Business Spotlight: Chance Opportunity

 The recent launch of a second location for Neverending Game Store LLC wasn’t initially in the plans for this year, according to the owners of a 3-year-old Marshfield business.

Opening a retail store in Republic was under consideration, says Jason Lannan, who co-owns the gaming venture with wife Viktoriia Hryshchenko. But it wasn’t going to be another Neverending Game Store, which sells trading cards, board games, miniatures, role-playing games and accessories.

“Republic is an up-and-coming community. It is a centralized hub for southwest Missouri when it comes to railways and roads and things like that,” Lannan says, adding he has family in the Greene County city. “I had already done my research on Republic, and we were actually in the process of looking to start a coffee shop out there.”

Then, Steve Buck, owner of Cards ‘n Stripes Games LLC, gave the Marshfield couple a call earlier this year as he sought to exit his Republic business, which opened in 2016.

“Most of the game store owners in southwest Missouri talk quite a bit and are friends. He liked everything we did in Marshfield and wanted to see that same thing out in Republic,” Lannan says, noting he and Buck have known each other for several years.

Buck says he didn’t want to leave Republic with a void.

“There’s enough folks in Republic that needed a game store,” Buck says, adding he appreciated the friendly atmosphere at Neverending Game Store that also is welcoming to new players. “Jason and Viktoriia seemed like a natural fit just because of who they are and how they run their business.”

Republic arrival
While Lannan says he and Hryshchenko didn’t purchase Cards ‘n Stripes, they did buy the store’s remaining inventory, hire its lone remaining employee and take over the $1,650 monthly lease with Murphy & Associates LLC. Investment costs were roughly $40,000, including around $23,000 in renovation work for the 1,700-square-foot space, which included adding insulation and signage.

The new location at 1206 U.S. Highway 60 East opened in early October, Hryshchenko says, noting it may take a while to ensure they’re meeting customer demand in Republic.

“We brought Pokemon over there, and it was a huge success,” she says of weekly tournaments Neverending has offered in Marshfield since its 2020 opening. “I have a lot of people approaching me about board game rentals. That’s something that we’re thinking about, but we haven’t made that happen. I know Steve was doing it, and it was very popular.”

Like in Marshfield, Lannan says they want to build a loyal gaming community in Republic.

“It’s having new people come into the store, welcoming them and getting them introduced to players that enjoy the same things they do,” he says.

On the move
Hryshchenko says opening the Marshfield store was a realization of the couple’s dream to own a business. Both describe themselves as avid gamers, particularly with card game Magic: The Gathering. Lannan, who is in the process of retiring from the Army, following 24 years of active duty, says they used to travel the U.S. to attend role-playing competitions for the game, either as players or judges.

“That was something we really enjoyed doing and then when COVID hit, all the game stores pretty much closed down for playing. You couldn’t play anywhere,” he says. “We decided, ‘Hey, we could maybe do this in Marshfield.’ Open it up and give people a place to play, a safe environment and we’ll cover all the protocols and make sure everybody has everything they need to be spaced out.”

Upon opening the Marshfield store, Hryshchenko, a native of Ukraine, says she was finishing up a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Missouri State University. She’s put her studies on hold amid the growing business activity but plans to eventually finish it.

“It’s good to have a backup plan,” she says. “You never know when you might need it.”

At 1190 Spur Drive, Ste. 100, the Marshfield store is at its third location in the Centerview Plaza shopping center after making another move in April 2022, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. Lannan says each move has been to larger suites to accommodate need for more product and game play space. Relocation costs last year were $35,000, he says, adding they signed a five-year lease for $1,700 per month with Headley Enterprises LLC.

“We look at our store as investment into the community,” he says, noting the 3,400-square-foot Marshfield store also holds private party rooms.

While the Republic store will only be open for one quarter of this year, Lannan says their goal for subsequent years is for the new addition to generate as much, if not more, revenue than the Marshfield shop. Hryshchenko says the company’s year-over-year revenue, by percentage, is on track to be up in the single digits, declining to disclose figures.

The couple say tournaments have been a popular component of the business since launching. Aside from Magic: The Gathering, both stores host tournaments during the week for Lorcana, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. The weekday competitions average a $6 entry fee with attendance typically ranging 14-24 players, Lannan says. The weekend tournaments average 36 players and have a $25 entry fee.

Although the tournaments could generate hundreds of dollars in profit for the store every week just through entry fees, he says that’s not the intent of holding them.

“We are one of the few stores that do a 100% prize payout. Anything that our customers pay in for an entry fee, they get back in product,” Lannan says, adding he and his wife view it as a goodwill gesture to their customers. “We don’t take a cut of the admission fee for the store.

“It builds a foundation of trust. That’s one of the things we’re really good at.”