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Thanks GW for closing my retail store...
Topic Started: 5th September 2007 - 11:06 AM (1,342 Views)
FatherSquee
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Holder of Clan Pestilens "Most Sexiest" Award

Man that sucks, especially seeing as I'm hoping to eventually start a store of my own within the next five years! :( (Though truth be told I would deversify more...)

In town here the store literally stays in business by having Hobby gaming more as a foot note in their business plan and apparently their were two stores an hour south of me but when I tried looking up one of them their was no trace of it at all (heh, nobody had even heard of it!)
I was always under the impression that a Rogue Trader would be able to do better because they could actually stock other items as well but I guess not. It's not at a point yet here where I would have to order online as their's usually something within an hour's drive but it's getting closer...
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Warlord Linnal
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I notice this promotion that GW's been running the past month about getting ppl to stock their products or that "if you know a store you would like to have the products stocked, send in the name...etc". I'm not sure where GW is going with that, seeing that independent retailers aren't doing so well. Maybe they want to close down the dedicated GW stores and make the independent retailers their main base, but sadly those are closing down too (or at least, they don't stock GW stuff anymore).

Sigh I missed the old days when I just worry about what to buy next for my Skaven or Tau army, or how to counter my opponent's tactics and not that the company is losing money and things are changing.
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Rusty Tincanne
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...you can still call me Rusty Tincanne if you want, though.

I had a bad hair day the other day because of GW! :P

There is no GW store here, but there is an independent. They have quit carrying any WFB products due to lack of local interest. They still have some 40K, but not much. Similar to what many folks have said, they are carrying other games.

I believe that Sebrent hit it on the head when he said "Ebay." GW has o be having a tough time dealing with loss of sales to that venue, and the local stores must be feeling it even more. In that light, I tried to order some classic minis I wanted via the local store, but GW wouldn't let them order them for me. <_< I was willing to pay a bit extra to support both (and because i feel guilty-ish for buying so much on ebay...).

I also think it has a lot to do with video games. They require a lot less effort than collecting hundreds of mini's, assembling and painting them all, and making a gaming table and terrain.
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Warlord Linnal
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Rusty Tincanne
Sep 7 2007, 10:29 PM
I also think it has a lot to do with video games. They require a lot less effort than collecting hundreds of mini's, assembling and painting them all, and making a gaming table and terrain. [/color]

Yes, and with the rise of MMORPGs in the past years (up to 5 years), kids seem to be going out of the house even less. I even have doubts in going for WAR (Warhammer: Age of Reckoning) as my next MMORPG, due to all the time needed for such games. I'd rather be painting, gaming with my Skaven horde or Tau, or exercising.

The gaming club in this high school I often run suffer a lot from kids suddenly just go and play Starcraft on LAN rather than trying to learn the rules and play an enjoyable game.
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Warlord Bloodfang
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I was thinking about this just today and a thought occured...

Could it be that GW have expanded too far? This is after all (in my view that is) just a hobby, meant to fill in extra time and provide a means for people to gather, help each other and contribute to something that allows them to relax and have fun in their spare time.

The way I saw it was that Warhammer peaked about... oh ... maybe 10- 15 years ago? Since then the major excitement of a new thing has worn off and it's now suffering the change in trends mentioned before (these being MMORPG's and the like).Possibly it's natural that Warhammer should be declining in sales and popularity. If so then I do doubt that it would ever truely disappear, just become more... enthusiast driven? Like model train stores, slot car racers and proper R.C vehicles.

As it is now, Games Workshop is very large in advertising compared to other companies who are in the same area. They have major stores purely devoted to their products and release a monthly magazeine that, as you have no doubt noticed, has become more of a catalog then a painting/strategy/event guide.

Just my thoughts on the matter and I am expecting members to point out errors or problems with this line of thought. ^_^ ;)
Clan Bloodfang
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scrivener
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*toot*

I tend to agree with Bloodfang: Warhammer is more of a niche enthusiast hobby these days. If I were GW, to be honest, I would consider having a store in every other mall to be too much expansion for the type of hobby we are catering to. Like Privateer Press and Rackham, and how their business structures are. I would probably go with 1 GW store in every major city, and operate the majority of the sales via independent stores and GW online stores. GW for starters needs a better online store system that provides a more consistent stock of products throughout its different regions. Marketing, advertising and campaign organisation would be done via the internet, publications (WD will need to be better), to a lesser degree within both the GW and independent stores, and the most of it will be via the natural process of word of mouth.

Think of it this way: if we compare warhammer with other classes of enthusiast hobbies like boffers, model trains or paper & dice RPGs, none of these require stores to advertise, sell or run get-togethers and activities. GW is unique as the only one of its kind to expand on the actual retail outlet front, and that might not have been the smartest business move.
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*Angry mob assembles*

"WHAT DO WE WANT!!??"
"A THINNISH, WATERY PAINT WITH A GREENER TINGE THAN AGRAX EARTHSHADE!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT!?"
"QUITE SOON PLEASE AS MY LAST POT IS RUNNING OUT!"
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Khornesone
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Just to chime in ...

