First off, this article is not about a Phoenix, either the mythical creature or the city. This post is a story about something that just won't die. It's a story of failure wrapped in idealism and powered by complete incompetence. That title is apt, but not at all what you think it is.
You see, I've been into gaming and the hobby world for three decades now. I've even worn the Emprah's uniform and built a clone army from unwary travelers all around the country. I've enjoyed the fruits of many a probability-based tree, be it dice or cards or just darn good narratives. I've even met and befriended many people whose names are whispered in hushed tones in the darkness of basements all over the world. And all that experience has taught me much.
I've learned that gamers are NOT the smartest people in the world, or even room, even when they insist they are. I've learned that business is not always about
just making money, but sometimes involves building relationships that last well beyond the business itself. I've learned that no amount of deliberation and contingency considerations will ever be able to satisfy everyone. But most of all, I've learned that some things just shouldn't exist, no matter the passion.
I say all this because I've been able to enjoy a great deal of success. I've enjoyed that success in the Academic setting, in the Corporate setting, and even in the personal aspects of just regular old life. I've suffered and accomplished more than most twice my age, despite and because of the ignorance and help I've gotten along the way. I've made every mistake that can be made, fixed them, and learned how not to make those mistakes again, specifically in the gaming industry. So it's weird to me when others, who are supposed to be smarter or more competent or just better planners than I am, don't learn, even in their so-called 'wheelhouses'.
The Phoenix is now some kind of social symbol, often used as a rallying cry and logo for resilience and success. What's ironic is that the Phoenix had absolutely nothing relevant to add to any story other than the idea of hope (renewal and the sun and all that jazz). We've conflated the Phoenix to some kind of icon that is repeated so often that people forget that it's just a damned bird! Think of a rooster that just won't go away...
"Now Jay, you started talking about business while telling me that this wasn't about the mythical creature. Only you've stopped talking about business and are now talking about the mythical creature!" I know, I know. I forgot that I need to define this so you understand why I used that title. What I'm about to talk about is a business that claims to be a Phoenix. There, I brought it back. Ya happy?
I grew up collecting comic books. I bought them from the corner store (even inventorying the weekly order for the staff because they trusted me so much and knew my Dad personally in case I got 'sticky') and eventually found a
real comic book shop where I started buying more. That store also sold gaming stuff, like D&D books and 40k models that filled an entire wall. And that's where I got started in the whole hobby. What I learned in that store was later used in my service to the Emprah, and the store's layout and operation were something that I bragged about and emulated for a couple of decades. I moved away with such fond memories of that place and the clientele that I still have dreams about it today. That comic and game store was my genesis.
The owner of that store, who we'll call James, was so good at his job that he used the profits to open a bar and pizza joint. Seriously, he made enough money from a GAME STORE that he opened a RESTAURANT with it. If that isn't a cart before the horse, I'm not sure what is. But his new wife was not a good fit for the business and eventually bled both of them dry. James couldn't manage things like he wanted to, so he sold it to someone else. I had moved away by this point, so I had no idea just how bad things were going to get.
Well, the new owner (who we'll call Charles) put an idiot in charge of the renamed store while he went overseas to kill some baddies. In that time away, the idiot ordered stock without paying, didn't order stock that was paid for, kept stock for himself, didn't engage the customers, and basically destroyed the business. Charles came home from deployment, fired the idiot, and dumped the rest of his savings into the store. Of course, he was so bitter by that point that many of the old customers reported mistreatment and disrespect from him and stopped coming as well. In addition, one of my best friends also worked there and didn't do a very good job engendering good feelings among those customers (my buddy is often, and I mean OFTEN, described as abrasive, which is hilarious considering that he's far more respectful than Charles!). They fled like the exodus. The momentum of failure had firmly taken over and there were no outside forces left to correct it.
Charles, not being terribly interested in losing more money or giving
everything to save his dying business, then sold it to another owner we'll call Bill. Bill actually did a fantastic job with the store. He moved it to a place with foot traffic (Charles had moved it to an undeveloped side of town with no parking...) and then ran it like a BUSINESS. Eventually, the store began breaking even and rebuilt its reputation. By this point, I had moved back home and even started frequenting the place. I got along famously with the owner's wife (who worked there as well), shared business advice with the owner (including a promise to share the Emprah's bible), and was even invited to consider joining the team. I was honoured but far too busy. Before I could even return the answer, Bill had grown tired of the business and wanted to sell.
So far in this story, we have a glorious store that lost all the glory and died, only to rise from the ashes even as they still smoldered. Then that newly risen store failed in epic fashion and died again, only to rise again and regain some of that lost glory. So why is the store dying again if it shines brightly? Well, it's because Bill was breaking even while working six days a week at 12 hours each day. No longer was the Phoenix growing and the heat was simply not hot enough. Bill was mostly tired of dealing with the customers, who all acted as though they were entitled and consistently disrespected the store they felt entitled to. So Bill did what the two previous owners did- he sold it!
Now the Phoenix didn't die again at this point. It may have been hungry and even a bit dull from atrophy, but it wasn't dead. The new owner, who we'll name Tom, was a gamer at heart and felt strongly that his sheer passion and willpower would bring that store back to the life everyone remembered from the old days. He renamed the place
again, throwing away all the glory that remained. Remember now, this is the fourth owner and third business name in only sixteen years. The Phoenix had a number of resurrections already.
