Little Shop of Magic — Local services in Spring Valley

I had high hopes, walking into Little Shop of Magic. The space, compared to other local shops across town such as Battlezone Comics, was massive. They have, in plain and easy view, tables for Magic and tables with full terrain for Warhammer/Warmachine. The walls to the back left (from walking in) are painted with miniatures and miniature interest items, while the back walls are dedicated to board games (for those of you unfamiliar with the genre, think less Monopoly, and more Settlers of Catan/Cargo Noir/Smallworld/King of Tokyo/etc).

I'm not a Magic player, so I can't speak with any proficiency on the stock in this area.

The miniatures section is stocked well enough, though the items are more for starter armies. If you're looking for a specific named 'jack for your Cygnar army, there's a good chance it's not there. I've been disappointed with this several times over. Battlezone has a physically larger selection, though frequently their stock is only one deep. Little Shop of Magic has the numbers, but lacks the spectrum.

The board games section was very well embellished, and I've picked up quite a few. The general staff, from what I've found, are actually rather knowledgeable about the products. I can say games I like, and they'll offer a recommendation. Please note: this is specifically the general staff. More on this. Lastly, the main disappointing thing about their board games section is that they never seem to have originals. Expansions, alternate versions (think: Zombie Fluxx), but not a lot of the base versions of games, which can be really frustrating. They always offer to order whatever you'd like, but that's never been a hassle I bother looking into.

In regards to above statement about staff...I do not blame the underlings for any customer service-related issues you read on here. They do the best they can under John's iron fist. John is the owner/operator of the establishment, and I avoid going to the shop unless it's an item I'm nearly positive they'll have, for fear of existing in the same space as him. He is outwardly brief, even when you've got green money in your hand. He's tyrannical to his staff and seems to regard his players (read: customer base) with an air of disillusioned self-posturing.

One personal experience, I was in the midst of checking out. I was being actively helped by the young lady behind the counter, literally mid-sentence of an order over $150 in board games, thanks to the great recommendations of the staff. The dollar amount shouldn't matter, but just to emphasize, that's a decent purchase if you ask me. But really, in the grand scheme of things, I could have been buying a candy bar. The principle remains the same. Mid-sentence with the employee, John oozes out of his office, and REMOVES HER. My debit card is on the counter. My transaction half-rung on the screen. He negates any form of "excuse me" or "I'm sorry sir, this will just take a moment". He gives me little as eye contact, and addresses her as "Hey. Come here." She is visibly torn, and says "Um, now?" and he flippantly offers back "Yes. NOW. Just come here."

He pulls her to the side for literally four seconds of what appeared to be nothing at all. I didn't get the sense of "We need to talk, your register was $20 short.", I got the sense of "Don't forget to straighten the dice before you go." Seriously, nothing urgent here. But my patronage, my business, and my level of service were nothing to sacrifice for his machete-swinging style of management.

TL;DR Shop's great. Don't give...

I've played Magic @ Little Shop of Magic since before it was renamed and moved from it's original location. Before it used to be the HUB store for everyone to play with a large variety of singles. The events were run fairly and communication between patrons and staff were clear and we would never mind driving out just to play here. But since John assumed ownership I as a Magic player have never felt welcome.

The variety of singles has dwindled down to almost nothing. I reach out to another nearby hobby/game shop Gameworld or the farther off Action Comics to pick up what I need single wise. I ordered a few boxes of Return to Ravnica, the most recent set @ Little Shop because it's on my way home from work. I only received a part of my order of which I had already paid in full. This was a major inconvenience for me. Also it seems that I'm not the only pre-order customer this has happened to.

Whenever there's a PTQ or any other sort of event I feel more like our group of players are an inconvenience for the staff and owner. I don't get to play @ the FNM events here because of my work schedule and the time they start their FNM event. (Nothing wrong with the time they start the event it's actually quite typical for all of the stores) Last night @ the State Championship hosted by Little Shop was the final straw. In the beginning it was understandable of how cramped the playing environment would be. Magic players are used to it. But throughout the day as people were dropping from the event there was much more table space for both magic players AND patrons who frequent the store normally to play everything else. Playing in a cramped space for 7 rounds @ 50 minutes each is NOT fun and we could have had the table numbers spaced out further to adjust. The tables the finalists were playing on were @ the front of the store. (In my opinion a very poor decision) It was the final 4 matches of the event and a group of us were watching. 2 players were watching from the end of the table. They were TOLD to move by the Management. When they asked why they needed to move they commented that they just wanted to watch matches and were then banned from the store for swearing. They went outside and a little bit later the police arrived to kick them off of the property completely.

Now I can understand if there was a valid reasoning for my fellow magic players having to move from the isle but a small explanation would have gone a LONG way but it was never explained. Had it been I'm the sure the gentlemen would have moved without issue. There was no respect or professionalism here.

Lastly, Please excuse my name and don't let it set it in your mind that I'm trying to troll a business. I want to remain anonymous and this is my only extra account. After all of this I can easily say I'm not the only one who will never shop or play here again. I would be truly greatfull to get the same treatment some of these other...

I was a little apprehensive about visiting Little Shop of Magic for the first time based on some of the reviews on here. My daughter and I are completely new to tabletop games and I was hoping to find some good advice from friendly, helpful people who wouldn't make me feel like they were having to dumb everything down for us OR like we were wasting their time.

Additionally, my daughter is autistic. So, she can randomly ask unrelated questions in the middle of an explanation, not answer questions, seem to be completely uninterested, or grab random things off shelves and hand them to store workers etc. all things that can annoy people who don't understand.

We were helped right away by someone who listened to our needs and had both recommendations for us and actual explanations about why certain games were good for two people, replayability, and whether certain titles were cooperative vs competitive. He was also very kind to my daughter. I was really surprised later to find out that this was John. I didn't get a condescending or impatient vibe from him at all contrary to other opinions on here.

Next, John sent Brook over to offer any recommendations she might have in addition to his and we were again treated with really great customer service from a very knowledgeable person. Even Eric at the register was really upbeat and friendly and didn't seem annoyed when I asked him to see if they carried a game I remembered right before I was about to pay. We will definitely be choosing these guys over Amazon to build up our baby-sized board game collection from now on.

TL;DR Version As a brand new tabletop gamer looking for gateway games for two, one being a child, I had a phenomenal level of customer service from John, Brook, and Eric at Little Shop of Magic. I can't recommend them enough. If you're an introverted boardgaming noob like me, give this place a shot. You...