The Reality of Owning a Video Game Store 

If he had a nickel for every time you didn't let him finish a sentence he could buy a whole new store. Just how much Adderall did you buy with that trade in money?

I've walked into too many game stores that are just a bunch of anti-social burnout guys sitting around who act rude/condescending to every customer. It's really refreshing to see a guy who truly loves what he's doing and cares so much about the experience he's delivering to the customer. This might be the only reason I have to visit Arkansas but it's a damn good one.

2 things Retro Rick did perfectly: 1.) he purchased an existing business which came with existing customers.. and built upon this. HUGE. 2.) he learned the marketing before the business. he has multiple marketing engines to grow the business. HUGE. Great work Rick.

Retro Rick getting a lot of publicity from a lot of RU-vidrs. Good for him! I hope his store is a great success for years to come.

One of the things that makes a game store memorable to me is events. Whether it be game nights, tournaments, TCG nights, release parties, those all are things that create memories and Rick should definitely do those if he doesn't already.

I feel that busted up civic on a spare tire at @15:33 is the perfect example of a gamer's car haha

That Hulk statue is so badass. I bought some stuff from this store about 6 months ago. The store's got a great atmosphere.

Still kicking myself for not picking up Snatcher for $20-$30 from the KayBee bargain bin back in the nineties. I was like NAH, too rich for my blood 😄

Points to Ricky for his patience

Retro Rick seems like a cool person down to earth and honest, that's rare nowadays.

Love all of you guys. During my Cancer Journey, I found you guys watching RU-vid during Chemo and have been watching ever since. I am so happy for all of you, and especially love Riffs comedy and Jokes and one day I hope to make it to Ricks store to check it out. Insanely proud of Ricks progress and succession of the store and hope it becomes one of the best stores in the US. You all are so down to earth and genuine and wish you all success and hope all of your dreams and aspirations come true. Congrats Rick on all of your success. Caleb keep up the great content, and for being so honest with everyone.

I love retro Rick passion and dedication towards the community. He puts in the work and love those brand designs

My friend owns a small game store here in Michigan. The struggle is real but his commitment is inspiring. I'd love to bring him here one day!

I love how caleb owes everything to Amazon FBA, while rick is an OG store owner and so much more humble. In comparison Caleb is kinda annoying.

He does a fantastic job in creating ways and showcases to keep you coming back. That's the key to any store

Really great how rick is using all these experience design ideas in his store that is what sets it apart thinking about sightlines, reridability of the store experience itself with the constant changing ambiance with the museum display etc and just overal how he is going more for a overall experience instead of just a shop. My heart as a experience designer myself is warmed. If I could give one tip a good one would be have some consoles on display and give people the possibility to test games they are not sure about buying for up to 30 minutes or any other time frame there it adds the game experience itself even more to the store and people love being able to sample stuff it works greatly against uncertainty in buying decisions. Ofcourse you would conceptually need to finetune some details but think it might add to the whole store experience.

These stores end up running on margin profits if at all and they don't last, hence why they change hands often or just shut down entirely. Many of them closed around 2010 etc. as digital kept growing. I think that personal packaging for all the figures is maybe the best business decision of a small gameshop I've ever seen, perfect for holiday/special occasion purchases.

This tour just reminds me of how much fun I had working at KB Toys when I was in high school. If the retail market wasn't so hard to be successful, I'd love to run a toy/gaming store like this.

By far the best game store ive seen yet. Probably because I love the 90s vibe.

Love what he’s done with the place. the environment is an experience alone. Buying a couple games while you’re there is just a plus 😂 wish he was a bit closer for me!

Brilliant on the part of the retail experts to create the focal point. Something I may look into. Loved this video and the questions Phoenix asked. Honest and upfront. No one wants to talk about prices. Great video!

Out of all the shops youve visited, this one speaks the most to me. I LOVE the use of the blockbuster and TRU signage and other retro shops peices. Really cool store.

Nothing like a derpy Machop to round out your experience. The decor in there really is top notch. It succeeds at being its own experience. Good stuff.