I gave Tom a chance. I had fond memories of the oldest version of the store, had little respect for the first new owner (who disrespected me and my MEASURABLE AND VERIFIABLE SUCCESS IN THIS BUSINESS to this day for no reason) but developed a working relationship with the next one, so this one deserved my attention. I went in a few times and was burned. And not that kind of burn that one might be proud to receive from a mythical creature, but more the kind that completely removes the motivation to support the business. I won't go into that much detail here (it'll become a TL:DR post faster than it already has), just know that I was wholly resigned to frequenting my favorite comic shop on the other side of town after that. But whatever- that's for ME and not for the community! Tom seemed to do quite well for some time.
Or at least that's what I thought. I should have seen the signs when the store started carrying food as a secondary (rather than complimentary) product line. Then he stopped ordering stock and would only do special orders for the more common games Then the store set up a video gaming area where people could pay for console time. Finally, I watched the owner fill his Facebook page with emotional responses to minor complaints or simple observations. Tom's passion started to affect his business sense in a negative way. His customers, already not fun to deal with, began to turn against him in a concerted fashion and the business died, again.
What's more, the business closed and reopened twice during Tom's tenure. The first time was a threat that only lasted a weekend and the second time was almost a full week closed as Tom sought new investments. But in the end, he had to close for real. He had to admit failure in a very real sense. He ran out of money as the customers did nothing more than pay for a few hours on the PS4s in the back. He ran out of champions as he continued to order product lines that were obscure just because the impulsive and untrustworthy gamers expressed enough interest to listen to him advertise those games. Tom ran out of ideas as he dealt with the same broke customers refusing to support the very business that they sucked the air from. Just like Bill but with less sense, Tom finally had to make a decision predicated on the unprofitable and incessantly rude customer base.
And then Tom did what the previous three owners did- he sold it! Tom had sold all the remaining stock . He had sold the fixtures- the terrain, the tables for the terrain, the leftover product, the shelves for the product, the display cabinets, his own personal miniatures collection, even the register! The ashes of the Phoenix laid in the nest for a couple of months, only to be given the chance to rise again. He sold an empty store with no stock that was so far in debt that it was not allowed to change the name. So rather than a Phoenix rising from the ashes to be bright and beautiful, this resurrection was more like picking up the half-eaten corpse of a chicken, spray-painting it red, and insisting that it could survive. The planned reopening was literally characterized as a "Phoenix rising from the ashes", when the reality was that the store was hooked up to life support for a long time already.
Here's where the story gets really, really strange. So the new owner, who we'll name Jean, is apparently keeping Tom on as an advisor and paying him. Jean is a young, very successful account manager for a large media company, so knows business. He knows business so well that he's willing to let the old owner run things that he doesn't understand quite yet, while effectively paying a franchising fee until the business is wholly his. But knowing that the business is in debt and needs some injection of funds beyond what his personal success allows, he also contacted Charles to get him involved. Oh, and Tom doesn't know. Charles spent a great deal of time last week blasting Tom and disparaging Tom's business practice, claiming that Tom ran
his business into the ground (obviously ignoring his own lack of success and justifiably blaming the idiot without any personal consideration). But Tom doesn't know that Jean pulled Charles in at all or that Charles is talking very poorly about him behind his back.
To make this more strange, this Phoenix was supposed to rise from the ashes this week (middle of January). They failed to get the licenses needed (while Tom blamed the city because he didn't fulfill his requirement of setup
before inspection), still haven't turned on the water, are having to buy fixtures back from the buyers when the store closed down in November or other local stores (like my comic shop), and didn't place the order for the opening inventory yet. That's right- the Phoenix was supposed to rise with no body, or even fire to make a body from! Adding the inevitable drama between the two previous failed owners and the new ignorant one makes this a recipe for disaster the likes of which this store hasn't experienced in the two decades it's been around!
Now, let's assume that the owners all learn to get along and develop some legitimate business sense. Let's imagine that the layout and operations of the store attract new customers and reinvigorate the old ones to return and start spending money. There's still that major, underlying problem- the customers themselves. The gamers that make up their community have been toxic for years. Their spending habits and professional respect are either nonexistent or just poisoned by the selfish sense of entitlement that pervades. So a good store with good operators and fantastic opportunities still has to overcome the very thing that has killed it repeatedly- the customers.
I'm a firm believer in forest fires. I am very happy that we stopped trying to extinguish every flaming natural disaster in the realization that nature actually
means to do that so new foliage can grow. From the ashes of destruction shall come new life and new hope. That's the entire moral of our common Phoenix. But this game store continues to rise before the ashes have cooled. New life never has any time to grow as the old life apparently pops back up to suffer the same fate, over and over again. Just like forest fires, we need to let this happen. We need the store to die. We need the community to disappear and the toxic personalities that have ruined three owners to retire to obscurity. We need the poison to lose its power. But that can't happen. That just won't happen.
If I were to run a game store today, I know I would be successful (I've successfully run four out of five corporate stores, expanded accounts in two different metros, and even today contribute advice to a few that either have or are thinking about opening stores). My name is still spoken of in certain regions as my legend (or infamy, admittedly) only fades but is never forgotten. I've moved on, but I'm still very much learned. Why is it that this store simply cannot succeed? Why do the owners continue to claim to be mythical creatures while failing to find any success in the world? Is there ever going to be a point where the schmucks doing this realize the problems
before losing all their money?
Let the damned bird die. It's not a Phoenix, it's a business. And it's not a successful one, no matter what you call it or who's running it. The more we claim this glorious hope for a new future, the deeper into the same old story we dive. The only way to fix it is to forget about it. Refocus on something other than trying to make idealism work with passion. It's a recipe for failure in the business world. I know, I've been there. I figured it out. Why won't they?
