Final day for Shrewsbury market boardgame trader after 20 years
After 20 years of trading, a market stall owner that helped bring boardgames to Shrewsbury is shutting up shop.
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Today (Saturday, December 28) is the final day of trading for E-Collectica in Shrewsbury Market Hall.
Stallholder, Chris Smith, has been running the business for 20 years and for the last 13 has been based in the town centre market.
With the growing popularity of the modern boardgame, E-Collectica doubled the size of its retail unit to accommodate a jump in sales in 2014, and a spokesperson for the market hall said the business "helped to popularise the modern strategy-based board game in Shrewsbury".
But announcing Chris' departure, the spokesperson said in recent years it has been "increasingly harder for bricks and mortar, independent game shops to compete off and online with the purchasing power of corporate retailers".
They added: "[Saturday] marks the end of E-Collectica’s permanent stall in the market, we’re delighted to say that it’s not the end of E-Collectica.
"Chris intends to continue with pop-up participation games, the odd show and some online sales, although the name will change next year. To align with his growing card company and the dodo emblem the name will change to Flightless Wonder, a play on two of the biggest game manufacturers, Days of Wonder and Fantasy Flight."
Chris, and shop mascot Darwin T Dodo, will be in Shrewsbury Market Hall on Saturday from 10 until 4.30pm for a final open gaming session with some last-minute bargains up for grabs.
