Which of the Game Stores In Utah Should You Visit First?

Originally from Oregon, becoming one of the game stores in Utah was off in the distance. As a kid, Nathan enjoyed playing video games on SNES. His interest in tabletop gaming didn’t come until later in life when a friend invited him to play Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. During his Dungeons & Dragons days, there was no game store in the picture. However, Nathan says he’s always been entrepreneurial running businesses outside gaming. Moreover, when he moved to Utah to attend school, Riftgate would eventually enter the picture.

The store is a part-time gig for Nathan, as he works full-time as a Project Manager for Buffer. The store would become realized after making potion jars for Dungeons & Dragons. He says he would sell them online in addition to then selling dice. Nathan would reinvest the revenue resulting in a large inventory. At that point, Nathan tells us Riftgate would become one of the game stores in Utah in 2023, recognizing there was a lot of demand. He says the funds from online sales helped launch the store.

Riftgate’s First Year As One of The Game Stores in Utah

Nathan’s instincts for the demand in Murray, Utah, would be justified. According to the Wizards of the Coast Store & Events Locator, Riftgate is the only store in Murray. Officially one of the game stores in Utah, the store moved to a second location (April 2024) after one year in business. Nathan says signing a lease can be nerve-racking because most landlords want a multi-year commitment. However, in this instance, he negotiated a lower risk for himself.

Nathan tells us he doesn’t pay himself much out of the business and instead reinvests in hiring employees of which he has five handling the exchanging of trading card game singles. One of his employees handles “rip-and-ship” live streaming. Nonetheless, he feels TCG Player does not offer the tools necessary to make it easy for retailers. Still, Nathan says he enjoys his full-time job and doesn’t know whether he would work at the store in a full-time capacity. Rather he seeks to have more time for himself in his life.

The Responsibilities You Have As One of The Game Stores In Utah

From a marketing standpoint, Nathan said he used TikTok to document the store’s initial development. It helped grow the community, he says. Furthermore, he aspires for the store to be a large and well-known hub for gaming supplies. Nathan handles customer service, inventory, and marketing for the store to help achieve these goals. He shares the importance of growing the store’s social media presence and supplementing it with game demo videos and potentially a podcast. For store inventory, he’s focusing on online retail and would like a warehouse to facilitate those sales. E-commerce has always interested Nathan. Finally, from a customer service standpoint, he says Discord is the central hub for communicating with customers (i.e. support ticket notifications) and employees.

According to Nathan, when compared to gaming, his actual hobby is running the business. To that point, he’ll go into the store two times a week and run the checkout counter on Fridays. Additionally, he’ll manage the ordering to keep track of the store’s financials. One disadvantage Nathan says is there’s not as much distributor allocation to products due to the store having limited funds in its early stages. He notes some distributors keep track of purchases made by category, but that’s not the case for all. However, he tries to place orders with multiple distributors to get as many products as they can afford. Moreover, investments in fixtures and shelves have continued for the store.

The Unexpected Popularity of Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering is the majority of their events. However, Nathan shares that Lorcana and the game Flesh and Blood also do well in the store. Those customers who play Magic: The Gathering does so more consistently, he says. Originally, he started selling Role-Playing Games. Nevertheless, Nathan tells us that the store sells more Magic: The Gathering than he thought they ever would. Moreover, it’s the most-sold game than anything else in the store. Despite that, he says MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) without MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) is not helpful as a retailer.

They run more frequent but smaller events throughout the week to satisfy demand. Nathan says hosting events do not turn a profit. The reason is that he sells entry to the events at cost. Furthermore, while there’s some overlap, he hasn’t seen many Lorcana players playing Magic: The Gathering. Be that as it may, while selling a lot of Pokémon, there’s not much in terms of a player base at his store.

The Art of Building A Store Your Customers Want To Visit

When building the store, Nathan visited game stores in Utah to find gaps in the market. This provided insight into what stores were doing well and areas of improvement. He says one of his focuses was store cleanliness.

“[The] [s]taff is very friendly, [good] selection of minis, dice, board games, [and] dnd things, card games, and nerdy decor is amazing! will visit more for sure!”

Devin Little John Zupan, customer review on the Riftgate Facebook page

Additionally, he offers a 5% back rewards program on purchases and trade-ins. Furthermore, giveaways are provided to customers. Plus, Nathan developed a “land calculator” for Magic: The Gathering, originally for SEO purposes which has driven traffic to the Riftgate site. Finally, Nathan is looking into opportunities to invest in branded products like deck boxes and role-playing game supplies.

In looking to the future, Nathan says he would love to get the store to a point where it pays for living expenses to provide him the freedom to write a fantasy book.

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