Our New Brick & Mortar!
We've signed the lease!
After a long time A&M Hobby is finally ready to open our first brick & mortar location! We'll be opening the new location in New Bern, NC. We're very excited about the opportunities this new adventure affords us. As a completely online retailer we've often struggled to keep supply of new product, especially collectible card games. Distributors have now become very wary of online only retailers (with good reason) and this has made it hard on us to acquire new product, expand our product lines, or get favorable price points. I will be sure to touch on those issues in a future post.
As a new physical retailer we will still face challenges. Allocations will be low, pre-orders won't be prioritized towards us, and most won't even sell us Pokémon at release. Things will get better over time, but it will initially be a struggle. I'll be posting semi-regular updates here about our progress and challenges along the way.
Why should you care?
While this is obviously great news for us, why should you care as a customer? Well with this new location we'll be able to improve our service even more! Our product lines will be expanding, shipping will be faster, prices will be lower, and if you happen to live near New Bern, NC you'll be able to order online and pickup locally! We are currently in the process of becoming a Warhammer Stockist, becoming a Wizards Play Network store, and becoming a Play! Pokémon store. This means we'll be able to provide more product at a better price point for everyone.
When will you open?
Good question! We really don't know yet. Currently we expect a soft open in the early part of April, but there are a lot of variables and it's still very early in the process. We have to do some construction in the unit we're leasing, install millwork, setup equipment, get new product in, and a lot more. As we go along I'll be posting updates on our progress and opening dates.
We can't wait to begin this new chapter and hope you'll check in often to stay up to date with us.
