Do you think a franchise store that sells only games would be able to survive in SA?

I was wondering if a franchise store that specialises in games would be able to survive in SA. I know there used to be such a franchise in Cape Town called Telegames or something. Was just wondering if a store that specialised in games, and stocked all formats would be able to survive..what you guys think?

Considering also that stores like Reggies, Look n Listen and Toys R Us have sizeable games Depts...

Apparently South Africa is one of the fastest growing games market..after places like India and South America.

Natas said:

I was wondering if a franchise store that specialises in games would be able to survive in SA. I know there used to be such a franchise in Cape Town called Telegames or something. Was just wondering if a store that specialised in games, and stocked all formats would be able to survive..what you guys think?

Considering also that stores like Reggies, Look n Listen and Toys R Us have sizeable games Depts...

Apparently South Africa is one of the fastest growing games market..after places like India and South America.

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BT games is doing Gr8 AFAIK....

Pitbull said:

BT games is doing Gr8 AFAIK....

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are they only online or do they have brick n mortar stores....suppose their plan is to grow online and then go brick mortar?
I hope they do do well cause we need a good store....maybe if we have a mojor franchise we will get concoles and games quicker...

have you ordered from them and if so, what are delivery times like? NOBODY likes to wait for that shiny new console!!!

Natas said:

are they only online or do they have brick n mortar stores....suppose their plan is to grow online and then go brick mortar?
I hope they do do well cause we need a good store....maybe if we have a mojor franchise we will get concoles and games quicker...

have you ordered from them and if so, what are delivery times like? NOBODY likes to wait for that shiny new console!!!

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They have two shops in the Jo'burg area... but if there is more i don't know about them. I never ordered from them online... Went to the Shop instead.

Natas said:

are they only online or do they have brick n mortar stores....suppose their plan is to grow online and then go brick mortar?
I hope they do do well cause we need a good store....maybe if we have a mojor franchise we will get concoles and games quicker...

have you ordered from them and if so, what are delivery times like? NOBODY likes to wait for that shiny new console!!!

Click to expand...

If U thinking of buying a Franschise... BT games would be a very good choice.

I think they can, but then they must at least sell more formats/games than their CNA/Game/Makro/Reggies/IC counterparts. Even if the pricing is similar , if they have imported games like [to take an example] : Final Fantasy ..i would use them.

The other more diverse shops usually only keep the current "top 10" + "cheap platinum classics" on their shelves. The moment you go and look for something
more obscure/older/non-mainstream they don't have it.....again a simple example is try to find something like Fallout ..usually it's pure luck.

BTGames is mainly selling games and the applicable hardware, no idea how they are doing. I usually go there if i look for a game becuase i know if they don't have it [but CNA/LooknListen do] then there's something very wrong. Although i haven't noticed games in their store that i couldn't find in CNA/LooknListen.....

I do however like how they have that "Coming Soon" section where you can pre-order games

Of course things like these i would expect at a true game shop:

1. Second hand/swop out games (BTGames have this)
2. Rental of games (BTGames have this , i haven't used it yet though)
3. Ability to get new releases when the rest of the world get them (Touch and go, i have had better luck with online e-tailers who can import the game i.e. www.take2.co.za).
4. Get the odd classic that is no longer stocked in other shops (Seen a few in BTGames, although not the ones i looked for, they only stocked the ones that were re-released in a "collectors/combo" edition).
5. Other services i haven't thought of yet [demos ? online gaming services? download services? ] (No idea)

yes BT games is a walk in and buy store aswell

yes it will survive ! it will make sense if you set your store in the correct area

Natas said:

Do you think a franchise store that sells only games would be able to survive in SA?

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IMO online businesses are a much better business prospect as there are likely to be less overheads [monthly expenses], unless a franchisee offers its customers the chance to test-drive a game physically in-store, there is no real benefit to paying very high monthly rentals to be in a high profile shopping centre somewhere...

ic said:

IMO online businesses are a much better business prospect as there are likely to be less overheads [monthly expenses], unless a franchisee offers its customers the chance to test-drive a game physically in-store, there is no real benefit to paying very high monthly rentals to be in a high profile shopping centre somewhere...

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YOU are obviously a very patient person...I on the other hand would be willing to pay an exra hundred bucks to get my stuff right away....Speaking of which..how much of a saving would you need to make to bother ordering online and waiting....or how extra much are you willing to pay in a store and get it right away?

They have two shops in the Jo'burg area... but if there is more i don't know about them. I never ordered from them online... Went to the Shop instead.

