Game Goblins With Store Owner, Josh Wilhelmi

04/01/24 • 84 min

In this episode, we're talking with Josh Wilhelmi, owner of Game Goblins. With two locations in both Little Rock, Arkansas, and Conway, Arkansas, Josh hopes to open five stores in total with plans to franchise the brand afterward.

Josh started buying and selling singles from dealers at events to pay for his travel. He built up enough income from this venture which led to a game store. Game Goblins started in 2012 with 2,000 sq. ft. of space. This would become a limitation, and the store would relocate to a location with 6,000 sq. ft. of space. As of this writing, the store has been at this location for the past nine years. Furthermore, the store is WPN Premium - the only game store in Little Rock.

The store in Conway - also a WPN Premium store - is the Game Goblin's second location. While the store is smaller in square footage and staff, Josh employs a full-time team leader who manages the day-to-day operations. Overall, he has 15 employees between his two stores.

As the owner, Josh focuses on the direction of the company. Such decisions include product lines to carry, new events, and ordering. Moreover, Game Goblins is not the only company that Josh runs. As such, he passes along his philosophy for the company to his employees to implement.

The company generates about 3 million in revenue per year. The revenue encompasses the two stores and TCG Player. 50-60% of that revenue is in products sold. Josh notes that the company is very data-driven when ordering products. With a background in computer engineering, they have created internal utilities that they iterate over consistently to help improve buying decisions.

As he pursues a third store, Josh focuses on a few requirements before doing so:

The store must be in a city with at least 50,000 people.
The space he purchases must be at least 4,000 sq. ft.
The store must generate 1 million in revenue after the first two years.
The store cannot be hard for people to find.

As he pursues a third store, Josh focuses on a few requirements before doing so:

The store must be in a city with at least 50,000 people.
The space he purchases must be at least 4,000 sq. ft.
The store must generate 1 million in revenue after the first two years.
The store cannot be hard for people to find.

Previous Episode

OC Geeks & Games With Store Owner, La Donna

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.

Next Episode

The Enchanted Deck With Store Owner, Jon

Editor’s Note: The store owner, Jon, has told us The Enchanted Deck is no longer running. However, he says he would like to have it up and running again at some point in the future. We’ll be sure to let you know if we receive any updates.

In this episode, we’re talking with Jon, owner ofThe Enchanted Deck - an online-only store. However, he does hope to have a brick-and-mortar store in the future; potentially within the next couple of years.

In July of 2023, Jon would stream on Twitch with a “rip and ship” concept selling packs of cards Pokemon cards. However, in January of 2024, The Enchanted Deck was born as an online store, but now he was selling various TCGs. Having worked as a salesman for Best Buy for 10 years, Jon feels he has the experience required to acquire customers and learn what they want.

While Jon doesn’t face the overhead a brick-and-mortar store would, he does face the difficulty of acquiring products from distributors. Because he’s an online-only store, Jon says that acquiring said products is limited. Initially, he was only able to buy Pokemon products. While distributors have asked when he will open a store, Jon said they he wants to do it the right way when it becomes a reality. One of those things he wants is to make sure his store would be WPN-ready from the get-go.

Being a new dad and having a full-time job, in addition to running The Enchanted Deck makes it difficult to consider opening a brick-and-mortar store at the current time. However, Jon does participate in conventions that he can afford to go to, to get the name out there regarding his business. He’s also noticed that online “buy, sell, and trade” Facebook groups have been a great way to attract new customers and build relationships.

Additionally, Jon utilizes online ads to grow the business and is constantly updating his website to make it as easy to use as possible for his customers.