Crazy come up for Retro Rick! Glad to see him again, My dad was a watcher of his up until his passing in 2021! Cool to see him evolved so far!! W Rick!!!

the packaging definitely is one of the coolest things to me. If I ever travel to the US and am near this store I'd definitely would pick up a figure that I will keep packaged just as a souvenir

I’ve been watching (and subscribed to) both of your channels for a good while now and it’s amazing to see both of you in the same video 😊👍

I've been to Game Point multiple times and I will say that when you put a game on hold to travel and buy, they'll do it. I was searching for two childhood games that I had been searching for a decade, maybe a bit more and I found them. They managed to get me both games and hold them until I could make the distance to travel and purchase them. I wanted to work for them but they always seem to have enough workers. It's an amazing store to just walk in and scope around. The workers are very friendly. Maybe at some point I'll sneak myself into a job there. :)

Anybody else who at first doesn’t click on a video in your recommendations because you really aren’t interested but the same damn video keeps popping up for days straight so you’re finally like fuck it and click it? That’s why I’m here 😂

Store looks amazing. Sitting here thinking where could I take the family to make this store on the way. Congratulations Rick wish you nothing but the best.

I love the nostalgia from that store. For my age that is awesome place. I reckon if you had game nights (if not already) could get good demographic going! Amazing work! Good luck to this stores future looks amazing!

huuuuge respect, seems like a chilled guy... sadly i am far away from the usa and ll never visit it but i love to know that those kind of stores still exist !

This video is absolutely fantastic! The dedication and passion of the owner really shine, I wish I could stop by someday, we don't much of these store in Europe anymore 😢

There is such an insane markup on games in these retro game stores. I have been working on my collections and its just a lot easier to buy them off eBay, even for a premium, and its still cheaper than a retro gaming store. Don't get me wrong love going into them, but most likely will not buy.

What an amazing store… I really Hope places like these never go away

awesome video bro! you got me into retro collecting, and now i have WAYYY to many retro game consoles! keep up the Great work!!

Amazing episode, thank you!! Brought me back to "the good old days" :D :D

I love your store, Rick!!! it’s my dream to work in a retro game store like yours. I’ve been a video game collector for almost 10 years I would love to work for you and hopefully one day open my own store

Can we just take a minute to appreciate Retro Rick getting down to the Tony Hawk soundtrack! Takes me back as that was my favorite song in the game! Can’t wait to go back to the store!

another excellent video, really wholesome stuff between you and Rick, excellent editing by Riff as well

Oh wow. I used to go to this store all the time when I went to that college close by. That was almost 15 years ago. Glad to see it’s still alive and hasn’t changed!

I have no idea who or what this is, but I I am glad it popped up in my recommended. I live in Canada and likely won't get the chance to visit this store, but the tour was amazing to watch! I love the retro aesthetic of everything. The classic Mario Bros logos, characters, the way the colors all popped and were really in your face, exciting, and yet somehow comforting too is all just so brilliant. I adore looking at old videogame box art for this reason. You can feel the era, and it feels good.

I went to Retro Ricks for the first time 3 weeks ago driving back from Little Rock and didn’t purchase anything. But I came back about a week later and I bought my first ever Nintendo Power Magazine (Kirby’s Dreamland 2 number 72) from Retro Ricks.

That is a crazy sick shirt you have on Caleb. Riff you killed it again with the edit.

love the banter in this video absolutely hilarious video and really cool to see retros shop.

Hope everything works out for ya Rick, awesome store. Can't wait to visit one day! Regards from Sweden :)

I need to get my own video game store 😅 Thank you for these videos Caleb, you inspired me to start a channel and Resale business

Riff with the Bits tattoo? True friendship and dedication there!!!

I use to run a high end hifi store, and I tried to run some events with a independent video-game store down the road. My goal was solely for exposure to the Dads of the gamers, he would get the opportunity to sell games and systems under ideal demo situation. The owner wouldn't give me the time of day. My store had several rooms with large TVs full home theater setups. One room had a 5 foot diagonal projection screen and $100k audio system. The projector was so bright ($30k) you can watch/play with all the lights on. That videogame store didn't last 12 months.

I am now wanting to go to this store just to support this store by purchasing stuff.

“Let me just ask the most bland boring number related questions and interrupt him as soon as he answers!”

much love to this group of guys just trying to make a living off their childhood, yalls group of dudes is impeccable

Awesome news! Glad to see the bubble popping.

