So there's an interesting opportunity here in Glenside! The Newgrounds office happens to be near the Glenside commercial district on Easton road, an area that was designated many years ago as a destination for in-town shopping but hasn't ended up that way. Yeah, there are two good bars and a pizza shop on the main strip, but there are also multiple thrift stores, an exterminator and a place that sells motorized wheelchairs. While I don't want to downplay the contributions of any local businesses, as a resident of Glenside I would like to see this area thrive as it was intended to.
The big news is that two store fronts have recently become available, one having been an eyeglass shop and the other a thrift store. The eyeglass shop has already been occupied by a florist, who has done a great job at making it feel like a ritzy neighborhood flower shop. This sort of thing gives me hope for the rest of the street. Word has it, a dollar store has expressed interest in the remaining space. That sounds rather... blah.
The space is available for $1,100 per month and that includes heat. So the question is... Should Newgrounds open a store? We have a growing pool of merchandise, with more on the way, not to mention all the potential merchandise we COULD stock from our friends here on the web. It would be a totally unique store, unlike anything in the world, that directly represents all the cool stuff we're doing here on the web. It's hard to say how much interest we could generate from local foot traffic, but I like to think a Newgrounds store would be "hip" enough to push the Glenside commercial district towards a tipping point, where other new businesses give the location a shot. The flower shop gave me hope, so maybe we can help give hope to the next person.
Still, $1,100 a month isn't chump change (although it's much cheaper than I expected a store front to be). We would hopefully make it back in sales, but the location could totally flop. The real thing holding me back is the staffing issue. Would the NG staff take turns staffing the store, or would we hire someone new to staff it? Would sales be enough to warrant the additional salary? Whoever staffs the store could double as an administrator, essentially working for the website when no customers are visiting. Still, I've gotten pretty militant with the budget lately (for the sake of minimizing ads), so I don't want to be frivolous.
Benefits of having a store:
1) Gives us the opportunity to connect directly with fans (and potential fans), creating a sort of year-round Comic-Con here in Glenside.
2) Forces us to have a greater focus on what merchandise we are producing and what kind of feedback it is getting from the people who come and see it.
3) Creates a public meeting space for NG fans to visit and possibly test upcoming stuff before it goes public. I thought the office would be the place for that, but we realized that we come here to WORK and don't actually want people stopping in at random and hanging over our work spaces.
4) Expands the prestige of Newgrounds by giving us a more tangible presence in the world.
5) Benefits the Glenside commercial district (in my opinion) and hopefully attracts other new businesses.
Downsides to having a store:
1) We're already a small team that is spread too thin. This is just more work and more distractions.
2) It could end up being a money pit that no one shops at...
a) Rent - $13,200 per year.
b) Insurance - roughly $500 per year.
c) Staff - assume we're open six days, 48 hours per week, at $8-9 per hour... Add in payroll taxes and NG's health plan... Looking at over $25,000 per year.
d) Utilities - will it have internet? We would need a phone line for credit card processing. Heat is included, but still need electric... Could add up to $5k or more per year.
d) Repairs - we might need to fix stuff, but wouldn't own the space.
We're looking at roughly $50k per year to run a store, and that's being conservative. If the store is open 312 days of the year and we marked up every item by $10, we would need to sell 5,000 items per year, or 16 items per day. You can see why boutique shops charge so much!
It's fun to dream, though.
