Games Workshop, Ive had enough

[Notts]

how is it "becoming mainstream"

I live in a city of 100k and can barely find opponents. the more mainstream the better if it means I can play more!
I'm friends with one of the local staffers, and he never tries to sell me stuff, and the others don't either. If you are just firm with them they will stop it.

They are supposed to ask for "add on sales" (which is do you want any glue, or paints, or brushes), and if it gets more money into the company and ensures it doesn't fail, i'm all for it.

[Dannyfave]

So I have a different view... when I started collecting and playing last year I was struck by the number of people who played at my local non-GW store. I drove up to Orange county and looked over the store there... and I travel from time to time and went to a couple of other stores. I was struck by the number of people playing, money spent and overall business model that stressed - gaming, hobby, community and most important IP-protection.

So what does all of this have to do with the thread. GW is a business to make money - but there business plan, suggesed reading is to try and keep the fundenmentals that have made them a sucess.. I'm also interested in investments and this looked pretty good. So in I bought the stock "GAW.L" for about $124 (US) a share... bought 100 of them on a whime. While the rest of the market dropped like rocks this darn stock not only didn't drop it continued to climb - today its at $236. So I'm happy... plan to sell at around $250.

Instead of looking at the negative look at the opportunity.

I plan to use the winnings and take a trip to england and see where it all begain.

again, just another view on life.

tom

you from sandiego? if you are refering to pair a dice i can understand you going to the actual gw store instead of them.
About the prices .. I used to paint minis for a toy solgier store in san diego county and i can tell you that those people are paying out the ass for their colectible miniatures (were talking a knight that is the size of a bret knight i painted for $40 it was bought unpainted for $5 we sell it for over $200 ) so i think our prices are good compared to others.. and also look at companies like tamaya a tank from them is as much as a 40k tank and are not as coll looking(not to mention not tournament leagal).

[Enfant terrible]

I think most people agrees on the point that GW haven't got greater moral obligations than any other company - in the end it is about the money, BUT I for one do agree with people complaining about the change in sales tactics in GW Stores - it is not to my liking! I always try and avoid them (prefering to buy online or in "real" hobby stores).

[Dannyfave]

You know when i go in a games workshop store i just tell them i have been playing since the mid 90's and know what i want and if i need help i will ask them. If they are upselling to new players just be happy because the more they sell the better staying power the company has. It obviously is a money game otherwise they would have brought out plastic dark riders but they know people will buy the metal ones because they are one of the best utility units in the game. Before you say but yeah if they brought out plastics the sells would spike i would say that yes but those would be new players mostly and the old players would wait a bit before buying theirs. I constantly here people complaining that GW is just a money game but just be glad that they aren't as bad as a walmart or other huge horrible company like that.

[Dalamar]

Honestly I have never had a GW store employee try to upsell or push anything into my hands. Even during my first visit when no one knew me there.

I said I'm just looking around and *gasp* they said to ask if I need anything and left me alone with my looking around!

Sure, once I ask for opinions they try some tricks like trying to convince me that sorceress on a cold one is actually a viable tactical choice but I take it with a grain of salt.

[Lord ruerl of harganeth]

I find the staff at my local GW to sometimes be lacking imo. Once it took a staff member 20 minutes to speak to me and even then it wasn't asking if i needed help.

My mum and sister have had occasions where they have had to wait at the counter for over 20 minutes until someone came to serve them. When asked, "Why didn't you come and get one of us?" My mum replied, "Firstly I don't know who actually works here since you all had your backs to me and are not wearing any uniforms or identifications and secondly i'm the customer I don't see why I have to find some one to serve me."

I myself have on several occasions have had other customers thinking I work there becuase of my helpful attitude(much to some of the staff members annoynace) and they are surprised when they find out I'm not.

My friends dad on one occasion went to buy something for him and they tried to change the price of the item. But since it was advertised at the lower price they had to sell it as that.


IMO , sales are important but it's more important to make the customers want to come back becuase they like the staff. Where possible I avoid going there now and prefer to use a different independant store (execept when I buy Lotr becuase the other store doesn't stock them)

If I do go there I go straight in, buy whatever, don't wait around for them to press more stuff on me.

