Midlothian's New Video and Game Shops Are All Making Room for a Crowd

"A lot of those video games from when I was a kid in the '90s were everybody in a room together, playing Mario Kart or seeing if you can beat that next level of Sonic," Nicole Baab told Richmond BizSense this month. "It'll have that togetherness feel."

Baab and her husband, Luke, plan to open Retro Room on Robious Road in October. It is one of three Midlothian-area businesses that announced a move or opening in September 2026, and all three share something easy to miss when each one shows up as its own news item. A DVD shop in the mall, a used video game store, and a paint-your-own pottery studio are all spending their next dollar on room for people to gather. That means a back room for screenings, floor space for tournaments, or a private room for themed nights. The discs, cartridges and clay bring people in, and the extra space is meant to keep them there.

A Video Store That Found Its Rental Business by Accident

Blue Rose Video & More opened Sept. 5 in a roughly 700-square-foot space at Chesterfield Towne Center, 11500 Midlothian Turnpike, next to Spencer's. Owner Wayne Marshall worked in video stores until his mid-20s. He decided to open his own after he was laid off last year from a job in catering software support. His wife and two daughters helped him open it, and one daughter manages the store.

The original plan was a collector's shop. Marshall stocks new and used DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD discs, with an emphasis on new releases and boutique-label editions. One favorite on his shelves is the Criterion Collection release of the 1954 film "Seven Samurai." Much of the early stock came from Facebook groups where people sell off their disc collections.

Rentals weren't in that plan. Marshall told Axios Richmond he decided to try them once he landed the mall space. They caught on with customers who remember video stores and with younger customers who had never been in one. He mentioned a couple who remembered Redbox but had never rented a disc from a store. For context, Axios notes that Richmond's last Blockbuster closed in 2014.

Here is how renting works right now:

• Blue Rose Rental Society: three movies at a time, no late fees, renews monthly, cancel anytime
• Price: usually $10 a month. September's promotional price was $5, and the store's membership page showed the plan as sold out when we checked
• Players: Blue Rose doesn't rent them, but Marshall points out that many game consoles play DVDs and Blu-rays
• Hours: Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
• Pickup: online orders are ready in the store within two hours during business hours

Marshall's long-term idea is what links Blue Rose to the other two shops. He told Axios he wants to build a full-size throwback video store with a curtained-off back room for movie screenings, trivia and comedy nights. So the next step he describes for a disc store is a room for events.

Retro Room Trades Brewery Pop-Ups for a Five-Year Lease

Retro Room has been around longer than its storefront. Luke Baab started it in 2018 as a subscription service that shipped boxes of hand-picked games. Around 2022 it switched to pop-ups and swap meets, including several years of pop-ups at local breweries. Over those eight years the business moved steadily toward selling in person.

The new shop is at 10060 Robious Road in the Robious Hall shopping center, near where Robious Road meets Midlothian Turnpike. Total Wine and Hot Pot 757 are in the same center. It will buy, sell and trade games for everything from the NES and Nintendo 64 to the Xbox One and PlayStation 5, along with consoles, merchandise and Pokémon cards. "We both felt that the Midlothian and North Chesterfield area was a little bit underserved as it pertained to video games," Nicole Baab said.

The lease details show the same priority as Blue Rose's back room. Retro Room signed a five-year lease on about 1,000 square feet, which gives it room to host video game tournaments and other events later on. Nicole Baab described the goal as a place "people could come to and hang out, buy and sell video games." As of the end of September, no exact opening day, store hours or tournament schedule had been announced. For now, October is a plan.

Create Pottery Had More Customers Than Chairs

Create Pottery Shop at 4668 Commonwealth Centre Parkway, near the Fresh Market and Brandermill, is the furthest along of the three. Sisters Jessica and Marisa Garofalo bought the shop in early 2023. It had been All Fired Up, where Jessica had been manager since 2018, and they renamed it Create. In October the studio is expanding into the storefront next door, which brings it to 3,200 square feet.

The reason for the expansion is seating.

"We have very limited seating out front. With the holiday season, the busier times of year, like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, we just weren't able to meet the capacity of the customers that wanted to come in," Jessica Garofalo said.

Once the added space opens, it brings a third kiln and a larger events room, so classes, camps and themed nights can run without taking over the walk-in studio. Marisa Garofalo said Taylor Swift Nights were popular enough to fill the whole store. The owners also have a theory about the busier stretch. Marisa Garofalo connected it to recent economic uncertainty, which she said pushed family spending toward cheaper experiences closer to home. Open-studio projects cost $20 to $50.

That gives the three shops one shared plan. Blue Rose wants a screening room. Retro Room leased room for tournaments. Create is adding a private party room. Each one is set up for the same outing: a $20 to $50 evening, a few minutes from home, with other people in the room.

The Shops That Already Run on a Calendar

The new arrivals are joining an older group of Midlothian hobby shops that have long been built around events. Their published schedules show what a fully running version of this looks like.

Battlegrounds at 13172 Midlothian Turnpike sells tabletop miniatures, trading card games, role-playing games and board games, and it offers free gaming space with regular events. Unplugged Games Cafe is at 1300 Sycamore Square. Richmond Comix runs its shop at 9209 Midlothian Turnpike in Arch Village Shopping Center and posts a list of new comics each week. Just east of Midlothian, Mulligans Trading Cards and Collectibles is at 8227 Hull Street Road in North Chesterfield.

Here are the published events over the next week:

Every item on that list is an evening spent at the shop. At least for now, Blue Rose, Retro Room and Create are open-hours businesses with event plans still to come. Retro Room's possible tournaments and Blue Rose's possible back room would put them on a schedule like this one.

How October Fills In Along the Turnpike

These are the dated and planned openings over the next few weeks, in order:

1. Now through October: Blue Rose's $5 Rental Society price was a September promotion, and Axios lists the usual price as $10 a month. Check the membership page for openings, since it showed as sold out at the end of September.
2. October: Create's expanded studio and private events room are scheduled to open on Commonwealth Centre Parkway.
3. October: Retro Room plans to open at Robious Hall. The owners have not yet set a date.
4. Fri., Oct. 2: Battlegrounds holds Friday Night Magic in Draft and Modern formats.

Blue Rose is part of a regional trend. Axios counts it as at least the third new video store to open in the Richmond area this year, after Monster Video and Rewind Vintage downtown. In Midlothian, the new shop sits a short drive from a game store, a board game cafe and a comic shop that already hold regular events. Between Chesterfield Towne Center and Robious Hall, Midlothian Turnpike now has a disc counter, a cartridge counter and a pottery wheel, and each of those owners is planning a room where customers can stay.

If your basement has become the house's movie night and game night room, that space counts for something when it's time to sell. At Pretty Properties, we stage and photograph those rooms as the gathering spaces they are, and we'd be glad to show you what yours adds to your home's value. Request a Free Home Valuation and we'll take it from there.