Corporate bullying at its best!

[sebigboss79]

Not that I can entice you but:

Pic of you gaming in local GW WITH one of those Orcs they call employees?

[Matt J]

Moonraker (1979) - that had 'space marines'

[sebigboss79]

Current leader is a novel from 1932. As I said trademarks =/= copyrights.
But there is a limit how you can register and defend either of the two.

[GordonY]

GW apparently has gone absolutely bonkers with its staff instructions, over a pint in the local with the GW store manager he told me that because of the new edicts from on high this week he had to tell 2 lads to leave the shop when they were talking about another ruleset, had to tell one guy he couldnt play with his Space Marines in the store because they were the really old "beaky" marines and had to stop another lad doing a quick repair on his ogre using generic superglue. If you stifle knowledge of any other wargame/products/etc it will cease to exist, are these guys living in cloud cookoo land? Even spotty moron 12 year olds, the GW target audience, have heard of the Interweb, mind you they might not be able to spell wargaming when Google opened, being conditioned to refer to it as "The Hobby".

[sebigboss79]

Which makes me believe they are really at their wits end. 
Those who deny existence of reality are close to extinction - mark my words. We will see a decline in sales despite massive price increase.

[Techno]

 

Huh ?....I'm just astounded.
Is there another firm out there that's starting to truly bother them sales wise, so they feel they need to do this ?
Are they trying to drive all their customers away....Or just certain ones who might speak heresy within the earshot of others ?
Bizarre.
Cheers - Phil.

[GordonY]

I think Mantic might be starting to erode away a few sales, their ranges are expanding in both Fantasy and Sci-Fi (I nearly wrote 40k there) and lets face it there's a huge price differential between the two. I know that you'll never be able to use Mantic stuff in the GW stores, but if rumour is to be believed those will be starting to close anyway.

[Leon]

...but if rumour is to be believed those will be starting to close anyway.

That wouldn't be a surprise at all.  With Woolworths, Comet and HMV all going in recent memory, it's hard to see how any high street presence can survive in the niche market of The Hobby  .  I've looked at retail units several times over the years, and even in somewhere cheap like Middlesbrough, you're looking at £12k per year rent on something the size of your living room.  Add on running costs and business rates, and you're at £20k per year in no time.

It's the same for any of the online mass discounters like Maelstrom and Wayland, etc.  When you're working on such low margins (circa 25% tops on most of the product lines), you need to take 4x everything to cover costs.  Even estimating £15k per year for the unit = £60k of sales needed.  Want to take a basic wage?  Need another £60k of sales.   Need a member of staff to help out?  Another £50k.  It soon adds up.

[GordonY]

GW are now blocking people who disagree with them on social networks, see http://johnstoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/space-marines-streisand-effect.html for more. You MUST bow down before the mighty GW, you shalt not game in anything other then GW rules/models/paints/dice and clothing, thou wilt not mention that there is anything beyond GW. and of course thou must remember the 11th commandment, GW holds copyright on all of the English language because GW has had most of them in print, so we must..........

GW Exec cocks his Lawyermaster 3000 (TM) and points it towards the entire English speaking population of the Northern hemisphere.......

to be continued, the next time someone uses the phrase Space Marine in electronic text, oh no, not me, arghhhhhhh...................

[FierceKitty]

They'll go the way of WRG in due course. Remember when that was the only game in town?

[Hertsblue]

I would have thought that Wargames Foundry were an object lesson in how quickly a highly viable company can go down the tubes. 

[sebigboss79]

Huh ?....I'm just astounded.
Is there another firm out there that's starting to truly bother them sales wise, so they feel they need to do this ?
Are they trying to drive all their customers away....Or just certain ones who might speak heresy within the earshot of others ?
Bizarre.
Cheers - Phil.

Privateer Press, Mantic, specialist manufacturers, not necessarily complete or in that particular order.

Rather let us have a look at that point. I do not think Leon (or Dave for that matter) would call in the firing squad if I asked them about compatibility of their merchandise with company XYZ. As a good salesman they would prefer to use the opportunity to make a sale in brushes, bases, colours.... and maybe even let me look, touch and feel THEIR model....I may not buy it then and there BUT I WILL remember the kind HELP they offered me - which will lead to more sales in the future.

