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That is to say another store is out of business.

Games Parlor in Woodbridge

Today was tax-free shopping weekend in Virginia so my wife headed for the outlet mall and I headed for the Games Parlor across the road. And it was closed and cleaned out.

When I moved to DC in 2004 it was a huge well stocked store with not only new stuff but shelves of OOP games like Void and Warzone. Since I came back in 2009 I've been seeing it go downhill, less and less and new stuff, moving to a smaller shop and guess what, the Warzone and Void stuff was still there.

They have another store out by Chantilly I'll have to check it out soon.

Saddest of all, they still list it as open on their site, which hasn't been updated since March.

http://www.gameparlor.com/

I already updates the Dakka store finder which makes us more up to date than the owners.

Still sad to see it go.

What am I going to do while my wife is at the outlets?

Booze. Gallons of it.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What am I going to do while my wife is at the outlets?

Shop with your wife at the outlets?

And sorry to see a local shop go.

Sad to hear.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Saddest of all, they still list it as open on their site, which hasn't been updated since March.

http://www.gameparlor.com/

I already updates the Dakka store finder which makes us more up to date than the owners.

They might be using a Facebook page and neglecting their homepage; I've seen a couple of stores doing that.

I feel your pain. I found out a while back that my favorite LGS/hobby shop (War & Pieces in CT) that I used to go to in high school (around 1994) closed up back in 2007. Real sad part is they had been around for several decades, and the landlord had simply pushed them out of existence with rent increases.

That's a problem in the UK as well unfortunately. Rent prices are astronomical in a lot of places, and it seems the local councils would rather have empty shops than reduce the rates.

Empty shops with no owner were a rarity in my youth, now it is a sight that is more and more common on the high street, and increasingly the only owners who can afford the prices are large store chains (making pretty much every high street in the country look identical to the next one).

Another call to support your local FLGS?
If only to buy a magazine, I think I'll have to drop into the closest thing we have here.

Pacific wrote:That's a problem in the UK as well unfortunately. Rent prices are astronomical in a lot of places, and it seems the local councils would rather have empty shops than reduce the rates.

My favorite pizza place closed because the landlord doubled their rent overnight. Man, they had the most epic salads...

lord_blackfang wrote:

Pacific wrote:That's a problem in the UK as well unfortunately. Rent prices are astronomical in a lot of places, and it seems the local councils would rather have empty shops than reduce the rates.

My favorite pizza place closed because the landlord doubled their rent overnight. Man, they had the most epic salads...

You went to a pizza place... for their salads.

Weird.

A good restaurant is versatile in its offerings. Still doesn't help much if their rent doubles.

Portugal Jones wrote:A good restaurant is versatile in its offerings. Still doesn't help much if their rent doubles.

Actually, I'm even more saddened by this. If their salads were so good, I can't imagine what the pizzas were like.

This thread also makes me want to go and find an FLGS near where I'm vacationing. Hm.

A good reason as to support your local stores. If you play there, buy something at least once and awhile. I may buy lots of stuff off Ebay, but I still make sure I buy at least one model a month from my local store. If they go away, I will have no where to play my hobby.

The Chantilly location used to be pretty cool. Haven't been there in forever, though. (Not since I moved out of Virginia way too many years ago.)

I remember seeing a lot of people mplaying some sort of micro-armor there in the mid 90s.

Pacific wrote:That's a problem in the UK as well unfortunately. Rent prices are astronomical in a lot of places, and it seems the local councils would rather have empty shops than reduce the rates.

Empty shops with no owner were a rarity in my youth, now it is a sight that is more and more common on the high street, and increasingly the only owners who can afford the prices are large store chains (making pretty much every high street in the country look identical to the next one).

My understanding is there's some esoteric tax law that (at least in the US) allows a company to deduct the rent lost from taxes, making a empty property as (or more) valuable than one that brings in rent.

It's a sad thing. We've had more than a few comic/game stores go bust in the last 10 years in my area and not for lack of patronage. Rent increases have been the #1 reason - they simply can't bring in enough business to cover the cost of floorspace, which has increased dramatically.

Melchiour wrote:A good reason as to support your local stores. If you play there, buy something at least once and awhile. I may buy lots of stuff off Ebay, but I still make sure I buy at least one model a month from my local store. If they go away, I will have no where to play my hobby.

Ya, lucky me, I play at the largest gaming store in Oklahoma. So many people go threw that place because its in the middle of the OU campus. Comics, all sorts of miniature games, board games, TCGs, and other stuff. In case your in the area, its called Wizard's Asylum @ Norman (there is one in Tulsa I believe). It's ran by a metorologist major.

WarOne wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:
What am I going to do while my wife is at the outlets?

Shop with your wife at the outlets?

Why kick a man when he's down? That's just cruel.

I can relate Kid. I just found out last week that a shop in south Calgary called Great White Collectibles just called it quits. Great staff, prices were good and they sold GW stuff, comics, puzzles, lego... lots of stuff to browse while my wife and daughter shop.

Now where am I going to get my Walking Dead fix?

My understanding is there's some esoteric tax law that (at least in the US) allows a company to deduct the rent lost from taxes, making a empty property as (or more) valuable than one that brings in rent.

