the spouse joked that i should start a movie rental store and folks
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i’m simultaneously going “i don’t know if i should carry modern shows” and going “well Of Course we’d have all of Columbo”
also just made the unilateral decision that “no, we *don’t* need to carry the wizard movies”
Okay, so I think this is cool and I've done it, and I would like to talk to you about some lessons learned if you're open to it?
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Okay, so I think this is cool and I've done it, and I would like to talk to you about some lessons learned if you're open to it?
@ajroach42 very yes!! i’ve been scrambling through articles for suggestions on starting and they’re all super vague and obviously not coming from experience
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i’m simultaneously going “i don’t know if i should carry modern shows” and going “well Of Course we’d have all of Columbo”
also just made the unilateral decision that “no, we *don’t* need to carry the wizard movies”
@hex wait, we talking "Wizard of Oz" or "Ralph Bakshi Wizards"?
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@hex wait, we talking "Wizard of Oz" or "Ralph Bakshi Wizards"?
@Thatonepersonwithaface me angrily pointing at a sign that says “unless it’s Gandalf we do not respect any wizards in films”
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@Thatonepersonwithaface me angrily pointing at a sign that says “unless it’s Gandalf we do not respect any wizards in films”
@hex Now I know why Jesus was flipping tables, if you can't recognize my gun wielding wizard buddy
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@ajroach42 very yes!! i’ve been scrambling through articles for suggestions on starting and they’re all super vague and obviously not coming from experience
Alright, this is a very loose collection of thoughts of things that you'll need to think about if you're opening a retail business for the first time *and* a bit of information about doing a video business in particular.
We had to bail on doing video rental stuff because we were spread to thin. I still sell tapes and DVDs, but we don't do rentals anymore. I'm interested in picking it back up eventually but our town is not big enough to support it full time.
1) Don't rent your originals. Format shifting and backups are legal. Get yourself an ecotank style printer that has a disk printing tray and make backups of your originals, rent the backups.
It's unlikely that anyone is going to *tell you* that this is what every remaining video store in the country is doing, but I guarantee you that nearly every remaining video store in the country is doing this.
2) make sure you've got a ton of retail product to go with your rentals. Candy, snacks, branded t-shirts, tote bags, etc. Have a product that people who just stumble on can buy.
Keep at least a few used movies on hand that people can buy. Consider setting up with Alliance or AMS and carrying newly produced titles as well, but margins here aren't great and and you shouldn't feel bad if you skip it.
(1/? I'll just keep going till I run out of stuff to say.)
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Alright, this is a very loose collection of thoughts of things that you'll need to think about if you're opening a retail business for the first time *and* a bit of information about doing a video business in particular.
We had to bail on doing video rental stuff because we were spread to thin. I still sell tapes and DVDs, but we don't do rentals anymore. I'm interested in picking it back up eventually but our town is not big enough to support it full time.
1) Don't rent your originals. Format shifting and backups are legal. Get yourself an ecotank style printer that has a disk printing tray and make backups of your originals, rent the backups.
It's unlikely that anyone is going to *tell you* that this is what every remaining video store in the country is doing, but I guarantee you that nearly every remaining video store in the country is doing this.
2) make sure you've got a ton of retail product to go with your rentals. Candy, snacks, branded t-shirts, tote bags, etc. Have a product that people who just stumble on can buy.
Keep at least a few used movies on hand that people can buy. Consider setting up with Alliance or AMS and carrying newly produced titles as well, but margins here aren't great and and you shouldn't feel bad if you skip it.
(1/? I'll just keep going till I run out of stuff to say.)
@ajroach42 my mind is already bursting on point 1!!
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@ajroach42 my mind is already bursting on point 1!!
@ajroach42 also i panicked when i saw “our twin wasn’t big enough to support us full time” but according to 2020 census we were 10 times the size of your city and were growing big time so i might be okay
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@ajroach42 also i panicked when i saw “our twin wasn’t big enough to support us full time” but according to 2020 census we were 10 times the size of your city and were growing big time so i might be okay
@hex our town has a population of 3k, and is incredibly poor.
With the addition of books and records, we can support multiple full time employees. When we had a location that was just doing movie rentals and sales, we were only doing a few hundred dollars a week out of that location, but I didn't ever take the time to market it correctly.
