Shop Concepts/Ideas - Miscellaneous

Some of you may know that I'm planning to open a custom computer / gaming center shop here in Fairbanks.  If you didn't know that... well, there it is.  In keeping with my weird brain ideas about such things, it's helpful to gauge public opinion.  I realize that my "audience" here (or on FB, twitter, etc.) isn't huge, and may not reach the majority of folks I'd like it to reach.  So sharing this post with friends or other interested parties would be greatly appreciated, especially if one lives in the Fairbanks area, and even if you don't, opinions are always appreciated.  That being said, I'd like to have some of these ideas down on (non-existent) paper, if for nothing else than to see how they look outside my head.

Miscellaneous

This is going to be a bit of a "catch-all" post, as there are ideas that have come up since the other posts went up, or I feel that some points or ideas may need clarification and/or expansion.  To get these points across, I'm just going to basically dump them into this post instead of updating and re-sharing the older ones, because laziness.  There may also be mild ranting.

UPDATE:  One thing I did forget to mention was having a table set up for tabletop gaming, ranging from CCGs, (Magic, etc.) Board Games, grid-based games, (Warhammer and it's ilk) as well as RPGs.  (Dungeons and Dragons, for example.)  I wouldn't charge for use of these, mainly because the one place in town that also does this doesn't charge; nor should they.  They would, of course, need to bring their own materials, (books, paper, etc.) but I'm fully willing to sell snacks and the like.  If a group would like their session recorded, however, I would charge an hourly fee for "equipment usage."  (Since I'd already have the equipment needed from the computer videos and the podcasts.  See?  SYNERGY.)  These could also go up onto YouTube or into the weekly podcast feed as a sort of "bonus" episode.

One of the first ideas I had about the shop was having an iPad as a kind of multi-tool, mainly in terms of the computer shop.  The obvious usage would be as a veritable library of tech manuals, guides, and other useful texts, which would come in handy in both the building and repairing aspects.  However, another potential use has just recently become technologically sound: mobile checkout.  The Point-of-Sale software I'm planning to use for the computer shop (yes, there will be multiple POS systems; sadly, it's unavoidable, but I can make it work) has a companion iPad/iPhone app, that can access the main "server" of my store from pretty much anywhere.  This means if I'm doing a field repair, (yes, I'm offering that as an option) when I finish up, I can generate an invoice and take a credit card payment, then e-mail a receipt to the customer, without having to go back to the store to finalize anything.  It also means I can generate repair orders, quotes for custom systems, and create temporary inventory orders on the go.

Some concern was raised about the custom "walkthrough" videos for the computer shop, mainly consisting of : "Isn't that showing off a trade secret?" or something stupid weird like that.  As I mentioned in the post, YouTube has tons of videos made in the same vein: some instructional, some are more professional, some are showing off.  Most of them are pretty dry, no offense to the folks making them, and it's understandable why: its a highly technical subject, so it's hard to figure a way to make something like that informative as well as entertaining.  A couple guys do it fairly well, but for the most part it's blank faces saying words that only a fairly low percentage of people will fully understand.  So, building computers isn't a trade secret.  Honestly, it's not an extremely difficult thing to do.  I liken the "self-building" experience to going to a restaurant: of course you can buy the food and prepare it yourself, but chances are, unless you've had some form of training (self or otherwise) it's not going to be anywhere close to the same as having that same meal prepared by a professional.  So while it's not a secret, building a computer does take a fair amount of skill, training, and preparation.  (Not to mention patience and more than a little in the guts department.  Also steady hands are a big plus.)  Why else do companies like Dell, HP, and Acer exist?

To add another spin to the videos, I'm going to relate things back to my Community post.  Typically, when one buys a computer (especially a branded pre-built one) they don't have any real connection to the device.  It's a tool, nothing more.  Even if you customize the specs a bit, custom order it, the process still feels all you're doing is exchanging money for a thing you'll use to do more work.  (Or play games, or whatever.)  Because that's all you're doing.  Even buying a custom made system (not a branded one) can be a fairly benign experience, because there's no real customer involvement, aside from giving specs (or a general idea of what they want it to do) and paying for it. The idea behind these videos is to help the customer feel more involved in the building process, even if only tangentially.  By speaking directly to a customer through these videos, they can feel more connected to their system, making it more than "just" a tool or device; it's a part of their lives, one that they had a hand in.

