Independent Video Game Stores Are Here to Stay

When I walk into J&L Games on 6th Avenue in New York, I feel as though I've entered something between a time capsule from 1998 and a dive bar where everyone knows my name. Lit with hard fluorescent overhead lighting, J&L Games is practically a video game museum: lined with rows of display cases brimming with old-school titles, walls decorated with hanging retro consoles, and a giant plastic Pikachu at the entrance to welcome guests. Before I get a chance to introduce myself, Kevin H, an MTA transit worker, comes in to pick up his copy of Hitman 3 for the PS5. Kevin practically knows everyone in the store, especially Kit Chiu, a long-time employee who first met Kevin when he was a regular at J&L's old Chinatown location in the early 2000s. In fact, Kevin bought his Playstation 2 from Kit in March of 2000, at J&L's original storefront on Elizabeth Street in Chinatown, and distinctly remembers "a giant line of people looping around the building" waiting for the new console.