Postcards From Berlin #19: The Game Store

By Jeff Allers
September 1, 2007

German word of the month: Spieleladen (game store)

(Author’s note: This is the second article in a two-part series on Berlin’s “brick and mortar” alternatives to chain department stores and the Internet.)

I have always loved playing games, but it wasn’t until a couple of German friends taught me and my wife Carcassonne one evening that I started to explore the board game aisles of our neighborhood Toys ‘R’ Us (or, as another German friend called it, “Toys Rus"). Unlike the original chain stores in the U.S., the German counterpart is stocked full of games from Ravensburger, Queen and Hans im Glück, among others.

Of course, none of the store employees could really tell me anything about the games stacked neatly on their shelves, and I was at first too intimidated by all the game components to buy any of them, thinking that the rules were too complex. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why. Growing up in the U.S., there never seemed to be any offerings in that niche between light children’s games with their colorful plastic pieces and decisionless gameplay, and the war simulations packed with hundreds of cardboard counters and thick rulebooks. I assumed that the German games fell into the latter category, and even a Siedler von Catan game someone had given me as a gift sat on my bookshelf collecting dust for a year before I was finally taught the game.

My curiosity, however, led me to search online, where I discovered Funagain.com and read all of its reprinted Counter reviews. From there I became a BoardGameGeek as well as a regular reader of Rick Thornquist and his Gamewire blogging crew (and I finally mustered up the courage to submit my first “Postcard From Berlin” as a guest blog).

Then one day I spotted a small shop on a busy boulevard and decided to have a closer look. The store was clean and light, and the nice wooden shelves were filled floor-to-ceiling with every type of board game one could imagine, old and new, for young and old alike. Jürgen Kerber, the cheery owner of Spielewerkstatt Kerber (Games Workshop Kerber), clearly knew something about every one of them and was more than happy to tell me about them. Moreover, he invited me to his biweekly game night to try out some of the games.

My wife and I attended Jürgen’s game nights regularly, often purchasing at least one game at the end of each session. We enjoyed getting to know other German gamers, mostly young couples or families, and even exchanged phone numbers and met outside the scheduled meetings. Jürgen was always very enthusiastic, and he usually organized the meetings around specific themes such as “Spiel des Jahres Nominees” or “Filler Games” although anything he had in the store was available to try out each night. The games were also available to rent for 4 Euros per week or 1.50 per day, and if the person renting the game wanted to buy it afterwards, the rental fee would be applied to the cost of the game.

Jürgen’s game nights, rental offers, and other special events, together with his knowledge and enthusiasm, are the reason his “brick-and-mortar” business has survived.

Jürgen grew up in West Berlin and studied Sociology, Psychology and Education, but never finished his degree because he landed his dream job at the main German organization for youth social work. His job was, among other things, to organize camps for youth and children during school vacations and to train other youth workers and educators. Jürgen used games of all kinds in his work and training programs (outdoor, large-group, board and card games), and often the other youth workers would ask where they could purchase the materials themselves. Since there was not a shop that offered that kind of variety in Berlin, Jürgen decided to open his own business.

In 1996—seven years after the Berlin Wall opened—he began selling the products out of his Berlin apartment. Three years later, he moved into a commercial space in East Berlin. He moved again a year later to a new building across the street from a huge public recreation complex which included a gym, multiple swimming pools and an ice skating rink. Business boomed, as children and families would often stop by the store after swimming. Jürgen also contacted local school groups and day care centers, who would then come for special game events at the store, sometimes combining the visit with a trip to the recreation center across the street. Many of the children would come back with their parents, and at one point, Jürgen was hosting 250 people three times a week for Pokemon tournaments.

Three years after moving to the new location, Jürgen decided to open a second store in West Berlin. Managing two stores and the six employees he had at one time, however, was a bit too stressful for him. “I always knew my employees would get paid, but I never knew if there would be enough left for my salary,” he said.

When the recreational center, long overdue for repairs, was shut down, Jürgen’s business across the street suffered tremendously, and he finally decided to close that store. He now works his West Berlin shop alone, although he still has many contacts from his former youth work that can help with special events. “I am much more relaxed now,” he said with a grin.

Without the special events and school contacts, however, Jürgen admits that his shop would not survive. The Internet game stores have been a “catastrophe” for his business, he lamented. There are often people who come into his store wanting advice only to leave and buy the game online. “They say they want to go home and think about it, then they come back a month later, and I ask them how the game was, and they say, ‘Great!’” Jürgen explained. “When that happens once, I don’t give them any more advice.”

He said that there is no way for him to compete with the Internet sellers, who often price their games just above the distribution price because they know that most of their customers will order more than one game to cut down on postage costs. Big department stores and chains do this as well with the most popular games, since they are banking on the fact that most people won’t leave their store without buying other products. The Spiel des Jahres winners, ironically, aren’t at all attractive to the German brick-and-mortar stores, since their prices are always marked down at the department stores.

Instead of stocking so much of the most popular games, Jürgen focuses on what the department stores can’t offer: variety. There are 3,600 different articles for sale in the Spielewerkstatt, and most of the games he has in stock are on display. Most are board games, which he buys directly from the publishers (something common in Germany), although he also has a good selection of educational game materials for school and day care activities. His store carries only the most basic role playing sets, and Pokemon is the only collectable card game he sells, with a more modest group of 15 children and parents meeting to play the game once a month in the store’s basement game room.

His themed board game nights continue to meet there as well every two weeks, although I am no longer able to attend because of the distance from my East Berlin apartment. On those rare occasions when I’m in the area, though, I still enjoy stopping by his inviting shop and chatting about new releases and old times. Purchasing a game there is still worth a few extra Euros.

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