This second-hand store opens its gates into the strangest worlds of Retro video games.
Super Tomato is a safe haven for fans of retro video games, consoles and all manner of other nerdy memorabilia, all for a reasonable price.
Sitting on Salisbury road, right next to Cardiff University’s own Student Union, Super Tomato is a second-hand video game store specialising in buying, selling and preserving machines and cartridges off past generations.
The shelves are crowded with the highlights of Nintendo, PlayStation and even some more obscure entries like the Amiga. Each item is handled with care with cases and disks cleaned as if this was the first time they had left a shop.
An Environment for Geeks and Gamers
Tom the owner and manager of Super Tomato said he thought was the best quality of the shop wasn’t the items they sold but the environment they created. He says “We wanted to create a place that was safe for people to for things they can usually only find online and feel relax. It’s about creating that right environment”.
With its walls covered in Japanese manga, shelves displayed with old Star Wars figurines and even a game kiosk set up for a round of Street Fighter II, the store indeed serves a social element.
Although a bit on the odd side for the average shopper, for those interested in the niches of nerd culture, the shop gives a calming feeling of being among like-minded people.
Continuing After Lockdown
Like most stores, Super Tomato was forced to close during the Covid-19 lockdown and firebreak in Wales. Tom states that despite having to shut down the support from the Cardiff City Council was “quite good”.
Since opening again, sales have been slow. “It’s hard since customers don’t shop, for understandable reasons” Tom says. He remains positive though, “you just gotta roll with the punches and do the best you can”.
While closed under lockdown, the Super Tomato staff took the opportunity to renovate the store. The outside was given a brand-new logo and paint-job, making sure the store looked ready for returning customers.
Follow Super Tomato on Twitter at @hausofsega