Shoplifter Demographics

Since we turned over info about a couple of shoplifters to the police and got word today they had been identified and picked up, I took a look at the demographics of the identified shoplifters we have dealt with over the years.

Looking at four identifiable characteristics:  age, sex, and race, they are all male and young, college and high-school aged.  No elementary school kids as far as we know.  The differentiation comes in terms of race.  We have had roughly an equal number of black and white shoplifters, however, what they steal differs markedly.

Black shoplifters tend to steal more generally.  We have lost Yu Gi Oh cards, movies, video games, RPG books and snacks to them.  White shoplifters are more focused.  Almost exclusively, they focus on CCGs, especially Yu Gi Oh and Naruto, back when it was more popular here.  Magic gets stolen some too, but not as obviously, or as often, as the Naruto and Yu Gi Oh.

Why Flying Buffalo

Had the opportunity to exchange emails with Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo and asked him why that name for his gaming company:

In 1970, while serving in the US Army, I started running play by mail 
games of Nuclear Destruction for a fee for customers. I got an army 
buddy to write a computer program to run the game, and processed the 
turns at a Control Data computer center across the street from Fort 
Shafter. (In Honolulu). I had intended to start a stamp and coin shop 
when I got out of the army, but "Rick's Coins" is so boring, so I 
made up a silly name. I was going to have a "Buffalo Nickel" and a 
"Flying Eagle  (penny? dime? I forget) on the logo. When the folks at 
the computer center asked who they should send bills to, I started to 
tell them to send the bills to "Spec4 Loomis, USASTRATCOM, 
Communications Center South (etc)", but my programmer, Steve 
MacGregor, who knew about my coin shop plans said "No, tell them to 
send the bills to Flying Buffalo, care of Spec4 Loomis, 
USASTRATCOM...etc" On a whim, I did just that. And discovered that 
when I went to pick up my jobs at the computer center, when I asked 
for the "Flying Buffalo Job", they never said "I'll have to go see if 
it is ready" -- they always said "Oh, yes, it's right here". A 
memorable name is very handy! At any rate, by the time I got out of 
the Army in 1971, I had over 200 customers playing my games, so I 
dropped the stamp and coin shop idea and stayed full time on games ever since.

Holiday Gift Idea The Hobbit

Games Workshop released The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game.  Notice that they don’t call it a miniatures game as customers outside of a fairly narrow demographic would have no idea what a “miniatures game” is.  Strategy battle game, more people can relate to and understand.   Coming out just before the movie releases, with the rights to use the film’s logo on the box, guarantees people will at least take a look at it (We had customers inquiring about the copies we held back for the official Saturday release date).  The $125.00 price point does concern me though as that is fairly steep, even for a Games Workshop product, so we ordered comparatively lightly on the initial ship.  The holidays will tell if we chose rightly.

Holiday Gift Idea Memory Challenge

A nice looking game that we ordered heavily on is the Marvel Comics Memory Challenge from Usaopoly.  At $24.99, it is a good price point for a gift, suitable for age 8 and up, playable by one to eight players and has Marvel characters and the Marvel Comics logo on the cover, which catch the customer’s eye right away and are much more recognizable than, say, a Killer Bunny (though we do have people coming in looking for them as well.  A nice touch would have photos from the various Marvel movies on the cards, as those would appeal to a much broader class of customers than the Marvel Comics cover art.  Still, the game is an opportunity to introduce another generation to classic Marvel cover art.

Holiday Gift Idea Carcassonne

Another great stocking stuffer, this time from Rio Grande Games, is the set of 6 mini expansions for Carcassonne.  Of course, since each one has one tile from the Crop Circles Carcassonne expansion included, anyone buying one will probably want all six, so be certain to point that out to anyone you see just buying one.

Holiday Gift Idea Dominion

Rio Grande Games is also responsible for one of the higher ticket items that came in time for Christmas, the current edition of the Dominion Big Box, this one including the basic game, Prosperity and Alchemy.  The big boxes are usually good sellers at Christmas and I expect this one to do well (though not as well as if it were a set of expansions alone since most people interested in it likely already have the core game).  Rio Grande Games has also announced a Carcassonne Big Box, but we will likely pass on it, unless it hits shelves within the next week or so. Too much closer to Christmas and people will overlook it.

Holiday Gift Idea Chocolate Dice

Since the holiday season has hit full bore (though statistics from past years indicate that the next two week will show average sales before ramping up again around the 10^th),  I was happy to see good items for Christmas selling hit the shelves in time for customers to notice them prior to the week before Christmas.  The chocolate dice set from Dice Candies has attracted a lot of attention and, at a $7.99 price point,  I see it as a great stocking stuffer for gamers.  We posted a picture of them on Facebook and the store website and over 30 people  shared it with others within a couple of hours (Normally, we only see numbers like that with Cthulhu related pictures).   Your dice aren’t rolling well for you?  Well just eat them (That’ll show them).