Greetings from Monster Hobbies in High River, Alberta, Canada.
The old store on 127 3rd Ave SW, High River is getting repaired from the flood of 2013, however, the Land Lord decided that I am not allowed to come back to re-occupy it.
I am currently located in the temporary “Sprung” buildings which look like this:
I have found another location in the town’s industrial zone very close to the 2a Highway intersecting Center Street and the very busy 12th Ave. The space will be ready in February and I will be moving out of the Sprung buildings on 500 1st st Sw High River at that time.
The new location costs @$300 less than the original store, is larger and better laid out (1200-1500 sq ft vs 989 sq ft of the old building), and it is on the second story of the building. (Which will save all my inventory IF High River experiences another devastating flood.
In addition to this, Mike, the owner of the building, and the owner of Mike’s High Tech Transmission and Auto Repairs Ltd has been there for 20+ years and he said I could use his name in my advertisements describing where the building is, because EVERYONE knows where Mike’s is. Also, Mike is also a business man and can understand if rent gets short in the low months and is willing to give me an extension, payable by the end of the year, if I come up short. He is also going to do all the reno’s, which will save me additional expenses I don’t really need right now.
I will also be located behind one of the most famous summer-time burger resturaunts in all of High River, The Hitchin’ Post, which is also very famous in the town and beyond. Mike says that if I put a sign on the corner of the street, that gets the traffic in.
Another plus side to this is that I do a lot of war and card gaming. The new space has 2 “Sunken in” walls that allow 2 large gaming tables to get pushed into these spaces without blocking up the rest of the store. I also have new wholesalers and I can get slot cars and potentially build a slot car track in there which would be awesome for running Birthday Parties and making the store more of a “Community Happening”.
The down side is that my customers will have to climb up a flight of stairs to get to my store. This could potentially limit the elderly model train customers, wheel chair customers and people with walking challenges. Mind you, I don’t have very many of these people as customers, but that could potentially change. Mike does have a ground level bay coming up, but currently it’s being used for tire/tranny storage and is built like a box car, long and deep, but not wide. This would be better for those people, but not so much for store design and lay-out.
Do any of you guys know of other hobby/game stores where customers have to go upstairs, and does this present a problem, or am I just worried for nothing?
Here’s a map I made combining Google Maps with some Monster Hobbies store pictures to show where we’ll possibly be. There’s also a close-up picture with a “Faked” sign on the building to show what it could possibly look like in March or April 2014.
I know Sentry Box in Calgary has a lot of stairs in it and it’s in an industrial zone as well, and it’s quite famous, actually…been doing well for 25 years!
Thanx for letting me know!
Trevor Ursulescu
Monster Hobbies
P.S. My sales were up this year, despite the flood, and beat my highest all-time sales figures from 2007, prior to the Recession! I see great promise in the near future - my 10th year in business!
BUT - due to having to move, I’m a little frightened at the concept of basically having to start over again on my own.
I have run my own business for almost 20 years now, and one of the most important thing is location, location, location, if not THE most important thing. Dunno if that helps you out any at all:)
It sounds like the pros more than do up for cons. Giving up on a few loyal costumers would be sad - but from I buisness point of view there’s only one thing to do.
Better location in town and the opportunity to become a community place for games is great.
It’s of cause really sad that the people who has a hard time (or no possibility at all) walking is gonna have a problem. But some of them could be helped up the stairs I’m sure - would just be a service.
Or stuff seen on the WWW or in a catalog could by carried down to them.
I suffer from arthritis in both of my hands and both ankles. after working all day with my hands and walking around the whole time. I would be hesitant to enter any store up a flight of stairs if I did not know what it was. since I would know from your name that it is indeed a hobbies store and not named like “Pete’s”. I would go up the stairs. really I’m saying if I want what you have I will make the trip.
I’m getting a lot of feed back on the issue of the stairs. Overall, it seems like most people would attempt them.
However, someone brought up that it may be against Canadian Law to have no accomodation for assisted access up the stairs. I’ll have to look into this, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that. It may be a current building code, but if the building was built before a certain time, I may be exempt from that. I don’t know off the top of my head, having never been in an upstairs building before.