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There's a bunch in Pretoria. I've been to their Centurion and Brooklyn stores.
I've actually ordered from then online but picked the games up in-store [it's one of the shipping options, so you can actually save on shipping costs there].

Natas said:

YOU are obviously a very patient person...I on the other hand would be willing to pay an exra hundred bucks to get my stuff right away....Speaking of which..how much of a saving would you need to make to bother ordering online and waiting....or how extra much are you willing to pay in a store and get it right away?

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I second that.

But Overheads is a very costly affair...

Natas said:

YOU are obviously a very patient person...I on the other hand would be willing to pay an exra hundred bucks to get my stuff right away....Speaking of which..how much of a saving would you need to make to bother ordering online and waiting....or how extra much are you willing to pay in a store and get it right away?

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To clarify, I'm not into gaming online or offline, not even Freecell nor Solitaire. My previous post, was more of a response to a business question that you asked, which I understood to mean that you might be interested in opening up a gaming store as a franchisee, perhaps I misunderstood...?

If however you are interested in selling games on or offline, then your insight into the mind of a gamer will be a very good asset, but your question was whether you thought a gaming franchise store would be able to survive [I presume you meant be a success & be profitable]:

Natas said:

Do you think a franchise store that sells only games would be able to survive in SA?

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Consider that when buying into a franchise, mostly what you are paying for, is a [hopefully] established & popular brand name that your business operates under, but you do not actually own the brand name, and the actual owner of the entire franchise & brand name would be able to call some significant shots ITO the way you run your business... think you can tell that I'm not a fan of franchises...

Survival for a few months or more, with a physical store, would depend on location followed by the initial capital available to you to purchase the rights to operate under a franchise brand name, and put down your shop rental deposit and more for several months of rental, and money to employ staff & pay their salaries, and money to get|buy stock of games...

Survival for a few months or more as an online business not operating under an established brand name, would also involve a fair amount of startup capital, and you would need a marketing budget as well as funds to buy stock from your supplier(s) as soon as it has been ordered by your customers, you would then need to pay courier companies for delivery etc, but your webserver could be overseas and you could run just about everything for order processing off of an ADSL line or other broadband connection...

@ IC...You are quite correct, I was asking a business question.

In relation to your franchise theory..I agree with you wholeheartedly. I have been involved with franchising frmo a legal view point, and also intellectual property...When buying a franchise you DO want a strong and established brand. A lot of people think that they can package their single store business into a frnachise and make an killing. However, when you buy a frnachise you should be buying into an established reputation, a developed body of experience and aninfrastructure which should include favourable procurement of sales stock. However, IMO reputation and know how are the two most NB....It CAN work with a young business, but its much harder and takes a lot of cashish...I am indifferent to franchises....I am however extremely irratated by people who try and build a franchises from the get go...some franchises are good, you pay your fee and pitch up on opening day, while others are bad....characterised by high royalties, no support, horrible stock purchase tie ins, minimum/maximum price fixing, access to all your recrds..etc..etc....

Not that I know much about online gaming, but one of the problems in SA, seems to be the cost of bandwidth and crappy latency, coupled with a relative lack|shortage of local gaming servers compared to overseas [games.saix.net no doubt pales in comparison], if someone, as a value added service, in addition to their online &| offline gaming store, started up a local online gaming service with servers accessible to customers via dirt cheap or free bandwidth [e.g. Wireless Usergroups] with a reasonable business model to pay for licenses associated with operating the server gaming s/w...

I think it will work and it will be possible to survive and make a living for yourself.

BTgames only does gaming stuff and they are doing well, they are expanding though and recently additional physical stores in shopping centres in CT and JHB, so I guess they feel the need for it or times are pressing.

Others that are doing well, is Take2 and of course Kalahari.net. They sell more than just gaming stuff but do not have walk-in stores.

You must just find the gap in the market, it being business sound and a viable idea and then go for it.

Being solely online in SA though is always going to be hazardous because of our internet penetration not being high and exorbitantly priced.

Being solely online in SA though is always going to be hazardous because of our internet penetration not being high and exorbitantly priced.

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I agree and then there's the battle against our inefficient/unreliable postal system on top of that. This leads to paying more for postage and then suddenly a "simple" product of R150 becomes R200+ .....and then you start questioning "why am i doing this again?"...

A games shop has recently opened at tygervalley shopping center. They cover your psp, xbox, pc etc. Whilst doing christmas shopping i went to the various shops at that shopping centre, and this new game shop (dont know what its called) had the game i wanted at the cheapest price. Also, they told me that once you have finished with the game - ie dont want it any more, you can bring it back and they'll give you money back for it. I didnt get a chance to get more info about this, but at least there is some kind of centive to come back.