How a world-class games store started in a Calgary man's trunk

When Gordon Johansen began selling inventory out of his vehicle, there was no telling that one day he’d own The Sentry Box, a 13,000-square-foot building which was once the largest game store in the world.

A power engineer by trade, Johansen always loved a little healthy competition, but everything changed after a chance meeting with a knowledgeable stranger.

“I’d gone to a convention in the U.S. and had a random conversation with a U.S. distributor and said ‘Hey, this looks like a cheap way to get games for my friends and myself,” he told Curiocity. “Initially, I would go around to the University Gaming Club where I knew everybody and was selling games from the trunk of my car, but then somebody said that I should be selling to other stores, so I started wholesaling.”

With some off time and a passion for the industry, he started a company called TD Imports and after two years, was able to buy a store of his own.

The early beginnings in Calgary

Since the ’70s, The Sentry Box has seen several owners, but it wasn’t until Johansen purchased it, that it became larger than life. With around 400 square feet of total space, the store originally sold miniatures, but under new management, the shop got a whole new lease on life.

“I took it over on Jan. 1, 1980, and booted out the models within the month, then it kind of just went from there,”

“We were small until we moved from the first location on Kensington and Crowchild to the first one in Mardaloop, which was 1,400 square feet, where we ran the wholesale out of the back. Then we got too big for that and moved down to 20th Street and 34th Avenue and put the wholesale in the back which was 2,800 square feet and had the store in the front that got really busy.”

Johansen calls these “the good old days,” saying that the growth was a lot of fun until the wholesale store had to become another entity. He soon moved it to its own location and extended its book section into the back of the existing space.

“We did that for a bunch of years until literally the floors started bowing, so I started to look for a different location.”

“It is hard to find a location in this city when you’re buying a building that would fit what we wanted to do.”

Luckily, he was successful and has managed to stay at 1835 10th Avenue S.W. for 30 long years — which is no surprise after hearing he remodelled it from top to bottom.

“I couldn’t afford a sign for the first couple of years,” he told us. “But it was interesting to see the reactions of everyone who walked in because it was bigger than what anyone had done before in North America, and up until last year still was the biggest.”

Sentry Box: Once the World’s largest Gaming Store

While this was one heck of an accomplishment, the board game enthusiast was hesitant to lean into it. According to the owner, it was the business coaching group he was a part of that pushed him to accept it publicly.

“They worked on me to even say it, because, you know — Canadian.” “It just wasn’t a big deal to me, but that was the only reason we put it up there.”

This, of course, was a pretty big deal and remained as such until last year, when they were (just barely) dethroned as the largest on the globe.

“The guy who’s bigger now, he’s gone to about 28,000 square feet and he’s in Rochester, New York, but they carry a lot of other stuff like disc golf and things like that… he’s a nice guy. He’s a games store owner who just branched into this space and expanded so good for him. Now we can just say that we’re the largest in Canada.”

Keeping the Sentry Box in the Family

With two daughters who also love board games, Gordon has never been without help. In addition to employees, both of his kids have periodically worked alongside him and hope to keep it within the family.

Now that he’s over 65 years old, Johansen has even begun having conversations about succession, and it sounds like Sentry has a future!

“I said ‘Okay, girls,’ what do we want to do? We have to make some calls here – do I wind things down at some point?”

“The kids said ‘Well we kind of grew up in there, you built this institution, and you don’t want to just shut it down’ and I agree. The plan was always when we moved in there and bought the building back in ’94, this was going to be the retirement plan — games won’t be a big deal — we’ll sell the building and that’ll be the RRSP,” he thought.

Since then, Johansen has realized it’s deeper than that.

From the outside, The Sentry Box may just look like another big, brick building, but the walls bear witness. Here, people have made memories and friends; They’ve had weddings on the mezzanine and built a community on the main floor. Customers have laughed, learned, and grown, come together, and surely, joked about falling apart if they lose a game of Monopoly, again.

The Sentry Box and Gordon Johansen have become synonymous with Sunalta and It’s more than a store — it’s become a landmark.

If you’d like to check it out, The Sentry Box is open between Monday and Friday 11 a.m. and 10:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

It’s truly one of a kind!

The Sentry Box – Calgary

Where: 1835 10th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta

Related Posts:
These red spherical rocks in Alberta are among the largest in the world
These Alberta employers are the best in Canada & they’re hiring