Tag Archives: Board Game Barrister

January 24, 2015 · 11:51 am

Big Plans For Board Game Barrister

DSC01873I’ll let Gordon Lugauer explain it in his blog post. An excerpt …

This location has a really nice Mainstreet-style showroom. However, while we will be adding some additional racks to display more product, there is no getting around the fact that the space is too small to display the same range of products we are known for. So we’re doing something different.

The Board Game Barrister Clearance Center!

Part of my retail philosophy is that if I’ve made a mistake when choosing products for my stores, either because I bought too much or because I just got it wrong, I take it off the shelf. No point in having the wrong game on the shelf when we could try something else that might prove to be the right one. These aren’t bad products, just wrong for the stores they were at (truly bad products, like the batch of card holders we got last year, never get sold once we know about the problem). Or perhaps that last item from an assortment that looks lonely on the shelf, too lonely to be attractive as a possible gift. These items will at last have a home at the Clearance Center, arrayed all nice and shoppable at the Board Game Barrister – South Milwaukee.

Currently, we have just over one row of shelves, probably 100 items, in our clearance center. Everything from thinky hobby games to puzzles to LEGO. Eventually, we’ll include some ding-n-dent items and games from our demo library that are no longer seeing use. This is a really neat way to get these games, toys, and puzzles on display, and is something unique for the South Milwaukee store.

And, at a good price, too. Everything in the clearance center is 30% off.

The Garden Theater building, which was the South Milwaukee Carpets warehouse for the past 35 years, has become our warehouse and processing center. Processing what? Currently, processing games, toys, and puzzles that are in the warehouse and sending them to our Bayshore and Greenfield stores. But in 2015, this will also include processing orders from our soon-to-be-ready (really, I promise) online store. Having a warehouse is really pretty fantastic, and allows the other stores to focus on connecting with people through games, not receiving shipments. This will be a huge boon when we open our 4th location (no, no plans yet).

Thanks to Gordon and Board Game Barrister for investing in downtown South Milwaukee!

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December 14, 2014 · 11:07 pm

12 Days Of South Milwaukee Christmas: Games!

South Milwaukee is home to two very cool downtown game stores … about two blocks from each other.

Why not stop at both and get some local holiday shopping done?

  • Pink Bunny Games, 1204 Minnesota Ave., specializes in Magic: The Gathering events and items, but it also offers Yu-Gi-Oh and board gaming events. It also does a brisk online business; learn more here.
  • Board Game Barrister continues to ramp up toward a formal opening at 1007 Milwaukee Ave. and offers games, toys, puzzles and more. It now has hours Monday through Saturday. Welcome to South Milwaukee!

Please support both of these unique destination businesses — two we should be proud to have in our fair city.
Pink Bunny Barrister small

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November 23, 2014 · 11:34 pm

Downtown Update: Telling The Downtown Story

I had the pleasure of speaking at Monday’s South Shore Option 3.0 event, a local economic development forum presented by Milwaukee County Supervisor Pat Jursik and the South Shore Chamber of Commerce.

I chose to tell the downtown story. And it’s a good one, even as we continue to write it.

From investment by existing businesses into their properties to new business development to the creation of business-building events, this quickly is becoming a success story.

You can see what I presented here.

And here are a few updates on some downtown businesses.

First, some unfortunate news: Greg’s Soup-er-Desserts has closed, according to a sign posted over the weekend.

However, progress is being made on several other new merchants, in addition to MKE City Sippers, which has been very successful in its first couple of weeks, and the arrival of Revolution Hair Studio …

  • Wild Flour Bakery, 1205 Milwaukee Ave., is officially reopening tomorrow (Monday, Nov. 24) with a celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. Regular hours will Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 8 to 4. It will be closed on Sundays.
  • Board Game Barrister, 1007 Milwaukee, is already open limited hours, as they ramp up toward new signage, additional inventory and other upgrades. For now, hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, owner Gordon Lugauer tells me.
  • The retail storefront of Mears Online Auctions is also progressing. I spoke to owner Troy Kinunen last weekend, and interior work has begun at the property at 723 Milwaukee, with construction of a new second floor beginning soon. The concept is a really cool one: old-time candy combined with military, toy and other collectibles for sale. Should be a great addition.

