Third Anniversary: What I’ve Learned After Three Years of Owning a Board Game Cafe

June 17 marked the third anniversary of Village Meeple Board Game Cafe. For the past three years, we’ve been the weirdos slinging board games, making your dice addiction a little worse, providing you with off-the-wall events and groups, and just being a safe place for you to be your true self. 

With three years under our belt, I obviously still know practically nothing about this business. I truly learn something new almost every single day. However, even though my brain mostly is a hamster running on energy drinks and mozzarella sticks, I have picked up a few pearls of wisdom while building this flying airplane. So without further ado, I present to you “The 5 Things Jess Has Learned While Owning Village Meeple So Far.”

People are Kinder and Grosser Than You Think

When we first started out, I had several people warn me about retail jobs. I have a healthcare background, so I hadn’t worked specifically in retail before. I actually had very little experience. Everyone told me that retail would make me lose my faith in humanity.

I’m a pretty optimistic person. I generally trust people and treat them with kindness. I believe who they say they are until they show me otherwise. 

I can honestly say, after three years, I could count on one hand the number of times someone was rotten to us while at the cafe. It just hasn’t happened. It could be the environment, the items we are selling, or just how pleasant our personalities and faces are. But we’ve been so lucky to have the best customers in the world. They continue to wow me with humor and kindness.

That being said, ya’ll are kinda gross. The items we’ve cleaned, the places things are left, the state of the bathroom. Woof…

Don’t buy 12 copies of anything that’s not Butts on Things, Magical Athlete, or Flip 7

When I first started out, I had no idea how to order board games, where to order them, who to order from, and how much to order.

I found distributors. I listened to the reps. I ordered what they said. Andddddd, then we had to discount them because we didn’t need that many of those games and they didn’t move.

When I purchase games, I prefer to go directly from the publisher. Everyone gets a better deal and you quickly build rapport with the people running the company. I know that for most games, 3-6 is the sweet spot to order. If I order more than that, it’s something I already know is a hot game with a ton of buzz that people are excited about. I also will order a higher quantity if it’s a game I found, and I know my staff and I can sell it, opening it up to a larger market.

You will learn games so much faster, but you’re also going to be much snobbier.

As with anything, the more you practice, the better you get. This is very true of board games as well. I am constantly playing new board games, so being able to recognize mechanics, similarities, and lingo have made me much faster at grasping new games.

However, it’s also made me a bit of a board game snob. There is so much out there that is just a reskin of something else. It’s hard to find a truly new and innovative game idea. Games from my earlier days hold a special place in my heart, but anything that came after them with a similar mechanic is not so exciting. We played a ton of Space Base and it’s a favorite of my family’s. But when I played Machi Koro, I was underwhelmed because of the similarities. 

I appreciate a clear rulebook with pictures. I appreciate a well-designed player aid card. I appreciate a unique theme. I honestly appreciate good colors and graphics. But the best is when you play something truly original to you for the first time. It’s just a high we don’t achieve much anymore in our old age…

There is a game for everyone.

I have said this one since the start, but I truly believe it even more than I used to. A perfect example is last month, I went to my niece and nephew’s birthday party at the indoor pool. As I am that weirdo, I brought a few games for the adults to play. I had a couple friends of ours say that they didn’t usually like games and that they weren’t any good at them. I introduced them to Size Wise, a great party game from Game Head. They loved it, played three times, and then texted me later to see if our store had it.

Culling the library is heartbreaking, but necessary.

Village Meeple currently has over 1,200 games in our library. That’s about 400 more than I ever intended. I feel like, after a certain point, the amount of games can just overwhelm visitors. 

We add a copy of most games to our library that we’ve added to the retail shop. This gives customers the ability to try it before they buy it. This, however, makes the library grow faster than our little shelves, walls, rooms, and building can hold. 

In order to make room for the new games (and keep Bluetsy’s sanity), we must make the difficult decision to pull the games that aren’t getting played. And this can actually be a hard process. There are so many great games that, because of one reason or another, just don’t get played at the cafe. I remember removing Five Tribes, one of my favorites. Such heartbreak.