Let's say you want to buy a car. You go to the dealer and there are dozens of cars available. Unfortunately, you are only allowed to make your buying decision by reading the stickers on the cars. You may not open the doors. You may not take a test drive. You only have the advice of the salesperson to help. Would you buy a car at this dealership? Of course not!

Then isn't it amazing that you as a game retailer expect the same thing from your customers? When customers enter your Store, they are shopping for entertainment. They want something that will be a fun way to spend their continually infrequent free time. That's a tall order. Only they know what their personal definitions of "fun" are. However, they are trapped. Most of your stock is hidden behind a layer of plastic!

If there was only a way for customers to "kick the tires" before they make their purchases. If only you could break that plastic wrap and let the customer look inside, so they can be their own judge. But you can't do that, because then the game is no longer wrapped, and no longer "new". Well, now you can. All you have to do is make one small purchase: a shrink-wrap machine.

If you don't know what a shrink-wrap machine is, it's very simple. Basically, it is a simple apparatus that holds a large roll of shrink- wrap plastic. On one end is a long arm with a heating element along its base. The heated arm is used to seal the plastic together, and then you use a heat gun (like a hair dryer, but a bit hotter) to heat tip the plastic.

When it heats up the plastic shrinks down, seating whatever is inside. This is what is used to put the plastic wrap on your games, but the one you want is much less industrial, and much less expensive!

Once you get your shrink-wrapper, you will be amazed at how handy it is. You'll wonder how you ever did without one! Not only will you become much more educated about your products, your customers will love you for it!

As soon as you receive a shipment of new games, bust one or two open. Place one in your New Products area, so your customers can open the box and have a look inside. Don't worry about your product becoming damaged, we all know that gamers tend to be very careful about maintaining their games, and are even more careful if the game does not belong to them. The other game you opened goes behind the counter with you for a couple of days, so you have something to look through during your slow times. This will give you a chance to read up on a new product, which will make you a better, more informed retailer.

If a customer is considering a game purchase, offer to open it up for them, but be sure you mention your shrink-wrapper! Often when you offer to open a game, the customer will feel that once the wrap is off, they will be obliged to buy it. Simply say something like "Would you like me to open the game so you can get a better look at it? It's OK, we've got a shrink-wrapper so I can wrap it back up again." Now that is customer service!

Product displays become a breeze. I remember when Games Workshop came out with their big box version of Warhammer 40,000. That was one heavy box, which is quite impressive. But it's not nearly impressive as actually looking inside! What we did was place a table near the front of the store with a stack of Warhammer 40K games next to it. On the table we placed the contents of one of the games, nicely arranged and visually appealing. We sold those games fast, and with very little work. In effect, we let the game sell itself! And when we were finished, we packed the display game up, put a fresh layer of shrink-wrap over it, and put it on the shelf. The customers got to pore over the contents, we had a terrificlooking display, and everyone was happy.

Sound expensive? Well, it's not. The initial cost of a good shrink-wrapper is only a couple hundred bucks, and I practically guarantee that you'll make up that overhead in no time with increased sales. You can probably find a nice selection of shrink-wrappers from the place you purchased your store fixtures from. Just be sure you get one that can handle those big boxes from Games Workshop!

BRYAN WINTER IS THE DESIGNER OF THE DOOMTROOPER CARD GAME.

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
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