The Match Slip

In this episode, store owner, La Donna of OC Geeks & Games owner joins us to discuss her store in Oregon City, Oregon.

While not a gamer herself, her husband is. While La Donna was in the military, La Donna's husband had wanted to start a game store focused on families. The family concept of the store is their most unique selling point. It is further emphasized by La Donna when she says, "When someone comes into my store, it's like you're coming into my living room."

La Donna handles the managerial aspect of the store, learns the games, and hires the right people to help facilitate those games. Her husband handles the Games Workshop and miniatures side of the business. With three current employees, La Donna emphasizes the wonderful and impactful contribution of her late best friend, Anna, to the business.

Anna helped grow the Pokemon community, embodied the family spirit that La Donna and her husband were aiming for, and as La Donna puts it - she was the reason people were coming to the store. Her loss is still a difficult loss for everyone to this day.

In the spirit of what Anna brought to the store, La Donna loves that parents look to come into the store and play games with their kids. Both Dungeons & Dragons and Pokemon are huge with families at her store. The "Learn-To-Play" concept is working well to draw in new customers.

La Donna is very active in the community including being a foster parent to two kids and her involvement in the Oregon City Chamber of Commerce. Although active, La Donna notes that it's still a challenge getting people to know that her store exists along with the financials that are involved with running a game store.

La Donna grew up on a farm and her family did not have much money. However, she never lacked love from her family and friends. She parlays that richness in love to the customers in her store today and treats them as if they're her kids.

Looking to the future, La Donna would love to open another store with more square footage.

In this episode, we're talking with Sherri and Zack of Dragon's Hoard, located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Celebrating its 1st anniversary as a game store, Dragon's Hoard originally started as a hobby shop / collectible store. When Sherri's husband recommended they bring Magic: The Gathering to the store, it changed the direction of the business. The store would officially become a game store from that moment forward.

Both Sherri and Zack have full-time jobs outside of the game store. Sherri works in the corporate world and Zack is a commercial real estate broker. Furthermore, Zack was the property manager of the space where Dragon's Hoard now resides as he was looking for someone to take over the lease that was recently vacated. With a desire to open a board game cafe, Zack asked Sherri if they could be partners together on this venture.

The pair currently have two employees: Justin and Steven - the latter of whom ran the store in the beginning 6 days a week. With some help in hand, Sherri says Steven has two days a week off. One of the things Sherri likes doing in the early years to get the store's name out there is attending conventions. Even if money is lost by doing so, Sherri believes in the motto, "Be everywhere."

Sherri shares that the store name comes from the various vendors who would sell products in their store. Moreover, she's looking to highlight the vendors through various means - like raffles - as part of the store's 1st-anniversary celebration. Attending the conventions was a great networking opportunity to invite those vendors to sell in her store, Sherri shares.

With 3,500 sq ft. of space, Sherri and Zack can hold multiple events simultaneously. To help alleviate some of this work for Justin and Steven, they hope to bring on more employees in year 2. The long-term goal is to open a second store and make Dragon's Hoard their full-time gig in 5-10 years.

In episode 22 of the podcast, we're talking with Lance Shrader, owner of Gamers Geekery & Tavern in Cary, North Carolina.

Growing up in the mountains in Virginia, Lance didn't have a game store to go to. However, being a board game fan, Lance found himself wanting to build a game store. In Cary, a game store featuring what Gamers Geekery & Tavern didn't exist and Lance wanted to change that.

In 2014, his friend's wife was looking for something to do, so they partnered up and opened a retail space. However, Lance knew he wanted a bar, but couldn't do so within the confines of his first lease. Fast forward to today, the store in Cary features a 12-tap line bar as well as serves food. His business partner handles the game store end while he focuses on the restaurant.

Lance currently has 14-15 employees servicing both the game store and restaurant. Since the 2021 COVID pandemic, staffing has been the most difficult challenge. However, Lance notes after 2-3 years later things are feeling better on that front.

Customers on the other hand are not a struggle for the store. Additionally, there are times when Lance will have to, unfortunately, turn people away due to being at capacity. This while both good and bad can occur on Tuesdays and Saturday nights. It's one of the reasons why Lance is having an extension built across the street from his store.

The majority of the business sales is about 53% food and drink and 47% retail. One of the luxuries afforded to Lance is that he hosts team-building corporate events about once a week which has been a boon for the business.

With about 620 board games available to choose from and a unique appearance that doesn't just appeal to gamers, Lance has built an establishment that has people coming back along with repeat business from corporate events. His goal is to create a comfortable and hospital place for anyone walking through his doors.

In episode 21 of the podcast, we're talking with David Wheeler, the founder and franchisor of Dragon's Lair.

Dragon's Lair in Austin, Texas is the original store location dating back to 1986. It is 10,700 sq. ft. After selling ownership of this location in 2015, David decided he wanted to help people open stores and utilize his contacts in the industry to help others succeed.

With a wide variety of interests and not wanting to remain a game store owner forever - having done so for more than 20 years - David intentionally wanted to change professions. In taking steps to become a franchisor, he didn't think he could simultaneously be a game store owner. However, he wanted to help prospective game store owners find locations, negotiate with landlords for leasing agreements, build out store design/layouts, and build a culture.

As of the release of this episode, Dragon's Lair has locations in Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Texas, two locations in San Antonio, Texas, along with the original Austin, Texas store. Additionally, David is working on opening a store in San Marcos, Texas. As long as the prospective franchisee is qualified, David is willing to open two new stores a year at most.

Each store averages about 10 employees except for the Austin store which has 18. A unique touch of each store is what David calls a "Lair Beast".

Scott and his family set out to create a game store that cares about its customers. Scott learned from his son that "Silver Dragon" is the "caring" meaning behind the store's name. Moreover, the family sought to build a store women would want to visit, so Scott enlisted his wife as the interior designer.