Imagine going to a store. This
is the only store for many miles
that specializes in your favourite
products. Now imagine that this
store only gets a small handful
of the most popular line of these
products in every month, far
fewer than there are customers
who wish to purchase these
products. In addition to getting
so few of these items in stock,
the store is also required to
keep all of these items out of the
hands of paying customers for at
least a month after they arrive in
stock. The store is also restricted
from purchasing more of these
items off site and can only sell
them during specific hours of the
day. Doesn't sound like a very
inviting retail business does it?

Unfortunately these are
all realities facing us at Game
Quest in Prince George. We
are a small local store that
specializes in all things related to
video games. We purchase, sell,
trade, repair and host events all
related in some fashion to video
games of all eras.

When the — store first
opened last year in September
we were unaware of the local
bylaw for dealing with second-
hand goods (Bylaw no. 8098).
In those first months we were
able to get specific games in for
people upon request and just
keep our general stock flowing
nicely with purchases of used
video games both locally and also
through online sources (primarily
forums and message boards).
Once this bylaw was brought to
our attention from city officials
we found out that there were
some pretty severe restrictions.
Most notably that every second-
hand item that came through the
store had to be held for 30 days
before it was eligible to be sold,
but also that doing business with

second-hand goods offsite was
a fineable offense and that we
couldn't do business unless it
was between the hours of 8am

and 8pm.
These are massive
hurdles to overcome for a

primarily retail store. To have
to consistently request that
customers return in 2-4 weeks
for the next available Pokemon
game (Zelda, Mario, Halo, Spyro,
etc) and that there may be other
customers hoping to grab the
same item on that day is absurd.
Add that to the smaller selection
of product coming in with the
offsite restrictions makes for a
less than satisfying shopping
experience.

These bylaws are
intended to make it harder for
thieves to fence stolen goods
through legitimate businesses.
And some of it makes a lot
of sense. For instance each
person bringing games down
to sell or trade must be at least
18 years old and have a valid
government photo ID they can
present. The personal info from
the ID along with a list of all the
items, including serial numbers
from consoles, is then uploaded
directly to the RCMP. The hope
is that if an item is stolen and
the person can identify the item
as their own it can be recovered
from the store and returned to its
rightful owner. All great things.

Most of the bylaw works
well in practice and is just a
matter of a little extra time and
paperwork. It’s the issues of the
30 day hold, no buying/selling
offsite and the curfew which are
of great concern to the future of
secondhand dealers in town. For
items that are mass produced
without identifying marks (such
as serial numbers), or items that
are almost exclusively kept in

a persons home (video game
consoles) it is extremely hard to
track and recover these items.
Since we've been operating we
have had not one single item
recovered by the RCMP even
though we have been following
every word of this bylaw since
February 2014.

Being located in the
downtown area has us dealing
with a lot theft first hand as well
We've had many items shoplifted
and even a few break ins during
the night. Items have been
reported, with serial numbers
(and in one case even a blooc
sample) yet none of our stolen
items were recovered either
It seems senseless to have tc
restrict 100% of our stock when
just a tiny fraction of it might
be stolen, and an even smalle
fraction of that might actually be
reported and recoverable.

On July 4th | startec
gathering signatures on <¢
petition to make amendments tc
bylaw no.8098. The intention is
to reduce or remove the 30 day
hold time in relation to the usec
video games we deal with, tc
eliminate the offsite restrictions
and open us up for busines:
at any hours we wish to be
open. With those 3 exceptions
we want the bylaw to stay the
same. As of this writing we are
at 800 signatures and countinc
and on August 25th we will be
speaking in front of City Counc
to convince them that these
changes will not cause any harn
to Prince George residence
while also freeing Game Ques
up to thrive once again! Pleas¢
join us at City Hall on Augus
25th to show your support.

by : Kelsy Polnik

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