Today I have two short topics that have been on my mind over the last few days: Black Friday and cost-of-living raises.
Black Friday
For various reasons, Stonemaier Games doesn’t traditionally do any special Black Friday sale. I haven’t ever viewed that as a feature, though, until I saw a post from a company called The Army Painter:
I love this. It makes The Army Painter look good despite not offering deep discounts, and I’m sure it endears them to any retailers who pay attention to their post. I also like the exact phrasing: “hardworking, community-driven local game stores,” as different stores offer different levels of quality and care (“local” isn’t inherently better).
I will probably use some version of this method in future years–thank you, The Army Painter, for the inspiration!
Cost-of-Living Raises
Running Stonemaier Games is my third career. Prior to this, I learned that different bosses had different approaches to cost-of-living raises, which to me seem like a baseline for taking care of your employees (on the same level as living wages, health care, and autonomy).
Why is this so important? $1 today is worth less than $1 a year ago, particularly for the things you need to buy on a week-to-week basis. So if you’re making the same salary now that you did a year ago (or a few years ago), your salary has effectively decreased.
As a result, years ago at Stonemaier Games we decided that employees (aside from myself–I haven’t changed my salary in years) would receive a cost-of-living increase every year based on the Social Security Administration’s recommendation. Typically it’s around 2%, but this year there was a pretty big jump–this year the increase is 5.9%.
I know it’s been a tough year for people and companies–my eyes pop every time I get a freight shipping invoice–but in my mind it’s a no-brainer to provide my coworkers with the 5.9% cost-of-living increase (in addition to, when appropriate, performance- and responsibility-related salary increases). Are you doing the same for your coworkers?
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I’m curious to hear your thoughts in the comments about these approaches to Black Friday and cost-of-living!
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5 Comments on “Black Friday and Cost-of-Living Raises”
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The approach you’ve mentioned for a minimum cost of living increase is really applaudable :) Im not from the gaming industry, but manufacturing and our comoany clubs a minimum increase + pwrformance increase for all employees once a year, but some people do not get any increase (depending on their performance or if they are at the high end of the range). A few %, typically 6-10% of the employees get an increase when appropriate due to other reasons (such as location change, or increase in responsbilities)
A minor point in the article, but thank you for pointing out the “local” doesn’t automatically mean better! Just being “local” doesn’t entitle a business to my patronage, they also need to have good customer service and offer something of value. Fortunately I have an excellent flgs that is a delight to frequent :)
I appreciate the route you are taking with this. I’m sure that your employees appreciate it as well. I know that if my employer would do something similar I’d be appreciative. This is also something that plays a roll in my willingness to make purchases as a consumer.
I work in the manufacturing sector and raises are capped at 2.5% and those are not anywhere near a common practice. What many employers fail to realize is that employee production and quality of work is greatly influenced by their job satisfaction.
As the job market is shifting and hiring new employees is getting harder and harder I hope that more companies try and adjust their pay structures.
So kudos to you for taking a proactive approach in dealing with you employees and their livelihood. Also kudos for you in seeing that doing this is a smart business decision.
The French Store Philibert partner with four publishers to do the “Blague Friday”(a phonic pun, “Blague” sounding close to black and meaning joke) => they offer a reduction, but not for you :D
If you shop on their website for some specific game they offer 5€ to a charity that improve game accessibility for visualy impaired peoples.
I applaud your approach to the cost of living increase. Wish every employer and Government were like you.