Congratulations to the Griffon Bookstore, South Bend, Ind., which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The Tribune reported that owners Ken Peczkowski and Sarah Bird "have seen their business continue to improve during its 40-year existence."
"I hoped we would be in business for a long time," said Peczkowski, though Bird admitted: "I never thought it would be. I thought it would be just five or 10 years, that it would be our project. I wanted to have fun, and I wanted to be happy.... Ken had sensed that there was no place for kids to go. If you were a little odd or geeky, you had no place to go back then. We opened a game room."
In October, they hosted GriffCon 40, "a combined gaming convention and celebration for the store spurred by the enthusiastic Facebook group Fans of the Griffon Bookstore," the Tribune noted. The convention drew nearly 500 people.
Peczkowski said the key to survival has been how they treat customers: "I'm continually blown away by how kind people are. I've never liked the feeling of taking advantage of customers. We know you can get games online. It's so cheap that it's sometimes below our wholesale price. But there's something about walking into a store and finding something you didn't know you wanted."