“He was kind of doing double duty as a stay-at-home dad of our four kids and also trying to start a business,” Nicole Baab says of her husband, Luke. That business, a pre-owned video game seller called Retro Room, is about to get its first real storefront.
The Baabs told Richmond BizSense on September 23 that they planned to open the shop the following month in Chesterfield, Virginia, at 10060 Robious Road. The unit is inside Robious Hall, close to where Robious Road meets Midlothian Turnpike, alongside neighbors such as Total Wine and Hot Pot 757. The space is roughly 1,000 square feet, on a five-year lease, leaving room for gaming tournaments and similar events later on.
From mailed boxes to a shop
In 2018 Luke began mailing customers boxes of hand-picked games on subscription. Around 2022 the business turned into pop-ups and swap meets, and in recent years that meant tables at local breweries. Eight years in, the games finally get a permanent address.
Timing mattered. The couple’s youngest child has started school, and that opened a window. “Our youngest went off to school and he (Luke) was interested in having a brick-and-mortar store that people could come to and hang out, buy and sell video games,” Nicole said. “It’s just the right time for our family.” Luke now works at Retro Room full time. Nicole keeps her job in human resources at Dominion Energy.
The location was a deliberate pick. “We both felt that the Midlothian and North Chesterfield area was a little bit underserved as it pertained to video games,” she said.
What is on the shelves
It is a buy, sell and trade store. Pre-owned and vintage games lead, from NES and Nintendo 64 cartridges to newer Xbox One and PlayStation 5 titles, with consoles, merchandise and Pokemon cards filling out the stock. The shop’s own website promises inventory that is cleaned, tested and guaranteed, and invites customers to trade in what they no longer play or simply browse the free-to-play games.
The pitch is nostalgia with a family angle. “It’ll be truly everything from the 1980s to the present, and hopefully it’s a place where there’s that nostalgia factor,” Nicole said. “A lot of those video games from when I was a kid in the ’90s were everybody in a room together, playing Mario Kart or seeing if you can beat that next level of Sonic. It’ll have that togetherness feel.”
Retro Room joins a small wave of Richmond-area shops built around physical media. The DVD store Blue Rose opened at Chesterfield Towne Center this month, and Rewind Vintage has opened downtown in Richmond.
Sources
- Pre-owned video game store powering up in Chesterfield (Richmond BizSense)
- Retro Room | Video Games and More (official site)
