Blue Orange Games is lucky to partner with a fantastic bunch of retailers who are passionate about their businesses and supportive of our games. We want to do more to recognize the stores and individuals that make our mission possible. That’s how our monthly spotlight on an outstanding Blue Orange Games retailer came about!
We are pleased to announce that Timbuk Toys in Denver, Colorado is our Store of the Month for September! Florian, our sales manager, nominated the store because of their dedication to their local community and their passion for creating fun times with their customers.
Timbuk Toys owner, Sallie, studied architecture in college, but had a dream of opening a retail store that could bring people in the community together. What better way to do that than to play games? 22 years ago, Sallie started her business all by herself with her old fashioned cash register in a 600 square foot store. She slowly expanded moving to a 1000 square foot store to 3,500 square feet, to having 4 stores in the Denver area of Colorado.
What is Sallie’s key to success? As she stated, “Be conservative with your dollars, generous with your friendships, and true to your values.” It is important to Sallie to appreciate every single person within Timbuk Toys; how the employees are treated on the inside will directly affect how guests and business partners are treated. Appreciation of those around her business is exactly why Timbuk Toys has been awarded store of the month.
One of Sallie’s most satisfying parts of her job is working with sales people and demoing games. Florian often visits Sallie, “I love at 10 am when the door opens and there is Florian with a bucket of games ready to play.” One of her fondest Blue Orange Games memories was meeting at ASTRA and playing Battle Sheep. As Sallie put it, “I can not remember having such a good belly laugh as I did playing Battle Sheep with Blue Orange at ASTRA.”
Sallie has always enjoyed the social games that bring people together, such as Battle Sheep. She admits to not being a big gamer, but if the rules are simple, you can count her in! Spot it! is one of those games that are simple to understand and a fun game to play with friends. Sallie stated that Spot it! was her favorite game because “It is simple yet perfect, bringing multiple ages together and you can teach the game in 5 seconds.”
Sallie believes that “America will continue to be excited about the process of play and building intelligence.” Naturally, the infatuation with electronics will continue, but “nothing will extinguish the energy of a group of people gathering around a board game.” Opening a store in a big city, Sallie has worked to value shoppers who appreciate their dollar, while bringing the community together with the best service and games from around the world.
With a female driven company, Sallie believes that this is a unique factor to her business. Not only does she take pride in this aspect, but also in her involvement in the community. Starting a business to serve the local community and beginning by herself, Sallie has brought Timbuk Toys to the top.
The whole team at Blue Orange Games would like to thank Sallie and the rest of the Timbuk Toys staff for believing in our games and for creating rewarding, educational experiences for their community. Congrats!
For more information, visit http://www.timbuktoys.com/timbuk/
