Archive

Video Game Buzz celebrates 1st anniversary in town

April 8, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

Video Game Buzz, the only retro video game store in Orangeville, is celebrating their first-year anniversary, and looks to continue growing, while providing gamers with a chance to relive their youth.

Launched April 1st last year and located at the Broadway and C Line Springbrook plaza, Video Game Buzz sells not only video games and consoles, but also records, CDs, gaming strategy books and toys. They sell consoles and games as far back as the Nintendo in the 1980’s, and even some current ones.

Martin Busby, founder and owner of the store, previously had a video game store in Brampton from 1988 to 1995, and eventually decided to do it again. “I’ve been dabbling in video games since I was a child.”

Speaking to the Citizen, Mr. Busby said the first couple months was a struggle, but did anticipate it, and customers began increasing through word of mouth. “Once people know you’re there, you get a snowball effect.”

Though his wife helps out part-time, he is the only full-time employee.

He said they did better in sales than anticipated, but was a bit surprised how dirty some games and consoles are. “I’d say 80 per cent of my day is cleaning and testing, that would be the majority of my day now. You basically just clean, test, clean, test, put it out.”

Mr. Busby said he is happy where the business is and wants to see it grow, and hopefully hire someone else by year’s end to help out. “Everyday, it just seems to be getting better and better, so I figure by the end of this year we’ll be on cruise control.”

He said the local EB Games store sends people to him because they only deal with latest consoles and games, and the nearest retro store is in Brampton. “It’s amazing how many more people come here that are not from Orangeville, from Shelburne, Erin, I’ve had people even from Bolton.”

Mr. Busby added that inventory has substantially doubled. “When I first opened the store, I was like, ‘I’ve got tons of room here.’ Once we opened the store, we still had plenty of room, but now, we’re filling up boxes in my basement.”

Discussing his customers, he explained he now gets regulars looking for certain games, and what people really like is the trade for cash system, and having a physical copy.

Mr. Busby said people gravitate towards retro games because of the nostalgia factor to their youth. “Most people that come and buy games from us, they’ve already had it as a child, or a teenager.”

He explained older games were just basic and fun, and didn’t require “high end graphics, you didn’t have to be connected to the Internet, you didn’t have to download anything, you didn’t have to upload anything, you just put the cartridge in and away you went.”

He said the Mario games on the GameCube and Nintendo 64 are “the most asked for games ten times fold.”

Asked about his experience with video games, Mr. Busby said he got his first console when he was 12, which was the Atari 2600, and recalled getting hooked on the Sega Genesis with NHL hockey. “I like to play games with my buddies more than by myself.”

However, he added that as he got older, he didn’t have as much time to play games, and got bored of them, but played a bit of the Nintendo 64 when his kids got it.

Readers Comments (0)