Nothing will be settled until Terry Arnett gets back to sign the lease papers. (He’s the Real
I know that locally the most successful store also happens to have the best gaming area for customers to take advantage of. They have a large drink selection and a small snack selection that they sell which helps bring in a few extra dollars for those who are gaming but not shopping that day. One thought though is that customers are more likely to buy something if they can see the in-stock merchandise from where they are playing.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind stairs so long as they were wide enough for a couple people to pass while carrying their army boxes. A narrow stairway would be really hard to use if people are carrying boxes/cases up and down and bumping into one another constantly.
Bottom line though, the gaming area will go a long way to determining whether people are willing to use the stairs or not. Hope this helps.
My local gaming store in Kitchener Ontario (The Phoenix) has a lenghty set of stairs you have to make it up before entering the store/gaming room. I’ve never heard anyone complain about the stairs. The only draw back you may find is not getting as many walk in customers with a ground level store front.
I’ve been asking my customers how they feel about the staircase, and so far no one really seems to care. There’s one older gentleman who had an issue about it, but his model train set was destroyed in the flood and he really has no intention of rebuilding it. He just stops by to see how I’m doing, nothing more. I can always meet him at the bottom of the stairs for that type of chit-chat anyway.
Another thing is that I think most locations in High River right now are going to be a crap shoot for success anyway. Businesses are leery of returning to the downtown core and a lot of the shoppers have no real reason to drive down there right now.
The new location is off the main crossroad of the town where there’s a lot of vehicle traffic. People HAVE to drive down that way to get through town, so the new location is on the way. It’s also on the way to the high school for students who live in that SE part of town.
To get downtown, people have to detour off the main road to get through to the old Downtown Core. A lot of the houses in that area are slated to get bulldozed because they became uninhabitial structurally due to post flood rot or just from the impact of all that water. Therefore, the original walk in customer is basically gone from that area. Maybe I’m the only one that realizes that…for now.
I also heard that the Town will be rebuilding the sewers in the core this summer. So even if I did go back, the roads will be blocked off while they rip the streets appart…and that could be months before they finish that. Therefore, all parking will be taken up by large town trucks and so-on. Mike’s place won’t have to deal with that because that location isn’t part of “Core”.
Finally, Mike only wants to sign a 2 year lease. By that time, the old Downtown Core might be deemed “Safe” because the berms stopped any future flooding in the area, and in 2 years the core should be rebuilt. (If all goes 100% to plan). Also, 2 years from now my wife and I won’t be paying a car loan and we’ll be able to save a lot of money at that time…which could be the right time to reconsider returning to the core, if Mike’s place isn’t working out. 24 months from when we sign the lease.
As an outsider I gotta say Mike’s place does sound pretty great all things considered. IIRC I visited a gaming store in Glasgow that was up the stairs, otherwise most stores do admittedly seem to be ground floor. The old toystore when I was young had a upstairs and downstairs and really stairs were never an issue. Tooooys! And eg the clothes store upstairs in the old department store likewise didn’t suffer from being off street level.
But you know your customers, if the are all old guys and moms with strollers then probably not optimal. Otherwise, those gamers should probably be grateful for the free cardio they get. You might be doing them a great service.
I think the key is “regional” accessibility. If you can’t get around/to downtown and they are going to be tearing that up then you’re screwed anyway. I think that’s what the local downtown merchants are complaining about mostly, no parking for visitors (a lot of it is used up by “office” workers) and poorly planned traffic flows. So people drive to the big mall outside town just off the main inroad and run around there instead.
You’re right Snowblizz - There is another factor…I am the only hobby store from the south of Calgary to the north of Lethbridge. Not only do I have customers from High River, but Blackie, Turner Valley, Vulcan, Okotoks, Clarsholm, Nanton, Black Diamond and beyond. Basically every little community in that zone is mine for hobbies. these guys will travel to me no matter where I am.
All I need to do is get back in newsprint in The Regional Newspaper - the paper that goes to all these communities. Let my customers out there know I’m back in business!
