The Death of a Gaming Store

by News | posted at 2011-03-31 03:31:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Nerdtrek, Cascade Comics and Games

On the back of Eli Kassis's report on the impact of small stores being given the chance to host National Qualifiers comes the focus on a sadder story: what happens when a gaming store dies. The store in question is Cascade Comics and Games in Washington, going out of business after years of serving the gaming community. Jonathan Nerdtrek of the Nerdtrek blog writes the story in a recent entry and attempts to analyze why his favorite gaming store is closing:

"I started thinking about the reasons that businesses all over the US are failing and a few different concepts came to me.  The poor economic times that our government has blessed us with have wiped out so many small businesses I fear there will be little left by the time the double dip recession (depression) hits rock bottom.  Hard financial times also put a huge strain on marriages.  The #1 reason for divorce in the US are spouses arguing over financial issues, and with these hard times almost 90% of Americans are dealing with financial issues one way or another.  With divorce comes not only the division of assets, but income- thus destroying the local business in the mess.  My last reason is the advent of internet businesses; There are so many online stores where you can get insanely low prices, why would you ever go to a local shop and pay twice the price for their goods?"

Eli's op/ed details how hosting quality tournaments like a National Qualifier helps bring in new customers to stores like Cascade Comics and Games, but at least in this instance it's too little too late. Like most small businesses, game and hobby stores struggle to stay open and have a high incident of premature closure.

Read more on Jonathan's take on the store's closing and how it will impact him on NerdTrek.

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