A Brief Side Trip

Last Wednesday, we gave out our Game Night Christmas Gifts - a $10 Gift Certificate to Phoenix Games.

I don't think everyone there celebrates Christmas, but everyone there celebrates some gift-giving holiday in December. And no-one is offended at receiving a Christmas gift. Which is nice.

Every year, my wife and I discuss how much to give, and every year, we settle on $10 - we think it's the ideal amount to support the game store:

1) This year, we bought 12 gift certificates. That's $120 direct to the store.
2) Some members will lose the gift certificates. This turns the $10 for that person into pure profit. That said, however, if they mention it to Brian, he'll probably replace them - but he doesn't have to. And it's hard to get hugely upset over losing $10.
3) Very few games cost less than $10. This means that when people use the certificates, they wind up spending more money on top of the certificate. The more money which is spent at the game store, the better off the game store is.

Even though I had recently received a sizeable bonus this year, we didn't increase the amount we gave.

As I won't be back until the middle of the week, I'm going to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very merry Christmas (unless you don't celebrate Christmas, in which case I wish you a wonderful Winter Holiday of Choice - and this wish is retroactive if I've already missed your Winter Holiday).