[Mr. anderson]

If I do go there I go straight in, buy whatever, don't wait around for them to press more stuff on me.

I do more or less the same, but for different reasons. The reason is the people hanging around there with whom I do not want to be associated. It is a bit sad that one of the GWs (no idea about the other two - only been to one of them) in my city has become a hangout for people that you generally tend to not want to be around (leaving it up to your imagination what kind of people they are).

Back on topic - what turned me off buying anything was the price hike in Oz... 40% in some places. That's just too much. The staff there are generally very nice and they are the least creepy of those hanging around there - if everyone was like them I'd enjoy going to games nights there, so I don't have any complaints about the staff. The only time when I got rather annoyed about one of the staff members was in the store where I used to go in Germany. One of them yelled at me for reading through one of the army books (they didn't have open copies of the books there at the time) saying that they were not a library and if I touched the books I had to buy them. But he got fired by the manager who was a really nice guy, as were the others who were people you could actually be friends with and come into the store just for a game and a chat instead of getting evil looks for not buying anything after you had moved one of your feet into the store. Generally the only thing I'm upset with is the exploitation of the monopoly of GW (seeing as no one else sells WHFB/40K stuff for a different price).

HUZZAH!

[Aspiring executioner]

I find the staff at my local GW store are awesome as well as the staff i've met in Sydney. I can talk with them as if they're my friends, plus they don't press me into buying things. They give me advice if i ask for it and I can joke around and laugh with them. The only people who I don't like coming in are little kids that speak really loudly, think they have awesome rules for every single unit and almost have a hissyfit when they start losing and there's one guy who just laughs at everything he says himself and he looks like the VC ghoul models in real life. Apart from those two instances the Staff and the people are great at my store and love coming in 2 times a week on school weeks and more on holidays.

[Loki]

I think you would be amazed if you saw some of the people who are at my local independent store. I swear some of them are real life ogres. And now that the store has recently moved and is in walking distance (even for them) of a chinese restuarant, a McDonalds, and a Wendy's, I fear its only going to get worse.

[Cathel]

I swear some of them are real life ogres.

As a friend of mine said (with reference to Battletech): A lot of the players are in the same weight class as their mechs.

But on the staff I agree, they have a very aggressive sale technique.

I was at a GW here and one of the staff came to me, asking if he could help me. So I said that I had heard about new DE models being released. He hadn't and was gone very fast after that. Never managed that when I was saying I could find my stuff by myself.

[Lord ruerl of harganeth]

I do more or less the same, but for different reasons. The reason is the people hanging around there with whom I do not want to be associated.

Oh yes There is that reason too. I've had a few cases of bratty and snooby people like one guy marching up to me as i walked into the store, poked me in the ribs saying "You bring an army?" I said no as I'd just come from work so he said "You suck then," and went back to the table. When I said, "I've just come from work" he replied, "That's not my problem."


Another guy, who used to (dunno if he still does) work for Gw, came in while I was completeing a transaction and began talking to the staff member about one of his armies, so he stopped serving me and had a chat fest. After having to wait for 5 minutes i was served by another staff member. I work in C/s myself so I know the Customer does not have 5 minutes and shouldn't be kept waiting. I then went to ask this former staff member a question which he just ignored. When he went at sat at the painting table i went to ask him again. Before I said a word he looked up at the wall, not at me and said bluntly, 'When I'm talking to someone, what do you think you should do?" I was so outraged by this behaviour from some one who, although they weren't working in the store had had c/s trainging, I had to leave the store. I informed the manager of this the next time I was in and he said he would speak to the person involved


It's those kind of guys that make me not want to stay in the shop too long.




Not that I'll ever bring an army to my local store because when I took in my pegasus Sorceress one of the Staff members started spinning it around by its wings, which were very fragile. Needless to say I took it off him before he started trying to bounce it off the table.

I've also had one store member and the manger ask me how many times I can say the word power in 20 seconds, when i looked blankly at him the manager said, "That's why you don't work here, 'to which i repsonded, "If that's the type of questions I'd get in the interview, i don't want a job here."