OK, so I’m closing today. For the forseeable future.
The science says that I’m probably closing for a minimum of twelve weeks and a potential maximum of eighteen months. There’s nothing I can do to change that. It is what it is. And that’s my first tip for retailers to survive the epidemic of COVID-19 and the rather exceptional public health crisis we are hoping to live through.
1) It is what it is.
Everyone knows that grief has five stages – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Kubler-Ross added two more – shock to begin with and testing right before acceptance. Some people add in hope, and an upturn at the end.
Hey, we all watched Endgame.
We are nerds running nerd businesses. We know the score.
Everyone deals with grief personally, in their own way, in their own time. But right now that’s time we don’t have. Decisions will be made by governments on bailouts and furloughs and lockdowns. And you cannot afford to find yourself trapped in reaction to the now.
You must plan.
Some businesses will not survive. If nothing is done to solve the economic contagion, well, there won’t be much of an economy left. So something will have to be done. The games industry is small, but we have the same supply chain issues as every other industry – no stores mean no distributors mean no publishers mean no manufacturers. And that’s writ large across many industries many orders of magnitude bigger than ours. You think that fashion outlet needs its summer collection now? What about the winter collection, ready to be made in factories in Bangladesh? Who is paying for these things, making these things, shipping these things, receiving these things?
It’s not just us.
Depression is solipsistic. It makes us think we are alone. But we aren’t.
2) Science doesn’t lie.
The data says twelve weeks to six months of non essential shutdown. I know you were told to shut for two weeks or a month, but it seems likely that this was just your government trying to get you TO close. No scientific study says a two week lockdown will help in the slightest. So we have to assume this will be longer.
3) The sooner you act – on anything – the more ahead of the curve you are
In the UK we are about ten days behind Lombardy and a week behind Spain and France. You are a week behind us in the US. Right now you have agency and so you should act.
4) Remove consumables from your store
Sure, chips and soda may not be your priority right now. But they won’t do you any good locked in your store. Remove your food, your toilet paper, your cleaning products – anything you can make use of at home. You can always bring them back.
Without restaurants and takeaways, rats in city centres will be starving. If you have food on your premises and they find a way in, you will have a potential infestation upon your return. Rats always find a way to survive.
5) Remove valuables from your store
I don’t carry a lot of high end comics or high end Magic cards. But I know that, should bad things happen, I would want them where I could personally secure them and keep them secure.
6) Remove your computers
I have all sorts of stuff on my store computers. Maybe I’ll need it, maybe I won’t. I would prefer to err on the side of caution, and have anything at hand that I might possibly need than to find I needed it and didn’t have it and couldn’t get it.
7) Close in an orderly fashion
You can wait for a lockdown order. But then you don’t know from day to day how much you might need to suddenly do. My country was suddenly ordered to close all pubs and restaurants at short notice – one day it was fine, the next OMG EVERYBODY PANIC.
The more you can make this process orderly, the less your community will panic. As the Titanic sank, the orchestra played. People need normality, structure, order. And our nerd communities look to us to provide it.
8) Inform your distributors that you are no longer accepting orders
Ask them to freeze your pre-orders if possible, and cancel them if not. Money coming in is less important than money going out. Because it is likely that you will have no means of selling it. Non-essential lockdown also includes distribution in non-food industries.
That Magic set? It’s not coming. And if it is, none of us are in a position to run it – even if any of us by then are in a position to sell it (which I strongly doubt). But a far worse case is you are in lockdown with no incoming revenue and $40K of Magic sat on a pallet outside a store you can’t get to.
9) All outgoings will damage your survivability as a business
Talk to your suppliers. Seriously, THEY KNOW THE SCORE. They watch the news. Talk to your landlord. Who is going to rent your unit if they evict you? Nobody – the economy won’t recover for a decade or more.
This. Sucks. But it sucks equally for everyone. I’m a straight shooter and I pay my suppliers – mostly on time, often quicker if I get better terms. But if it’s a choice between that or paying my staff? It’s no contest at all.
There are obviously exceptions to this.
10) Not every business will survive
At the moment? Without a economy rescue package like the UK or Denmark or France? None do. But even with a rescue package some won’t. I’m sorry if that is you. I hope it is not.
