Sword in the Stone Games - Wyoming Valley Mall - Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

 One of the few good things about the kids basketball season running into the summer is that the schedule goes from 8am games to 8pm games, which gave me half of a Saturday to run errands before heading down to Lancaster.  

This proved advantageous, as I had just discovered that Sword in the Stone Games had been moving to this new commercial concept called... a mall.

As Bill and Ted Day just occurred (6/9 Dudes!), this scene immediately came to mind as I typed this.

Funny thing is, I don't seem to have made a formal review for Sword in the Stone  before, and given that they are still moving stuff into the new location, it's not fair to do so now.  The store's footprint began as Emerald Vale Games, moved to a new location, rebranded/reorganized as Evolution Games, and moved to their basement location in Downtown Wilkes-Barre before reorganizing again as Sword in the Sword.  I believe the original owners are long gone, as well as some rift-raff that came along the way.  

But with my errands done,  I had an hour to kill before departing for Amish country, so I swung in. 

Disclaimer:  I happened to work gaming retail inside a mall nearly thirty years ago, and after speaking with the owner, I can confirm the worst kept secret: retailers hold most of the power now.  We were curtailed by mall hours, draconian policies, and sort.  Sword in the Stone has extended hours past the mall's, as well as their own after-hours entrance, so those late-night pre-release tournaments are still a thing.

Good, roomy, and well-lit gaming space.

Not everything was out, as well as a number of new fixtures still had not arrived, but it was nice to have the see the inventory I was already aware of spread out, as well as brand new (to the store) display cases that I could casually brush/lean against without fear of imminent structural failure.  

There is some work to do with lighting the front of the store, as well as one key loss prevention blind spot I recognized, but I'm intrigued and hopeful that this transition from basement to mall is a success.