Another clarification has to do with the gaming shop, and whether or not it will be pre-paid or post-paid.  Both methods have their advantages, but for the sake of simplicity (not to mention security) I've chosen to go with pre-paid.  It saves from hassles like having a card declined or "accidentally" forgetting a wallet or cash, as well as keeping sneaky or opportunistic individuals from "skipping on the bill," as it were.  Doesn't take much; a phone call, a conversation, a smoke break, whatever, and someone could be able to take off without paying what they owe the store for the time they've spent.  This also gives customers a bit more control over how much they spend; by planning ahead, they can choose how much they plan to use in any given day, week, whatever.  The "cafe" software will give them advance notice as to when they're almost out of time, so if they're coming up to the end of their purchased time, they can purchase more to keep their session going.  I may use post-paid on a case-by-case basis, such as if someone who has a good established record (and who I have some amount of trust in) wants to play for a couple hours, but doesn't get paid until the next day, I may consider letting them pay by the end of the current week.  In cases like this, I'll also take down some contact information, so I can annoyingly inquire as to when I'd be expecting them to come back in.  After that week of waiting, I can "suspend" their account until they come back in, as well as letting other similar places know about the incident.

While I'd like to think I've got a lot of things figured out in regards to this endeavor, there are a great many things that I'm still up in the air about, or need suggestions for:

1. A Name:   This seems like a fairly important aspect to have in place.  In my head, I've been calling it "Arctic Gaming and Computer Shop."  If this happened to be the final name, this would be the "official" name (the one required by law to be on all advertising and signage, etc.) but in more casual conversation I'd refer to it as just "Arctic Gaming."  This isn't a great name in my mind, but I'm having trouble figuring anything else.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  Of course, a name typically leads into...
2. A Logo:  I can't draw to save my life.  While I have a few core concepts in terms of a logo, I have no real way to execute it in a meaningful way.  So, if any budding or wannabe artists want to take a crack at it, feel free to give me an e-mail or DM on my various social media.  Sine this is something that will represent the store (both in signage, adverts, etc.) I'm of course willing to pay a commission fee, if or when this venture does actually happen.

 That's all I can pry out of my brain for now, folks.  COMMENT.  WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO.

Store Concepts / Ideas - Gaming Center

Some of you may know that I'm planning to open a custom computer / gaming center shop here in Fairbanks.  If you didn't know that... well, there it is.  In keeping with my weird brain ideas about such things, it's helpful to gauge public opinion.  I realize that my "audience" here (or on FB, twitter, etc.) isn't huge, and may not reach the majority of folks I'd like it to reach.  So sharing this post with friends or other interested parties would be greatly appreciated, especially if one lives in the Fairbanks area, and even if you don't, opinions are always appreciated.  That being said, I'd like to have some of these ideas down on (non-existent) paper, if for nothing else than to see how they look outside my head.

Gaming Center

This will more than likely be the main revenue stream for the store.  Even though the individual receipts may be smaller than a computer sale, the (hopefully) sheer quantity of these purchases is going to bring some fairly substantial profit margins; after all, there's very little overhead associated with this type of transaction.  Granted, there will still be a daily and monthly amount, sales-wise, to justify keeping the doors open, but that's a much smaller number than some might think.  There's a lot to talk about here, so I'm going to attempt to get into it, in no real order.

First, let's talk operating hours.  This will obviously be somewhat dictated by where the location eventually ends up; malls can be fairly strict about their hours, but even with that being the case, I'm sure things can work out with whatever management is involved.  All that aside, I'd like to keep it simple: 10AM to 10PM.  Early enough so folks needing computer service don't have to wait too long, and late enough so gamers can feel like they've got enough time (say after school or work) to get some decent gaming time in.  For those of you concerned about the employees working such long hours every day we're open, rest assured, the plan is to have multiple "official" breaks per shift.  For those of you not concerned about the employees, fuck you.

