Opinions/thoughts needed on Poker Store opening

Hey all,

I wanted to throw this out there to get some honest opinions and answers on the topic. Hopefully you will all help us to design a better store. We are opening a store dedicated to the game of poker and we hope to be open in a few months. I want it to be a place where the dedicated player can feel at home, as well as the place where the non-player can come to shop for the player in the family. We will carry everything you can dream of when it comes to poker. The obvious, such as a wide assortment of tables, chips and cards, to books, DVD's, clothing, jewelry, collectables, novelities, custom everything, decor, etc... We will offer all this plus rentals, from single table to full tournament and everythign you would need for it (chips, cards, blind clock/software, accessories, etc.) On top of all this, we are working on having pro players come to do book signings, apprearences and seminars.

This is just the start for us, we are expanding the ideas every week and now we need to start putting it all together. Funny, when we first toyed with the idea, we didn't think there were enough of a variety of items to do it. Now, we might have to pass on some things just because we will not have room.

What I was hoping to get from here is opinions on what you think of this idea? What would you want to see in this store if it was in your town? What could make it stand out? What could give it validation as a true players store? What can we do to make it better?

Any and all thoughts are greatly apprecaited.

Thanks,
Eric Miozzi
bodyinked@comcast.net

[Pov]

First off, good luck in your endeavor. I sincerely wish you success.

If you were going to attract me as a customer your best bet would be to have staff or at least some of your staff who really knew the game of poker and your merchandise so they could recommend good books that just came in, are coming in, etc., whether to buy Kems or Copags, types of chips, etc. There is a novelty/game store that I frequent - they don't have the best prices in town, but they always have the new stuff and the skinny on whether it's any good. They alerted me 6 months in advance when Axis & Allies Revised was coming out because they knew I'd like the game from the other games I was looking at. They just really love their products. So when I get in the mood to find a new strategy game, I go there and ask what I should buy. I think you could possibly replicate that sort of relationship and it would likely win you the more serious players who are likely to be repeat customers.

[lighterjobs]

where are you going to be located?

[Luv2DriveTT]

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.... or it won't work.

Think about it for a minute, how many gambling stores have you ever visited? I've visited only two, and they are also the only two that I have ever heard of... and one of them one of them actually seems to be making a decent income.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]