I’ve major reservations about shopping with mega monopolies like Amazon because I believe they are bad for small businesses just like FLGSs. However, due to Amazon’s cutthroat business practices it has nearly anything I could need under one roof, or roofs and I can trust Amazon to make anything that goes wrong with the process right.

I’ve never once in the over 20-years or so shopping with Amazon, ever devolve into a run-around you can get with other retailers. So as much as I hate giving evil Bezos my money, it happens regardless.

That brings up the whole other topic of marketing manipulation as that’s where I believe Amazon excels. By buying out and out competing smaller retail stores, the world of business is becoming significantly controlled by just a few megalithic corporations, and that market dominance just compounds until every corporation is having to use Amazon as a middle man to move their products. Anyway, board games are my shimmer of happiness.

Great article! I know that folks do like to buy from less-expensive online shops, but – as a proprietor of a lost FLGS from Houston once told me, “you can’t get community with an online store.”

That said, I’d love to give a shout-out to Knight Watch (www.Knightwatchgames.com) games here in San Antonio. Simply put, they’re one of the finest businesses of any kind, and I am grateful to Paraic and Brenda for having taken a risk and opened up. They are the finest kind, and their store is the best that I’ve been to in terms of just outright “feel.”

Great atmosphere, amazing community, good location, and ample parking. If they don’t have it, they can get it. In addition to gaming, they also have a sizable collection of LARP/Medieval attire (and swords! And axes!), plus their still-in-the-works Sanctuary, which will add even more to their offerings.

I don’t know if you ever have the occasion to travel to San Antonio, but we have excellent taquerias, and we have Knight Watch Games.

They both make it worth the trip.