"Little Wars of Houston is closed...." Topic

Without much information on the net, it looks like it closed it's doors around the end of May-first part of June.

No website, no real information on it's closing, but the facebook page for it is still up.

Here's hoping some lessons were learned…and maybe one day…

Maybe….

Again? I thought the fire did them in years ago.

No…the fire was a massive setback…and then they changed owners with the former owner (second owner actually) moving back to Oklahoma and taking the mail order part with him.
They moved the location of the store, and it becamse a FOW/GW style store….

It's actually here on the TMP threads….

LW started a long slow downhill spiral after the first owner decided to get out of the hobby.

I bought 15mm Chariot fantasy from them one year at Origins.

The last time I was in there right after they opened for the day, it smelled like a gym locker.

I seem to remember it was Sid at Swords and Superheroes that bought their stock out. I know he was trying to get Aaron over at the Texas Battle Bunker to host the Bitz Bazaar.

There is Some Good that comes w/ that ill wind;
Syd of 'Swords & Superheroes' bought out their remaining stock,
and is moving his 'Old Town Spring' store South about three miles,
to a new location w/ at least Double the square footage.

link

Lots of New Play Tables, too!

It isn't the Historical Little Wars (of Houston),
but Little Wars wasn't Little Wars for at least five years…

{ Edit: D'oh! Scott Beat me by Minutes!! Must Type Faster! }

I'm glad Syd is expanding. That store was cramped and the rent in Old Town Spring had to be insanely ridiculous.

I live very close to LW (but now working in Iraq). I used to work very close to the old brick and mortar LW when Tony had it. Yeah, I could see it as a slow, down hill venture after Tony bailed out. The last brick and mortar LW store I visited to buy magazines and occasionally some odd bits. There wasn't much there to attract me. In both places however, I put on some 28mm demo games. At Tony's I did an American 1812. On the north side I did a 28MM Napoleonic take off of Talavera.

After Tony sold out, the store, from my perspective, became a game venue for FOW and some fantasy stuff. Mostly guys sitting around tables in the middle of the store, cramping traffic for the very few patrons. Very little interaction occurred with patrons, which was a shame as this could have attracted folks to gaming and purchases.

The stock in the end became almost exclusively FOW, with some fantasy board games and a minute selection of miniatures. How they paid the rent is beyond me. Obviously they didn't.

My wife and I own a business. And it's all about value, presentation and customer service. In the end, LW did none of that. A real shame, as there is nothing left in Houston, the 4th largest city in the US, to attract historical or other miniature gamers. And who wants to stumble over gaming tables while shopping? There didn't seem to be any thought to the floor plan.

I always thought the business could have been a little gold mine if more effort went into marketing and customer focus vs. what seemed to me concentrating on playing games all day and ignoring your traffic.

Finally, at times staff didn't even show up to open during posted hours. What in hell is that? I stood outside a couple of times talking to other 'potential' patrons, who were fuming over making a drive only to find it closed. I live around the corner and it annoyed me. Houston is huge in land mass, so I can imagine travelling for 45 minutes to a locked store would infuriate me.

In my opinion, there is opportunity for a brick and mortar place in Houston. There are enough gamers across the spectrum of eras, scales, etc. The proprietor of course would have to stay in tune and in touch with his clientele to get it right, and build leverage with suppliers. It's a business, and it seems to have been run as a hobby.