I still sell 500 - 1000 dollars of mostly used VHS and DVD every month, in spite of the fact that we're no longer doing rental.
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Alright, this is a very loose collection of thoughts of things that you'll need to think about if you're opening a retail business for the first time *and* a bit of information about doing a video business in particular.
We had to bail on doing video rental stuff because we were spread to thin. I still sell tapes and DVDs, but we don't do rentals anymore. I'm interested in picking it back up eventually but our town is not big enough to support it full time.
1) Don't rent your originals. Format shifting and backups are legal. Get yourself an ecotank style printer that has a disk printing tray and make backups of your originals, rent the backups.
It's unlikely that anyone is going to *tell you* that this is what every remaining video store in the country is doing, but I guarantee you that nearly every remaining video store in the country is doing this.
2) make sure you've got a ton of retail product to go with your rentals. Candy, snacks, branded t-shirts, tote bags, etc. Have a product that people who just stumble on can buy.
Keep at least a few used movies on hand that people can buy. Consider setting up with Alliance or AMS and carrying newly produced titles as well, but margins here aren't great and and you shouldn't feel bad if you skip it.
(1/? I'll just keep going till I run out of stuff to say.)
3) Customers come to physical media stores because they want expert opinions, or because they're looking for something outside of their area of expertise.
Always assume that every customer who walks through the door is incredibly knowledgeable about everything that you sell, and also that they don't know anything about anything.
This is a difficult thing to do, and sounds like nonsense, but it has been vital to our success selling records and books. Enter into every conversation ready to both learn and teach, It makes all the difference!
Nearly everyone is super knowledgeable about some very deep and narrow part of your library, and in that space they're going to be able to run circles around you (probably) or they'll be able to keep up with you in breadth (so you'll have to depend on depth.)
What this means for us in practice: Reviews, staff picks, zines, etc. We're constantly doing more and more things to highlight specific pieces of lesser known media (But Also we're working under the assumption that, no matter how well known a piece of media is, it's unknown to someone. So every time we do some reviews, we include one or two Big titles along with some of the more obscure ones.)
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3) Customers come to physical media stores because they want expert opinions, or because they're looking for something outside of their area of expertise.
Always assume that every customer who walks through the door is incredibly knowledgeable about everything that you sell, and also that they don't know anything about anything.
This is a difficult thing to do, and sounds like nonsense, but it has been vital to our success selling records and books. Enter into every conversation ready to both learn and teach, It makes all the difference!
Nearly everyone is super knowledgeable about some very deep and narrow part of your library, and in that space they're going to be able to run circles around you (probably) or they'll be able to keep up with you in breadth (so you'll have to depend on depth.)
What this means for us in practice: Reviews, staff picks, zines, etc. We're constantly doing more and more things to highlight specific pieces of lesser known media (But Also we're working under the assumption that, no matter how well known a piece of media is, it's unknown to someone. So every time we do some reviews, we include one or two Big titles along with some of the more obscure ones.)
@hex
The other thing this means for us is that we're constantly taking notes, consuming new stuff, learning new things. We've learned a lot from some of our regulars.We've also learned not to trust some of our customers.
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@hex
The other thing this means for us is that we're constantly taking notes, consuming new stuff, learning new things. We've learned a lot from some of our regulars.We've also learned not to trust some of our customers.
@ajroach42 LMAO to that last point
this is all good and i love learning and sharing my film knowledge so this fits with what i was hoping to have as a relationship with customers.
and the way i tactfully work around that is “ah it seems our taste in film do not align. here’s something you might like though”
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@hex
The other thing this means for us is that we're constantly taking notes, consuming new stuff, learning new things. We've learned a lot from some of our regulars.We've also learned not to trust some of our customers.
4) The primary job of running a media store is filing. You're going to be filing constantly. Some folks find this meditative. Other folks find it Infuriating. It's hard to know which it will be before you until you've done it.
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4) The primary job of running a media store is filing. You're going to be filing constantly. Some folks find this meditative. Other folks find it Infuriating. It's hard to know which it will be before you until you've done it.
@ajroach42 i can dig it. one of my favorite parts of getting new laserdiscs in the mail is filing it into the collection
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4) The primary job of running a media store is filing. You're going to be filing constantly. Some folks find this meditative. Other folks find it Infuriating. It's hard to know which it will be before you until you've done it.
