Success Story: The Last Game Store
like something, we’ll recommend it but we aren’t paid by anyone to promote
their games.”
Adam Perry
The Last Game Store
590 Portland Street, Dartmouth AND 278 Lacewood Drive, Halifax
He’s come a long way since his first
would-be venture. While attending
Dalhousie University, Adam enrolled in
CEED’s FutureQuest program and
created a business plan for a toy store.
“I only wanted to sell action figures,” he
recalls. “No Barbies. I found out quickly
that that wouldn’t work. Suppliers won’t
only sell boy toys.”
Adam Perry’s passion video games
started in childhood, when his brother
got a Nintendo for Christmas. “I was just
fascinated by it,” he says - and
apparently not great at sharing. The
following Christmas, Adam got his own
video game system. “My parents thought
it would be better for everyone,” he says,
with a smile.
Today, Adam is much better at sharing.
Good thing, because as the owner of two
game stores, he has a lot to offer. The Last Game Store, located in Dartmouth
and The 2nd Last Game Store, located in Clayton Park, are both devoted to “a
cross-section of all pop culture”, says Adam. “For example, if a Spiderman
movie comes out, there will be a comic, a video game and action figures that
go along with it. You can buy them all here.”
If he didn’t own a game store, he would likely frequent one, Adam says, and
so he’s particular about the merchandise. “I don’t carry anything that I don’t
understand,” he says. “I may not have played the game or read the comic,
but I can have a conversation about everything here.” Also important to him:
no paid promotions. “We don’t push any product or game,” he says. “If we
At the same time, Adam was working part-time at a game store in Dartmouth
and finishing up his Bachelor of Science degree. When the owner of the game
store decided to sell, she suggested that Adam buy it. “I already knew I didn’t
want to do anything with my majors (psychology and biology).” He decided to
take a chance, and reinvented the store at The Last Game Store.
Soon after, he says, he realized that not only did he enjoy running the store,
but he was good at it. “It’s not a bad way to spend a day, getting to talk to
people about the things I love,” he says. He enjoyed it so much that he
opened a second location, ‘The 2nd Last Store, in 2004, which found him in a
unique situation: his stores were suddenly in competition with each other.
“Everyone started coming here and all of a sudden there was a giant drop in
sales at the Dartmouth location, he says. “There were definitely growing
pains. I had to rebuild the first store while building the new one at the same
time.”
As for the future, Adam says he doesn’t plan on expanding any time soon.
“Two’s good,” he says. “I don’t think I could handle another store. If I want to
expand, I’ll do it by growing my customer base.”