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Today at about 9:55 am I get a call from my friend that he needs some inspiring, as he is going through a break-up. I had just completed sealing up a box for a trade with another DakkaDakka member when inspiration hit me:

I had a few hours to kill, so why not do some exploring.

A few members of DakkaDakka have asked about the Warstore.net, an online store I live very closely to and for all intents and purposes never knew existed until I started playing Warhammer 40k last year. I saw the website not too long ago, and thought nothing of it. Then I conversed with the owner of Men at Arms Hobby Shop over in Middle Island, who told me that the owner of the WarStore was a customer of his many years ago and now owned his own store. It boggled my mind.

I've been planning a trip to there for over a month now, and finally had the time to go. I picked up my friend over by the Tanger Outlets and Riverhead after scouting out the WarStore's google map location and discovered it was not too far offf on the North Fork of Long Island. We went down Route 58 which merges into Route 25 here in Long Island. Now for those who have not been here, Long Island is a mixture of urban development (NYC on the west end, Suburbia smattered here and there, and farmland on the extreme end of the island). As soon as we merged onto 25, the city of Riverhead turns into bumpkin land filled with wineries, farms, sod farms, small antique shops, churches, barns, ect.. So we wizzed by at a whopping 40 mph through the wonderful...rural landscape and several small town centers and finally made it into the town of Southold (Long Island has a unique government structure of units of government- small hamlets which turn into townships followed by counties and then if interested, congressional districts and the State of NY. Riverhead and Southold are two of several "towns" on Long Island which in effect function like miniature counties without being called counties.) and as I got closer, I whipped out by Google Maps on my Blackberry to zero in on the location of the Warstore, which was located on Route 25.

As we got closer, I noticed the right side of the road had even numbered addresses, which the Warstore possessed. The numbers increased by the hundreds per address and quickly discovered the Warstore was quickly approaching. Following the numbers, we passed a log house, a nursery, and then wizzed by a few more rural looking houses and realized we passed the number of the address to the Warstore. Curiously, I backtracked through some sidestreets (including one called Peanut something, I would say Gallery but that is too cliched) and went back to the main road and slowly went by the log cabin, which was where the number to the warstore belonged.

Pulled into the driveway, and looked for any signs of the place.

Nothing.

So my friend advised me to leave, as he didn't want no rednecks coming out with shot guns to chase us away.

We pulled into the garden nursery, and I decided to call the Warstore from the number I got out of google maps. A man answered "Warstore."

I explained I was close by the store and needed directions to get there. He explained it was located in some greenhouses by a garage. You go through the front door and walk straight into the back.

I said okay and hung up. Then I double-taked at the nursery behind me, which lo and behold was a series of greenhouses with a garage on the side. Just to make sure I was right, I called up again and asked for clarification.

Yes, I was right. It was this place. He even opened the door to me to show me I was not crazy (his name was Joe btw).

And boy was I not crazy.

Entering through a non-descript white single door, I walked into...the Warstore.

And I never would of know where to look unless I called....

And here are some pics of the place from the outside. I asked out of courtesy to see if I could snap a few photos of the inside, but Joe said he would have to ask Neil as it was not his call. I agreed. Ergo, I won't go into detail about my entrance and roaming around the place. All I could say was that I was stunned to find such an amazing plethora of gaming things that I must of died and gone to...a nursery somewhere in sheep bum- land.

And here are a few snap shots of the outside, as I belive it is okay to post at least that-

Its like the area 51 of wargaming

So what's it like inside?

I keep meaining to trek out there when I'm up in the city but never find the time.

That is funny. I order from them all the time, but I always assumed that their location was like, a warehouse or something in a more urban area.

@GMMStudios- YES! Dude, it was surreal. It is also the perfect hiding location. You would NEVER know that this place doubles as a flower and plant nursery and inside A FRICKING GAME WAREHOUSE.

@Kid_Kyoto- First room is office, which is several desks and computers, the obligatory Neil is Triumphant plastered on a dry-erase board, a "My Common Sense is Tingling" print out, random other inspirational crap, massive amounts of paper shuffled all over the place sprinkled with work place things associated with nerds.

Next comes the warehouse space. Most of the room is very tight there, but imagine one lane winding down into the warehouse with smaller lanes between shelving and pegging. Everything I ever imagined or could of is there. There is a computer centered in the middle there too And then they have their inventory stored around.

There were four people I saw on duty; three ladies who were stocking product and the dude Joe I met. They were all nice people.

Huh.

