Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam Willoughby.
Hi Pam, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
RIW Hobbies was founded on October 28th, 1998. I named the store after my late father.
Our first location was previously a baseball card store in Livonia. In the early nineties, the demand for baseball cards began to decline. And the previous owner decided that it was time to sell. I saw a need in the market for a fun retail store designed to serve the local gaming community. I wanted to provide cards and games and a place to play them. I scraped up the initial investment, and away we went!
We celebrate our 25th anniversary this year, which is just so incredible. I’m thrilled to have the kind of community that we do at RIW.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A lot can happen in 25 years! It certainly hasn’t all been easy – there have been a lot of highs and lows, but we’re still standing. Several years ago, the plaza our store was in caught fire, and although we were already in the middle of moving to a new location, we lost a fair amount of inventory – not to mention some irreplaceable mementos.
Then, there was the pandemic – but that’s when I was reminded just how wonderful the gaming community is. Even though people couldn’t get together to play, we started selling kits for Magic: The Gathering and other TCGs so that people could still run drafts and play at home.
We fielded all sorts of phone calls from families asking for board games and LEGOs, and other activities that they could try to help fight the cabin fever – and we delivered! By pivoting to curbside pickup, we were able to keep our business going and feel good about helping people game their way through a really difficult time.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
RIW Hobbies prides itself on a dedicated and knowledgeable staff who specialize in everything from collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon to board games to table-top roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder.
We maintain a huge collection of board games, collectible card games (boxes, pre-cons, singles, and more!), and tabletop RPGs, but also have inventory that appeals to other hobbies, from LEGO enthusiasts to war gamers. Need a science kit or a bottle rocket, or a new toy to gift to your favorite kiddo? We have those too!
Our community is so important to us. We try to give back locally whenever possible through sponsoring local events, running charity tournaments, and whatever else we can. We’re also well known for celebrating at our big events by providing one of my favorite foods: tacos.
When you come into our store, we will do everything we can to answer your questions and help you find what you’re looking for. That’s been our commitment to our community for the last 25 years and will continue to be our commitment for many years more.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riwhobbies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riw.hobbies
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/RIWHobbies
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@riwhobbies9375
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@riwhobbies
