A Year in the Dragon's Lair

Owner: Kelly and Wendy Piersall

Founded: May 1, 2006

Address: 1400 W. Battlefield Road, Springfield, MO 65807

Phone: (417) 886-1115

Hours: 2–10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 2 p.m.–midnight Thursday and Friday; noon–midnight Saturday; 1–7 p.m. Sunday

E-mail: ifaust@mchsi.com

Products: Games, comics and cards

Annual revenues: $70,000

Employees: 3

Kelly Piersall had a job at a comic book shop when he was 14. He had no idea then that he was preparing for small-business ownership.

After amassing some home equity, Piersall and his wife, Wendy, started Dragon’s Lair, a game and comic book shop.

“We decided to take the plunge,” Piersall says of the May 2006 opening. “I was tired of working for someone else and not using my business degree.”

Piersall actually began selling comics and games in 1998, when he started an Internet-based business. That venture gave him a sense of what items sold best, he said.

Moving to a brick-and-mortar store was a big step, and Piersall considered the competition carefully as he formed his strategy.

He points to Games, Comics, Etc., formerly Games to Order, at Lone Pine Avenue and Battlefield Road and Meta-Games Unlimited on East Sunshine Street, calling the latter his biggest competitor.

“We knew we had competitors in the same area but … knew that if we held tight to customer service, we would be able to make our own niche in the market,” Piersall says.

Piersall’s niche sits well with Dragon’s Lair distributor Steve Bell, sales manager in Southern Hobby Supply’s St. Louis office. Bell has known Piersall for years, and he says Piersall operates cautiously and steadily, two things he likes to see in a shop. Bell says he would rather have a customer buying $300 worth of product for his shop every week than one who overstocks $5,000 worth of product for two months and disappears.

Fighting for market share in a market with competitors nearby has meant working hard to carve out a customer base. Growth has been steady.

“It has been close to what we expected,” Piersall says. “The first year has been (tight), but thanks to our dedicated staff, we see definite improvement to our customer base for years to come.”

Piersall’s strategy is to focus on personalized customer service.

“Our No. 1 concern is making sure the customers’ needs are met when they enter the door and that they feel like they were treated with utmost care when they leave,” Piersall says.

In the games and comics sector, this means answering questions about products, explaining game systems, handling special orders and recommending new products based on existing knowledge about the customer.

“Now that we have a good solid customer base, we are focusing on advertising to draw in the customers who are not familiar with our products and services,” Piersall says, pointing to his company’s participation in the nationwide Free Comic Book Day on May 5.

“We will be providing free hamburgers and hot dogs along with the free comics,” he said. “We will celebrate our one-year anniversary on this day as well and offer a 20 percent discount storewide. Q102 will be in the store doing a live remote to help us promote the event.”

Free Comic Book Day is a promotional event for independent comic book stores that was originally conceived by comic shop owner Joe Field in a column he wrote in 2001 for Comics & Games Retailer. Since 2002, it has been a regular industry event, exposing new readers to comics.

Both comics and games are event-driven businesses, with new releases and tie-ins generating the big sales. Piersall says that comic book movies drive sales, as do summer story arcs such as the recent Marvel Civil War that resulted in the death of Captain America. On the gaming side, he is looking forward to a big summer as well.

Piersall is also looking to expand with a second, tightly-focused store.

Stu Wagner, store manager of competitor Games, Comics, Etc., was not surprised to see Dragon’s Lair open, but he is a little dubious of Springfield’s ability to support another store.

“We might be maxed out,” Wagner says. “I don’t think we’re saturated yet in terms of demand, but for the number of stores, I think we’re maxed out.”

Bell sees a rosier picture for a second Dragon’s Lair based on Piersall’s track record.

“The way he has done his business and gone about things, yeah, I think he can handle a second store,” Bell says. “I think Springfield can handle another store as well. Gaming products seem to be popular with college-age kids, and (Springfield) being a college town, I think (Piersall) would do real well.”

Free Comic Book Day

Dragon’s Lair is among the area businesses participating in Free Comic Book Day.

What: Promotional event for independent comic book stores; participating stores give away comic books.

When: May 5

Participating area businesses: Dragon’s Lair; Games, Comics, Etc.; Meta Games Unlimited; and Vintage Stock.

More information: www.freecomicbookday.com