Chicagoland Games Is More Than A Card Shop

Chicagoland Games: Dice Dojo was born in 2008 after Gamers Paradise, a store Lexx ran events at during graduate school, went out of business. He’s been a gamer since youth, with his first love being Dungeons & Dragons. Upon opening the store with his business partners, calling themselves the “Dice Dojo” didn’t seem feasible. At that time, Lexx’s concern was with Yellow Pages shoppers. His store offers a free loan of 3,000 board games in its lending library, and tables and chairs occupy 50% of the store.

Chicagoland Games: Dice Dojo is more than just board games. According to Lexx, they cater to all the giant fandoms. He says they’re “probably the biggest store in Illinois.” For example, they sell as much Warhammer 40,000 as they do Magic: The Gathering, Lex says. For the former, Lexx says they’re “probably the largest vendor of 40k in several states.” The latter sees six to seven pre-release events and “Two-Headed Giant.” However, EDH is their biggest night in terms of gaming. For beginners, they provide weekly open play and “learn how to play” nights for various games. Casual gaming is what they’re more known for, but Lexx tells us they host Regional Championship Qualifiers for Magic: The Gathering as well. According to the Wizards of the Coast Store & Events Locator, the store is one of seven in Chicago.

“Helpful staff, tons and tons of games. Relaxed atmosphere. Easy to shop and play. Highly recommend!”

Lars Skarford, customer review on Facebook

Chicagoland Games: Dice Dojo’s Second Business Venture

Conventions are an important aspect of the business, something Lexx enjoys doing. He has been attending conventions since he was young, and it’s his way of re-engaging why you do what you do. This is evident by over a decade of attendance at Dragon Con 2024 marking his twelfth year vending. Each year he retains the same 10×30 spot. At one point, Lexx said he would attend about 16 conventions a year. Now, he’ll go to four or five larger ones. While some game stores attend conventions to buy cards as told by previous guests on the podcast, that’s not Lexx’s focus. He attends to sell. Overall, conventions are a numbers game. He says it’s a second business.

While he has ten employees and two managers, Lex concedes that “staffing is hard.” Employees specialize, but with the volume of incoming online orders, everyone needs to do a little of everything. When hiring, he says you’re looking for someone who is passionate but has retail skills. Scaling is challenging when factoring in the number of products that come in a year and deciding what to buy. For example, in 2008 there were 500 yearly board game releases, Lexx shares. Presently, 5,000 board games come out yearly. This is where Lex says you “read the room” and pay attention to what your audience wants. Moreover, “identifying who’s spending money.” Therefore, Magic: The Gathering receives a large chunk of those resources.

The Realities of Running A Game Store

Lexx believes every game shop needs an online presence. However, he couldn’t imagine opening a store today and notes that an owner needs a working spouse with a stable income. This notion coincides with the fact that game stores operate on low margins. Interestingly, Lexx conceived the store would only sell board games early on. Magic: The Gathering was not part of the plans. Be that as it may, Lexx says a game store’s responsibility is to provide organizing and community. With that in mind, it’s no surprise his “read the room” mentality would result in a supplement of the products offered.

In addition to handling shipments as his primary responsibility, Lex holds events at breweries and libraries and hosts Dungeons & Dragons birthday parties, all to help facilitate the growth of gaming. While growing gaming is important to Lexx, the store spends almost nothing on advertising. Chicagoland Games: Dice Dojo gets tourist traffic from Brazil, due to the “exotic” games they sell, Lexx says. 10 months out of the year, he says he’s a “specialty retailer.” During the fourth quarter of the year, he makes half his income. However, the store’s advertising is from Discord servers Lexx encourages the community to create. This provides information regarding what the community is engaging with at the store. Lexx notes that other game stores are not in competition with one another. Instead, Amazon is the elephant in the room, he says.

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