oriented place.
People smoking outside. I have put a lot of emphasis on people walking away from the store. Still, some of them look young. I don't want to be the jerk who tells them that stuff is bad for you. I'm the last person who should be telling kids what to do and what not to do. But Jesus, don't do it okay? What people don't seem to understand it's more than just the principle of the matter, it's the impression that people get when they drive by my store and see people smoking outside my shop. Bad news. Still, even though I have a back alley, I don't want people hanging out back there because I feel like it will get abused.
Theft. I think I have spotted a couple times where kids were trying to steal, or getting ready to. So I need to invest in some security cameras.
Those are the big things.
Starting this Thursday the local high school's Anime Club is going to start hosting their evenings here as opposed to the local library. I'm going to set a projector up downstairs and turn it into a little movie theater. I'm curious as to how that's going to effect my electric bill.
By the way, my first electric bill was $755. Heavy hitter. Granted, that included $215 of it being 1 of 3 deposits. I think we can survive for another month though.
We get plenty of traffic to keep it going. Magic is a huge hitter. The biggest hitter. I'm just now starting to get in the right rhythm.
My biggest concern overall is to make sure that this isn't just a fad and that we can push this going. Great thing for me is that there is no other place for people to go and hang out. There's no malls, no other stores, etc. Before my store, kids were going to each other's houses, and trollin' through Wal-Mart. Now, I'm providing them a place where they can come play games, or just watch, or just hang out for awhile and we don't tolerate wrongful activity in the store. Fact of the matter is, kids will do what they do, and there's not a lot I can do about it to stop them. But if I can at least give them an option to make better choices then that's definitely a step in the right direction.
Moving forward, I'm trying to figure out how to best accomodate this many people. Is this something where I need to start looking for a bigger location with better insulation or do I need to wait and see if this plan flies like it should? Decisions, decisions. I also need to start trying to network heavier with local businesses and see if there's any cool deals I can work out as far as advertising, giveaways and stuff like that is concerned. So hey, if you're a business and you want to partner, let me know!
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