'Community is a big thing for us': Magpie and Crow brings retro gaming hub to Wake Forest
In the past few years, Raleigh and North Carolina have seen a boom in video gaming and nerd culture, vintage game collecting and trading.
Now, Wake Forest is the latest to have a vintage gaming hub.
Nestled inside historic downtown, Magpie and Crow is the latest to open a storefront selling retro video games and vintage toys, clothes and other merchandise.
The owners, Alec Featherstone and Adele Edwards, moved from the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas to Cary in January after coming to various collecting conventions.
“We had visited North Carolina about two years ago for the Limited Run Convention,” Edwards said. “We just fell in love with the area.”
The store held a soft opening Saturday, Aug. 12, to get customers ready for the big release of the store. The grand opening will take place Aug. 19.
The store has games for people of every age, from children first getting into video gaming to adults trying to find video games from their childhood. There will even be an arcade room with arcade machines for people to play on.
Brian Phillips, Vice President of Product Recovery Management in Butner, came to the store and welcomed Featherstone and Edwards to Wake Forest with a vintage Megatron Transformers action figure, which Featherstone immediately set aside as a keepsake.
Phillips, who grew up with and collected Transformers figures, said he’s looking forward to having a hub in Wake Forest.
“It’s wonderful,” Phillips said. “I live within walking distance from here. [With] a lot of these toy stores, it’s great that these kids can see how their moms and dads played with toys back in the day.”
Additionally, there is an area inside the back of the store for people to look for vintage or modern comic books to buy, as well as vintage records.
The two said they want their store to be a place for all corners of nerd fandom to meet up.
“We noticed there was a need out here for what we do,” Featherstone said. “We knew there were a few stores, we knew there were conventions and individuals who were into what we do, but there weren’t a lot of centralized hubs. That’s what we offer.”
Featherstone and Edwards said being a part of RRG helped them expand their business and meet people to get them started in the area.
“It’s been super helpful,” Edwards said. “We love meeting all the people there and we love working with them. They’re just a really good group of people.”
Javier Garzon said he found out about the store through RRG through pop-up shops. Garcon said it was great seeing people bringing their children to the store to share what they love: gaming.
“I think it’s a great thing to do,” Garcon said. “Especially since I’ll have a kid of my own in the future. I think it’s a great bond between parents and children.”
For Featherstone and Edwards, it’s not about competition, it's about enjoying what they love.
“We know them, we’ve met them through RRG events and we’re big fans,” Edwards said. “We just want to support the retro gaming community in general. We don’t think there should be any competition. We’re all about collaborating.”
“We have opened the network to be able to call each other in situations if we don’t have an item that they might or they don’t have an item that we might,” Featherstone said. “Competition drives and competition allows for better growth. There’s no reason it should be cutthroat, and [those] businesses believe that.”
Magpie and Crow also have online selling to contend with, but Featherstone and Edwards believe their store, which had an online model during the COVID-19 pandemic, has something online sellers simply cannot offer.
“It’s that in-person presence,” Featherstone said. “Every piece of inventory is sourced through our hands. If it’s on the floor, it’s ready to sell. It’s been cleaned and tested. There’s absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t be able to make anything that you purchase here right, and there’s nothing holding us back from that.”
While they are just selling vintage games and products, Edwards said there are more plans down the road to have more events to make Magpie and Crow the place to be.
“We’re hoping to do a tournament or an event every day,” Edwards said. “Community is a big thing for us.”
Magpie and Crow will be open from noon until 10 p.m. every day.