Next topic should be the games themselves.  This is a trickier subject, believe it or not, as there's still a few question marks about a few aspects of handling multiple licenses, or adding new ones.  Any PC gamer worth their salt knows of and uses Steam regularly, if not primarily.  I've been using it for almost a decade, if not longer, and I shudder at the thought of how much time and money I've spent with it.  Of course, there is a reason for this, as well as the fact that it's the most popular PC gaming service on the planet.  A user-friendly client, huge selection of games, near constant sales and specials, cool features, a thriving community, exclusive content, spotlights on games both big and small, and more.  It's a great service, created by a great company, Valve; known for making such huge hits such as the Half-Life series, the Portal series, Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead, and more.  The Steam store itself has a vast selection of games, both single-player and multiplayer alike.  Thankfully, Valve has a "cyber cafe" program designed specifically for gaming centers and the like, which gives places like this access to most of the Steam catalog, over multiple computers, for a monthly or yearly fee.  It's not clear what this fee is, but it also includes: listing by Valve in their official directory (so people can search their database for nearby gaming centers,) exclusive promotions, advertising material, customer service, etc.  It's a great service from what I can tell.  It'll be important to note that not only will customers be able to access our "store accounts" to access Steam games, but also will be able to log in with their own Steam accounts for syncing save games or installing a game they like that's not available on the store account.  (With permission, of course.)  Likely big hits from this service would be Counter-Strike, TF2, L4D2, Civilization 5, Call of Duty, and even some Free-to-play MMOs.

However, Steam doesn't cover everything.  There are plenty of games, indie and AAA that don't use it for one reason or another.  The big one at the moment is Battlefield 3.  Huge multiplayer component, widely popular, (though not as much as Call of Duty,) and is sadly tied to EA's vastly inferior (and much maligned and controversial) Origin service.  Granted, it's only been around a year, so it does need some room to grow, but it's a bit of an obvious attempt on EA's part to ignore customer's demands and do what they want while getting as much money as they can in the process.  This wouldn't be a big deal if EA had offered to put BF3 on Steam as well, but sadly, it as well as other popular games such as Mass Effect 3 are exclusive to Origin, leaving PC gaming customers no other choice (other than consoles) if they want to play these popular games, or any of the upcoming ones such as Crysis 3 or Dead Space 3.  To top it all off, Origin has no "cafe" or gaming center program, which means that I'd have to buy a copy for each machine I intend to run it on, which would be a substantial expense.  Plus, since Origin accounts and software are tied to single machines, there's no way for achievements or ranks in multiplayer games to carry over from machine to machine, so customers would have to try and stick with a specific computer each time they wanted to play that particular game.  Frustrating, to say the least.  That said, I'm not against doing that, buying a bunch of copies for the machines in my store.  Gamers are savvy enough to know these limitations, and deal with them on a regular basis, so it might go over alright in the long run.  We shall see.

Other games such as Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, Star Wars the Old Republic, Minecraft, and plenty of others use their own fashion of DRM, mainly based upon user accounts.  If you're a previously paid (or currently paying/prepaid) customer, your user account for said game will reflect it, and all you have to do is log in.  These clients are fairly easy to obtain, with little to no cost.  MMOs in particular use this method a lot, so there will be plenty of support for those, both current and upcoming.  It'll be interesting to see which ones become more popular; there seems to be a wild shift in the direction of Free-to-Play games in this particular category, such as DC Universe Online, Star Trek Online, and Lord of the Rings Online.  Many F2P shooters and MOBAs such as Super Monday Night Combat, Tribes Ascend, and League of Legends use this particular system as well.

One note I've gotten (that was pretty well in the back of my mind anyway) was how young kids are going to be handled in the store.  (More than likely by parents who think they're basically dropping them off at a "playground" while they go do grown-up things, like taxes or cheating on their spouse.)  It's a valid point: many of these games are rated "M" for Mature, meaning that they're intended for folks 17 and up. Think of them as an "R" rating for games.  We're talking realistic violence, blood, gore, foul language, sexual content, partial nudity, and just plain being mean.  I'm all for keeping mature content away from youngsters, but I also think that that decision isn't up to me; it's up to the parents to take the responsibility for what their child's doing, even in terms of the games they play.  So, anyone under 16 or so will be asked to bring a parent in to sign a waiver.  This will basically explain that their children may be exposed to the various things I mentioned above, and that neither I nor my store are liable or at fault for what these children experience while they're in the store.  If they have a problem with any of these, or are unable to sign for whatever reason, it doesn't mean the kids won't be able to play.  The account they use to log in to the system to access games will limit them to games rated no higher than "T" for Teen, possibly lower if they're younger than teens, which I doubt would be coming into the store very often at any rate.  It may be inconvenient, but it's important.  It'll (hopefully) force the parents to take a good look at what their kids are doing, gaming-wise, and make a judgement call based on how well they know their children.  I'm also hoping that it'll open up a line of dialogue between parent and child about what kind of games and other media they consume.

