Today marks nine years since Redcap’s Corner first opened its doors to the public, back when we used to sublet a tiny little space in the corner of a video store on Locust Street. We opened on what could only be described as a meager budget, and have spent many years trying to balance our incredible growth (expanding twice in our first year alone) against recovering from our extremely limited financial beginnings.
Nine years ago it would have been hard to imagine we’d have come so far as a store, but that doesn’t mean the journey’s over. We realize we aren’t perfect. We’ve made plenty of mistakes, stumbled over ourselves numerous times, and often allowed this labour of love to burn us out. At the beginning of this year I made a commitment to myself, and now I’d like to extend that commitment to everyone reading this, that by our tenth anniversary we will have done everything in our power to make Redcap’s the event center and store we’ve always wanted it to be. I can’t promise we won’t continue to make mistakes, but I can promise we’ll learn from them and use those lessons to keep improving.
Here are some of our goals for 2018:
- We will post prominently a code of conduct for our game rooms, to make clear our expectations of, and commitment to, the community, to ensure that gaming at Redcap’s is a safe and welcoming experience for everyone involved.
- We will work hard to unclutter and improve both the appearance and functionality of our game rooms, to mould them into rooms our customers will be excited to spend time in. Downstairs, this means significantly improving our means of storing terrain and doing a better job keeping up with maintenance of that terrain, but it also means adding hobby workstations and better tools for running events (a TV and/or round timer, etc.), as well as additional seating. Upstairs, it means significantly upgrading our tables and chairs, and improving access and maintenance to our game library.
- We will install section signs and better label our products and programs to improve our customers’ shopping experiences and keep them informed of all we have to offer.
- We will improve the functionality of our website, not only by striving to list events earlier and improving our options for pre-registering, but by adding real content and information, and allowing our site to serve as a hub for metagame information about local competitive circuits. This includes getting back to streaming on Twitch, with improved equipment, and with a renewed commitment to showcasing a variety of our events online.
- We will continue to add and improve our programming, and our advertising of that programming, to bring Philadelphia the best and most diverse roster of gaming events possible. We will continue to rely on outside organizers to keep our calendar thriving, but will be implementing better framework for supporting those organizers. If you are interested in running events at Redcap’s or doing commentary for streaming on Twitch, please contact me at benn@redcapscorner.com.
- We will improve processes behind the scenes, better training our staff to be ready to encounter anything, while maintaining our commitment to customer service.
- We will continue to be open to feedback and suggestions, whether they be about ways we can improve the things we’re already doing, or about products or events we should be supporting. We’ve always taken feedback seriously, but we’ll take steps to more proactively solicit it.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last nine years, or even given us a chance. We owe everything we are, and everything we can be, to the amazing community of gamers in the Philadelphia area. With your support, we look forward to a busy year bringing about all of the above improvements, and hopefully many more! It’s an exciting time for tabletop games, and we want to nurture that excitement in every way we can. It’s our commitment to become the legendary gaming hub Philadelphia deserves!
