Scott Leslie, managing director of Geek Retreat Aberdeen, says a warm welcome awaits everyone at the Union Street venue. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
Just a step off the heart of Union Street is a world full of magic, epic adventure, dragons, dungeons – and really tasty milkshakes. Welcome to Geek Retreat Aberdeen.
It’s a place where people can come together to share – or discover – a love of role-playing and trading card games and immerse themselves in “geeky” culture with like-minded folk, said Scott Leslie, managing director of Geek Retreat Aberdeen.
Here he tells us more about this beacon of popular culture – from Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh! - his hopes for the next 12 months and why being slap-bang in the middle of Union Street is magic.
Scott Leslie gets up close with the many fascinating delights to be found in Geek Retreat Aberdeen. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
Tell us about Geek Retreat Aberdeen
Roughly a third of the business is a café, so you can come in and get our hot drinks – coffees, lattes, cappuccinos, and hot chocolate – but we’re also famous for our speciality milkshakes, which are really, really nice.
For another third of the business, we are a retail shop where you can come in get mainstream geek products. So, figures, comic books, graphic novels, board games, anime, manga and, of course, trading card games.
That leads me to the third part of our business, which is events. If you want to become a professional duelist for Yu-Gi-Oh! we run Konami official tournament store events. The same goes for Pokemon, Digimon, and Wizards of the Coast – Magic: The Gathering.
Also, we do a wide array of learn-to-play sessions, so if you have always wondered what Dungeons & Dragons is and how to get into role-playing games, then come on in. For £6 we will give you a session, with a free drink, and teach you everything. There’s no experience required or any equipment, we will provide everything.
And that’s really what Geek Retreat in Aberdeen is all about – coming in to meet like-minded individuals, hopefully make some friends and get an experience along the way.
Geek pose! Scott with some of his colleagues at Geek Retreat Aberdeen. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
What do you like about being based in the city centre?
Being in the city centre provides a certain guaranteed amount of footfall. People who are waiting for a bus might come in for a coffee, or people who are simply window shopping might be curious and come in when they hadn’t been planning to make an expedition to Geek Retreat. That surprise customer element is something that increases our conversion rate.
So we’re able to take the unknown consumer and turn them into a loyal regular. That’s something the city centre offers us which wouldn’t perhaps be as readily available if we were out of the city centre. And the recent refurbishment of Union Terrace Gardens has increased our footfall.
What are the benefits for Geek Retreat of being an Aberdeen Inspired levy payer?
Aberdeen Inspired puts on a variety of events throughout the city centre and that drives footfall towards our business. So having that partnership with Aberdeen Inspired can have a direct reflection on our bottom line.
So, the greater Aberdeen Inspired succeeds throughout the city centre, the greater our revenue is for the year. There’s a direct correlation there which we’d hope to see increase.
Scott with some of the collectable posters that take pride of place in Geek Retreat Aberdeen. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Last year we successfully achieved accreditation with our partner companies, like Konami, Square Enix, Wizards Of The Coast, Bandai and the Pokemon Company. Now we would like to bring larger, more competitive trading card game tournaments to Aberdeen and make certain things, like Konami regional finals, available in this area.
What advice would you give to new businesses looking to set up in the city centre?
Union Street's a bit of a community, all the businesses that are here speak to each other, and we all like to collaborate. So it would be great for another successful business to arrive in the area.
There are a variety of property agencies that can give recommendations on units that are available. Additionally, Our Union Street has recently begun incentives, so you should investigate what those are before you commit to the property you are going for.
Anyone interested in finding out more about role-playing games is more than welcome at Geek Retreat Aberdeen, said Scott. Image - Aberdeen Inspired
What would be the biggest improvement to the city centre in your opinion?
The Granite Mile has an ageing infrastructure which is difficult to deal with and needs to be improved. That would increase things like telecommunications to give us better internet so we could have greater wi-fi for our customers and our business. That would be a direct improvement.
But additionally, traffic can be an issue on Union Street and that can hamper some customer satisfaction. I know there has been a lot of work on that in the past year, so I’ll be interested to see where it goes in the coming year.
When you’re not working where is your favourite place or thing to do in Aberdeen?
I quite enjoy doing my D&D. I run Dungeons & Dragons here on a Tuesday night with my group. We’ve been meeting once a week for the past 66 weeks to do our epic adventure we are playing in. That’s something that’s close to my heart, experiencing my role-playing adventure with my group.
To find out more about Greek Retreat in Aberdeen visit their Facebook page here.