So, why didn’t I sell, online until now? Well, I did. Back in the early years of the Internet I ran the online arm of Travelling Man. Back then the world’s two biggest stores were Sentry Box in Canada and Leisure games in London. The things that mattered most was service, reliability and actually having …
Continue reading “Fan Boy Three Online – five lessons and one moral”
So, how does a quantum retailer approach the issue of lockdown? This is in many ways a typical quantum retail problem – the interplay between two competing forces, in this case the needs of the individual versus the needs of society. It’s Kirk and Spock at the end of Wrath of Khan. Or Beyond Darkness …
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 …
Continue reading “COVID-19 – fifteen tips on surviving the apocalypse”
I’m closing Tuesday whatever the government decide to do. I BELIEVE that retail is important. That games are important. That saying goodbye to our friends is important. I stayed open in order for people to do that, obeyed slightly more than the letter the government set out for me, hoping that they would take the …
Back at Essen I met some very nice people. Where I grew up in Bristol there was this trade show celebrating wine. It was the World Wine Fair. It was held annually – every wine producing country would take a stand, every wine distributor – wine, wine, wine. Everywhere. The consulates would be involved. Everyone …
Continue reading “All grapes ferment differently (and some go sour)”
Everything I learned about running a game store, I learned playing Dungeons and Dragons. “No Bob, you can’t buy potions for the same price you SELL them for – how would store owners make any money?” Seriously though, my store shares a lot of traits with a D&D character. And yours does too. Let’s start …
Once upon a time there were two types of cricketers. The first were Gentlemen. A Gentleman played cricket because he loved cricket. Independently wealthy, the Gentleman could play when he wanted, or not as the mood took him. The second were the Players. They played cricket because they had a natural aptitude for playing cricket, …
Today we are talking about gatekeeping. Whether I intended to be or not, I grew up to be a gatekeeper. No, literally. I have a literal gate. Well, it’s more of a door really. People are always asking me, how do I get more folks into the store and, well, the answer is throw that …
I order biblically. It was the Jews of Alexandria who first translated the Old Testament into Greek in the 3rd century BC. Alexander the Great had conquered most of the Ancient World and invented ice cream by then, and Koine Greek had become to lingua franca of its day. This version – the Septuagint – …
The first city states sprang up along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Eridu. Uruk. Ur. The history of cities is the history of trade, because it is impossible to centralise all those amenities and bureaucracy in one place without centralising goods and/or services. Without trade everyone starves. We merchants serve a function. The Jamey Stegmeier …
Continue reading “Two Hundred Thousand Years of Retail – Part Two”
The Quantum Retailer