EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on Milton Today Feb. 9.
Local geek and nerd culture shop The Dragon (363 Main St. E) will cease operations later this month.
The Main Street store has its origins in Guelph, but owner Jennifer Haines opened the Milton location in the last decade in the hopes of fostering community in the downtown area.
But the good times couldn't last forever.
“It’s not a decision I want to make. It’s a decision I have to make,” she told MiltonToday, citing financial struggles. “I know that people do love us here and they do want us to be here and I do feel like I am letting them down and that is the hardest.”
At the end of the day, it is about community for Haines. The fandom world – whether it has to do with the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Trek – is one where people seek out connection within their niches, and Haines recognizes that.
“These are things that people are passionate about,” Haines said. “People who are passionate about this stuff often feel a sense of being outsiders within most of their communities. Their school community, their work community and their family community, even. So, what we do is we provide a space that's like a safe space to express those passions.”
A talk at a local school drove that point home to her. When she introduced herself to a class, many students, she says, responded with “I love that store. It’s my favourite store in town.”
The Milton shop came to be in 2018; it was the third Dragon’s location aside from the two in Guelph at the time. The Dragon name has been supplying patrons with all things comic book related since 1998, and its flagship store is now carving out a space of its own in Guelph’s Old Quebec Street Mall.
From tabletop games – whether Magic the Gathering, Dungeon and Dragons or Warhammer 40K – to toys and comics, the store brought people together to discuss their passions openly and proudly.
The Milton shop was no different. But rising rent and general shifts in retail sales have made many stores like The Dragon unsustainable.
Haines elaborated: “What I found with my south end store and I found now here [in Milton] as well is that commuters tend to shop where they work. They don't tend to shop where they live. So if you increase the commuter population, then it means I have fewer people coming into the store.”
The pandemic lockdowns also changed consumer habits, which for Haines is evidenced by the fact that “it encouraged people to shop online.” She acknowledges that the recent push to buy Canadian has given her some hope. Her future plans are to strengthen her Guelph store in order to make it “capable of withstanding whatever is thrown at it.”
Anxiety over policies coming from south of the border certainly did not help. The recent bankruptcy of US-based Diamond Comic Distributors added fuel to the fire. At some point, Haines was forced to read “the writing on the wall.”
Aside from putting her entrepreneurial mind behind the Guelph location, the mother plans to focus on her family, continue with her side hustle of making teacher guides and perhaps take up consulting work about the comic books industry.
The last official day of the business is on Feb. 26, after which Haines and her employees bid farewell to the town. She thanks the Milton community for their support and asks that they "keep supporting local."
Miltonians who will miss The Dragon will still be able to buy online. In reassuring her patrons further, she said that one day returning to Milton with a new shop is "not outside the realm of possibility."
Details about the shop can be found on DragonGuelph.com.