Due to the closing of Kassel's keep the RPGA event for Thursday, October 4, 2007 has been canceled.

Er? What? Since when is it closing? Was just there tuesday.

Thats really aggravating

I had to laugh a bit when I read this. Something tells me that there was something else going on when we got "the speach". It is totally aggrivating not to mention makes things difficult for the time being (at least till we can shift either to someones house or DH)

What's this "Speech"?

Conflict of interests amongst the owners.

A bunch of geeks thought "hey, we've got that extra space we're renting anyway, let's turn it into a gaming shop!"

No one seemed to think through the fact that it's not profitable to run a gaming shop for the first.... probably decade... (I have crappy business sense, but even I can figure out that it's not profitable at first)

Tuesday when a few of us were there, the administrator came in and gave us a big long speech about how much the rent was, that she would much rather not have it be a gaming shop because that wasn't profitable, and they were going to start charging exorbidant fees to play there.

I've got a feeling she did it behind the owner's back, especially since she compeltely contradicted certain things he said/promised.

Ingrid pretty much hit the nail on the head. She came in and told Matt how much he owed, and Matt asked her for some advice. What she failed to understand was that if you're going to charge people, it has to be reasonable.

I tried to get Matt to let me run this half, promising I'd find a way to make a profit. My ideas were as follows, and taken from listening to you guys:
1) Membership would be split into 3 classes: $60/year, $20/quarter, and $10/month. If you buy a year mambership, it come out to $5/month. Very reasonable.
2) I loved the Water Cooler idea and would implement it just as Adam has said
3) Less non-gaming stuff, more product (games, board games, etc.)
4) Get together with the main groups(you guys) once/month and pick your brains for ideas. Kinda like a discussion group.

But It was over before I got the chance to get that far. There are a few things I've learned from going to the game store I've frequented for many years in Waltham:
1) You have to decide if you're a Gaming club or a Gaming store. Hybrids don't work.
2) You have to have product on the walls and ready to be sold
3) It's a lot of work and not an immediate turnover. Patience is the key.
4) That is not the forum to go into if you need an immediate profit.

I really was pushing for that place to flourish. And it looked like it would. But attitudes about the place changed, and lack of funds to get product into the store really hurt it. You have to have a secondary source of profit for the first few years until your store catches on. We will still be able to order product from there, and I will try to get the item out to people at lower than retail price if I can. So if you need a book or something, check with me before you go get it and I'll see what I can do. Any profit for the store I get a cut of, so that would really help me. And if the price isn't good enough, trust me, I won't hold a grudge. Places out there can somehow get stuff cheap. Hope to see you guys soon. Like I said, my house is available for games. I don't have a table quite as large as the Keep, but I think it'll work. And it's in Woonsocket near the N. Smithfield border. Literally 3 minutes away from the store.

Chris

I can host the RPGA event if needed.

Chris

Lord knows you are correct about having merchandise to sell. I know I would have loved to have bought something besides dice and food but there was nothing there. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Yah i was a bit ticked to be told they were going under because we werent buying enough stuff when all they had to offer was over priced candy bars. D&D, as always, will continue on. There is still always disposeables in johnston. They are not going anywhere. I told Matt on day 1, "Dont expect a profit for a couple years, no one knows you are here." He said, "Thats ok, this place is just icing on the cake and the bike store is the real profit. This place is just here and if it happens to make cash then great." I unfortunately listened to him and tried to steer as many people as possible to this place. It had a great setup. It was my mistake for being so eager to accept a new gamer shop when i really knew from the start it wouldnt last.

For those of you in my Tuesday and Saturday groups... I am not DM'ing. Not by a long shot. The games WILL continue. Both me and the other Adam have places that can be played at, as well as chris. I havent checked out chris's house yet, but I will assume its suitable as well. I mean, its gotta be clean , hes never there. :P