I'm not sure If it's like this for other people however I've started noticing that some Local Game Stores (LGSs) while In-Store Play is suspended as far as running events and tournaments go that they perceived it as suspending casual play as well which does have the potential to hurt their business in the long run If they primarily sell Paper Magic with little to no overhead. If these businesses do have large overhead and they also suspended casual play along with events then they're going to run out of money unless they replace the overhead to sell more merchandise in place of potential customers who would normally be playing at their store where as with the owners' perspective it's about less risk of infection from COVID as possible but the question is for how long? They must be thinking about how COVID will impact 3rd and 4th Quarter sales in 2020 or 1st and 2nd Quarter earnings in 2021.motleyslayer wrote: ↑3 years agoI think that they made the safest call tbh. I don't know what it's like in the US rn(but assuming bad if it warranted extending the suspension on in store play) but it's been getting worse in Canada for just over a month I'd say. I can't see in store events happening on a large basis until at least halfway through next year and that's just for small level events. Magic Fests and in person Players Tours are probably out of the question until probably 2022 at the earliest and that's assuming they figure out who will run them
Even If you're not allowed to run events at your store you still need money to pay rent since the owners and employees work paycheck-to-paycheck and eventually the landlord still needs to be paid $1,000 bare minimum each month in order for the LGS to stay in business and I think it really depends on how much money they made on Paper Magic Pre-COVID compared to how little they may be making Post-COVID. If they're making little without expanding their business portfolio then of course they need to allow casual play at their store despite the infection risks since events are temporarily suspended due to the pandemic otherwise they aren't going to be able to stay in business for very long even with e-commerce sales alone. I haven't seen anyone at the LGS I frequent on Saturdays test positive for COVID-19 from allowing casual play.