Shop Spotlight
Not many gaming stores can boast of a special award from the town mayor, but this Stockon-upon-Tees outlet has exactly that. Manager Stephen Carter reveals how Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon led to greatness
BEANIE GAMES
Interview by Matt Jarvis
When did Beanie Games first open? Could you tell us about its first few months?
It wasn’t planned! We moved to our current location in November 2013. My eldest daughter Laura had a small unit in the local shopping centre selling board games and she needed somewhere to run her very first organised play event, a Yu-Gi-Oh! sneak peek. We only intended to hire a room for a day, but after a lot of searching we found our current premises, an old nightclub, and, after very little hesitation, decided to take it on a permanent basis. We soon had several organised play programmes up and running and, when an adjacent unit became available, we moved the retail business there too and it became the Beanie Games we have today with over 8,000 square feet of gaming heaven.