Small Helena business built on keeping things fun while stuck at home

HELENA — At this point in the pandemic, people have had the chance to re-discover a lot of their hobbies -- and that means business for White Knight Games & Hobbies in Helena.

Co-owner Joel Ring, like other small business owners across the country, saw a drop off in business at the start of the pandemic. But unlike a lot of other businesses, people staying at home actually brought more interest to their door.

“As things progressed people started ordering games," Ring told us. "We started delivering to houses, stuff like that, and we saw an increase in some of our regulars worried that we were going to go out of business. So, they started coming in more.

"Then stimulus checks came in and that really gave us a little boost in my opinion, that helped out. People bought some of those things that they had really been eyeing for the last couple of years," Ring added.

According to Ring, that willingness to help wasn’t isolated to the customers.

White Knight also will buy cards and other collectibles from their customers, which has come in handy for some.

“Some of it was people needed to make rent, or something of that degree, just because they were laid off, they had no job so we gave them what we could,” said Ring.

And that kind of customer loyalty is paying off as more people are spending more time at home.

“I’ve seen people in buying at least one board game a week of these new faces and I’d probably say i have 10,15 new customers probably every single month," Ring said. "So, that’s pretty good in my mind.”

In addition to selling games and other cool hobbies, White Knight also hosts game nights at their store.