Referencing historic European cities and touted as delivering an Australian first experience shopping centre, Eastland’s first new stage opened on October 29. “We’re in stage three, which opens in mid-March,” Games World director, Geoff Macaulay, told Inside Retail Weekly. “Everything is approved and the plans are drawn. We’re ready to roll. That’ll be the sixth store in Victoria under our banner. It’ll be our 15th store.” Specialising in board games and jigsaw puzzles, as well as collectibles such as die-cast model cars and playing cards, Games World stores are located in major centres not in neighbourhood centres, as they are not a destination store. Macaulay said that the business is now, “very particular now on centres – we need to be in major centres”. For this product’s target market, bricks and mortar is a crucial channel. “I think for the product range that we’re handling, selling and offering is still look, feel, touch,” Macaulay said. In saying that, Games World’s transactional website is also highly valued – and is constantly used by staff within the stores to check product and verify the availability of items in the extensive range held throughout the stores. Updated on a daily basis, the new site – its most recent iteration being stage four, will go live in mid November. The first Games World store was opened on July 1, 1989 in Perth’s CBD by Macaulay. He now works with two other partners – his son, Shane, and Adrian Backx – and together they have grown Games World to be the largest supplier of this specialty product range in Australia. This business specialty is family games, adult games and card games. “Jigsaws are extremely strong and our die-cast collector range,” Macaulay said. Also strong in mathematical games and puzzles, Macaulay estimates that currently in games they stock 5000 items, card games around 2000, while puzzles are “endless”. “We have as many as we can stock and we feel we have selected the best of those. But we keep adding new ones but some of the old evergreens – we have similar to Rubik’s cube where we have 10-sided, 15, 20-sided puzzles in the same format. We have wooden puzzles from both the US and through an English company. And we also focus on our upmarket chess sets, backgammon sets and Mah Jong. Die-cast items – such as cars in 1:18 scale – are collected by adults and are price range of $200-plus. “We had some of those specifically made for us,” he said. “We sell them across the country, but our collector market comes to us wanting to know the next one that we are doing, and that’s an important part of our business as well.” Market favourites Puzzles are considered an evergreen market for Games World, and with Christmas coming, they have stocked up heavily. “Our catalogue will come out in November and stocking filler items in those are extremely high profile because they are very sought after in this market,” Macaulay explained. “There’s a lot of what I call ‘evergreens’ that just keep on going, and Monopoly is certainly one of them. People still come in and say, ‘Look we played Monopoly – is there something that will give us just as many arguments?’.” The next big Monopoly release is imminent – in time for Christmas – and will be based around the city of Melbourne. “Melbourne is being released next week and we have mega orders for that,” Macaulay said. “Melbourne Monopoly launches 10am sharp on Tuesday, November 10 [a week after Melbourne Cup]. The street names haven’t been disclosed yet, but probably well-known landmarks such as the MCG, Flinders Street Station, and Flemington Raceway will be included. A Sydney version of Monopoly was released about five years ago, followed by an Adelaide and a Perth version around two to three years ago– which was the bestseller so far for Games World. “We still sell Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide [versions], and the original one still cleans up,” he said. “Perth we sold thousands of – it was a winner. Initially we sold 12,000 of the Perth monopoly, and maybe another 10,000 since.” Adult audience Despite its name, Games World doesn’t handle much product for young children as the zero to 12-year-old market is considered more the domain of toy stores. “We attract the mid-teens to 99 and we feel that our average purchaser is probably in their late 20s to early 30s,” Macaulay explained. “The average purchase of $40-$50 can give a lot of pleasure and be handed down through the generations – whereas if someone buys a pair of jeans for $50 they’re often thrown away at the end of the season.” In size, Games World stores are around 100sqm to 150sqm. Lighting, which is considered very important, is run around the pelmet of the store, and windows shelving showcases product. Generally stores have around half a dozen gondolas and white melamine units with adjustable shelving are also used to display product. An elevated step behind the counter, like in pharmacies, assists the staff in focusing on customer service. Further on this theme, and helping customers readily identify staff, they are provided with polo tops – red or black – emblazoned with the Games World logo. The Games World brand is under licence; there are stores licensed to other owners in Queensland, Bendigo, Canberra and in South Australia. Often the advertising costs are shared. “We are all friendly across Games World,” Macauley said. So where to next for Games World? “I’ve got a lot of offers from a lot of centres,” Macauley said. He was invited by a large shopping centre group to set up two stores in New Zealand, but he declined the offer. “There are still opportunities we could cover here in this state and in Victoria.” Want more Inside Retail? Subscribe to Inside Retail Weekly now and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.