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The original was posted on /r/boardgames by /u/robstinator on 2023-10-01 06:25:45.
So, I live in a small town in Canada. My wife and I own our home that we could sell for roughly $400k CAD. There is a building in the middle of town; prime location that is listed for $370k. However, it has been listed for quite some time and will likely sell for closer to $320k-340k. So, we're considering selling our home to buy this commercial building and keep our same mortgage. The building has a decent apartment above with 2 bedrooms and a small backyard for our 2 dogs. The main floor has a bit over 500 sq ft store front and a basement that could be used as storage. The basement is pretty dingy, but we could potentially renovate it and use it for board gaming.
On a side note, my wife doesn't drive, so I usually drive her to work or she has to walk if I can't drive her. The location is a minute walk to her work. So, she would still be working while I run the store most of the time. Normally, I wouldn't even consider this idea if we had to rent or purchase the storefront. But, if we can live and work in the same building it makes more sense. So, my small town only has a population of around 3000 people or less. There are many surrounding areas and it sees plenty of tourism due to it being in between all the bigger cities. Being that it's a small town, a lot of people complain that there is nothing to do here. People like to go hunting, fishing, dirt biking, ATV, etc. However, there's just as many people who don't do that sort of thing and find themselves bored and not fitting in.
So, I should also mention there are no other game stores in my town. In fact, there isn't even an electronics store anymore. "The Source" was sold a couple years ago to an older lady who didn't have any interest in that, so she turned it into some other store. The closest thing this town has is a pawn shop that sells the odd used retro game. So, I'm thinking we would sell a multitude of things including used/CIB retro games, newer games/consoles, trading cards, board games, DnD/Pathfinder books, comics, plushies, and other merch. If enough people in the town are into wargaming, we could get into 3D printing figures for customers too. My wife and I have talked to plenty of people about their thoughts on it and they're all super stoked about coming to our store to play games and be a customer.
We've done some small businesses from home as a hobby, but haven't done anything close to this scale yet. So, we have a lot to learn for sure, but it wouldn't change the cost of our mortgage, so we have some wiggle room for failure. Being that it's a small town, word gets around really fast so marketing would be very easy. So, getting customers shouldn't be an issue, but maintaining a constant inventory, getting good distributors, etc. But, I don't expect huge profits. I'd even be happy with equal profits to a minimum wage full-time job if it means I get to do something I truly enjoy.
If anybody has some advice on the matter, I'd highly appreciate it! Things like, the best distributors to use in Canada. Other products or services I could offer, etc. I considered the idea of hosting tournaments with prizes, but I realize I'm not allowed to take admission fees for that as it could be seen as gambling. Thanks again to anyone who can offer advice for my wife and I :)