A Gamers Heaven: Starboard Games
It started out at the beginning of 2016 as a little idea to earn extra cash, but it’s now grown to become a thriving retail store in the heart of Melton Town Centre.
Owner and founder of Starboard Games, Volkan, says Starboard Games started “purely out of necessity”.
"As newlyweds my wife and I moved to Australia as international students and we needed every extra dollar.”
“When we learned about websites like Gumtree and Ebay, we started selling items that we found in local opportunity shops. We sold totally random items at the beginning, then we decided to focus on one type of item - the type of items we knew the best, gaming consoles and their accessories.
At first the couple were operating from their own garage since they didn’t have the money to lease a shop.
“When Covid-19 started many retail shops had to close, but we were able to continue to run our business from our garage,” Volkan says.
“During this time, our business grew. While more and more people were stuck at home in quarantine, they looked to gaming to relieve their boredom.
“People started buying more and more consoles, games and gaming accessories. Unlike many businesses that suffered during this time we managed to save enough money to open up our business and we started looking at possibilities for our own shop location.”
Volkan says something that attracted them to Melton was that the community and local shops were very active.
“When we opened our shop in February 2022, we knew that we would have customers, but it’s surprising to see that the shopping habits of people have changed post pandemic.
“Although living very near to our shop, some people still do shopping online.”
Volkan is grateful for how business has grown and how the local community have supported the store.
“It's only been seven months since we opened our shop and we have two full-time and three part-time employees working with us - I’m so thankful!
“I’m excited about the future. Who knows? Maybe we can open a second shop?”
Check out the wide selection of games, gaming consoles and gaming accessories at the Starboard Games website, or visit the store at 35 Bakery Square Melton, Monday to Sunday 10am - 5:30pm.