WHY RUSSO'S REAL STORE ATTRACTS REAL GAMERS

Yes, that’s one of the dumbest mistakes they could make. I have lots of customers who say it simply can’t happen. They truly don’t like the idea. I have many collectors who come into the shop, and they absolutely hate that decision. They don’t think it is acceptable.
I hope that Sony sticks with physical media and that no other companies follow their lead. It could mean that it will be the end of selling physical games. People are really upset about

it and honestly, I think it is absolutely terrible myself. I do not agree with what is happening either, there isn’t much that I can do about it. They have already announced it now, but I am still holding out hope that things will change, that it will not end up becoming an official decision. From what I understand, it is official, but we still have to do something about it. Ever since Sony made that announcement,
we have been selling more physical games.

People are thinking, “What if they disappear?” or “What if we can’t buy them anymore?“
So everyone is stocking up. I can clearly see that happening in the shop. I absolutely don’t agree with no physical games, because I am
a collector myself.

I mainly collect retro games and consoles like Super Nintendo, Game Boy, Nintendo DS, NES, you name it. Anything with the Nintendo name on it, I really love, and it goes straight into my collection. The games that I really love collecting are the iconic titles. Titles like Mario, Pokémon, and The Legend of Zelda games. I love owning it all and having everything together in one place.

A lot of what you see here in the shop, I got at my home too. I have a beautiful attic that is full of it all. If I feel like doing so, I could practically start up a second store with my own collection. But I will not do that, they stay with me. I will just get up sometimes and go upstairs. There I pull up a chair, sit for a while, and look at everything.

I can spend half an hour just staring at all of it, picking them up, and admiring them. It gives me this incredible feeling of nostalgia. I even get goosebumps talking about it now. It’s just so beautiful, and I really love it. That is the feeling that I try to give the customers as well.

By talking to them. Just by communicating.  When a customer walks in and starts to look at the retro section, you can almost see that feeling coming back: “Oh wow…back then.” That nostalgic moment. It stays with them, and hopefully it makes them want to come back. Not just for the games, but for the good experience as well. You should always make the people feel welcome. Have a little chat. Offer them a cup of coffee. You are a host as much as you are a shop owner, that is simply how I see it. It is who I am, and it is therefore that I genuinely enjoy doing those things.

The way that I behave in the shop is exactly how I am outside of my work too. I am a very social person, and I love having other people around me. When people come into the store, I say, “Good morning!” At that moment, I try to get a feeling of how they feel, so in most of the cases I follow it up with, “How are you?”

They often look surprised, almost wondering, “Why are you asking how I am?” They do not actually say that, but you can see it in their expressions. I see so many people come into the shop who are grumpy before I ask them, and they then say, “It is so nice that you have asked me that.” This will start a conversation, and you can then really see the “Wow” in their eyes. The next time, they’ll come back again.

This is what we have to preserve. These days, people are often very isolated. We need to try to prevent that. That is why, whoever it is that is working behind the counter, they’ve got to be so passionate about what they are doing, or people will simply buy everything online. That’s exactly what we don’t want to happen. I have customers who willingly pay €10 or €20 more than they would online. To support us.
It is all about the goodwill and the personal connection. I do appreciate that enormously.

Above all, just be yourself. That is important. Don’t try to pretend to be someone you are not. It is enough to just be genuine and to just have a nice conversation with them.

I know other people here in Heerenveen who do try to copy me. They can copy my items. But there is one thing that they can never, ever, copy: me. In the end, I am the main product. It is me, and only me, as a person. Nobody can take that away from me.
And that is why it is so important to always
be yourself. They can try to imitate everything else, but they’ll never be able to imitate you as a person. They can buy the same stock,
sell the same things as me, but there can
only be one Russo.

When I came to the Netherlands, I was about 12 or 13 years old. I am actually pretty sure that I was 12 when I moved here from Sicily. My parents brought me over here to give me
a better future. I’m incredibly grateful for that, especially to my mother, who fought to make it happen. My mom and my stepfather moved here together, and they still live in Spijkenisse.

I had a neighbor in Spijkenisse who worked at a local recycling center, the place where you bring your waste, and one day he saw that I was fixing my own bicycle, and he asked me: “Russo, can you repair the tire on my bike?”
I said, “Yeah, sure.” He opened up his shed, and there were old game consoles lined up.

Super Nintendo, NES, etc. There were these old laptops there as well. It was at that time,
at that very moment, that my passion to do repairs on consoles, laptops, etc. had started.

I saw all of that, and then I thought to myself, “Wow, this is amazing”. So I asked him a very important question at that time: “Could I take a look at some of these as well? I’d like to try repairing them.” I was just a young kid back then. I didn’t know anything about it, not yet. He told me, “Sure. Take whatever you want.” All the passion for taking things apart started.

I learned how they worked on the inside and discovered games I never even knew existed. Take the Super Nintendo, just as an example. What games does this play? I did not know much about games and consoles. That is why I started researching them, and I became very curious and hungry to know more about them.

I bought a few games, just to test them out. That is when I realized, “This is awesome.” From that moment, my passion truly began to shine, to take form. It grew more and more.

On King’s Day, I would go hunting for some treasures at the flea markets. At that time,
you could still find everything at a very good and affordable price. I remember that I found a copy of Mario Kart 64 for €5. You’d be lucky to find that today at all. I started playing it, learning more about retro games, and I dove even deeper into this newfound hobby.