@hex
5) Staff!If you've never had staff before, even if you've manged people, it's a real weird experience.
Under almost all circumstances you're going to want at least one or two people working with you, beyond yourself and your family. There are *lots* of reasons for that, not the least of which is that households tend to get sick as a unit. You don't want to have to close because your whole household is sick.
Couples/families can absolutely make it work as the primary shop staff, I've known several shops that did it, but I advise against making it the long term plan.
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@hex
5) Staff!If you've never had staff before, even if you've manged people, it's a real weird experience.
Under almost all circumstances you're going to want at least one or two people working with you, beyond yourself and your family. There are *lots* of reasons for that, not the least of which is that households tend to get sick as a unit. You don't want to have to close because your whole household is sick.
Couples/families can absolutely make it work as the primary shop staff, I've known several shops that did it, but I advise against making it the long term plan.
@ajroach42 oof yeah this one is one i’m gonna have to take to heart. helps that my spouse will be supportive of this idea but will (rightfully) refuse to spend any time behind the counter
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@ajroach42 oof yeah this one is one i’m gonna have to take to heart. helps that my spouse will be supportive of this idea but will (rightfully) refuse to spend any time behind the counter
@hex I ran a record store for years with one other dude.
We learned really quickly that it made way more sense for us to both be there at the same time than to trade off.
I worked 7 days a week for 2 years, it was some of the hardest work I've ever done.
If we had one more person, it would have been way more comfortable.
I didn't say that part yet, but I do recommend having two people in the building as often as possible, both for metal health and for personal safety.
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@hex
5) Staff!If you've never had staff before, even if you've manged people, it's a real weird experience.
Under almost all circumstances you're going to want at least one or two people working with you, beyond yourself and your family. There are *lots* of reasons for that, not the least of which is that households tend to get sick as a unit. You don't want to have to close because your whole household is sick.
Couples/families can absolutely make it work as the primary shop staff, I've known several shops that did it, but I advise against making it the long term plan.
6) Hours:
It's hard to keep a media based business open 9 - 5.
Evenings and weekends are where the people are.
You kind of have to be open during the day, even though that's not when the bulk of your sales are going to happen, because that's when your biggest sales are going to happen, and that's when your deliveries will happen, and that's when promotional work can happen, etc.
Our first record store was originally *only* open evenings and weekends, and I didn't realize how much of a difference it would be to extend the hours out.
That being said: knowing that you will do more volume on the evenings and weekends than you will during the day during the week, you can plan strategies to maximize your revenue and customer retention for the folks who can come in during the day. Figure out how to get the folks who can be in in daylight in multiple days a week. Figure out how to get them to give you some money every time they walk through the door. (I have more thoughts on this, but I have to go get the pizza.)
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6) Hours:
It's hard to keep a media based business open 9 - 5.
Evenings and weekends are where the people are.
You kind of have to be open during the day, even though that's not when the bulk of your sales are going to happen, because that's when your biggest sales are going to happen, and that's when your deliveries will happen, and that's when promotional work can happen, etc.
Our first record store was originally *only* open evenings and weekends, and I didn't realize how much of a difference it would be to extend the hours out.
That being said: knowing that you will do more volume on the evenings and weekends than you will during the day during the week, you can plan strategies to maximize your revenue and customer retention for the folks who can come in during the day. Figure out how to get the folks who can be in in daylight in multiple days a week. Figure out how to get them to give you some money every time they walk through the door. (I have more thoughts on this, but I have to go get the pizza.)
@hex I'll be back shortly.
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@hex I ran a record store for years with one other dude.
We learned really quickly that it made way more sense for us to both be there at the same time than to trade off.
I worked 7 days a week for 2 years, it was some of the hardest work I've ever done.
If we had one more person, it would have been way more comfortable.
I didn't say that part yet, but I do recommend having two people in the building as often as possible, both for metal health and for personal safety.
@hex I have lots of other staff thoughts, but that's probably a conversation for later.
Staff comes with headaches you might not be anticipating (payroll processors, workers comp, PTO, UPTO, ETC) but if you can make the numbers work to hire 1-2 people to supplement yourself, it makes the process of running a business so much less miserable.
