This week's Cracked LCD column is about the game store I practically grew up in- Atlanta's Sword of the Phoenix. It closed three years ago, right at the height of AGF's arc, and I was still shopping there even though I had my own store.
Brick and mortar is dying. The FLGS is an endangered species. Everybody in the hobby knows it, but I think a lot of times people don't realize that there is a legacy, a heritage, a history, and sense of the concrete that is being lost in the business as online discounters have pretty much changed the rules and made it virtually impossible for the B&M FLGS to sustain itself. Add into that the "I want it all" sense of entitlement that board gamers have, that "the industry owes me" sensibility that engenders clearance table or Tanga trawling for bargains and the ever-present demand for 35% off retail prices and it won't be long before all the Sword of the Phoenixes in the world- including your Sword of the Phoenix- are gone.