Just Games Rochester: The Life Matt Was Looking To Have

Before building his store, Matt began his game store journey by running a chain of stores in Milwaukee. Originally from South Buffalo, with a background in teaching and journalism, Matt says he “moonlighted” at a game store in Wisconsin. While only scheduled for four hours, he worked at the store for 30 hours instead, in addition to his adjunct job teaching. Playing games since adolescence, Dungeons & Dragons being his favorite, Matt would teach classes on writing for games. However, due to his frequent presence at the Wisconsin store, the owner asked if he wanted to become a partner. The rest is history and would lead to the opening of Just Games Rochester around 2010.

Rochester has four stores in town, with Matt’s being one of them, according to the Wizards of the Coast Store & Events Locator. When deciding on a location for Just Games Rochester, Matt says Rochester had a market opening, leading him to choose Penfield Road as the store’s home. A larger space Matt acquired before the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s “the town you live in,” Matt shares. A reference to helping others through various organizations they care about.

He says engaging with the community fuels his excitement. Doing so results in what he calls “earned advertising” via new customer acquisition, a focus of Just Games Rochester. Matt notes the experience plus ensuring his customers feel good equates to a sale. He tells us the store engages new customers deliberately. Moreover, year-over-year they’re bringing in a couple hundred new customer conversions each month. However, Matt points out that it doesn’t mean a customer will become a regular at the store.

Divvied Responsibilities At Just Games Rochester

Matt and his wife work in the store, along with an additional six-person staff. The latter focuses on sales and events. Community Manager Mikey handles Pokémon and “Learn to Play” events. These teaching days, or “Learn to Play” events, comprise an ecosystem of demos. Matt says the demos also serve as off-site customer acquisition events. What’s the goal? Introduce people to board games. While beneficial off-site, in-store Just Games Rochester has a rental library. Customers can rent a game for 20% of MSRP. However, Matt shares that returning the demoed game on time results in the 20% returned as store credit. There is no store credit for late returns. When returned on time, the store makes no money unless purchased after the fact. The goal Matt tells us is to instill customer confidence in the game purchased.

Marketing copy and ad design are Matt’s responsibilities day-to-day. Moreover, he participates in several charity fundraisers, school events, and museums. There’s no fee for community non-profit events.

He notes the difficulty of juggling multiple things, including purchasing products and providing the right training for employees. Therefore, he passes the responsibility of inventory management over to his wife. When hiring people, the process entails a focus on skillset. They like finding what people excel at and enjoy. Finding the right candidate is a multi-layered process, Matt says. Multiple people will review a resume before reaching a consensus on who to hire to ensure the right candidate for the job.

Matt’s Background Has Served As Catalyst For His Store

Matt is from a line of multi-generational farmers. It is here, on the farm that he learned self-discipline. He says he’s been able to bring those lessons from the farm to Just Games Rochester. For prospective game store owners, he recommends you “try to build for the life you’re trying to have when your business is successful.” On a personal level, Matt tells us that letting go of the reins and letting his employees do their jobs has been his biggest challenge. He misses being on the sales floor and talking to customers, but he doesn’t want to get in the way of his employees. There’s a lot of storytelling on the sales floor, and with a Masters degree in creative writing, Matt feels that sales is storytelling. He’s proud of the team they’ve built and the ownership of each employee and their position. The employees care.

Solving problems through collaboration is key in Matt’s process. While he doesn’t attend many conventions, events like GAMA provide that desired collaboration. That said, he’ll attend gaming-adjacent events. Here he’ll have access to the people behind the publisher. Matt shares that he’s not in PR mode in these scenarios. Instead, he focuses on building relationships. When solving problems, Matt seeks out what other brands are doing and then takes what he likes to implement at Just Games Rochester. One important goal of the store was to avoid a high-anxiety shopping experience.

A Look At The Numbers Based On Customer Insights

Reflecting on the insights obtained, Matt shares that Collectible Card Games are at the top. However, they do well with Dungeons & Dragons and Role Playing Games (RPGs). The former is their most unique offering, he says. Looking at the numbers, 1/4 of event attendance comes from RPGs, 20% from miniatures, and board games at 15%, with the rest from Tradeable Card Games (38%).

Follow Just Games Rochester on Facebook, X, Discord, Instagram, and their website.

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