GW Half-year Report

[getagrip]

The "one man shop" idea strikes me as terrible - how do you get people enthused and playing and therefore buying if you're doing stock control, sorting a customer, doing the daily clearing up & admin, off sick, opening up/closing, playing games ALL AT THE SAME TIME?!

I think that is the one idea that will really sink them!  I worked for GW as a key timer (evenings / weekends / school hols and the like) whilst at Uni and my role role was essentially to:

a)  Run demo games;
b)  Give painting advice;
c)  Be enthusiastic.

I was earning what would now be minimum wage, at least half of what I earned I spent in store but the new blood I brought into the hobby must have been huge.  I think GW have really shot themselves in the foot with this one but the long term effects will slowly become visible.  GW shops are now quiet, dull and dead.   This is not the breeding ground for new enthusiasts. 

[petercooman]

It is a sad thing. 

http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl/2014/07/gw-guilty-as-charged.html

Agree on all fronts.

But i still have my epic 40k armies and my mordheim warbands , and i will still enjoy them, as the community have stepped up and provided the creativity that GW abandoned. There are enough home brew scenarios, rulesets, alternate settings and models on the internet to keep us going for ages!!

Also, i always liked necromunda, but never got round to get it (and the price that stuff now fetches on ebay is way too much for me), but there are enough alternatives around! I shelled out for deadzone last year and although it is not entirely the same, it looks close enough and the components are great, so i get my fix there.

I look at GW as a parent showing a kid how to  ride a bike, They put us on the bike, gave us a push, and abandoned us along the way, but we keep pedalling 

[FierceKitty]

Wasn't that WRG's job?

[Fenton]

 Please delete...Nothing to see here

[Luddite]

I think that is the one idea that will really sink them!  I worked for GW as a key timer (evenings / weekends / school hols and the like) whilst at Uni and my role role was essentially to:

a)  Run demo games;
b)  Give painting advice;
c)  Be enthusiastic.

I was earning what would now be minimum wage, at least half of what I earned I spent in store but the new blood I brought into the hobby must have been huge.  I think GW have really shot themselves in the foot with this one but the long term effects will slowly become visible.  GW shops are now quiet, dull and dead.  This is not the breeding ground for new enthusiasts.  

I used to manage a large city centre GW store.

On saturday i needed as a minimum:

1 full timer on till
1 full timer floor selling (preferably 2)
1 key timer running demos/overseeing the paint tables
1 key timer chatting / fielding questions / restocking
+ me overseeing/managing, cue-busting, problem solving/complaints handling, processing returns, filling gaps, restocking, etc.

If we had a head office diktat, e.g. 'this saturday you have to have a new table build going on on the shop floor (to show the punters the tools and terrain building kits etc. mainly...do you know how many pots of bestial brown it takes to paint a 4x4' table?  How many small tubes of 'white glue' were needed to flock it?  Bonkers...)', i'd need another key timer in to run that.

I'd get everyone in for an hour's sales training session and GW-approved 'pep talk' prior to opening too.  Mostly i just wanted to make sure the hungover grots were there for 10am! T
hose saturdays were manic and it was chaotic hell on earth (especially as parents seemed to think were were a free creche service and would throw their sprogs in through the door at 10am, only to return with handfuls of shopping 4 hours later) but amazing fun too.  My store BUZZED - i know a lot of the other manager's stores did too.

I honestly don't know how a one man store could possibly do that.  I guess if you don't have 50-70 till transactions an hour, you can afford to cut the staff to the bone?  Certainly the last few times i've frequented my local store its been pretty quiet.

But then, according to the current GW management they aren't a retailer, and they don't sell games.  Go figure...

[getagrip]

My store BUZZED - i know a lot of the other manager's stores did too.

I honestly don't know how a one man store could possibly do that.  I guess if you don't have 50-70 till transactions an hour, you can afford to cut the staff to the bone?  Certainly the last few times i've frequented my local store its been pretty quiet.

Entirely my experience of working there: manic, crazy...FUN!!!

[toxicpixie]

But then, according to the current GW management they aren't a retailer, and they don't sell games.  Go figure...

[/b]

This. Entirely this. I don't know if they thought "games" made them look childish, and hurt sales, but good grief - it's the core of what  they do!

[GordonY]

No they apparently sell "Colectable Minature Figurenes"

[Leman]

Sounds like a wargames company being run by someone who isn't a wargamer and has no idea what makes a wargamer tick. Bit like a petshop owner who dislikes people who keep pets.

[toxicpixie]

Sounds like a wargames company being run by someone who isn't a wargamer and has no idea what makes a wargamer tick. Bit like a petshop owner who dislikes people who keep pets.

Ahhh, feck, there goes my retirement plan!

Yep, it's similar thing to many "managers" thinking - don't need actual experience or knowledge of the industry/practise your "managing", as that's for the plebs. You just tell 'em what to do and throw a paddy when it doesn't work.

[GordonY]

I look forward to the day when the last bit of funnel of the good ship "Games Workshop" slips beneath the waves.

I believe that company has

1) Got rid of pretty much every independant bricks and mortar hobby shop in the land and

2) driven up prices on the basis of "well theyre charging that much, so we can charge just a wee bit less"

Buggers, all of them, bah humbug!

[Leman]

The Y Front strikes back!

[Steve J]

Got rid of pretty much every independant bricks and mortar hobby shop in the land

We're really very lucky in Bristol to have Antics that has been going for decades and staffed by (generally) knowledgeable and helpful modellers. Andy the manager now gives me a discount as he knows I'm a friend and colleague of a long standing friend of his. So generally I will give them my business to keep them going for as long as possible.

[getagrip]

We're really very lucky in Bristol to have Antics that has been going for decades and staffed by (generally) knowledgeable and helpful modellers. Andy the manager now gives me a discount as he knows I'm a friend and colleague of a long standing friend of his. So generally I will give them my business to keep them going for as long as possible.

Same in Leicester; "Gifts for Geeks".  Love it; good range of diverse stuff