Local Game Stores

I live in the Huntsville Alabama area, population around 170,000 and a VERY high concentration of technical careers. All in all it is a pretty darned good place to live. Crime is low, it is close to several very large cities and has easy access to major interstates. Culturally it is a little thin. Not much in the way of concerts or diverse arts, but still a good place to live.

One of my favorite past times is heading out to book/game stores. I might be in the mood for a comic or two, maybe a good used or hard to find paperback or hang out for a while at a game store looking over the shelves. Of the three goals there, comics, games and used books, the only thing Huntsville has a good option for really is used books. As for comics and games the selection for my needs are pitiful.

The local game stores are limited to big chains which all carry the same thing and what used to be a very good store which has faded to barely passable. They now carry pretty much what the chain stores carry with a few extra bits and pieces tossed in for good measure. They do have a decent room for the running RPG’s and I suppose miniatures but I really don’t have the time to drive 45 minutes across town to try to play.  They will do a good job of special ordering things for you, but honestly I can do that for myself and often much cheaper than they can. Plus it comes to my house, not an hour round trip away. I do still go there once a month to look around pick up a couple of things they get for me regularly, so I have not completly written them off. I have simpathy for their plight. It is just a lot of effort on my part to go there and it makes me slightly sad a tthe state of an old hobby.

Recently there was a ray of hope. A new store was opening up on my side of town. One which promissed games and comics. They claimed they would host games and wanted to be a friendly place to hang. Wow did they fall flat on their face. I imagine getting a store like this running must be tought to do on a shoe string budget. Their location is a new strip mall so the rent is probably a killer. A store like this really needs location to make it I think. Word of mouth just ain’t what it used to be unless it is bad word of mouth.

So the first time I went into the store I gave them the benefit of the doubt when selection was sparce and no one was playing anything. I did not see any comics that caught my fancy and had no intention of picking up any games or miniatures. They are supposed to be big into miniature gamming so I would have expected them to have some, they had a smaller selection than the other place that has not put anything new on the shelves in 5 years. The 2nd time I went in I picked up 4 comics and tried but failed to find a graphic novel I wanted. Gaming supplies were still non-existant. Placed my comics on the counter and had two options for payment, a debit card and a $50. The dude behind the counter looked like a deer in the headlights when he saw me pull out the card. THEY DID NOT TAKE DEBIT/CREDIT. How can you run a business that does not take credit cards? To make matters worse I probably screwed him up royally with the $50 bill. It nearly cleared him out of change. I offered to go hit the atm for something smaller but he would nto let me do it for fear I would not return to grab my $12 worth of paper.

I expect the next time I go back ( it has been over 2 months since the last trip ) the place will be closed, but how can I feel bad for them, they failed on every aspect. Heck their back issues of their comics were in boxes on the floor. Pretty damn hard to browse for anything hunched over on the freakin floor. Oh and did I mention next to no game supplies at all? Can’t sell what you don’t have.