Game Over for Gamer's Paradise

[Melba Toast]

Meh.

I knew Gamer's Paradise from their Landmark Century Centre location. It was the only game store in all of Chicago that I could point to, but I never went there because it had a terrible selection.

The majority of their stock was party and drinking games. They didn't cultivate any gamer community. If anything, they outright rejected it. I can't recall any RPG selection and they didn't seem to have a clue about the existence of Euro-games: if they carried Settler's, it was exotic and new.

Chicago is a city packed with special-interest boutique stores. There's probably a hundred stores in Chicago for "your pampered pet". But GP was the only game store in town and they failed. As I see it, Gamer's Paradise had a cornered market in one of the world's biggest marketplaces, and they killed the business themselves.

In other worlds... screw'em.

 

[Blessed1972]

Theres alot more to this story.

Greetings.

I was looking for info on some old stomping grounds and came across this site. Pretty cool and I look forward to seeing alot more of it. But back to the topic at hand.

There is alot more than just sales tax, rent, and other outgoing payments. Its also called supporting the community. You see when your name says Gamers Paradise and you do everything in your power to convince people otherwise, what else do you expect. The people making the real decisions had no idea what they were doing nor did they seem interested in fostering the local gaming community at all. It seemed that they had in the words of Willy Wonka "A magical golden ticket" but just like some of the bratty kids in that classic movie (the original) they wanted something else and lost it all.

When you looked at their selection it seemed like, especially to me and I used to work there, like they wanted to be a Spencer Gifts instead of Gamers Paradise. Instead of focusing on games, whether board, chess, minatures, cards, or RPG, they were focusing on trendy items that quite honestly I wanted to smack the people who were buying this useless crap. Instead of having a place where gamers felt welcomed they wanted to carry blacklight items, gag items, adult videos and toys. The owners wife was one of the reasons why a store like this closed. She made alot of poor decisions and she was not alone.

I used to ask why not try to get demos and tournys going and I kept getting the cold shoulder from upper levels. It seemed like the owners did not want to cultivate the local gaming community. A good example was the pokemon card craze. Parents would spend more money if there was a place where the kids could play in a tourney but like alot of other opportunities this was wasted as well.

It does not help when alot of your RPG companies are suffering as well, but if there was more EVENTS that showcased the different games I think there might have been a different chain of events.

They spent more money on useless product lines like beenie babies and plush animals that looking at what people were looking for, a game store that was top knotch. I remember I went to a gamer convention here in the chicagoland area, I think it was called the Chicago Gamers Conclave, over the thanksgiving weekend and I worked it running Battlefleet Gothic. I remember talking to people and when they found out I worked at Gamers they asked me how it felt to work for a joke in the gamer community. The reputation of the company had alot to do with it.

There were plenty of people who really wanted to make it work and some of them were really knowledgable, but alot of the workers were not. Its a shame that they closed because they had a golden opportunity that they let slip through their hands. Not to mention that I felt there were too many stores to close.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Greetings.

I was looking for info on some old stomping grounds and came across this site. Pretty cool and I look forward to seeing alot more of it. But back to the topic at hand.
snip.

So you create and account and your first post necro's a two year dead thread about a game store that went out of business 2 years ago? Interesting choice...

 

[Blessed1972]

You know theres enough a-holes in the world. No need to to come off with an attitude.

 

[Holy Bovine]

You know theres enough a-holes in the world. No need to to come off with an attitude.

Oh there's someone with an attitude in this thread.

 

[Piratecat]

So you create and account and your first post necro's a two year dead thread about a game store that went out of business 2 years ago? Interesting choice...

Why is there anything wrong with this? And even if there was, why are you giving a new member attitude instead of reporting something that might be a problematic post? Please don't do this in the future.

Blessed, welcome to the site, but please be sure to read the Rules. We ask that people not insult and be jerks to one another. You can report problematic posts using the tiny "!" at the bottom left of every post.