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The ULGS Thread got me thinking of stores that died, Not necessarily bad stores but stores that didn't last for odd reasons.

Thinking back there was a great store in St Louis that I always tried to visit when I traveled there, It was called the Hobby Shop. Great Stock the owner Ken was a nice guy, but he let his insurance laps and a drunk driver drove threw his store.

After that he was unable to reopen... a major lost for the town.

Then there was a shop that was about an hour away from my home town. Once again the owner was a nice guy.. Wanted to be on the cutting edge of any fad going.. started a book store and grew it very quickly by buying and selling used romance novels. Then he saw what kind of money he could make off Pokemon and Magic cards. This was about the time the Legends expansion came out. He got into war games and comics also.. great stuff...then moved to a larger store and was going to put in more stock and even video games and pool tables. But about this time I moved away and wasn't able to get time to visit for a year or so.. The next time I went in there, the store was dead. Newest stock was months old and people setting around and smoking, Looked more like a pool hall verse a book store. A few months later I got a call from a buddy that the store owner was arrested and store was closed down. Apparently he thought he could make a very nice profit off drug paraphernalia. I guess he didn't figure in the whole legal part of it.

Anyone else has stories like this??

I don't know about closing an "odd way" but over the past 25 years of my experience in gaming, comic books, rpgs, etc., I've seen my share of stores that open, thrive for a little bit, then close. Most of them were due to mismanagement by the owner. Only one of the stores I used to go to in the late 80s/early 90s is still open. Another one is at least 13 years old and still thriving.

The success seems to come from owners/managers who are very dedicated not only to the hobby but to their customers. They change their stock not only based on what their customers ask for but diversify instead of being THE Magic the gathering store, or THE Miniatures Gaming store, or THE comic book store to the exclusion of all else.

If I had any of these still local to me, I'd happily spend my money with them. As such, I live in the boonies so the internet is my marketplace.

While wargaming and game stores work a niche market, we can see from other store owners who post on Dakka what is successful for them in their area, and hear from the dakka-ites about the stores that closed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
sorry...double post error!

Probably not too odd a reason, but my local game store (RIP, 2 years dead now... :( ) closed because the owner of the property decided to raise the rent.

The owner said, you know, I was on the verge of trying to sell it to someone else so I could spend more time with my family, but instead, I'm out!

One fire sale later, they're gone.

Oh, the building space that the owner upped the rent on?

Still vacant.

Alpharius wrote:Probably not too odd a reason, but my local game store (RIP, 2 years dead now... :( ) closed because the owner of the property decided to raise the rent.

The owner said, you know, I was on the verge of trying to sell it to someone else so I could spend more time with my family, but instead, I'm out!

One fire sale later, they're gone.

Oh, the building space that the owner upped the rent on?

Still vacant.

Same thing happened to my favourite second-hand book store.

Genoside07 wrote:Thinking back there was a great store in St Louis that I always tried to visit when I traveled there, It was called the Hobby Shop. Great Stock the owner Ken was a nice guy, but he let his insurance laps and a drunk driver drove threw his store.

After that he was unable to reopen... a major lost for the town.

I "grew up at The Hobby Shop!
Heck, I played D&D in his shop's basement (when it was up the street from his final location) every Saturday for years.

Small world.

I've run into Ken a couple times since then. FWIW, he's enormously happy with his "new life." He said that he's enjoying spending time with his family.
What was really bad about Ken's shop is that, though he was closed for seemingly FOREVER, he did try to open back up and make a run at it. He scratched away at it for a few months, but sales never really increased. He ended up clearing everything out on a sale and closing shop.

It was really sad.
Le sigh.

Okay. Sorry for the tangent.

On topic---

Although it ended up reopening a year or more later, One Eyed Jacques in Richmond, VA burned up in a mysterious fire that only damaged his store.

Eric

The best was when one of the Ann Arbor stores got evicted for non-payment of rent. The cops were simply throwing stuff out on the street.

Awesome!

Most stores I've seen close are because the business just wasn't making money or the owner died.