Our publishing partners are probably in a worse position than us. The market was due for a correction, and this is probably going to be it. People who are massively over extended, with large print runs and nowhere to sell them are going to find it hard.
On the plus side, the global population of the world just realised how awesome boardgames are. On the minus side, six months of quarantine might mean they never want to play another one, once this is over.
11) Board up your store
After a month of isolation, folks will be pretty desperate. Most people understand the need to isolate for the wellbeing of others, but if criminals thought of the wellbeing of others they wouldn’t be criminals in the first place. Addicts need their drugs, even in a lockdown.
Isolation affects people in different ways. We cannot predict them, but we can mitigate against them. Our countries are not used to having their freedoms curtailed, and in mine – when that happens – as it has several times in the past, we riot. We loot.
We cannot expect that not to happen because it is already happening. There are not enough police to secure the entire population – this isn’t China.
Board up your store. Secure anything that you cannot afford to lose. The rest of it is only stuff.
12) Safeguard your staff
Those you have left. If you are a small family operation you have it lucky. It might not feel like it right now. Your staff are blameless. But they know the score. My government put a grant in place so that staff I needed to furlough would get 80% of their incomes paid by the government as a form of inverse taxation.
Safeguarding means protecting them as best I can from the virus – both my staff and my customers. But it also means safeguarding them psychologically. Even existing in a time like this causes stress – and the more stress we cause, the more damage we cause. That’s not why I am in business.
I’m in the fun and happiness business.
I’ve given my staff permission to loot the store of stuff they might need. Boardgames, miniatures, paints – anything they can use during our lockdown. It’s sure as hell not doing me any good. In return they are going to be handling engagement on social media, because my store is my community and I need to serve and protect that community as best I can.
In a worst case scenario? That stock was looted. Burned. Flooded. Repossessed by my creditors. It does me no good right now, and unless there are some pretty amazing economy rescue packages in place, it’s not doing me any good in the long term future I envisage. So lets make it work in the short term.
13) Safeguard your community
My store is a community store. An Organised Play store. I prosper when my community is healthy and happy, and right now it is neither.
How can I make my community happy when I can’t sell stuff to them or host events? Well, I can still host events for one thing – I can host discord servers, and Arena, and Roll 20. I can post happy and uplifting videos, game reviews, miniatures painting tips, DMing tips – working on that one personally.
I can fill the world with light and laughter, like I filled my physical store.
And you can too.
14) You are not an organised play store any more.
The effects of social distancing for a year or more probably destroy this as a viable model. Until we get the all clear, which may be eighteen months out. Even after then, the psychological pressure of quarantine may linger long after the virus has gone.
You are an organised play virtual world.
A lighthouse
It’s time to lean in, games industry. We cannot change the now. It is what it is. We have to step up to the plate for the common weal. Do the things society needs us to do, because we have nothing else that we can do.
But if not us, who?
Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. One foot in front of the other. It is what it is.
Until it isn’t.
15) Your mental health is important
This? This will hopefully be the worst thing you ever endure. It’s impossible to understate the psychological trauma of losing a thing you have poured your heart and soul into. That grief you feel is real. That shock, that anger, that depression.
Sometimes helping others helps. Exercise. Good diet. Talking to others. Depression by its nature is solipsistic, self isolating. It wants you to shut down, to shut out, to spiral. And you’ll want to too.
We set up a Roll Through It discord server. We know that social spaces and social gaming help boost oxytocin levels, that doing boosts dopamine levels, that exercise and sunlight boosts seratonin and that everything is boosted by good diet. Guess what? Nobody is getting any of that.
Try and keep active. Try and keep connected. Try and keep well fed and watered. Drink tea. You crazy people are the best people in the world. Together we built a network of third spaces that made the world a happier place. Nobody had ever built anything like that before. But they will again.
We will again. Premium store or clubhouse, you mattered. And you still do. Your customers need you like my customers and my staff need me. The world was better with each and every one of you in it.
Lets try and keep it that way.
Until we meet again.
My name is Dave Salisbury, and I have been the Quantum Retailer.
The Quantum Retailer 