"The Last Square Going Away?" Topic

I heard a rumor over the weekend that The Last Square will be no more as it currently exists after December 31st. Say it ain't so, Karl! Please tell me I'm wrong.

Anyone know any more? What can we do to make sure you guys keep on keeping on?

I hope the rumor is wrong.

There's no mention at their site: lastsquare.com or at their blog: lastsquare.com/squareblog

Saw this on the WoW forum.

link

They are moving to a new location. See the front page of TMP today.

TMP link

Sounds like they are moving location and paring down the brick and mortar aspect of their business (opening reduced 3 days a week) only. I visited the Madison store a couple of times about 5 years ago and found it to be a very nice, well-stocked and appealing space. Glad they are not closing for good and all best wishes to them.

I agree that the Madison store was nice with good gaming and painting areas lots of stock and a pleasant staff. I only visited once when on a trip with the Army, but nice place.

They need to improve their online presence and ordering capabilities. Phones and emails are so 20th Century ;-)
Stores that have an offline and online presence are my preferred shopping venue. If my local guy can't get it, I want to support stores that do; first. Lastly, my orders go to online only venues.

My reasoning is simple, wargaming miniatures is still an offline hobby. We use the Internet to interconnect but the goal is to play in person. Any store that supports this with either stock or gaming area (hopefully both by gum!), gets my business.

My preference online is to to support U.S. vendors first as well. All fine and good that I can order from the U.K. direct and get it a bit faster and possibly cheaper, but I want to support the guys that support gaming in country first. By doing this, I may not support my local gaming community but I am definitely supporting it elsewhere. Who knows, I may actually visit a distant city at some point and my dollars have made the shop stay open and allow me to get a game in or two :-)

So in my long-winded way I am saying to support the Last Square as a shopping venue if you can't get this local. Same thing with Scale Creep and the other stores that have a local presence in their market area but do a lot of business online.

Has anyone been to the new Last Square location? How are they doing? Is the new location better or just the last step in going out of business? I get the sense the new location might be someones home?

I was shocked to hear they were moving. I had been going to their Madison location since they first opened and have very fond memories of the owners and their store. I haven't been around since they moved, but hope they make it for many more years.

As a madison resident I have to say that I miss The Last Square. I have yet to get out the new location, as it's in cottage Grove which is absolutely impossible to get to if you don't have a car.