Lets face it, "the market" is quite mature. New companies are having  hard time to get going not only financially (see Leon's summary) but also you need a certain market share. By no means I am a marketing expert but if your business name is connected with such nuclear warfare as GW has done just the last few years that is not a good publicity. By all means GW CAN pull all this crap but last time I checked there was no law in an country that I MUST buy from them.

@Leon: The stores do cost them a lot, thats true but if they really close them down they will loose  amassive advantage over other companies. There is no other gaming store that has GW "only" as a programme, at least not officially. But then again their contracts they force on independent sellers tell them what they can sell to whom. So the country ain't as free as I thought apparently.

GW has quite a margin. A battleforce retails for 80 Euros (at least it did at some point) and the buying price for the retailer was 48 Euros and some change. As I do not think they are loosing money there OR on the 20% retail that are rumoured for staff sales I would LOVE to be in their position marginwise. Here is also my main point of criticism. With sales effectively declining (prises up 15 %, sales up 1 % is NOT good) a company should concentrate on keeping customers rather than try to recruit new audience in a declining age group that, moreover, has different interests from wargaming.

Coming to the current issue of forbidding other opinions (lol - try it) and nuking everyone that slightly touches their sphere of interest. I do not see the case for GW, nor do I see any benefits from their actions. Shitstorm on the net aside, why would you crush a small cmpany (Chapterhouse) that produces, no offence, crappy kits of stuff you do not want to do due to costs. Call them, get royalties and officially endorse them on their HP. Boosts THEIR business AND YOURS (cross selling, buy product to fit with kit, etc.) : What if GW really wins in court against CHS? CHS files bancruptcy and re-opens under another name. What hast GW won? Nothing except some experience how NOT to handle such situation. Well of course GWs lawyers have made a nice profit as well.

From a strategic and management point of view I can say it is not only me who shakes the head in academic disbelieve. I can say 3 of my professors are wondering why GW is still in business but they as well see the decline...

Besides, being "banned" from GW news (non existant actually) is not a bad thing in my eyes...

[Orcs]

Yep.  Emailed too. 

The only thing left of theirs that i buy are their paints.  Done with that too now.  Need to find another paint supplier now.   

Luddite,  Coat D'arms is made by the orriginal manufacturer of the orriginal citadel paints and is much better than the current GW paint. The link is for a comparison chart for coat D'arms and both old and new GW paint names.


http://www.hiveworldterra.co.uk/Article/view_CoatDArmsConversionChart.html

[i_am_win]

Talking of bans of various things in GW stores, a while back a few friends of mine were banned from the local store, just because they were Reenactors/LARPers, they took offense to these guys even talking about their other hobbies whilst in the shop??!!
I only ever buy GW stuff second hand now, and I keep my kids from even going in to their stores or buying from them just on principle, there are so much better companies and places to get all your hobby stuff from now, I'm surprised they still have shops open in this age of austerity!

I hope they dissapear up their own arse very soon!!

[Matt J]

Don't get me wrong I'm not condoning GW but its just business. GW are at the top and on a pedestal soo high that the nearest competitors aren't fighting for a handhold they are still at the bottom getting their climbing gear on. Gw will make damn sure through whatever means that it stays that way.

had to tell one guy he couldnt play with his Space Marines in the store because they were the really old "beaky" marines and had to stop another lad doing a quick repair on his ogre using generic superglue

Try turning up at work in a Next store wearing a suit from last seasons range or a suit from Topman. Same principle.

(prises up 15 %, sales up 1 % is NOT good)

Yes it is good business! Growth in sales in return for manufacturing/selling less products!

How many stores do they have 300 odd?? In the current economic climate. Expansion into literature which is very popular and computer games. Like it or not guys they are going to be around a longtime.

Matt (who doesn't really like GW but finds their paints good and buys the odd book and longs for the GW of 20 years ago which churned out some really cool spin off games - Blood bowl Space hulk etc)