?? Hadn't ever heard of that one. There may be some small deduction for having an empty rental property, but getting rent is far superior to no rent.

mikhaila wrote:My understanding is there's some esoteric tax law that (at least in the US) allows a company to deduct the rent lost from taxes, making a empty property as (or more) valuable than one that brings in rent.

?? Hadn't ever heard of that one. There may be some small deduction for having an empty rental property, but getting rent is far superior to no rent.

I imagine he's thinking real estate companies can deduct the empty property as a business loss and take some of the sting out of the lost revenue.

As for why they don't mark down the rent I think it's mainly that they fear everyone else will demand lower rates too. For most developers it's better to try and wait out a bad market than mark down and lose revenue for decades to come.

Shame. But my local gaming store is a GW so according to forum wisdom I should boycott that store and not do anything hobby related because GW IS THE EVIL SPAWN OF THE ANTICHRIST TOM KIRBY MARK WELLS APOCALYPSE BEAST AND ITS DYING DYING DYING!!!!!!

Even if the local GW closed down, where would the local gamers play, or get any of their gaming stuff?
Would the current GW staff be up for starting a FLGS in its place? Probably unlikely.

Kyoto, I played in a tournament there a few years ago with my Blood Angels and took Best Sportsman. It was a really nice place...clean, closed off RPG rooms...

I understand the owners tried to get people to pay to play on tables, and the local community took off ( rumors....).

That mall is frickin HUGE and there are alot of restaurants around....My gaming group went to Hooters afterwards.

I second the call for supporting the FLGS and GW stores. Without them, new gamers don't get recruited.

Buy stuff at your stores! 25% discount with no place to play is pointless

I know what this feels like. My favorite FLGS first had to move to a new location where less tables could fit due to rent issues. The first location was great for gaming. Then the owner was conned out of a boat load of $ by some woman. This resulted in him having to close the store in his new location. Really sad as the guy cared for the Hobby but in the end he was too nice and too trusting. I miss that FLGS.

That's a real shame. Their Chantilly location isn't doing so hot either.

I used to go there every weekend and play Monsterpocalypse with my friends. Of course, I sort of saw the writing on the wall when they moved to the smaller location around the corner from their nice, big storefront.

What I feel the worst for is the Woodbridge area gaming community. Having lost their G.W. as well as their FLGS all in a couple of years, where will you guys go to meet new players? Eagle & Empire is a bit of a trek (if they're even still open) and G.W. Springfield can sometimes be a nightmare to get to.

This is a very real example as to a reason to support your FLGS. Online retailers are cheap, but they don't provide the community and gaming space a traditional brick-and-mortar store does.

Perfectly understand what your going through the LGS where I go to school closed down over the summer...now I have no place to go when I head back. Makes me want to support the one in my hometown all the more now.

That sucks. The place I played at when I started playing and for years closed a couple years ago, but at least I was told by people before I tried to go and visit it next time I was down south.

Zyllos wrote:

Melchiour wrote:A good reason as to support your local stores. If you play there, buy something at least once and awhile. I may buy lots of stuff off Ebay, but I still make sure I buy at least one model a month from my local store. If they go away, I will have no where to play my hobby.

Ya, lucky me, I play at the largest gaming store in Oklahoma. So many people go threw that place because its in the middle of the OU campus. Comics, all sorts of miniature games, board games, TCGs, and other stuff. In case your in the area, its called Wizard's Asylum @ Norman (there is one in Tulsa I believe). It's ran by a metorologist major.

If you guys from Wizards ever want to play a game against some tough competition, come down to Del City and play at New World Comics and Games. Were really big into Fantasy, 40k, and Malifaux.

Etna's Vassal wrote:That's a real shame. Their Chantilly location isn't doing so hot either.

I used to go there every weekend and play Monsterpocalypse with my friends. Of course, I sort of saw the writing on the wall when they moved to the smaller location around the corner from their nice, big storefront.

What I feel the worst for is the Woodbridge area gaming community. Having lost their G.W. as well as their FLGS all in a couple of years, where will you guys go to meet new players? Eagle & Empire is a bit of a trek (if they're even still open) and G.W. Springfield can sometimes be a nightmare to get to.

This is a very real example as to a reason to support your FLGS. Online retailers are cheap, but they don't provide the community and gaming space a traditional brick-and-mortar store does.

Fair Oaks Mall has a great GW Store with an awesome manager.

You can hang at the Bob Evans right there, I guess. I'll miss it...that was where I usually got my FFG books.

Etna's Vassal wrote:

What I feel the worst for is the Woodbridge area gaming community. Having lost their G.W. as well as their FLGS all in a couple of years, where will you guys go to meet new players? Eagle & Empire is a bit of a trek (if they're even still open) and G.W. Springfield can sometimes be a nightmare to get to.

Eagle and Empire is still open but moving further north.

There's a store to the south (Game Vault? I think?) but it's a hike south too.

It would be a shame if asking people to pay for tables hurt or killed Games Parlor, it's really the one thing a B&M store can offer and I don't blame them for trying to make money off it. We used to pay all the time in NY.