Later on, I met my wife around the age of 18, and it changed everything. That is what has brought me here, from Spijkenisse all the way to Heerenveen. It was hard at first since I grew up in a busy city and had been living there in a small room with a friend of mine, but coming here was the best decision ever.

Of course, when you’re still young, you do not usually realize that yet. I’m incredibly happy with the people I’ve met here and the life
I have built together with them.

At the beginning, I worked in the food service as a host. Later, I got a job at a phone repair shop here in Heerenveen, where I focused on repairing phones. I still had the same passion for buying games and collecting. It was then that I realized that I wanted to combine those.That is when the idea came to me. I am going to start Russo Electronics. A shop with retro games, collectibles, electronics, TCG cards, and everything related, all under just one roof.

Step by step. Little by little, I grew the stock.
I did not receive any financial help at all.
And quite honestly, I didn’t want any either.
I did not take out any loans. I had two other jobs, where I worked at a distribution center in the morning and at restaurants in the evening. I did whatever it took. I worked almost every day to earn as much money as possible so that I could save enough to realize my dream.

I hear a lot of people who keep talking about what they’d like to do. But if you truly want something, you can achieve it. You just have to be willing to put in all the work. It will not happen by itself. From the very beginning,
my main focus was games, especially retro games. That has always been, and will always be, my greatest passion. I will not lose that. I built a display cabinet in the shop and set up a television, it was connected to a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo.

The people absolutely loved it. They’d pick up a controller and their faces would light up, and of course we’d start chatting. Customers brought in some very incredible items and various special pieces. SNES games, Game Boys, and GBA systems. I’ll never forget that one time a customer got me a whole Commodore 64 with its original box. 

If it were up to me, I’d have everything related to gaming and collectibles. I would love to fill the entire shop with only gaming products.It was not brand new, yet it still had the full set of packaging and the instruction manual. As you might guess, that one went straight into my own personal collection. If it were up to me, I’d have everything related to gaming and collectibles. I would love to fill the entire shop with only gaming products. I would pack the place from floor to ceiling.

But, unfortunately, phone repairs are still an important part of the business, though. Almost all of us have a phone. And a phone can break at any time. So that side of the shop is still crucial too.

We’re constantly trying to grow. One of our goals is to bring people together more often. That is why we organize things like gaming nights, play evenings, and Pokémon events. We want to build a real community. A place to play games together, ask each other about their experiences, or just to chat and to have fun together. A relaxed and enjoyable vibe. 

We organize Trading Card Game events too. I’m really into Pokémon. We mainly buy and sell Pokémon cards and have events around them. We have multiple boxes that are full of Pokémon cards, all categorized by series. People can come in, take one of the boxes,
sit down, and browse through them to see if there are cards that they do not have yet.

Through whatnot.com, customers can also order Pokémon packs during a livestream.
For example, if you order a booster pack,
we open it live on camera, and then we pack and send you your cards after streaming.
The people really enjoy that, and I do too.
I could just keep opening packs all day long.
It is fantastic.

My dream is to expand one day, and I might even move into a larger building. The shop we have right now is too small. With some more room and adding some extra tables where people could gather, we could then organize more gaming events in the evenings as well. But at the moment, we can only host so many people at once, or else things could get too packed in here.

That is really what I plan for the future: I want to have more space while keeping the same atmosphere. That is what matters the most: the sense of community. People having a good chat with each other, trading cards, having fun, and making great deals. That is what I enjoy seeing.

Next to being great customers, you have also supported our shop through everything you have bought from us so far. You are very nice people to talk to. I enjoy these experiences. We discuss games and a lot of other topics together.

The other day, you actually brought in some items for me to take a look at and to test them out. I genuinely enjoyed doing that. To me, our relationship is very dear and quite meaningful, and for that I’m truly grateful.

My family will always come first. These days I work from Tuesday to Saturday. Sunday is for my family. For my wife and my three children.
I have two sons and a daughter. I always try to spend time with them on Mondays as well.
I tell everyone that if, or when, you do have a family, make time for one another and enjoy it.

Time passes too quickly. Before you know it, your children have grown up and will leave
the house. That is one of the reasons I chose to close the shop on Sundays and Mondays. My kids grow up fast, and when they need advice, they naturally go to their mother since she’s home more often. Their mother is busy as well, but she works fewer hours than I do.

I used to be away for longer. Because of that, I kept missing things. My kids had football matches or training sessions, and I often could not afford to make it because of work. Mondays are when I get to take them to practice myself. I get to enjoy those moments. They love it when I show up.

Unfortunately, I did not have that myself when I grew up. My father was not there when I played sports. He worked most of the time. That’s something I really missed as a child.

Sometimes you have to make certain choices. Maybe you can’t attend every match, but I do think it is important to be there whenever you can. I am doing things very differently with my own children. What I didn’t receive growing up, I now try to give them. I might be spoiling them, I want to give them everything I can. You also need a partner who motivates and believes in you. My wife means everything to me.

She is the reason I got where I am today. You can have all the ambition in the world,
but you still need your partner to push you: “Go for it. I believe in you. I support you.”
That makes all the difference in the world. Without it, if things don’t work out right away, you start doubting yourself. I believe she has contributed enormously to everything that
we have achieved today.