View from the Game Store is a weekly(-ish) column by Marcus King of Titan Games & Music in Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Michigan.  This week, King talks about the opening of his new store.

To Recap:  We moved.  We moved one block and it was horrendous.  If you ever think about moving a block, I recommend strongly that you are absolutely sure that is in your best interest because moving a block is a lot harder than moving 10 miles.  And, if you don't believe me, just ask John, JT, Joe and ComicJoe (see, we have two Joe's, one is a comic book fan, the other isn't).  Anyway, they will tell you how hard it is to move a block.

When you move 10 miles, you rent a big truck and put things on the truck until it's very, very full--and then move the whole truck and crew and unload the truck.  But when you are moving a block?  Well, you use shopping carts left in the parking lot by folks and you use a 2-wheel dolly and a 4-wheel cart.  Heck, someone might even have had the bright idea to use a skateboard and put a display case on that (which response would have been a long, angry--and containing lots of #### and !@#$$--but it would explain why we have one less display case in the new location).  Anyway, moving things one armload at a time for one block in hot and humid weather?  Well, that sucks.  Or more precisely, that stinks (and so did most of the folks helping us move!).

But the result?  Well, that can't be argued with.  We found out who our friends were and we ended up hiring one of them (right Mike?).  We also found that our customers were excited about the move and that our new cafe look (we can only call it a look right now since the coffee brewers have JUST arrived as I was writing this--so FREE coffee tomorrow!!).  We found out it's a bad idea to unplug the freezer overnight (wow, that was stupid and I can say that since it was ME who dunnit--and now we need more ice cream).  And we found out that the anticipation of the move really caught on and that our customers were psyched!  Maybe that is why we had our best single sales day for any June ever.  Our sales for June 1st were equal to 12% of our total June 2009 sales.  And this was just one 10-hour day!

My crew worked as volunteers through the holiday weekend--all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day).  We all gave up something and for me it was visiting my father's grave on Memorial Day (but I went the week before).  For John it was time at home with his kids.  But to celebrate our achievement on Memorial Day, we had a cook out at the store and invited all our families and ended up grilling hotdogs, burgers, chicken and more for about 60 people.

So take a look, tell me what you think of the new store and next week I will get back on topic with the intricacies of how I am placing an order today for bobby merchandise (kites, plastic model kits, puzzles, rock tumblers, etc.)--even though I have not been in a hobby store in over two years.

Exciting times!!

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.