That THPS Goldfinger reference at 10:55 was gold 👌🏼

2 very close friends of mine would buy games from flea markets and local places then clean / flip then on eBay. It was so successful they have opened 4 physical locations since 2019. So many it's the area you guys are in.

This was a really good video, need more of you and Rick

This is an Amazing Store Bro! Keep up the great work!

I do a meeting for my business in Arkansas every January. I’m going to make a point to drive out here and give this man some business.

Man I remember hearing about this store and checked it out and it is fricken unreal, so glad it’s only 40 minutes away

3:01 cashier in background, well done sir. Very subtle.

Glad to see him keeping the culture alive. Best wishes!

Heck Yeaa Machop I never had a plush and I was looking for a machamp online for one the other day 😁🙏🔥🔥💪💪

Casual busted up car parked right out front. Nice touch!

I love these videos where you share these stores

Been to your store many many times! I live in NWA so don't get to get there very often anymore!

Its crazy how Rick started off as normal youtuber and now he is officially store owner.

Right under game stop 😂 15:35 had me dying

The custom packaging for the action figures are awesome!

15:35 RIP to the car LOL

I went to college at UCA from 2010-2015 and I can still smell that store!

Awesome video. I can't wait to visit. Take care.

Holy crap your channel has grown! Congrats man

This was genuinely such a cool video to watch. I had some good laughs

Man that's crazy. Back in the early 00s I used to work there. Looks exactly the same. The incredible hulk statue was a bit** to get in there. So cool to see it on YT.

As much as I like browsing and experience the physical video game stores, it will follow the same VHS path as the Blockbuster stores in the future

I've been here a couple times before. It's a very nice store and has a pretty large selection. But the first thing I noticed was the prices. They aren't too outrageous, but you'd see things going for $10-20 over market value. There was more of a focus on modern games as well with a heavy selection on PS3/Xbox 360/PS4/Xbox One games, so unfortunately they didn't have what I was looking for. I ended up just going to Game Xchange where they had several PSP games and the Majoras Mask 3D I was looking for.

This Is a Dope Episode ! Keep up the Great Content !

Okay, the joke riff made on the P.O.S. Made me laugh way to hard and for way to long

Smart decision from a marketing perspective because of your channel!

love seeing business like this get success

I need a For my son t-shirt or hoodie. Retro Rick please start making those bro. People will definitely buy them out

Great video as always, keep up the good work. I’m looking forward to the next one. Just out of curiosity when will you upload a video that’s about the game room, the last one that I remember that was about the game room was the CRT tv video.

I wasn’t even gonna watch this video, but when I hovered over it, the audio told me that this is located in Conway Arkansas, which is only 40 minutes away from my hometown, which blows my mind that I have never been here because this place looks super cool.

Great looking store, certainly a lot better than most I've been in

Love every part of this. The store is beautiful

15:57 - Thanks for calling it descent! I made the music for Alwa's Awakening :D

At 15:34 is see that Honda and immediately think. Owner brought in his VG collection to get some cash flow to fix that bumper.

What an awesome store, kids need places like this to keep the retro gaming alive..

Wasn't expecting to see Conway Arkansas on RU-vid for any reason, small world. Pretty cool place, gonna have to check it out.

Stack Wii's fml 😂the Hulk starts from 2k - 20k and goes one day for 200.000.😜

Loved the vid! Idk about the thumbnail tho? Thought he was in the red by $130,000… but he just SPENT $130,000 last month

Another great one Caleb!

Havent watch both of you guys in a while but then I saw this! I was like " Oh I know that place, thats cool to talk to the owner.......Rick?? Shit he owns it now!!!?" Thats a dream come true for many of us congrats!

Outside of the store, downtown Conway is a great place to visit.

If I’m ever in Arkansas, I will visit your store Ricky. Awesome 😎

As a long time video game and NASCAR fan, love seeing the Gordon and Earnhardt shirts.

I loved the Tony Hawk Pro Skater Song And Moment Haha

I thought that was Phoenix's car for a second 😂 15:34

Planning on visiting that store soon. Heard they got a great Pilates video for sale! VHS Sealed! 😂

gonna have to make road trip to arkansas to check this store out!

Really cool insightful video!