My wife entered Rocket's Hideout a few months ago to buy some card sleeves. She was completely…read moreignored by the store owner, April, who decided that chatting with fellow Magic players was much more important than a paying customer. They were talking about something irrelevant, like "OMG, DIS CARD B TEH STONEZ". They went on for 15 minutes while my wife was ignored at the counter.
I thought it might have been a fluke, so I paid a personal visit. The store was in total disarray, just like my wife described. I saw April and was ignored. Once again, she was talking to Magic players and completely neglected me. It was deja-vu, my experience was just as my wife described. All I wanted was a pack of card sleeves (which were sold out). I excused myself into the conversation so I could buy my stuff. She gave me a rude look, mumbled something about not having them, and wouldn't make eye contact after that. The Magic players eyeballed me and continued the conversation.
I have never seen a store with so much potential that was thrown away. It is extremely drab, dirty, cluttered, hot, and unorganized. There is a car seat in the front, functioning as a makeshift bench. It has little to no product to sell. The card selection was abysmal. I dabble in several card games, and I saw absolute junk in the card cases.
I've seen other card shops. The owners listen to me and what I want to buy. They are fully stocked, have current product, are clean and well furnished, air-conditioned, polite, have snacks and cold drinks, and a few of them have those Yu-Gi-Oh games (DTs) that spit out cards (a neat idea if a store has the space and the customer base - Rocket's certainly does). But these stores do not have the player base that I hear Rocket's players raving about. I guess the players stick around for each other more than the store - I can't see any other reason why anyone would willingly be here.
Improvements: Add vinyl slips over playing tables so the place doesn't look like the inside of a trailer from the '80s. Air conditioning needs to be turned ON - a large fan that circulates hot air is not acceptable. Top priority: product selection - card sleeves should be fully stocked for all games. Card selections should feature current cards at competitive prices - not completely useless, unplayable junk priced 25% more than eBay BINs. If I wanted a card at eBay prices, I'd buy it off eBay. The booster packs - and there's no way I can make this up - were from 7 years ago, and it was the worst set that the card company has made. Others were from several sets back. Anything current is "sold out".
The battered posters and random stickers in the window do a fantastic job of trashing up the place. I'd recommend tearing everything off the wall and putting on several layers of white paint. You can frame 5-7 of the nice, memorable posters (like ones from a great set). I even saw a card store print and cut high-resolution pictures of the original 151 Pokemon, each in front of a Pokeball, on photo paper and neatly place them on the wall, with Chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling and wires neatly lined (not hanging down) - the whole setup cost the owners less than $250. It was a work of art for pennies on the dollar. Vacuuming or even ripping the carpet up in favor of the modern look of concrete would help substantially. You don't have to spend a fortune to have a decent shop.
I visited the Facebook page. The owner has pictures of people partying, drinking, dogs, etc. I don't understand why you'd want a page combining your personal and business life. That's a recipe for disaster. If you want a personal page, get your own. All things personal should be out of business. It isn't that hard. The page should be deleted in favor of two new ones: one for the store, the other for the owner.
I took one look at the place and I can tell you the financial management is extremely poor. Here's a very small example: I saw shirts. Yes, shirts. For sale. How they spent money on shirts before improving the store, I have no idea. It blew my mind. I hope they have some fantastic reputation and win every national championship, because there's no other reason to make shirts before improving the store first.
I saw a few Yu-Gi-Oh players were gathered the day I went, and they looked like they were having a good time. I went over and talked to them, and they seemed genuinely nice. One of them recommended which sleeves I should buy for my nephew and which ones I should avoid. These players were more helpful than anyone behind the counter.
Rocket's Hideout has such potential, and if the owners can wise up, gut and clean the shop, re-prioritize spending to focus on all games and not MtG, then it can be the card shop it deserves to be. April needs to drop the "you don't like it, screw you" attitude that I received. When this place improves, I'll be sure to increase the rating and update the review.