There was a bookshop that sold resin statues and models and loads of CCG stuff. That was great, but one day it was suddenly closed and all the stock remained inside for weeks though there was papers and other clutter all over the floors. It never re-opened again, and after several weeks the stock started to disappear until it was empty and it stood there for ages until a mobile phone shop moved in. Later I heard that the manager had run away with all the money, no idea if it was true.

My favourite FLGS :(

The shop had been moved from a property in te outskirts of the city, to another one in the centertown. There, it grew up a lot. Many new players showed up. It was a great place to spend a couple of hours in. I bought a lot of stuff there, even comics and manga, stuff that I don't usually buy. Some day I was told by the owner that they were going to move again. A couple of weeks later they offered big discounts to sell as many material as possible and... closed the shop. They didn't move, they just vanished. I even went a couple of times to the shop to see if there was a paper with the new address, without results.

Some months later I went to a party where the owner's son was too, and he told me that they closed by "familiy issues". Never knew more :( We have as official GW store in Pamplona but... it's not the same. Big lose for this city gaming.

There was a store in my home town. It was a fantastic game store ran by a great guy who really loved his work. The community was great and he found a way to get everyone involved and have fun. In my opinion this store was and its memory still is, the greatest games store I've ever had the pleasure to game in and do business with.

A few of the numerous positive aspects of the store:
Space - There was enough space to have 2 or 3 tabletop games going while putting on a sizable CCG tournament and still have enough room to spare for shoppers to mosey about. Not a single person from one group to the next would ever need to step on the others toes to get around.
Clean - The place was spotless, even the bathroom was immaculate... seriously!
Product - A very sizable line of games, most all of which were supported. Plus, the stock was kept current.
Location & Parking - Great location in a safe area with plenty of nearby food joints. Ample parking in a well lit lot with plenty of stall space to avoid door dings.

I could serious go on and on about how this store was a Mecca of gaming delight, but the unfortunate reality is that it's gone and not because of anything the owner did wrong.

[lead in]
The store was located in a small shopping plaza, only three stores in total, but each one rather large in itself and the building freshly erected in a beautiful red brick facade. From the front; far left was a sleeping center, middle was a 'luxury laundromat' (which if you can believe was actually incredibly clean and nice, luxurious if you will) and then on the far right was White Knights Game Room.

[the story]
This is a tale writhe with heresy, a story of a once majestic game store come under the baleful wrath of a tyrant father.

A gamer, a teenager, a very smart boy with a bright future was a regular at White Knight. He played M:TG mostly, but dabbled in L5R. He was a bit of a social outcast at his high school. Not because he was socially deficient or awkward, but because he was smart and in advanced classes (high school is like that unfortunately). Gaming brought him great joy, it was a place where he felt he fit in. The truth, wreathed in darkness was that his father was unaccepting of his sons gaming and felt it detracted from his studies and would hinder his chances of becoming successful.

White Knights Game Room was at its zenith when the lease came up for renewal. The owner and all of his happy customers thought nothing of it, after all, the store was doing great and had already established itself for a few years. We all merrily thought that things would never change. The property owner however, had different plans. The property owner who conveniently also owned and operated the 'luxury laundromat' wanted to expand.

Since the laundromat was dead center and the property / laundromat owner had a choice of which lease to refuse renewal and expand into that space. Either the sleep center or White Knight.

One would be inclined to think that if faced with a decision such as this they would carefully consider which business to kick out. The reality is that White Knight's fate was sealed as the property / laundromat owner was also this young gamers father. What better way for a father, unaccepting of his sons gaming, to stop his son from gaming, than to go to the source and kill it?

White Knight was forced to pack up and close its doors and the kid who had found a place to fit in was ostracized once again.
[the end]

Yeah, but that same kid will be choosing his father's retirement home. I don't think the father is planning ahead very well.

A late, great FLGS had an ill-fated cost-saving merger with a failing used CD store across the street, got a ton of effort from the regulars to move things over, then died when the CD store finally went under.

There used to be a mobile GW store called the bitz wagon...

It got stolen... Nobody ever found it!!!

It's still crazy to me.

deFl0 wrote:There used to be a mobile GW store called the bitz wagon...

It got stolen... Nobody ever found it!!!

It's still crazy to me.

I forgot about that!

Was it really never found?

I think I remember reading that they did find it eventually, something about the thieves thinking they stole a van full of video games but when they got back to their lair they realized it was a van full of useless hunks of metal so they ditched it somewhere.