On to the machines themselves.  I'm of the opinion that customers aren't paying for an experience they can have at home or on a cheap/outdated computer.  They're paying for a better experience than that.  So, without going too much into technical specifics, here's a general rundown of the "standard" tier of machines I'm going to build for customer use: Intel quad-core i5 processors, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 graphics cards, at least 8 GB of RAM, a hybrid SSD/HDD drive, high definition monitors, gaming grade mice/keyboards, comfortable headsets, and cushy chairs.  (That last one is more important than one might think.)  This is all subject to to change, of course; no telling what kinds of new things will come out (or how pricing will change) in the time between now and when the time comes to actually order and build these things.  I haven't settled on a case as of yet; I'll probably keep them fairly smallish, nothing too fancy, though I do want things such as fan controllers, side windows, (so I can put at least one light strip in there to show off) and decent wire/cable management. 

That's the standard tier of machines, which will consist of 16 out of the 20 machines that customers will be able to use.  The other four are going to be... interesting.  More powerful, for sure: faster (as well as possibly overclocked) processors with liquid cooling, more RAM, higher-end (if not multiple) graphics cards, boot/system SSDs, surround sound headsets, and more.  That's not what's making these "premium" machines interesting, however.  These remaining 4 machines will be split into 2 categories: 3D, and Surround.  Surround systems will be basically triple-monitor systems tuned for games that utilize that screen real estate to immerse gamers by basically surrounding the gamer with the game world.  3D systems are just like they sound: a surprising number of games use 3D to enhance their experience, and it's something everyone should experience at least once.  We may even add an extra machine that combines the two categories: NVIDIA calls it 3D Vision Surround, and it'll be interesting to see how customers react to these systems.  They will be first come, first serve, of course, but I may institute a "consecutive time limit" and possibly a customer queue in regards to those machines, just so everyone who wants to (and wants to pay for it) can experience these unique machines.

I don't want to keep console folks out in the cold, so there'll probably be a selection of the major ones (PS3, 360) along with some of the more popular games on hand.  Gamefly would probably be utilized quite a lot for those games, though I may purchase ones that get requested a lot, along with just ones that are universally awesome or unique.  Thanks to X-Box Live and PSN, profiles and saves can travel with the customers, so they can keep their achievements and rankings up to date.  This isn't going to be a huge part of the business, so I don't see having more than one TV connected to both consoles paired with a comfy couch.  More ideas may surface about that at a later date, but for now, that's pretty well done.

Another common practice in gaming centers is LAN party hosting.  This is a nice idea, and allows customers to basically have an all-night gaming session, complete with food, games, and friends.  I also think of it as a way for some of the more tech-savvy customers to bring in (and show off) their personal machines.  There would be a flat fee for this ($20 for bringing a personal machine, $25/$30 for using a store machine) and it would include pizza, soda, and other such snacks.  We may also play movies or TV shows as a kind of background noise or small distraction while folks are taking breathers from their gaming sessions.  As this is fairly common practice, a way to make it unique (not to mention community oriented) is to film the hijinks (both in-game and real life varieties) and post them to Facebook and YouTube.  (With customer's permission, of course.)  It'll be more work; editing a video together from multiple sources is never an easy task, but I believe it'll bring the customers as well as the employees together.  Since these would literally be all-nighters, though, the store would probably be mildly short-handed the next day.

Speaking of snacks: yes, we will sell sodas, energy drinks, candy and the like.  We may also go a little further with frozen foods, to be used in one of a couple microwaves conveniently located within the store itself.  Outside foods would be allowed in a minimal basis; that is to say, customers can bring in one drink and one snack of their own with them into the store per day.  If we do get located within a mall, I'm not going to argue with folk refilling a personal water bottle a few times, but for insurance reasons we wouldn't be able to risk outside food/drink damaging our equipment.  I'm fine with a couple risks, but there is a limit.  Weird how insurance works like that.


