Owl Central Games In Millersville, Pennsylvania
Owl Central Games is located in Millersville, Pennsylvania. According to Wizards’ Store & Event Locator, it is the only store in town. However, within the greater Lancaster area reside three other stores. Adam Bowles, the former General Manager of the store – now held by his co-worker, Alberto – handles the IT duties. He’s responsible for managing the store’s website.
Additionally, a unique feature of Owl Central Games is that Adam’s job requires the maintenance of an in-house application. The application’s purpose is for pricing cards the store sells on TCG Player. To the benefit of the store, Adam’s application (co-developed alongside his co-worker, Ken) can adjust the prices of cards. As the market fluctuates, the application can react; limiting the need for manual intervention.
Owl Central Games places a heavy focus on its employees. Moreover, Adam has nothing but good things to say about all of them. The acknowledgment of new employees showcased on the store’s Facebook page helps immediately establish that comradery amongst the team. The bond amongst the staff has translated in a positive way towards its customers. As per a review on Facebook from JSwify Vang:
“I always have a good experience here. Staff are friendly and they have a lot of good product. Highly recommend!”
JSwifty Vang
The Comradery Amongst Employees Translates To Customers
Employees have the option to work on tasks that benefit the store. Adam emphasizes they want to put employees in positions to do things that they want to do. He credits Alberto who has made the push to recognize employees in a public manner. To achieve this, Alberto coordinates with Dan, the social media coordinator for Owl Central Games. In Adam’s view, it’s all a team effort and he wants employees to enjoy working there.
The positive energy shared among the employees feeds back to its customers. As Adam notes, when he was working the storefront:
“So when I was in the storefront, I tried to make it a point to learn peoples names.”
Adam Bowles, Owl Central Games
Effectively Engaging The Community Within The Store
To foster engagement within the community, the store features a bulletin board available to all customers. Customers can post announcements of activities they’re trying to get off the ground and encourage others to join in. The layout of the store showcases the merchandising as a player makes their way to the playspace area. When it comes to gaming, it happens every day except Monday as the store closes at 6 pm EST. Saturday nights they hold special events but that changes depending on the week. However, by checking the Owl Central Games website, you can stay abreast of the event for the given week.
In order to jumpstart formats – like Pauper for Magic: The Gathering – Adam built popular decks to have on hand. By doing so, it’s enabled interested players to try out the format without having to invest the money. Additionally, he credits talking to customers in their Discord channel and asking questions. He feels that finding out what customers enjoy playing is a successful approach to getting a format off the ground.
Finally, money aside, Adam aspires to build a mobile application for the store. He envisions it serving as a companion application for the Owl Central Games website. Additionally, he hopes the store will be able to develop its own games for sale in the future.
You can follow Owl Central Games on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and Discord.
If you’d like your store featured, please contact us.