Totally not what I expected, but cool none-the-less. Thanks for the pics/story!

That is amazing.

In my head, I imagined a small retail game shop that was attached to a large warehouse in the back.

amazing a secrect guild of ... NERDS i must join haha

Be careful.

Those lady-stockists are also highly trained ninja assassins.

When I went there, I saw the farm house and thought 'nah, must be alittle further down the road..' and kept driving.

Came across the mail lady a few blocks down and asked her, and she promptly pointed us back to the farm.

Now growing up in Maine, I'm used to farms sometimes holding toy or comic shops inside.. but they're usually also crazy pedos and your lucky to leave with your life.. at least thats been my experiences.

If I didn't know that The War Store was a good and reputable company, I most likely wouldn't have bothered going inside.

WarOne wrote: Then I conversed with the owner of Men at Arms Hobby Shop over in Middle Island, who told me that the owner of the WarStore was a customer of his many years ago and now owned his own store. It boggled my mind.

Is Jim still running Men at Arms?

Hmmm. Seems like a part of a weird trend of possible combined game stores.

Greenhouse games in Maine:

http://www.wargames.com/store/425/gardiner/greenhouse-games

Rhubarb Games in Florida

Little Shop of Magic in Kansas

Pet Shop Comics in Kentucky

Grasshopper Comics in NY


I think that we all know how hard it is to keep a game store open, and maybe these ones are diversifying.

Warmaster Primus wrote:Hmmm. Seems like a part of a weird trend of possible combined game stores.

Greenhouse games in Maine:

http://www.wargames.com/store/425/gardiner/greenhouse-games

Rhubarb Games in Florida

Little Shop of Magic in Kansas

Pet Shop Comics in Kentucky

Grasshopper Comics in NY


I think that we all know how hard it is to keep a game store open, and maybe these ones are diversifying.

i have been buying my Mums and Azaleas from Catapano farms for years, and they will combine shipping on gardening supplies and GW bitz, so its a win win really...

CT GAMER wrote:Catapano Farms... they will combine shipping on gardening supplies and GW bitz...

THAT need to be on his website!

Eric

GMMStudios wrote:Its like the area 51 of wargaming

Large forest animals once tried to attack me as I trekked down the back patch to my place one night, they may have been aliens.

I used to buy dog food from Prince's Pet Shop & Auto Body, in Drexel Hill, PA.

Or maybe it was Princes Auto Body & Pet Shop? I forget. But yeah, they fixed cars and sold rawhide at the same time...

For some reason, that is just so.... COOL!!!

Catapano farms is his fathers business, he opened up the store on the side.
I bought from him when he first started selling stuff on ebay (parting out starter boxes, bought a bunch o'marines off of him this way). Really nice guy and a great business as well so good combo in my mind. As I dont have a local near me, Neil gets the bulk of my TT $$ (FOW, GW, WF, Pegasus etc).

When the place gets robbed it'll be your fault for giving away their secret warehouse location.

So was there any gaming of any kind or did you literally go check out a hidden warehouse?

oni wrote:When the place gets robbed it'll be your fault for giving away their secret warehouse location.

So was there any gaming of any kind or did you literally go check out a hidden warehouse?

It's kinda of an open secret anyway. On his website, he invites people to stop on by.

And no, this is not a Local Gaming Store. It is quite literally a Giant Gaming Warehouse In the Middle of Nowhere.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:So what's it like inside?

He should have a giant warhammer on the roof or something. But maybe they're undercover.

I'm thinking a bush trimmed to look like a warhammer... Although it should be said that the War Store is a great 'general purpose' online games dealer, and not Warhammer-specific.

Vik The Viking is their mascot, so no need for a giant shrubbery...

maybe one of those 25' tall inflatable mascot balloons of Vik on the roof...

Kind of like trying to find a 'traditional tattoo artist' in Japan. No signs, no nothing. Hmmm... I wonder what they are hiding there...... The mystery deepens!

Bigger on the inside?

Gavin Thorne wrote:Bigger on the inside?

A Bit, but more Dust.

Is this the only Warstore location, or is there a more traditional Games Store type location elsewhere?

I didn't realize there were more gaming/greenhouses out there. As a kid, I used to buy models and games from Prosek's Military Model shop and Greenhouse in Winfield, Illinois. The man who ran it passed on, but his kids are still running the greenhouse and selling off his old stock. At 40% off, it's worth a look for anyone interested in old gaming stuff and military models.

That was a comical story, with a really funny twist. I was not expecting the place to look like that. Guess its to keep the GW crusaders at bay