After serving Thorold video game enthusiasts for over five years, Gaming Gators on Front Street has decided to close its doors.
“It’s sad because that was our first brick-and-mortar,” says co-owner Alec Jones, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “At the same time it’s kind of happy because we can see that we’ve grown and we’re successful from where we started. It is a bittersweet moment.”
Gaming Gators specializes in retro video games, and started years ago at a flea market on Ontario Street in St. Catharines.
“We did that for a couple of years and then eventually we went from one booth to two, to three,” says Jones. “We decided to open up a store and at the time Thorold just made sense and we opened up there.”
Jones says that the store in Thorold has taught him a lot.
“We learned what to do, what not to do, what customers liked,” he says. “We were able to experiment with a bunch of different styles and layouts and saw what worked for us and worked for other people. We were able to apply it elsewhere.”
It wasn't long before Gaming Gators opened up a second store in Niagara Falls, and in the past year they were able to start another new store in the plaza across from the Pen Centre.
“Our goal is always to make it closer to the Pen Centre and we were finally able to get a spot,” Jones says. “It was a scary jump because it’s a bigger store but everything is working out and it feels like the right move.”
The Thorold store will either close its doors at the end of this week or at the end of next week so that Gaming Gators can focus on growing its Glendale Avenue location.
Jones stresses that Gaming Gators isn’t going anywhere.
“Nothing is going to be disappearing,” he says. “The Niagara Falls location and the Pen Centre location will still be operating the same as they always have. We’re not shrinking, we’re just in a sense kind of growing our Pen Centre location.”
To go out with a bang, Gaming Gators is hosting a closure sale at its Thorold location this Sunday.
