In the past week, That Games Store in the Sydney Building has seen a flow of regulars, all keen to get one last look at their beloved store.
The Civic shop, which has gone by numerous names since it first opened, is set to close its doors on Sunday, after years of providing for Canberra's gaming needs, including having a play space for certain trading card games.
For owner Tats Yoshino it's not only an end of an era but an end of the community that has been created within the store's walls.
"I've always wanted to create more of a casual environment here," he said.
"I've heard a lot of things about very competitive players, and I think the majority of them don't mean to be toxic, but they can become toxic to some degree when playing the game because obviously, the idea is to try and win.
"I wasn't too keen on having that kind of environment, I was more interested in catering for the casual player. So the people that came here for things like [the card game] Magic: The Gathering, were mainly casual players.
"I think quite a few people won't be able to play much anymore because they only came here and nowhere else. So that's going to be a little bit sad for those people, and I do feel bad about that, because I'm taking away their play space, to some degree."
Mr Yoshino, who has owned the store since 2017, said it was COVID that had the biggest impact on his business. The business was not set up for online sales when the pandemic first hit, and while That Games Store stayed open during the first lockdown, during the second lockdown - when it was mandatory to shut - he was told that he wasn't allowed to post any orders that were made remotely.
"I was determined not to have this impact on me but when you can't even fulfil orders, what am I supposed to do? I had to refund funds," he said.
In fact, the store's closure almost came in March 2022, when the business owner found himself unable to pay a bill that would have seen him evicted.
In that instance, it was the community he had created within the walls of That Games Store that came to the rescue. Mr Yoshino put a call out and fans of the store crowdfunded the money for the bill.
"I was hyped up after that and wanted to continue operating, possibly find a new space, but it was just too much money to relocate," he said.
Now, as Canberra leaves life in lockdown behind, Mr Yoshino said with many office workers continuing to work from home, at least part-time, he has lost foot traffic.
"I've lost, maybe 80 per cent of the public servants who used to come in," he said.
"I think a lot of them came in to de-stress. A lot of people needed the space to chill because some people have stressful jobs.
"I used to see regulars every week, but now I barely see any of them. I've only seen one or two when I used to get like 30/40 people come in during the day. It's dead, and until that stops, I don't think I can continue operating a physical store."
For the moment Mr Yoshino said he was going to continue to run the business online only, but hopes to return to a physical store in the future, particularly if he can find a space big enough for a play space.
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