Tournaments are a great way to get people involved, and are fun to boot.  This may roll in well with the LAN party concepts; small charge for entry (say $5-10) with the prize being... well, I dunno.  I'm hesitant to put cash up as a prize.  Possibly an upgrade for their computer (if they have one) or an individual component, some unique gaming swag or accessories?  It's a work in progress, people.  THIS IS WHY I NEED FEEDBACK.  Valve hosts tournaments on their servers occasionally, usually for some pretty interesting prizes, though I believe one needs to sign up (and possibly pay) for a store's entry into these things.

Well, that's all I got for now.  This is the largest part of the shop, so it needed the most attention.  Hence the long post.  Please, comment.  PLEADING NOW.

Store Concepts / Ideas - Computer shop

Some of you may know that I'm planning to open a custom computer / gaming center shop here in Fairbanks.  If you didn't know that... well, there it is.  In keeping with my weird brain ideas about such things, it's helpful to gauge public opinion.  I realize that my "audience" here (or on FB, twitter, etc.) isn't huge, and may not reach the majority of folks I'd like it to reach.  So sharing this post with friends or other interested parties would be greatly appreciated, especially if one lives in the Fairbanks area, and even if you don't, opinions are always appreciated.  That being said, I'd like to have some of these ideas down on (non-existent) paper, if for nothing else than to see how they look outside my head.

Computer Shop

This may not be the big money making aspect of the shop, but it'll be an important part nonetheless.  I've already gone over some aspects of this in a previous post, so I won't go over those again, but there's still a decent amount to mention in regards to this.  Granted, there are plenty of computer shops in Fairbanks, and for the most part they do their jobs fairly well.  I'm not going to claim that I can put them all out of business with my awesome skillz, because that's just not true.  (Also, "skillz" is spelled wrong.)  But what I've seen (and heard from others) of these places are a couple things I've mentioned in yet another previous post: pricing, and service.  Again, not to repeat things, but these are important aspects that get ignored by customers, mainly because there's a kind of mindset customers get that says, "Well, it's not like there are any other options."  (Locally, at least.)  I'd like to bring an alternative to these folks. 

That being said, local shops aren't the only thing I'll be up against.  Online shops like Amazon and Newegg tend to kill in terms of pricing structures for components.  While I'm going to do my best to get as close to these as I can, it's a tough road for that sort of thing.  Luckily, Alaskan customers are slightly accustomed to paying a bit more for things, thanks to high shipping rates and availability issues.  So, while I'm not planning to gouge customers in any way, I'll be able to find a fair price that, while not up to raw online deals, will still be very comparable. However, this may limit my ability to sell individual components, as I might not be able to be as close to the various "sale" prices as I'd like to.

In light of that, I'm aware that there are people who will order components online no matter what, whether from a limited online sale or other such promotions.  Some of these folks, while certainly budget conscious, aren't always knowledgeable enough or brave enough to build a system on their own.  So, I plan to offer a builder's fee.  Bring in your components, we'll build it for you for a modest fee.  This fee may have to vary depending on what exactly the customer wants done to the system (windows install, drivers, transfer of old data, custom cooling or lighting, etc.), but will in the end be fair while still giving us (the store) a valuable income source.

It's worth mentioning at this point that any system we build or sell will be thoroughly tested and benchmarked.  Once the OS is installed, and the relevant drivers are updated, We'll be running much in the way of hardware diagnostics, stress tests, software testing, and other important services that ensure any system we deal with is up to the tasks customers want from it.  We can also install other software at the customer's request, for a minor fee, depending on the amount or type of software requested.  Some tasks (such as old data transfer) can be done for a fee as well.

Now on to something that's not quite as "income conscious" as it could be.  In fact, it could even incur more effort and time than it might be worth.  However, I think it's important, and more importantly, it's unique.  I don't think any shop in town is doing anything like this.  (Though that might be for good reason.)  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty big on commentaries for movies and TV shows. They can be informative and entertaining simultaneously, which is a fairly rare thing.  So, I'm proposing this: film the building process and sell it to the customer on a DVD.

YouTube gets lots of videos like this, typically very instructional and fairly dry.  Now neither myself or the short list of people I'm wanting to work with me in this venture are stand-up comedians by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to think we're fairly funny folks.  So by filming the building process, step-by-step, with a running commentary that's funny, interesting, and educational, we can provide a valuable service to the customer (education, information, and entertainment) while connecting with the customers on a personal level, showing we're all part of the same group.  These videos would be custom made for each custom build customer (including systems brought in for us to build), incorporating their names and what we know about them into how these videos are presented.  I'd also want to create more generalized versions for each of our pre-built system tiers that's tailored to how those systems are built.  These would, of course, be an optional purchase, most likely no more than $15.

