Duke City Games: An LGS With Four Locations

Duke City Games features stores in Albuquerque (2), Rio Rancho (1), and Santa Fe (1). According to the Wizards of the Coast Store & Events Locator, there are six stores in Albuquerque within a 10-mile radius, with Duke City Games holding two of those spots. In Rio Rancho, they’re one of three game stores, the same goes for Santa Fe. However, in Santa Fe, they operate under Twilight Hobbies and Games, which they’ve considered changing to match the other stores. Twilight Hobbies and Games has remained because they did not believe those living in Santa Fe would recognize the meaning of “Duke City.”

They’ve built these locations for the gaming community in New Mexico in five years. According to General Manager Alexandra, plans for more locations are in the future. Fun fact: Duke City is the nickname of Albuquerque and how the store got its name.

The Origin of Duke City Games

Alexandra tells us that Rob, the store owner, has always been an avid gamer. Since he was young, he’s been playing Magic: The Gathering. Moreover, he has also played the game competitively. Before owning a game store, he worked in the finance, car, and insurance businesses. However, Alexandra says he found it stressful and left to open a game store. These days, he’s out of town a lot, attending networking events such as conventions. However, when he’s in town, he will help out in the store. That said, Alexandra says Rob is looking to venture into other businesses, and she says he has already made it known that he’d like her involved in many of his ventures.

At the time of this writing, Alexandra started working with Rob three and a half years ago. They’re friends and talk every day about the business. Alexandra’s journey with gaming started with her enjoyment of video games such as Tomb Raider, Super Mario, Sonic, and Batman, as well as collecting Pokémon cards, specifically the newer sets. While she hadn’t played card games, she enjoys Anime and pop culture in general.

Before becoming the General Manager, Alexandra started working at the store for fun one day per week. Now, they open one hour earlier while she ensures events are all situated to run and makes daily posters for these events on social media. Finally, she answers the questions of store managers at each of the four locations. Now open for an extra hour, Alexandra has the time to accomplish tasks before assisting customers and events the remaining seven hours she’s in the store. Still, she says every day is different.

A General Manager’s Day-to-Day Responsibilities

Regarding events, they hold big tournaments such as Regional Championship Qualifiers, but they also run events for kids. An example is a designated “learn to play” day, predominantly Pokémon. Overall, Alexandra says there’s a lot of event planning involved, but she tells us she’s good at multitasking. An example of multitasking incorporates ordering products for the store. However, she’ll place orders across all locations for limited products. When needed, she’ll visit one of the locations and bring them products or provide assistance running the store.

She shares that it is difficult to order products due to the number of products released. Interestingly, restocking is not a challenge, but the initial order is. Alexandra notes it’s difficult to reorder Collector Boosters and Commander decks. From her point of view, she would like Magic: The Gathering to ship fewer Play Boosters and more Commander decks. Per the latter, she says there is always one deck everyone wants and another nobody wants.

Alexandra says she cares a lot about the business, and it’s on her mind often. She’ll assist even after her shift concludes. She shares that being close to the community and seeing the store grow is very rewarding. It’s a sign that all the hard work has paid off. That close-knit community plays into the family feel that the store pursues. A unique aspect of Duke City Games is that they host as many games as possible. This is true even for niche games with a turnout of just four people.

Alexandra doesn’t have much time to play games. Still, her hobbies include being outdoors, spending time with her dog, and going to the gym. She shares that playing cards would give her the feeling that she’s still working.

The Games That Succeed At Duke City Games

When assessing the popularity of games at Duke City Games, Alexandra tells us that Pokémon is the most popular. They see a sizeable collector base, but they also have a player base of about 200 people. Following Pokémon is Magic: The Gathering, One Piece, and Yu-Gi-Oh.

“Definitely recommend Duke City Games! [We went to] get some Pokémon cards for my son and met Kitty! Kitty was extremely knowledgeable, made excellent recommendations, and made our experience a comfortable one! Will be going back for all of our Pokémon needs.“

-Joshua Rivera, customer review on Duke City Games Facebook page

Furthermore, while not a game, Duke City Games has a big sports community of collectors. Alexandra says there’s a lot of interest in sports within the community, and the products sell out fast. However, she notes no significant overlap in the market between Pokémon and sports collectors. Duke City Games is a casual store, Alexandra says. Commander for Magic: The Gathering runs every night with about 24 players each night, but Alexandra laments the difficulty of running any format other than Commander and Sealed.

A Separate Business & Structuring Operations

Duke City Games is starting a separate business on Whatnot, featuring six employees hired to stream on the platform and cross-trained in the store. Originally, Alexandra was the only one streaming. However, she says the goal is to get to a point where someone is streaming every day, and each employee can build their following. The long-term plan is to stream 24/7 on Whatnot.

Outside of Whatnot, Duke City Games has employees who work front-of-house retail, back-of-house inventory/fulfilling Internet orders, and an aforementioned store manager for each store. Alexandra says two to three people work at the High Street location (which holds more than 100 people), while the others have one person running the store at a time.

Looking toward the future, Alexandra says they want to add a café to Duke City Games in the next two years.

Follow Duke City Games on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, or their website.

Would you like your store featured? If so, reach out to us via our contact page.