Its hard to imagine a world without Toys R Us. Its an icon of my childhood. But alas, times are changing, and with the news of Toys R Us (TRU) shutting down around the world a lot of people, including myself, immediately ask “where do we go to get toys?!” Reality is, we haven’t been going to TRU for a while now because online shopping has taken over. Whenever we need something we get on our surf boards and sail over to Amazon, Indigo, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc.
The only time we have recently gone to TRU is if we need a birthday present for one of my kid’s friends and we let her browse to pick something within a budget. We like to use it as an opportunity to teach the value of money. However, if we needed to buy a gift for the kids ourselves, we just shop online and have it shipped.
When it comes to board games many parents instincts take them to TRU. With a large aisle filled with games, they must have all the best of the best games. However, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Brands like Mattel and Milton Bradley churn out game after game year after year and have the ability to volume produce games to be distributed across hundreds of chain locations. Truth be told many of the average board gamer wouldn’t touch such games with a ten foot pole. Unbeknownst to most, there are some amazing board games out there. Many of these interesting games are produced by smaller publishers that can’t get into the big box stores. Little Meeples rooted itself in our enjoyment of telling our friends about less popular games that you can’t find at TRU. So where do we get our games?
Friendly Local Gaming Stores
Our friendly local gaming store (FLGS) is where we go. Amazon.com has a great selection of board games; you can find almost anything there. However, in Canada, Amazon.ca may have the games listed but often not at a great price (usually third party sellers). Over the past few years online board game retailers have been popping up in great numbers. Recent changes in distribution have given more favourable pricing to brick and mortar stores (your FLGS) so many of them have opened up physical locations and still provide great prices. Not many people know about them but word is spreading as they tend to get more involved in the community. For us, we like to support local stores. They put more care into customer service. They are there to recommend games based on your likes and experiences. They provide community events for people to play with their in-store library. All things you can’t get when approaching a sales clerk at Walmart.
Our local store of preference is Board Game Bliss. The store is run by Bosco and his team of genuine board game enthusiasts. They have a strong online presence, with one of the largest selection of games and some of the best prices in Canada. They also ship to the U.S. at a reasonable flat rate and given the currency exchange of late, it is often cheaper for U.S. residents to order from Canadian stores. I highly recommend you check them out and tell them we sent you.
With competitive shipping rates you can order from anywhere in the country, however I encourage you to find your own FLGS. Here are a few we keep our eye on:
Miniature Market (USA), Cool Stuff Inc (USA), Quiche Games (Toronto, ON), The Dice Owl (Montreal, QC), Great Board Games (Kingston, ON), LVLUP Games (Mississauga, ON), Wood for Sheep (Markham, ON), Game Districts (Ottawa, ON), Geekstop Games (London, ON), J&J Collectibles (Waterloo, ON), Apt to Game (Edmonton, AB), Revolution Games (Calgary, AB)
Quick note: Black Friday and Boxing Day are huge for online game retailers, often giving discounts of 10-15%. Keep an eye out during those days.
Quick note 2: you FLGS won’t have large stock quantities, but they restock frequently. So if a game is out of stock, contact them and they can either put in an order for you or give you an idea of when the next shipment should arrive.
Quick note 3: we are in no way affiliated with any store mentioned. We made this site just out of our love for board games and our desire to share it with our friends. We just want you to find the best games at the best prices! No profits are made here on Little Meeples. Hearing wonderful feedback and support from all our readers from around the globe is worth more than gold 🙂
Your Local Library
Some local community libraries have a selection of games to take out with your membership. Our friend informed us that our local library has Hoot Owl Hoot, which we recommended in our previous post about games for 3 year olds. It was just one of a large selection. So have a look and you may be surprised with what you find.
Buy Used
If there is a game we want, before heading over to Board Game Bliss, we always first check a used listing site like Craigslist or Kijiji. Serious board gamers are often collectors and take great care of their games. When their kids grow too old for a game, they will likely sell it at a much lower cost for another family to enjoy. Most of our kids collection have come from other board gamers whose children have outgrown them. It gave them joy to know another child would continue to play with the games. We will feel the same way when our kids outgrow the games and we can pass them on to other kids who will enjoy them.