One of my FLGS's, the Fledgeling Imp closed in an odd, but I'm happy for the owner sort of way.

I'm from Reno, NV, which for being on the smallish size has been pretty lucky as we've always had a games retailer. At one point a few years back we were so lucky to even have two full blown stores with game tables and LONG hours!

Anyway, one of the stores, seemingly out of nowhere, just kind of shut its doors, inventory still in the place, and just never reopened. The guy who owned it was incredibly cool, great with the customers, offered repeat buyer discounts, and he was willing to demo pretty much any game on the shelf. The store was never a big destination for WH or 40K, instead catering more to the FoW, D&D, and MtG crowd.

Well, after a few weeks rumors were starting to fly on why he shut down. Unusually, the most insane one happened to be true... The owner had apparently been working with the makers of FoW and writing scenarios for a bit, and after awhile they decided, "why not?", and moved him and his wife to NZ to work for them.

Of course no one believed this preposterous story until this showed up on BFG's website...

http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&art_id=992

Very happy for the guy, getting to do what he loves. Unfortunately his disappearance did pretty much kill the FoW crowd in my town and ended up driving me back into the arms of 40K.

Alpharius wrote:

deFl0 wrote:There used to be a mobile GW store called the bitz wagon...

It got stolen... Nobody ever found it!!!

It's still crazy to me.

I forgot about that!

Was it really never found?

I remember this...the guys that stole it thought it was full of video games, I am sure they was surprised it was full of little metal army men.

Genoside07 wrote:

Alpharius wrote:

deFl0 wrote:There used to be a mobile GW store called the bitz wagon...

It got stolen... Nobody ever found it!!!

It's still crazy to me.

I forgot about that!

Was it really never found?

I remember this...the guys that stole it thought it was full of video games, I am sure they was surprised it was full of little metal army men.

There was also an Ebay ad, at the time, that was selling two 'Redshirted guys' that supposedly were the van's GW drivers/grunt staff. It was done as a joke and I'm not sure if it was actually posted on ebay or just circulated as a something that would have been funny on ebay.

The FLGS in my town hasnt shut down yet but i dont think its to far off. The owner passed away a little over a year ago and his wife took over the place. She is by no means a gamer so she has let the store go to crap. They dont stock anything new, you have to ask them to order it if you want it. She broke up her husbands armies and sold them unit by unit. Just doesnt care about the gaming side of the business.

Turns out she wants to turn it into some sort of new age/wicca store. Really sad. He was the guy who got me into war gamming and it make me sad to see his store just fall apart.

Same with the FLGS in my town, the owner has let it go to crap now for what seems like forever, and has yet to actually get anything new in for almost 6 months, aside from the odd thing here or there. Last time I was there it didnt even feel like a store but more like someones bedroom!
Personally... I expect this place to close up by the end of the year!
Just another in a long list of attempts for a desent place to game in the Georgian Triangle! Sigh :(

Alpharius wrote:Probably not too odd a reason, but my local game store (RIP, 2 years dead now... :( ) closed because the owner of the property decided to raise the rent.

The owner said, you know, I was on the verge of trying to sell it to someone else so I could spend more time with my family, but instead, I'm out!

One fire sale later, they're gone.

Oh, the building space that the owner upped the rent on?

Still vacant.

Man, hard to believe that Danger Planet went away that long ago. D-:

My FLGS moved from their old location to make room for a crappy sushi place. They were moved to a place pretty close by though, so I can't complain!

DAMN THE RECESION!
HERSEY I SAY HERSEY!
well if it doesn't work i'll just open one up in my basement filled with terrian!
or
I go rob the store when its gone.

MagickalMemories wrote:On topic---

Although it ended up reopening a year or more later, One Eyed Jacques in Richmond, VA burned up in a mysterious fire that only damaged his store.

Eric

Jacques... they keep everything in stock, but the owner is something of a dick, and Cary town is so inconvenient to get in and out of unless you live down there.

I shall be moving to Lawrence, Kansas soon, and I hear there's a pretty nice LGS there called Hometown Games. Hopefully it doesn't suffer the same fate as these other stores!