Like the podcast idea I mentioned previously, this wouldn't be a hugely profitable venture, at least not right away.  There's equipment and software to purchase, not to mention the extra time it will take to edit and produce these DVDs.  Unlike the podcasts, however, there is an actual revenue stream associated with this, albeit a small one.  What this has in common with the podcast idea is that it's unique, and can bring in customers that might not have bothered or noticed otherwise.  It's a hard thing to bring up in a straight advertisement (say a 30-second radio or TV ad), but that's why we're going to use lots of social media to push public awareness.

So, there's another post out into the world.  Feedback, folks.  Gimme some.

Shop Concepts / Ideas - Community

Some of you may know that I'm planning to open a custom computer / gaming center shop here in Fairbanks.  If you didn't know that... well, there it is.  In keeping with my weird brain ideas about such things, it's helpful to gauge public opinion.  I realize that my "audience" here (or on FB, twitter, etc.) isn't huge, and may not reach the majority of folks I'd like it to reach.  So sharing this post with friends or other interested parties would be greatly appreciated, especially if one lives in the Fairbanks area, and even if you don't, opinions are always appreciated.  That being said, I'd like to have some of these ideas down on (non-existent) paper, if for nothing else than to see how they look outside my head.

Community

 No, not the troubled-yet-awesome television show.  I'm speaking of the sense one gets of being in a close-knit of similarly passionate people.  (Which is, I guess, also the show.)  I've worked in one form of tech retail or another for almost 10 years, both in corporate and local settings.  Each method has it's upsides and faults, with very little experimentation or even attempts to find a middle ground.  Ever been to a highly polished multinational chain of stores?  Sure, they're pretty to look at, and the people who work there are helpful to a fault (and even then only occasionally), but there's a couple secrets going on behind the scenes that gives of a sense of "eeeyugh."  (At least, that's how it can be for me sometimes.)  My problems with corporate places are thus:

1. The people working there are helpful because they have to be.  Deep down, most of these folks working the sales floor want to figure out what you need, track it down, put it in your hands, get your money and send you out the door as fast as humanly possible.  I've worked at places that chastise their employees for spending more than 5 minutes with a customer, even to the extent of docking pay or hours.  Granted, this kind of policy is in place as a prep for the super-busy times (Black Friday, mainly), but I don't see that as an excuse.  Granted, there is the rare drop that is the genuinely interested (not to mention knowledgeable) employee, but those are few and far between.
2. Clean is okay.  Sterile is not.  A store's looks can be important, especially if there's a lot of physical product to show off.  But nothing irks me more than going into a store, seeing something cool, buying it, taking it home, and discovering that it doesn't look as cool as it did at the store.  This is usually on purpose, of course; tons of money is spent on just the right kind of lighting and materials that make products stand out to potential customers.  I'm of a firm belief that stores that sell such things as computers, televisions, and other such devices should display these items in such a fashion that is more realistic to a consumer's eye.
3. Needling money = not cool.  It's astounding how many corporate policies are in place to either A) keep from giving money back to customers, or B) get as much extra money out of them as possible.  This comes back up to my first point as well: one of the big reasons there are policies for getting people checked out quickly is so the customer has very little chance to second-guess their purchase.  If something does turn out wrong, there are many ways to override or diminish the chance of a return: restock fees, "exchange-only" programs, gift cards, etc.  I don't wholly disagree with a lot if these ideas; however, I don't think that giant corporate entities need to implement them.  These are more intended for smaller businesses to mitigate or control their losses as much as possible, since they don't have a few hundred million dollars to fall back on should things go way south.
4. Customers deserve a modicum of respect.   I'm not a fan of the idiom "The customer is always right."  It is flat out not true.  That said, they do require some measure of respect and attention.  Condescending to them isn't going to make them want to come back to your store anytime soon.  Granted, it's tougher in a retail job that's more tech-oriented, where customers often wander in without any real knowledge about what you're selling.  That's part of the job, really.  Get over it.  Yet I've been to many a place that treats it's customers as walking wallets that occasionally say things.  When a salesperson only asks a few questions (not really listening to what the customer is saying, just listening for key phrases to direct them to a particular product) and over half of them are things like "Have you heard about our new Visa card?" or "Would you like to hear about our extended warranties on this item?" or "Did I mention our super secret club card?" there's a problem afoot.

