Hillside Games, Asheville: The Unfriendly Local Game Store

Rune · Mar 8, 2012

catsclaw227 said:
Now a local news website is running an article:

Hillside Games versus The Wyvern's Tale | Mountain Xpress | Asheville, NC

Too bad that article lists ENworld's web address as ENworld.com.

HezekiahSmith · Mar 9, 2012

I don't know if someone else has suggested this already, but you might want to contact the Electronic Freedom Foundation. They sometimes provide free legal assistance with issues like this.

Mark Plemmons · Mar 9, 2012

Nareau said:
Recently, one of the two gaming stores in town [Asheville, NC] closed its doors. ... Unfortunately, the other remaining gaming store [Hillside Games] appears to be run by jerks.

I just wanted to throw in a clarification to this. There is also at least one more gaming store (Pastimes) in Asheville. I used to work there for several years back in the 90s - and the manager is a friend who I spoke to a few days ago, so I know they're still around (probably for 30 years now).

My best wishes to Wyvern's Tale, though!

EDIT: I see this was mentioned above.

RigaMortus2 · Mar 9, 2012

Mark CMG said:
Start a new rumor each week about what name is going to be used but keep the new real name secret. Let the other store waste it's time, energy and money chasing phantoms. But, remember, the best way to get back at petty people is to ignore them and live your live well.

Yes yes... THIS and assassination works well

wilmheath · Mar 12, 2012

Hey Heath here from Cape Fear Games which is in Wilmington, NC. I grew up near Asheville(Hendersonville) and we have spoken to Amanda on occasions and she has always been pleasant. I will not draw any conclusions until I hear the other side of the story. There are ALWAYS two sides to every story. I am not saying I do not believe you all but I would like to at least hear the other side first.

I do however wish you guys good luck with your new business and if you ever need anything I'm happy to chat. I won't chat about this situation because I would rather stay neutral on something like this but if you just want advice on running a LGS I'm happy to help.

One quick piece of advise that I noticed from the article that you linked in your post.
"Their prices were competitive with Amazon"
and
"Recently, one of the two gaming stores in town [Asheville, NC] closed its doors"

I would say that those two statements are directly related and you need to focus on a different business model. If you want to match amazon that is great but you also have to move 2x to 3x more games than a store that does not match amazon unless you have another source of income.

Anyways good luck guys and I hope this situation works itself out.

Llwynog · Mar 13, 2012

WetRats said:
This thread makes it sound like the oldest game store in Asheville, Pastimes, no longer exists. Did they close?

It is my understanding that Pastimes is basically a comic book shop now but I haven't been there in years so that is pure hearsay.

In its heyday, Buncombe County had five game stores (in rough order of opening dates): Pastimes, Craftish Geeks (that was me!), Sword & Grail, Underground Games (now Hillside Games), and Kringle's Place (might have the name slightly wrong).

Twice now there was also a store called "Uncle Fred's Magic & Games Emporium" but it was more of a magic shop that sold games than an actual game store. He now sells exclusively through his webstore since maintaining a storefront proved unprofitable.

We and Kringle's closed due to health issues. I think S&G went bankrupt but I largely lost contact with him once we moved our store out of downtown (they opened 3.5 blocks from us 6 months after we did; we moved because downtown parking sucks almost as much as our landlady did). That left Pastimes (who, as mentioned, was supposedly getting out of games) and Hillside until Blitzkrieg closed. (There may, of course, be or have been other stores but I am not aware of them since I stopped keeping track after we closed.) So, as far as I know, Hillside is it right now so I'd love some news on Pastimes without having to drive to other side of the county.

--------------------

When S&G opened I went to introduce myself and was glad to discover that he preferred not to have a bunch of kids in the store (the owner of Pastimes told us the same thing when we introduced ourselves to him) so we did Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon and ran most of the HeroClix tournaments (I even kept it up at HeroHunter Comics after our store closed until I started running them at Hillside). We likewise had no interest in Warhammer and such nor, at that time, roleplaying games. So only about half of each store's inventory overlapped with the other and we always sent customers to each other. It worked out really for us and I assume it did the same for them.

It is my understanding that Wyvern's Tale wants to do the same thing (they're not planning to do CCGs, for instance) if other stores will let them.

--------------------

I don't have time right now to go back and read the entire thread so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but they did manage to get a domain: www.thewyvernstaleavl.com (which currently just redirects to their facebook page).

Mark Plemmons · Mar 13, 2012

Pastimes still sells games. One section has gaming tables, too.

They quit selling music a few years ago. That may be what you're thinking of. When I worked there, it was Music/Comics/Games. We were even the major supplier of classical music cds in that part of the state, thanks to a good relationship with the local station. It was an odd mix, but it worked.

Gareman · Mar 14, 2012

Sounds like the store got tired of "prices ... competitive with Amazon" that eventually sunk their competitor and took some unfortunate pre-emptive action to prevent the turd from resurfacing in the bowl. I can totally sympathize, but obviously don't agree with their actions.

Everyone needs to tone it the hell down though. Shut up and do some business already. And maybe if you don't try to have Amazon level prices, you might stick around a bit longer than the last Wyvern's Tale.

w_earle_wheeler · Apr 25, 2012

Perhaps this thread has the attention of the parties involved.

It's almost the end of April and there is still no store, just a facebook page. Is it going to happen?

Nareau · Jun 19, 2012

w_earle_wheeler said:
Perhaps this thread has the attention of the parties involved.

It's almost the end of April and there is still no store, just a facebook page. Is it going to happen?

Yes! I updated the other thread where you asked this, but here it is in case you haven't seen it:

The Wyvern's Tale had their grand opening this past Saturday, to coincide with Free RPG Day. It was a huge success. Tons of people came through, boardgames were sold, and roughly a dozen games were played. They have a pretty great location near downtown, and 5 good-sized rooms for gamers to play in.