One eyed Jacques big problem is the location in Cary Town, there's never any fething parking, and if you overshoot the intersection (like I always seem to) you get stuck in the 1 way system.

I wish there was a gaming store on Midlothian Turnpike or Stony Point parkway.

shealyr wrote:
Jacques... they keep everything in stock, but the owner is something of a dick, and Cary town is so inconvenient to get in and out of unless you live down there.

I shall be moving to Lawrence, Kansas soon, and I hear there's a pretty nice LGS there called Hometown Games. Hopefully it doesn't suffer the same fate as these other stores!

How well do you know Joe?
At first, my opinion agreed with yours. Eventually, though, I came to think I misunderstood him.
Joe really knows gaming. He always seemed to have his finger on the pulse. He knew what was coming, when he'd have it, and he knew *just* how well it would sell.
I think that his entry into the "store ownership" scene as young as he did (and, I think he had a lot of success early on) seemed to give him a bit of an ego. Ego doesn't = d*ck to ME, but I can see how you get that impression.

I have to give him credit, though... When I lived there, he was VERY gamer friendly. He made sure to accommodate anyone who wanted game space, as long as he had it available.
Also (remember, this is around 6 or 7 years ago), when we formed a game club (Deep Fried Gamers of Richmond [DFGR]), he let us hold meetings there, even though we didn't typically buy anything there on meeting days.

chaplaingrabthar wrote:One eyed Jacques big problem is the location in Cary Town, there's never any fething parking, and if you overshoot the intersection (like I always seem to) you get stuck in the 1 way system.

I wish there was a gaming store on Midlothian Turnpike or Stony Point parkway.

There was.
I think they called it "Gee Double-you" or something like that. Apparently, it went under MANY years ago.
Something about being an unfriendly environment to the older, more established gamers and giving preference to the new, younger gamers where they thought (incorrectly, as it turns out) the money was.
As I understand it, they closed down WELL before it was typical for a GW store to do so.

OEJ's location isn't (okay... WASN'T) too bad. Just remember, when you reach 7-11, to SLOW DOWN! LOL
Parking next to and in back of the store is (was) usually available... not that you'd be happy about leaving your car OUT BACK, where it's not in the public eye, though!

Eric

When did it close? Thier feebay store is still up.

I knew Joe back in the day and pop in there from time to time when I'm up in the Richmond area. If that place is closed, thats gonna suck.

Between Plan 9 and Jaques, that was a pretty good reason to put up with that richmond craptastick traffic.

They had some serious gamers up in there, too. Warmachine, Axis and Allies, D and D. good times, good times.

There was a store in Ft Lauderdale called Generations. Great store, great service. However the wife decided she wanted to include her"hobby" too, scrapbooking. The overhead for that sunk the rest of the store.

Another, more personal one, was Ultimate Gaming Source in Miami. A business venture between my brother and best friend. After a year, the store was going strong. The location was free as the spaced was owned by my friends parents. However, in that years time, we found out our lawyer was sleeping with my friends mom, he lost his student loans due to the store, and was dumped by his GF for spending too much time there. So right before the fiscal year, the partners were payed out and UGS closed.

Grot 6 wrote:When did it close? Thier feebay store is still up.

I knew Joe back in the day and pop in there from time to time when I'm up in the Richmond area. If that place is closed, thats gonna suck.

Between Plan 9 and Jaques, that was a pretty good reason to put up with that richmond craptastick traffic.

They had some serious gamers up in there, too. Warmachine, Axis and Allies, D and D. good times, good times.

MANY years ago... like, 1991 - 1993 area... There was a fire & it closed for what seemed like forever (maybe a couple years?).
Eventually, it reopened, though.

Eric

Had a store here in town that I enjoyed. Wasn't my main FLGS, but I had a good relationship with the owner, played different games there than at my FLGS, and had a good time. One of his partners (unfortunately a very close family member of his) cleaned out the bank account and the til, and went on a nice vacation. The store closed. The End.

A great LGS closed because the owner just decided he didn't want to be in the gaming business anymore.

The manger was running the shop great, lots of product moving, the owner just stopped paying her, paying rent, and paying for new orders. I mean people were ordering tons of stuff, but he just didn't want to do it anymore.