An Aberdeen couple have seen the popularity of their board game subscription service take off during the past year.
Glenn and Jen Bowen launched Rent Shuffle and Roll where customers sign up for a subscription then pick the board games they want for a month.
They are then posted out to them with a prepaid return label for when the time is up.
The front room of their home in the Hazlehead area is now packed wall to wall with nearly 1,000 board games.
Prices range from £16.99 to £26.99 a month with games each having a value of between 0.5 and four credits.
In the past year they have bought more than 300 new games with the collection growing constantly.
Jen said: “We’ve got quite extensive shelving now in the front room.
“We try and buy some new games every month and had a push to get more for the expo.
“They wanted at least 700 and we knew we’d have some out with customers so we had to supplement that.
“We look at new releases, what’s popular and Kickstarters.
“At the moment we have 75-80 subscribers and it seems to be growing all the time.”
Gaming expo showcase
The couple, who both work as full-time accountants, recently travelled to Birmingham for the UK Games Expo where they provided the whole gaming library for the massive event.
The three-day convention saw thousands of game enthusiasts come together from all across the world to play the latest games and discover the latest trends.
Last year the couple attended only as exhibitors but this year was asked to provide 750 games for the event.
Jen, 31, said: “It was really exciting for us as last year we were just there as an exhibitor so to be asked to go along with hundreds of games was amazing.
“The expo was extremely busy. We were on the stall from 9am until 6pm and then providing the board game library until 11pm.
“It was fantastic.”
Children’s games a big hit
Rent Shuffle and Roll has recently tapped in to a new market of children’s games.
Jen said: “We’ve got a huge range of kids games and some resources to give families and parents some ideas for games at different ages.
“We can recommend games from ages one right through to 12. There is different games for different stages.
“It’s a good way to get kids off of screens and encourage family time.”
The most popular adult game at the moment is Ark Nova with Catapult Feud proving a hit with children.
Jen said: “Catapult Feud is great fun for the kids. You build towers as both ends of the table and then fling boulders with catapults to knock over the other persons tower.
“It’s really tactile, really fun and really engaging.
“Every time it comes back in stock it’s straight out the door the next day.
“It seems to be a really popular one.”
The couple will soon have their own special product tester for the children’s games as their first baby is due in November.
Plans for new premises and escape room
Looking towards the future of Rent Shuffle and Roll Jen said: “We’ve been lucky as the board game community is really friendly and a positive space to be in.
“The past year has been really good and we’ve enjoyed growing.
“We would ideally like at some point in the future to have a separate space where we’d have the games and an escape room.
“That would be a long term goal but at the moment we are still building our custom shelving in the front room which seems to be working for us.”
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