BOARD GAMES ARE BIGGER THAN EVER DURING COVID
Forgotten Path and Mad Alpaca game stores adjust to the coronavirus
When COVID-19 struck and people were sheltered in place, many turned to crafts, board games and hobbies.
Some looked to two major game stores in Solano County — Forgotten Path Games at 850 Alamo Drive in Vacaville, and Mad Alpaca Games at 1325 Gateway Blvd. in Fairfield.
Although both stores had to close in mid-March due to the coronavirus, they found creative ways to serve their customers. And those customers were very supportive.
“We started doing a bit of online sales,” said Lance Park, who owns Forgotten Path along with his brother Russell. “Most have been people messaging us on Facebook, old customers that have moved out of state and said, ‘ Hey, we know you guys are having a rough time of it. We want to buy some stuff.’ That’s quite humbling. I’m super grateful for the community and all the customers we’ve had over the years.”
Similarly, A ngelo Sicancgo, who co- owns Mad Alpaca with his sister and brother-inlaw, said, “Our regular customers, when they first announced the lockdown, a lot of them just came in and said, ‘Hey, we want to buy some stuff before everything locks down. I might not need it now, but I may need it later.’ A lot of customers also bought gift cards.
“Some of our persona l friends who were also customers would order something and I would box it up, sanitize it and deliver it to their house. We definitely explored every way to make some sales. We did curbside pickups as well,” Sicancgo said.
Sicangco used to hang out at a store called Outflank Games. That led to him being hired there by a friend who owned the shop. And when the lease for the building was ending, the friend asked Sicangco if he would like to take over the lease.
“We actually opened up back in November of last year, so it definitely wasn’t the best time,” Sicangco said with a laugh, noting that it was right before COVID-19 became known to the world.
Park and his brother took over Olde World Games, which used to be on Main Street in downtown Vacaville. They moved it to Peabody Road and seven years ago moved again to its current location in Alamo Plaza and changed the name to Forgotten Path.
“We wanted to have a game store for people to hang out and to support the community,” said Park. “It’s a great alternative (source of entertainment).”
Before the shutdown in March, both stores featured in-person gameplay for customers, including tournaments and special events.
The most popular games were the tabletop variety with miniature models, such as Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, Star Wars: Legion; Star-Wars: X-Wing and Game of Thrones. The models are intricately- detailed and those who buy them paint them and get them ready for action. Both stores sell paint and model supplies.
“We used to have weekly tournaments,” said Park.
“Before COVID we would have around 60 people playing in the game room at one time, sometimes even more,” said Sicangco.
Both stores had to adjust their plans since COVID.
“We were shut down for a month and a half,” said Park. “We figured out a strategy because we couldn’t have tables out anymore for people to play. So we ended up shifting to more retail-oriented. We expanded our product lines, got more racks. We went from 30 percent retail, 70 percent game space and kind of flipped that.”
“When things started opening up again,” said Sicangco, “we made the move to break down a lot of the tables (in the game room) and store them in the back. That way the people could still come in and game (on the remaining tables). But they are still quite a distance away (from each other).”
However, when Solano County fell back into the purple COVID tier on Monday, he had to close the gaming room again… at least for now.
“It’s kind of weird because we fall under two or three different categories as far as how the county has categorized them,” explained Sicangco. “We’re a retail space but we’re also a gaming space. For retailers, they said we have to go down to 25 percent maximum capacity. There are two other categories that we fall under, card rooms/game rooms and recreational centers.”
He said that the card rooms/game rooms regulations say a business can only have those activities outside, which is not practical at his store.
“But if you look at recreational centers, since it’s technically a recreational room, it says that we can be open at 25 percent of capacity,” he continued. “So right now we’re still trying to figure out where exactly we would be able to fit in.”
But for now, neither store has gaming.
However, both have plenty of board games. Park said Forgotten Paths has over 100, at least doubling the number since last year.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick in board games,” he said. “People are coming in and asking, ‘ Hey, me and my family are at home. We can’t really go out and do anything. What’s going to be a good game for’ … then they give me an age bracket. And we carry games for just about all ages.”
“Our board game sales have definitely been up there compared to how it normally is,” echoed Sicangco, ” just because family time and board games fit handin-hand together.”
Neither store sells electronic games. Both sell card games, like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon and Magic the Gathering.
Not surprisingly, Park says one of his best-sellers is a board game called Pandemic, which was invented in 2008.
Forgotten Path is open from Noon to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Their website is www.forgottenpathgames.com.
Mad Alpaca is open Wednesday through Saturday, Noon to 6 p.m. Their website is www.madalpaca. com.