 Homegrown shops aren't perfect either.  I've walked into places where the very first thing I see upon opening the door is a giant wall of junk.  Not "crappy merchandise," I mean an entire large section of the store (which was set aside for tech work, I suppose) was entirely covered in old gutted machines, pieces and parts strewn about with no real order to anything, papers, trash, etc.  I felt like I needed a tetanus shot.  Homegrown shops aren't known for customer service, either.  I've been to plenty of places where the employees will completely ignore you until you track down an someone and ask a question, during which said employee rolls their eyes and acts like you interrupted something super important.

So, there's faults on both sides.  I'm not going to claim that I know of a perfect way to combine the positive aspects of both lines of thought, but I'm experienced enough to where I think I've got a pretty good idea of how people should be treated when they enter a business.

How does this come back to "community?"  I'll be honest: not all of it does.  But to me, that term covers many aspects of how it feels to be in a store: treatment by employees, fairness of policy, etc.  The sense that we're all here together in a common interest and passion is why places like this future store would exist in the first place.

Another aspect of the whole "community" thing is involvement.  I want the customers to be involved with how the store grows and operates as much as possible.  This could be just as simple as a "suggestion box," (which there will probably be), but also semi regular surveys, not to mention just flat out talking and hanging out with the people populating the seats.  A presence on the major social sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.) will be a major part of how we present ourselves to customers, as well as a gathering place for people to share what they like or dislike about the store itself.  But in the interests of being unique and such, I also propose this: a weekly podcast.

I'm a fan of a great many podcasts, particularly gaming ones.  Podtoid, Laser Time, Comedy Button, Rebel FM, Judge John Hodgman, and the Thrilling Adventure Hour are among the ones I listen to every week.  Inspired by some of these, along with the now-dead TalkRadar and Penny Arcade's Downloadable Content podcast, I'm planning to do a weekly podcast where members of the community (read: customers) may vie to join in a discussion about games, tech, movies, TV, comics; nerdy things in general.  Granted, we don't want each week's episode to be 5 or 6 hours long, so there will be a bit of an agenda for each episode, but what I love about many of the above podcasts is when they go off the rails with rants, sidebars, random thoughts, and heated (but friendly) debates, all covered in a fine layer of nerd and swearing.  We'd take a couple hours or so after the store is closed (or even before it opens) to record an episode, I'd edit it all together and upload it to iTunes and a few other services, as well as posting links to the episode to the previously mentioned social media.

There's a bit of extra cost and work associated with this, though.  Equipment, first of all.  One can't do something like this half-assed, especially if anywhere between 3 and 5 people are all going to be recorded on any given episode.  So, decent equipment is key, and it's not always cheap.  I've gotten some advice from the Laser Time guys (particularly the wonderful Chris Antista) about it, mainly because their podcasts regularly have numerous people on it while keeping a great level of sound quality.  Another cost is hosting.  There are plenty of places designed for podcast hosting, but it's still another monthly fee on top of all the other operating costs of the store itself.  I think it'll be worth it in the long run; maybe not monetarily, but in terms of getting our name out there for doing something no one else is really doing.

Another aspect of the "community" sense is how the store itself looks.  This includes the machines themselves, the point-of-sale, shelving, wiring, workspace, etc.  Some of that can be solved with a backroom for storage, tech work, system building; typical things that aren't really a part of the daily customer experience.  We'll also be spending lots of time and effort on cable management, both power and network, both for safety and connectivity's sake.  The machines themselves I'll talk about more in another post, but suffice to say that they'll be pretty without being overdone, with a few exceptions.  I'm also going to plaster the walls (and possibly ceilings) with posters: games, movies, comics; anything that's nerdy, popular, and just plain cool.  This may also extend into statues or action figures set up on display; because if good nerds love anything, it's to show off what they love.

Well, that's that for this post.  More ideas may crop up that fitin this category, and I'll try to work them into the relevant posts.  So, once again, I beg you to comment.  Bring suggestions or ideas of your own.  Criticize.  Brainstorm.  Call me an idiot.  Whatever.  I'm looking for feedback here, and the more the merrier.

