And I missed it. I spent the whole weekend working at the store, except for the part where I attended a cousin's wedding. Plus spot coverage on the kids while Steph's crowded career social life did its usual thing. The entire week was kind of a mess, really. I was lucky that the stars aligned well enough on Wednesday that I could spend the day with a couple of friends-peers, including a trip up to the award-winning Game On in Prescott, Arizona's first WPN Premium store, for some workshopping.
Fortunately, I had my peoples at the Grand Prix, live and in person both to compete and to vend. But honestly? I had no intention of playing, and I had more than enough work to do at the store, and unfortunately both I and the staff got a lot done because so few customers were there to "interrupt" us. To be clear, we would have welcomed a few more interruptions. I'm actually relatively happy with the staff performance because the per-ticket total was above average. Fewer humans arrived, but those who did arrive generally shopped productively. There might be some value to learn from this, along the lines of staff having more time to engage with each visitor, but we kinda need the higher revenue that most weekends earn, so I'm not going to navel-gaze too deeply at this.
At the GP itself, it sounds like the Arizona player contingent performed well, and I'm glad to hear that. A lot of those guys put in the hours and deserve to earn some success. And the event was held on a spectacular early spring weekend, perfect for visitors to get a great impression of our beautiful desert resort town. We had a cold snap the couple of days before the event, and we got hit with rain the day after, but from February 6th through 9th inclusive, it was sunny and clear with 70-degree highs. Can't ask for much more than that. Maybe Wizards will return to Phoenix sooner rather than later.
Theros continues to sell super hot, except the collector boosters, which I figure I'm not moving too many of because the desperation stores are fire-selling them for a nickel over cost and the mass market is racing them to the bottom as they automatically do. I'm not in a hurry; I can wait it out. Pokemon Sword & Shield greatly underperformed my hopes for release week, but we know Pokemon doesn't tend to "burst" sell like Magic does. It's more of a slow burn, roughly two boxes every day, one pack-by-pack and one box sale. At this rate I won't have to restock it for the foreseeable, but it would have been nicer for it to take off and sell out early. And after recently adding new video games and systems, the two big winners are weeb games and the Nintendo Switch, both of which are seeing fast sell-through even as I keep ordering more.
I have a market recommendation for stores that are boardgame-focused. Do with this as you will, at your own risk, I am not responsible if it doesn't pan out. As of today the situation in China has gone from uncertain to downright worrisome. Coupled with the ordinary product flow interruption from Chinese New Year, I think we're going to see substantial stock outages in distribution starting in the near future and persisting until some unknown later date. If board games pay the bills at your store, go heavy on stock right now to the extent that your budget allows. Buy what's there, and don't leave it for a second order. You don't want to be sitting thin when the pantry runs dry. Thankfully, products like Magic, Pokemon TCG, and Warhammer are not made in China and shouldn't be affected.
Don't forget to buy something cool for your significant other for Valentine's Day!
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