Kylie Prymus took a dusty 1,000-square-foot shop doing $350,000 a year and turned it into a million-dollar store that sells no Magic, no Pokemon and no miniatures โ on purpose. ๐ช GAMES UNLIMITED has been in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill since 1979, and the owner who bought it used to teach philosophy for a living.
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๐๏ธ IN THIS EPISODE:
๐งช The ALCHEMY talk behind the whole store: "a flower is just a weed with a marketing budget"
๐ Dead stock wrapped in butcher paper sold out in a week โ the clearance table never did
๐ข A counter above the demo bar with a big green button: the metric is games played, not dollars
๐๏ธ Six weeks of opening a coffee shop at 5:30am, napping in a sleeping bag out back, then working the store till 7
๐ "You're opening a business and you don't have a fax machine?" โ "Because it's 2015."
๐ $350,000 in 2019 to over a million last year, out of 3,600 square feet with no event space at all
๐ฒ Why the heavyweight "greatest game ever" titles sell under a dozen copies a year while HOT STREAK sells 500
๐ซ Why free demo copies are a trap: "you need skin in the game"
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๐ LINKS
๐ช Games Unlimited โ Pittsburgh
โถ https://gamesunl.com/
โถ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJDWlkcNGxW4CFnRkpnuAPA
โถ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gamesunlimitedpgh/
โถ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gamesunl
โถ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GamesUnl
๐๏ธ Unbox Some Funcast โ Kylie's podcast
โถ https://rss.com/podcasts/unbox-some-funcast
โค๏ธ Support My Work โ Join Cardboard
โถ https://crdbrd.app/
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๐ง TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!
๐ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165
๐ข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4
๐ต Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364
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โฑ๏ธ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Cold open
00:48 - Who is Kylie Prymus?
02:19 - The first game store owner on the show
06:30 - Alchemy, and the flower that's just a weed with a marketing budget
09:08 - Wrapping the dead stock in butcher paper
20:49 - Creating new gamers instead of acquiring customers
22:57 - No Magic, no Pokemon, no miniatures - on purpose
32:38 - The green button above the demo bar
35:55 - No free demo copies, because you need skin in the game
38:10 - Philosophy professor, coffee shop, game store
39:54 - Bob gets sick nine months into the apprenticeship
40:27 - The sleeping bag in the back of the coffee shop
46:08 - What you actually buy when you buy a game store
48:11 - "You're opening a business and you don't have a fax machine?"
51:34 - The pandemic move to Forbes Avenue
58:29 - "Are you guys new?" after 35 years down the hill
1:02:32 - $350,000 to over a million
1:08:34 - Third space is not a room full of tables
1:20:54 - Bare shelves, a fixed budget, and what to buy first
1:27:18 - The prestige heavyweights sell a dozen; Hot Streak sells 500
1:34:21 - Nobody needs anything we sell
1:45:10 - The Q4 stock-up, and buying 200 copies of one game
1:49:53 - Ordering 300 copies of a game you don't like
2:05:24 - Salaries, structure, and the staff who said "duh"
2:11:36 - Who else should I talk to?
#cardboard #bgss
