FLGS adventures

Sometimes, I like to go to my FLGS. They really infused me with the spark of love and madness for board games, especially when I was at the university, spending some unhealthy time looking at their showcases on my lunch break. At the time (it was in 2010), the two games that allured me the most were Mice & Mystics and Summoner Wars.

They have a loyalty program: each time you buy something (except on sale or second hand), they write the amount on a little card, and if you make 10 purchases, you have a discount coupon equal to 10% of the total. This finally happened last time I went there, and I earned a grand total of 15€. Yes, I spent much more money on on-sale and second hand games than on brand new ones. It also doesn't help that their prices are significantly higher than the usual online retailer (about 10-20% higher).

The amazing thing is that they have their own online shop, and games are discounted there. You also can get free shipping if you beat a decently reachable threshold. It kills about any reason you would go to their shop, which is a bit idiotic, because if you go in a shop, you might get tempted by more than you had planned to go for. Anyway, I also use the website to check what they have in stock.

So, I was interested in Small Islands, that they had in stock according to the website. I thought it would be a good way to use my coupon, and went there at my lunch break. They did not have it in their store (even though their warehouse is located behind a door, they just didn't bother). So I checked the games on sale. Noctiluca had a 50% discount on their website, but in their store they were selling it at full price. This is borderline a scam - it means they know the game is difficult enough to sell that they are willing to part with it for half the price, but they'll try to get you pay full price anyway if you bother go to the brick and mortar store.

So I looked at the second-hand games. One guy was following me everywhere, and although I was putting all boxes just as they were, he couldn't help but re-arrange them (you see, they were one millimeter away from the way they had set them). A good way to make a customer feel comfortable.

I was running out of things to do in the shop but wanted to hang around a bit more, so I started asking questions. 'Do you know if you may have the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame back in stock again?' 'Hm, what do I know? I'm not a diviner.' Thanks, that was helpful. 'Do you know if there will be a French release of the Dune expansion?' 'Which Dune?' 'The one by Gale Force Nine.' 'They are all by Gale Force Nine.' (Spoiler: if you make a BGG search for "Dune" game published by Gale Force Nine, only one of them has expansions, so I really don't know why he pretended not to know which one I was speaking about - specifically the one called "Dune".) In the end I had to point out to the Dune board game on the shelf. 'Ah! That one! Yes, there will be, but I can't tell you when.' At least I got my info.

In the end, I bought two second-hand games to play with children (my nephews for one, my son in one or two years for the second): Troll & Dragon and Hoot Owl Hoot. I tried to play the latter one solo during the remainder of my lunch break, and I was feeling a bit silly to play this all by myself in my office, but at least I got mildly entertained. Obviously, it's easy and I won at the maximum difficulty level on my first try.

Note: the French version has a box twice this size...

This made me very thoughtful about their strategy. I always try to go shopping in "local" game stores because I like the idea that I can go down the street and find a cool board game. It makes the city more lively and interesting. So I want them to survive. But now that I spent my coupon on hooting owls, I really see no reason to set foot there ever again.

I think that's a fitting ending for my Parisian years!