Death of the FLGS

Some twenty-seven years ago (minus a few weeks), I first ventured into a speciality RPG store to buy my shiny new "Red Box" D&D Basic Set. Said purchase has a lot to answer for, but that's another rant.

Over the years, I would return to that store, "The Dragon and George" many times. It was... quirky to say the least. The opening hours were always erratic, the availability of some products was doubtful, and it never did get around to taking card payments (a somewhat disastrous lack, to be honest). Plus, it was battered hard by the rise of Games Workshop (which killed the market for non-GW miniatures), was battered harder by the rise of internet shopping (where Amazon can sell you a PHB for less than the FLGS can stock it), and was done no favours at all when a competing FLGS with much better stock opened just along the road.

So the writing was on the wall. And, indeed, I had myself almost completely stopped going there: when 4e turned out not to be for me (and yet I had no interest in getting on the Pathfinder treadmill), and when SWSE was cancelled, I found I had no reason to go - I simply was not ever going to buy anything. 5e might have changed that, but WotC's decision to maintain a much smaller release schedule for the game removed that hope.

And yet it was something of a shock when I walked past the store on Saturday to find that "The Dragon and George" is closed, permanently this time. The store-front has been repainted, it's up "To Let", and the stock is gone. The only indication that there was ever anything there is the tiny card showing the theoretical opening hours.

The major consequence of this is that I'll now be buying my RPGs online. The FLGS had been an exception to my policy of not bothering visiting real shops, since the internet has killed them and taken their stuff. But with "The Dragon and George" gone, that exception is no longer valid. (It would be different if there was an FLGS in Falkirk, in which case I might feel inclined to support it. However, there isn't, and you'd basically have to be mad to start one. So no worries there.)

Otherwise, though, it's the end of an era. All that remains is to thank "The Dragon & George" for starting me on this path, and to raise a (metaphorical) glass in honour.