Shop concepts/ideas - Pricing

Some of you may know that I'm planning to open a custom computer / gaming center shop here in Fairbanks.  If you didn't know that... well, there it is.  In keeping with my weird brain ideas about such things, it's helpful to gauge public opinion.  I realize that my "audience" here (or on FB, twitter, etc.) isn't huge, and may not reach the majority of folks I'd like it to reach.  So sharing this post with friends or other interested parties would be greatly appreciated, especially if one lives in the Fairbanks area, and even if you don't, opinions are always appreciated.  That being said, I'd like to have some of these ideas down on (non-existent) paper, if for nothing else than to see how they look outside my head.

 Pricing

This covers a few different aspects of the store, and possibly will be the most "visible" part of the business.  As such, having a unique structure is key to being distinct.  Starting with the computer shop aspect of the store, I'd like to do something not seen very often in "smaller" or "custom" computer stores: pre-built price points.  Basically, 2 or 3 pre-built computer "models" (or SKUs, for those of you in the retail know-how) at a set price, that are either already built and ready to be given to a customer right away, or at least have the required parts themselves kept in regular stock as to avoid waiting for parts to ship.  My initial idea was for 3 skus:

1. A "general use" machine, not super powerful, but enough to do more "everyday" things, such as emails, word processing (or other business/school type applications), web browsing, some multimedia functionality, etc.  It'd retail for about $600-700.
2. A more powerful second tier, which would be just a step or so less powerful (if not completely the same) than the machines that would used for the "standard" tier of gaming machines that customers would use in the shop itself.  (More on that later.)  It'd be suitable for HD media, higher-end gaming, some minor video/photo editing, etc.  Price on these would be around $1200-1300.
3. The final tier is the big banana, so to speak.  A massive gaming machine built to handle current as well as future gaming software with very little metaphorical sweat breaking.  I'm talking high-end processors with overclocking and liquid cooling; multiple graphics cards in a SLI or CrossFireX configuration; SSD boot drives alongside typical mechanical storage drives, and more.  The market for these machines isn't huge, and I doubt I'd keep very much of these particular components in stock, but it would be a sight to see.  For about $2500+, it'd better be.

Naturally, these ideas are all subject to change, but I think that's a pretty solid lineup.  I would, of course, also be able to custom build a computer to whatever specs/designs a customer wants.  I've done things like hand-built custom water cooling solutions, custom case lighting, even some case modding (though it's not my favorite thing to do in the world).  These things fall into my proverbial wheelhouse, and I'd like to share these skills as best I can.

Not for free though, which brings me to another point: repair/diagnostic prices.  I find it mildly irritating that so many places want as much as $100 for an hour's worth of work diagnosing or fixing computer problems.  I understand that it's a valuable service, especially for businesses that need their equipment, but at some point it becomes customer gouging, and I just can't do that.  That being said, I haven't mentally settled on an hourly rate for tech services as of yet, but I do know it'll be surprising to a great many people.  There will be flat price points for more common ailments and services; this is a pretty common practice, and I'll be doing my best to stay competitive and fair with those as well.

This brings me to the pricing structure for the gaming center itself.  Common practices are to charge an hourly fee to use the provided machines, primarily for gaming, but also for more general internet usage, printing, etc.  This has worked for a couple decades, along with discounts for purchasing longer blocks of time.  I've even seen "combo" deals, which include a block of time, a drink and a snack.  All good ideas, ones I plan to implement.  However, one thing I haven't really seen much of is something that MMO players have been used to for almost 10 years now: monthly fees.

The concept that I had was this: a customer pays a monthly fee, giving them a large chunk of time to use over the course of that month.  This fee (or subscription, club, plan, whatever) also entitles said customer to discounts on snacks as well as on time blocks, should they go over their monthly limit.  The time in the initial block can be applied to both the "standard" machines as well as the fancier machines for a better, unique experience, which normally cost a little extra to use. (Again, more on this later.)  It wouldn't have to be a recurring fee, of course; it could just be a kind if extended "special" that can optionally recurred at the customer's discretion.  This structure would encourage folks to come into the store more often (possibly bringing friends), if for anything else than to get cheap snacks and use up the time they've got.

That's all I got for this particular subject.  I'll expand more on the computer building, gaming center, and other ideas in later posts.  Comment, folks; either on here or on Facebook.