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October 5, 2014 · 7:27 pm

Downtown Momentum

I am excited about downtown South Milwaukee, and where it’s headed.

Here are a few reasons why.

For starters, I am proud to announce that three new destination retail businesses are planning to open downtown in coming weeks – exactly the kind of businesses we need more of in our city center.

  • One, MKE City Sippers, is a new upscale coffee shop opening at 911 Milwaukee Ave., between I Can’t Resist Kids Resale and Dowling Community Acupuncture. Owned by Nicole Maxey, a young professional excited about the prospects of our city center, it will serve Anodyne Coffee (terrific, if you haven’t been to their stores in Bay View and Walker’s Point), gourmet lattes, fair trade loose leaf Rishi tea, Dang! Butterscotch Root Beer, cupcakes and other locally baked goods. MKE City Sippers — pictured below — will also be offering free wifi, books to read, fun coffee mugs and tea infusers, unique gift items and more. They are hoping to open the week of October 27. Check out their Facebook page in the meantime.
  • The former Voice Journal/Graphic/Kelly Driving School building is also getting new life as a retail storefront for Troy Kinunen. Troy is the owner of Mears Online Auctions, located in the beautifully redone St. Mary’s Hall in town. His storefront at 723 Milwaukee will feature a unique mix of old-fashioned candy, novelties and collectibles. Troy just received approval from the Plan Commission to move ahead with a complete overhaul of the building, including construction of a second-floor condo and storage space to go along with the retail storefront. He expects to open Dec. 1.
  • And, finally, the former South Milwaukee Carpet/Garden Theater won’t stay closed for long. While the carpet store at 1007 Milwaukee closed this summer with the retirement of the Lugauers, their son, Gordon, who grew up above the carpet shop, has purchased the building. His plans? To open a third location for his Board Game Barrister business, joining existing locations at the Greenfield Towne Center and Bayshore Town Center. Tentative opening date is Oct. 27.

Please join me in welcoming all three of these businesses to town — and join me in patronizing them. I’ll keep you posted as their grand openings draw near … and pledge to keep working my hardest to attract just these types of businesses to our fair city.

That’s just the start when it comes to downtown. Hopefully you’ve already seen some of the other efforts underway to improve our city center. For example, hundreds, if not thousands, of people are rediscovering downtown South Milwaukee through special events.

  • The South Milwaukee Downtown Market continues to rock and roll, and this summer its 11th Avenue location got a new look with a new road and streetscaping project. (The plantings just went in last week.)
  • The first two Guardian Credit Union Movies in the Market have also been a hit, both drawing hundreds of attendees following the farmers’ markets. The third outdoor movie, “Hocus Pocus,” is showing following the market’s season-ending Fall Family Festival this Thursday, Oct. 9. And Guardian — a proud downtown business of its own — has already committed to doing three more downtown movies in 2015!
  • We’re also bringing Rocketober to downtown South Milwaukee on Saturday, Oct. 25, with a special trick-or-treating scavenger hunt just for merchants in our city center. More details to come.
  • Christmas will also be special downtown, with events like the tree lighting and parade and a new “shop local” event being planned by the South Shore Chamber of Commerce. (Stay tuned for details on this one.) The South Milwaukee Community and Business Association has also led the charge in replacing more than 60 street decorations, purchasing new LED light fixtures, among other changes.

We’ve also made progress in more proactively enforcing our building codes. Hopefully you’re seeing a difference, one building at a time. A new window her, a paint job there, or maybe removal of an ugly awning. We have lots more work to do in this area, and we’re doing it, putting a laser focus on making sure our downtown building owners live up to the baseline of our city ordinances. Too many of them haven’t been.

And as we do this – all of this – we’re making strong progress toward the long-term work we need to do downtown as well. That starts with our long-overdue downtown plan.

There are lots of moving parts here, including the potential hiring of a citywide economic development director, formation of a downtown South Milwaukee advisory committee, and selection of a third-party consultant to aid us in the planning process. The economic development director position and planning consultant are both funded in the first executive budget I’ve been a part of as mayor, finalized late last week.

So, lots going on. Excited? I am. Much more to come!

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