05/06/2022
We’ve got some sad news. I think people have been expecting this for awhile and we’ve stubbornly persisted in spite of the difficulties, but the time is finally here- we’re closing our doors. There are too many factors to explain all of the reasons why, but this is the short version.
Financially COVID has been really hard. We managed to pull through and make enough to pay the bills, thanks to the support of our awesome community, but also largely in part because my time has and continues to be unpaid. We kept hoping to wait it out, but with costs increasing (and going to continue to increase) across the board, and disposable income not rising to match, we expect even more financial difficulties in the future. With enough dedication and attention, I do believe Meeples would get to a financially stable place, but it’s going to take more time and investment than I personally can give. When Meeples was my primary focus, I was happy to invest my time regardless of pay, but with increasing opportunities to design games (2 signed and more on the way!) and travel/work in the industry full-time, I’m having to fully take stock of the opportunity cost. I’ve known for awhile now that I wanted to step back from Meeples and pursue these other passions, but I was really hoping to get Meeples to a sustainable place where we could run it from a distance or sell it before then. Unfortunately that’s just going to take more time and energy than I can afford. I’ve tried to balance both the last few months but it’s affecting both adversely and I have to choose.
I love the store, I love our community, and I would do the last 5 years all again in a heartbeat, even knowing how it ends. It’s been a life-changing experience and we’ve learned so much. I believe we’ve touched lives, and we have in turn been touched by our time with you all. We at least get to see this as bittersweet, the next chapter- from game retailers to game designers- but we know that for many locally, it’s not a new chapter, it’s the end, and for that we are truly sorry. The hardest part of this entire decision is knowing that we’re disappointing so many of you. We are reaching out to different places in town to try to find a spot for a lot of our communities, and can hopefully rehome most of them, but we know it’s not the same.
For now we are going to keep the Discord active, as a place to interact and schedule meetups and talk about games. We are still dedicated to the gaming community here in Lynchburg, and plan to run a monthly board game meetup at the very least, but plans for much more. We’re blessed that closing the store comes from having too many exciting opportunities to pursue and not having enough time for all of them, but we know, it still sucks.
Our last day is going to be June 18th. We’re going to have a HUGE sale on games and food and party it up and say our goodbyes to the store and we invite everyone to come out as well. I’ll be posting more info on that soon but mark your calendars!
I’ll be honest- I’m looking forward to having evenings and weekends off. I’m looking forward to actually getting to sit down and play board games for fun, and not just to learn the rules or be constantly worried about pausing my game to run the register. I’m looking forward to having time to cook and read and see my husband. When we started Meeples it was the two of us together as a team, but with our work hours, anymore the store keeps us apart, not brings us together. I’m looking forward to traveling and working more conventions without stressing about poor Evan having to run the store alone. And I’m looking forward to designing and publishing more games! I’m over the moon about traveling and creating games as a viable career path.
I do want to thank both of our families, who have been incredibly supportive (though occasionally questioning the sanity!) of our career decisions, and Evan for all of his hard work and holding down the fort so that I could travel and attend industry events. I want to thank the absolutely incredible community we have—too many people to name individually and I don’t want to name some and not others, but some have been with us since day 1, when we opened at the Riverview Artspace downtown. Y’all have become a second family to us and that remains true with or without the store—even though the store is closing, my door is always open! And finally I want to thank my incredible husband Patrick, who shared this dream with me, helped build Meeples every step of the way (both literally and metaphorically), has supported us financially to enable me to pursue our dream, and is just as supportive of this transition to a new chapter. I may be the face of Meeples but it has always been the two of us together.
We will keep everyone posted as we work to transition everything as smoothly as possible. I know there will be a lot of questions, and please don’t hesitate to ask, but please be patient as it will take time for me to get back to everyone.
