Weekly Store Update: 27 March

By Stone Valley | March 27, 2022

A little split operations last week, and that does not happen very often. Things continued without a hitch while I was gone, which just proves that teamwork does indeed make the dream work! We saw another amazing haul of new games plus restocks and preorders too. We mingled with the community at large and what the heck was Eric up to anyway? Why not pop in and check it out?

INTRO

Welcome to our weekly newsletter! For our new readers I'm Eric, and Wendy and I run Stone Valley Games. This newsletter is our way to discuss both local and world-wide gaming news of interest that popped up last week. It also provides our customers, both local and remote, some information on the going's on around here so everyone feels like part of the action. At the bottom of this newsletter we show you the restocks, new items, and preorders added to the store last week. Not too difficult to navigate, so let's get to it!

GONE GUY

You may have noticed we had the store closed to foot traffic and asked folks to coordinate early to pick up their curbside orders last week. That's because I was out of town for the week and Wendy was running the store. Of course, I think I had the better end of the deal this time around...

Just happened to catch this rainbow right between rain showers.

In any case, as we are juggling real-world things along with our responsibilities with the store, it really takes both of us to be here in order for everything to run like normal. So, while one of us are away, we need to make some modifications.

Now that I'm back, I can say it worked out quite well! For folks who ordered you shouldn't have seen much of a change - other than Wendy writing your note for you instead of me 😉 I don't anticipate this split operations thing will happen that often, but it's good to know that we can still keep things running if we have to.

The next time you'll see odd store operations is for our vacation - and I think we have that scheduled for June/July timeframe. We may shut everything down while we're gone, but we'll see how everything plays out.

That's a pretty airport!

PLAYING CATCH UP

In a directly related story - please have patience with me! As many of you know, I am the primary communications link for the store. I take care of the phone calls and email inquiries. While I did the best I could to keep things seamless while I was away, I'm certain I missed some things. So, know that I will soon be going back through all the emails from the last week to make sure I didn't miss anything!

TEAMING UP FOR GOOD

In a continuing story from the last several weeks, while I was away Wendy participated in the season opener for the junior baseball team that we sponsor - the Senators.

Beyond being the season opener, this was a special event as the team also provided their donation to the North Alabama Foster Closet.

Here's a photo of Wendy (in the back on the left) with the sponsored team.

The team donates needed items and monetary donations which really go a long way to help folks in our area. They were able to do even more this year as we covered their uniform costs, so together we really made an impact!

If you take a close look...that's our SVG black & white dragon patch on their left sleeves...this one:

Here's a photo of Brett sporting the SVG patch

You know, I have to take a moment and reflect once in a while. This time of year hits me pretty hard - tax season. I don't...I can't believe how much we are saddled with tax debt! Now, I don't ever really get depressed, but this time of year things I sometimes feel...discouraged.

However, it's events like this season opener and needed donation that remind me why we're in this to begin with. No, this is not the kind of business that will make us a fortune or anything, but we are in the position to provide small acts of kindness to help others.

That and supporting our growing board game community here bring things back into perspective. Sure, Uncle Sam is a SOB, but quite honestly that's not going to change. So, we'll just adjust the belt and get back to it- there's too much fun to be had around here to dwell on these things too much anyway!

LATEST PUBLISHER PRICE INCREASES

Public service announcement time. Steamforged Games reached out to us and relayed they would be increasing MSRP across all of their product lines. Following a very similar pattern as other publishers we've seen over the last 18 months or so, it is rising prices in labor, materials, and shipping that led them to make the decision.

MSRPs are changing on 1 April, so if you've had your eye on any Steamforged products, now may be the time. We carry their Animal Adventures RPG products, and Resident Evil and Horizon Zero Dawn board games.

THE WRAP UP

Okay, I'm still jet lagging like crazy, so enough news for this week! Below are the Restocks, New Items, and Preorders added to the shop last week. You can click on the item to learn more, and many of the products have review and gameplay videos so you can see the game in action. If you're visiting our page and you'd like to keep up with our giveaways, sales, new products, and articles like this one just create an account here. Once created you will be subscribed to our newsletter and become enrolled in our loyalty system, instantly earning 50 Stones that you can use on your very first order. A Stone? One Stone is equivalent to One Cent. That doesn't sound like much, but you earn 2 Stones for every dollar spent and 5 for each product review, so though it may seem small, those savings add up fast! Redeem your Stones upon checkout, and they can save you up to 10% off your cart total. Loyalty Matters!