I only know of one kind of local retailer, and that's the kind that sells GW stuff secondary and has another business primary (comic books typically, but I've also seen board games, videos and a venture into networked online computers so successful that the money from renting computer time paid for the store.) These retailers have two possible problems.

The first is GW itself. To be listed as an official GW store you have to buy so much of the product every month, and certain products as well. And if Lord of the Rings or Epic isn't exactly flying off the shelves, that's lost money. A LOT of lost money. The easy solution is to rely on the phonebook and internet for advertisement, and just NOT be an official GW store. This is where the stock starts to dip, and stores can then suffer from the "never have what I want" reputation. ALSO, there's often a GW store somewhere nearby, and the local retailer can't compete with the amount of free products GW provide to their own stores as promotional gimicks. (Forgeworld DONATED a TITAN to the local battle bunker as a prize for an event. Does your local retailer get that level of freebie? Didn't think so. And vendors have to PAY for Rogue Trader tournaments.)

The second is, of course, the customer. I can go to the vendor, maybe they have it, maybe they don't, or I can just order it online. If I'm the sort to pay $20-$30 for something smaller than a two-inch square piece of plastic (yeah, the character models are awesome, but c'mon!) than I'm the sort who won't mind an extra $4.95 to have it mailed to me ... or even pre-order. Heck, with the cost of gas, mailing is cheaper than driving sometimes.

I have a hard time thinking of any other store that has to face being cut out of the process as easily as GW vendors. GW loves direct sales, because they can keep the prices as high as their vendors do, without the middleman profit margin, thus scoring more profit for themselves -- that's the real greed to me. If you are going to kill vendors with direct sales, at least do it at cheaper rates for the customers!

I love Dawn of War though. It lets me play with all these 40K armies, and now I don't need to buy them!

...

That ... probably ... doesn't help either.

Anyway, the solution is simple. GW has plastic molds for just about everything now, they have no excuse to keep prices high. So people should just stop carrying them. Yeah, this means shops will close. Until GW re-evaluates their sales model, that's just the price that must be paid. Vendors need to focus on their main money-makers -- comics, computers, etc. My wife and I actually have a plan where she opens a restaurant in one half of the building, and I open a computer/gaming store in the other half. There will be game tables, mostly as a place to store the terrain I love to build, and to lure gamers to the restaurant next door. But actual GW stuff? People can order it. This is "tough love," because right now GW makes most of it's money by vendors who buy gigantic amounts of product and then can't sell it. Take that away, it forces them to re-examine their prices on an individual basis.

P.S. Having a single place where gamers can play AND eat? I may need a strategy that convices them to leave eventually ...

The bloodthirsty hate the blameless, but the upright seek his well-being.
A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.
Proverbs 29:10-11 NKJV

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By the dark gods, you are right my esteemed goblin friend...
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Underlord Burrows
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You should have gone to the UEGT KO the place we went to game did exactly that and was really really busy because of it.


Underlord Burrows
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Shadowklaw
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Mallekha the Overwhelmer
Sep 5 2007, 06:06 AM

Even though i didn't go there alot to buy stuf because of the prices, i went there for the atmosphere

You kind of put your foot in your mouth on that one, how many of the other people you gamed with their didn't buy there? If you don't help your store out, you can't be suprised when suddenly they disappear. Yeah maybe you saved an extra 10% off your regiment box but thats like 4 bucks (or whatever your local currency exchange rate would be) but is that four bucks worth having a cool store to hang out in?

Brick and mortar stores need customers to survive, its not GW's fault that you aren't supporting your local gamestore. I do think GW has it's issues, but they shouldn't be blamed for everything. :)
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s'nkeep
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they just opened one up in marysville where my parents live
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Warlock Rageaganish
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I used to be schizophrenic, BUT WE'RE OKAY NOW!

My gaming store closed during the early summer...
It was the best store around, with lots of tables, lots of stuff and a kick-ash atmosphere... as well as a rather central location close to downtown...

And now, it's closed...
And a GW store just opened downtown... It's laughable... I mean, they don't even have space for a single normal scale table... And they're wasting nearly half of their space with the seldom selling LotR stuff...

I want my store back!
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Sandy Death


Hi Members,
I'm from Connecticut in the USA and can ditto many of the remarks others here have made.

About a year ago the three closest gaming store to me closed along with the GWS store moving an additional 30 minutes further away. I almost left the hobby but found an active store about 50 minutes drive away.

A friend has just opened a gaming store featuring mostly comics and GWS products and he is having a very rough go of it. Veteran players will come in to play but not buy because they already have several armies (or more) and need very little. High prices keep new players from entering. With little money coming in he can't afford to hire help so he's putting in 70-80 hours a week. And rapidly getting burnt out.

A bad spiral this hobby is in for sure.

I'd be remiss if I didn't say what I feel is needed. GWS needs to make a drastic cut in prices. I'm talking in the neighborhood of 40%. Battalion box going from $90 to $60. Regiment boxes from $35 in $20, and $20 blisters to $12.


That's my two cents worth.

Sandy Death

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