The Holidays are Coming; Support Your FLGS!
The truth is that you should be supporting your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) year round, but I think of it more in light of the approaching holidays. I've mentioned before how lucky I am to have a number of excellent game stores here in St Louis. I've always appreciated being able to go buy games at these places, but once I got into Armada, they provided me with some solid options for tables big enough on which to play. Some people have tables big enough for a game that plays in a 6'x3' area, but I'm not one of them. Having not one, but several FLGS in my area is what has allowed me to enjoy Armada for the past however many years. I mentioned in another post at some point that I quit Armada a couple of times before it stuck. The reason it stuck was because the community was full of fun people to play with. I never would've met these Armada folks without my FLGS (in my case, specifically, it's Game Nite I have to thank for my sticking with Armada the third time around.
I know this is corny, but you know what? I've made some good friends at my local game stores, and the people who own and run those stores know who my kiddo is by name, are always kind to him, and I'm always grateful for that.
To that end, the more time you spend at your FLGS, the more excellent gamer folks you meet, the more events you learn about, and the more likely you are to be introduced to games you otherwise wouldn't have found. You're also supporting small business, which is important for local economies. To say nothing of the fact that the more diverse your game stores, the more likely you are to find something off the beaten path. Imagine if the only place at which you could buy your board games was Barnes and Noble. Sure, you'd find some good titles there! But you'd also be missing out on so much else. I've found Betrayal at House on the Hill and Everdell at Barnes and Noble, but I've never seen Uboot or Rising Sun there. And I can't imagine I ever would. The only way we maintain access to games like this in places near us is to patronize those places.
So spend the extra several or ten or twenty dollars at your FLGS. Believe me when I say it's worth it. Money spent locally is money well spent. I've listed a bunch of stores below. The list is by no means extensive, but these are places where I've spent money, and I'll proudly be doing so again.
St Louis, MO
Buffalo, NY
Rochester, NY
Durham, North Carolina
There are soooooo many other good game stores out there; I encourage you to go out and find them! It may take a little effort to find them, but I gotta tell you that it's worth it. Even just this past summer when I visited Buffalo, I found my way over to Gather and Game and saw things there I've never seen in another game store. Support your FLGS, y'all!
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