Couple Levi Bailey and Keira Reid opened Gawtos TCG, a Pokémon shop on Post Office Avenue in Southport, after being inspired by a trip to Amsterdam. The shop offers individual cards, sealed products, and trade collectibles, and opened in mid-July in the former Dog Haus unit at 14 Post Office Avenue.
Overwhelming reaction from the community
Co-owner Levi Bailey, 22, said the reaction to the new shop has been "overwhelmingly positive." He told the ECHO: "We had been thinking about it for a while and playing with the idea of it. In late 2025, we went to Amsterdam, and they have a ton of card shops and Pokémon shops. We were really impressed with what they have and thought to ourselves, ‘Why can’t we have something like this back home?’"
Bailey, who started collecting Pokémon cards around 2016 while at school, said the community is one of the biggest attractions. He said: "There are multiple factors that bring people together. Pokémon cards in general are art, so people can connect over the art and the general fanbase, as well as the community aspect of it."
Building a community of regulars
The shop has already built up a community of regulars. Bailey said: "We initially started vending at card shows, including the local Southport card show, and that’s when we first realised that people wanted a dedicated shop. We realised we weren’t the only people who thought people wanted something like this. It was something people were actually asking about, and we realised there was 100% the same level of interest in Southport as there was in Amsterdam."
Bailey noted divisions in the Pokémon community between resellers and collectors. He said: "Over the last year or two, it all has been divided into two different factions: the people who are buying it simply to resell it on the internet, and the people who actually collect and enjoy Pokémon. So to see the community rejoice and fully invest their time into the shop, have conversations with us and generally just see the community interact with each other has been amazing. It has made it all worthwhile."
Plans for official tournaments
Bailey continues to work as a civil servant while running the shop part-time with Reid. The pair secured the premises about a month before opening and spent weeks transforming the former hot dog stand. They have applied to become a Pokémon Play Store, which would allow them to host official tournaments and help customers learn to play the trading card game.
