Shop Spotlight: Tritex Games in Stafford

Can you tell us a little bit about how the store first got started, and where it is now?

I used to work as a sales director in a corporate position, but my hobbies all revolved around my passion for gaming, Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games. Tritex Games was founded in 2004, at the time I was playing Magic: The Gathering and Blood Bowl a lot and I started buying and selling a few items on eBay. This quickly grew into a side-line online business. I traded on my website for a number of years with my family helping at shows until it became clear that I couldn’t continue to run the business by myself from home. In 2017 we opened our store in Stafford. I saw there was a real need in my hometown to have a place where people could go to play games in store and meet others with like-minded interest.

What’s it like being a FLGS in your area?

During the last few years we have worked hard to develop a great gaming community in Stafford. Many of the gamers previously used to play at home or in pubs and we had some work to do locally to let people know we were here. More gaming social groups have grown through our time and investment in this area and that is very satisfying.

What do you think makes your store unique?

We have always put customers first because this is the main reason we exist, and it really is all about serving the community. What we want for everyone who walks through our door is to feel welcome and feel that they belong. I have been in many stores over the years and, am sorry to say, even gaming stores where I have been practically ignored and we don’t want anyone to feel that way on leaving our store. We love it when new families discover our store for the first time and start to reminisce about games they used to play in their youth. Most talk about how they loved to play games like Monopoly, then we introduce them to some really good games and they never look back.

What titles have you found most popular recently?

This year some of our best-selling games were Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Dice Throne, 7 Wonders Duel and Patchwork. Pokémon continues to be our best-selling TCG closely followed by Magic: The Gathering. Warhammer 40,000 is a fairly consistent seller but one of the biggest games we sell in store is Marvel Crisis Protocol. Being one of the largest stockists of Dungeons & Dragons miniatures in the UK, this game has always been one of our most popular lines. We have some great DM’s that volunteer for our D&D nights and we have five tables that are usually packed out with players creating all kinds of mayhem and madness.

Have you any favourite memories associated that you’d want to share?

I have so many great memories over the years but none so good as watching some of our younger gamers that are initially shy and anxious, grow up within our community and become more confident around others.

What events do you run for the local gaming scene?

We run weekly events in store: tabletop & wargames on Tuesdays, D&D on Wednesdays and card games on Fridays. On Saturdays we often have an organised event on as well.

Have you any fun plans for this year?

We are planning to run some bigger community events (Covid permitting) We are also looking to expand our store to create more gaming space for players in 2022.

Where can I find it?

Visit the Tritex Games entry on our Clubs page.