For almost 10 years, Peter Ralston has run Pop Shop at Elgin’s Thunderton Place.
The town centre business was born from his passion for gaming and collectables.
It grew from buying and selling collectables on eBay to opening up a shop in the heart of the town centre.
He ploughed £10,000 of his savings into the business alongside a £250 grant from The Princes Trust to get him started with some stock.
Around three years ago, he even expanded into upstairs, turning a former beauty salon into a space for board game enthusiasts.
Peter has been dreaming of finding bigger premises to expand the business even further for a while.
Now the shop is getting closer to moving into a larger spot.
This isn’t any ordinary shop unit in the town centre though, it’s the former Masonic Lodge at 12 Academy Street.
Why a former masonic lodge could be perfect home for Pop Shop
For years, the owners of the Kilmolymock Lodge have been carrying out work to convert the building into a commercial space.
Peter said: “I was first told about the spot by Andrew Mulholland at Hunted Cow Studios, who had looked around it before.
“He asked if I had a look before and I didn’t even know it was available.
“Then I was shown around the building by Anna Rogers from Moray Chamber of Commerce.Â
“At first I thought it was going to be out of my price range just because of how big the building was.
“However, it has worked out and I’m really excited about it.”
He wants to have a gaming hall on the ground floor and a room to serve food, teas and coffees for the gamers.
Meanwhile, he plans to move the current Pop Shop to the first floor of the new building.
Peter says the two-storey building will become a larger version of the current store.
However, they are still awaiting planning permission for the change of use.
Peter said: “For at least five years we’ve really needed a bigger space but there just hasn’t been anywhere suitable.
“We did make use of the upstairs area but there was still nowhere bigger to move into —until now.
“The new place is huge, about five times the size of where we are now based on the floor plan.
“We still need to wait for change of use permission, however I’m really excited about it.”
Opportunities to grow tournaments
Peter hopes the new venue will allow him to hold bigger tournaments for gamers from Elgin and beyond.
In recent times, these events have attracted enthusiasts from all over Scotland.
Meanwhile, he currently runs games sessions three nights a week upstairs for people to come in and play.
He said: “It would be great to have bigger tournaments for games like Warhammer 40,000.
“At the moment we can only have around 16 people in a tournament and in the new place we will be able to double that at least.
“It will be amazing too as tournaments are where most games stores like us take in extra income.”
In the meantime, Pop Shop will continue to operate at 24 Thunderton Place.
He is hoping to open the new location as soon as he possibly can.
Conversation