Competing Stores

[Kayradis]

Guys,
I'm simply asking for opinions and input here.

I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. The population here is roughly 413,710.
In the past year, more and more store started running Magic event. At this point we have 5(!) different store running MtG events and most of the time, conflicting with each other.

I am a T.O. in one of the store in the afore mentionned town. In the past months, more and more beef has arisen between store owners/T.O. and Lvl.1 Judges affiliated to specific stores.

We still have a healty MtG Community and as far as I know, we have between 24-36 people at every FNMs.
Did any of you faced a situation like that before in your respective town?
What course of action was taken to clear up those problems?

Thanks!

[Lemnear]

Communication ... Call those store owners together and setup a schedule for tourneys for Fri/Sat/Sun Modern/Legacy/Draft with a weekly or Bi-weekly switch aka

1st Sat Legacy, 2nd Sat Modern, 3rd Sat Legacy, 4th Sat Draft
1st Fr Draft, 2nd Fr Legacy, 3rd Fr Modern, 4th Fr Legacy
etc.

Stealing customers and helding 4-5 parallel tournaments at Saturday is bullshit and won't work out for long in a City with "only" half a million citizens

[Kayradis]

There is some stores that are already adapting to that whole way of thinking.
Unfortunately, there's one recluant store (the newest one) that is one huge pain in the arse for me lately.
I'm trying to be impartial and not take sides in front of yougers/more casual players, but let's simply say that lately they have been a real nuisance

[Lemnear]

In that case you have to draw away his customers the hard way. Make the store more attraktive in terms of inventory (playmats, sleeves and dices, buying/selling a small Collection of Chase-cards) and host good tournaments in a clean room (some store owners have no idea how many peeps beyond their twenties are droven away by dirty, dark and smelly-rooms).

Problem should solve in about half a year.

[Kayradis]

I'm slowly gaining the upper hand I think.
I can fit approx. 36-40 player comfortably in my store, have A/C in the summer and Im starting to host Win-A-Dual Legacy tournaments in the upcoming months on a monthly basis (This one got a blue dual for first, scrubland second and plateau third place).

I'm also making sure I have better supplies and Single inventory.

Jeez. I fucking hate drama

[Lemnear]

Read about the tourney on FB. Contact my Management if you want to book me as a "fly-in" ;)

[Kayradis]

Hahaha. Will you pay for your flight cost? :P

[Julian23]

From my experiences, the stores I love going to most are the ones with the best playing area, atmsophere and service. Of course, prizes have to be not to shabby in the end but if your business is prospering, you shouldn't be afraid to reinvest 100% of the attendance fee into prizes. If you've got a really got stock of singles and a wide range of Magic accessoires like cool playmats, sleeves etc., people will unload their cash there. Whenever we drive up to the store in Nuremberg for example, which is already a 1,5-2h car ride in itself, everyone of us leaves behind at least 20€ in cards and other stuff; sometimes way more.

Think about it this way: you're not earning the money through the tournament itself. You're earning it because there is a tournament. The presence of a tournament scene in itself helps you in selling your stuff.

Regarding the quality of the playing area, here are some things our stores do that I really like:

- Pairings on a LCD Flatscreen (no more crowding)
- Good and clean chairs and tables. This should go without saying, but I absolutely hate waggling tables.
- Minimize downtimes inbetween rounds, input results fast and get up new pairings soon; nobody likes waiting 15 minutes inbetween rounds.
- Allow players to submit their decklist by email
- Post Top8 decklists the same evening, the event took place; people like reliable sources of information while others want to be proud of their accomplishment. Accepting email decklists helps a lot in saving time here btw
- Allow players to send you lists of cards they want to buy which you will already have prepared for them when they arrive at the store
- Important: have either good air condition or another way to bring in fresh air
- Sell snacks and drinks but make it clear that people shouldn't litter the playing area
- Have a good (fast-)food place nearby where people can eat inbetween rounds if they finish early. If your tournament is on a regular schedule, maybe negotiate a deal with the owner (if it's a private place; guess McDonalds etc. wont do that) like buy 3 hot dogs, pay for 2 and let your players know about it.

[Megadeus]

Our general area has around 4 or 5 stores. They generally work with each other for weekend events so that they aren't stepping on each other's tournaments. Of course only one of the stores has a weekly legacy, but I like that store most despite it being about 15 more minutes away because it is a good atmosphere and has a lot of space.

[stage]

I second what Lemnear and Julian said - there are really two options:

1) Coordinate tournaments with other stores

2) Make yourself more attractive than the other stores

Each option has its merits and it's difficult to make a recommendation without knowing more details.

stage

[apple713]

Julian hit the nail on the head.

Food in the store is great as long as i don't feel like I'm getting raked over the coals when i buy it. If there are no food places close offer something like a hot pocket or something more substantial. We expect to pay more cause its convenient but no one likes to feel like they were really price gouged especially on a bag of chips and a coke.

Cleanliness is huge for my wife. We play together and theres 1 store that she loves to play at because of the atmosphere.

Additionally she enjoys the people that play at the store and the community it attracts. If someone in your store is causing a rucus or being a dick, maybe its time to talk with him or ban him from the store. It's not worth keeping him around if he drives off 5 players.

One thing i'd like to see is if a store is trying to set up a new event maybe they should take a poll on what day the players that would be most interested in it would be free. There are 2 legacy tournaments in dallas that fire, one on saturday night and one on tuesday night. I'll go to the one on tuesday night 100 times more than the one on saturday night. Legacy players typically have busier schedules and more responsibilities and giving up a saturday night for someone who works during the week is huge.

[Kayradis]

Guys,
Thanks you all for your input, it's greatly appreciated.
Some of your recommendations were already happening before the whole thing happenned, but Ill keep pushing and keep you informed!

[anonymos]

Environment is huge. There's a local store here that's suffering from it. The stored moved locations about two years ago. At the same time, another store started doing weekly events that is about 20 miles further away. A whole group of people swapped to the new store. Why? Parking at the stores new location is forced into a paid parking structure that is in a maze of one way streets, while the other place has a huge shopping center parking lot associated with it. The other benefit of the new store over the store that moved? The moving store made players play in the basement where it echoed BADLY and had poor ventilation. The store that moved went from weekly legacy events of 30+ to maybe a dozen because of people driven off by their new location.

TLDR: People will go a little further for a store that makes things more comfortable for them. Take care of your customers and not your profit margins and you will build a steady base of players.