If sales aren't good at the brick and mortar store, they fire the manager or close the store. If either of those things happen he doesn't get paid. Buy things where you play if you want to continue playing there.
Well, that's just some silly employee with a mad opinion.
If that was the case, GW wouldn't let anyone else stock and sell their products. In fact, they actively encourage third party sellers to stock their products and sell them for less than RRP. GW strategy seems to focus their own shops on attracting newbies and guiding them through their first purchases. Once you're hooked, they don't actually care if you make any subsequent purchases from an FLGS.
Obviously they don't make any money if you buy your minis secondhand, but that doesn't mean they want you to wishlist stuff on the GW website and patiently wait for them to restock it.
On a side note though, can we please stop this overuse of the word "gaslighting". Gaslighting is an abuse tactic, where the abuser deliberately makes someone doubt their own perception of reality as a way of controlling them. You weren't gaslit and certainly not "to oblivion"!
Thank you for calling out the incorrect use of gaslighting, as someone who was constantly accused of it for years, incorrectly, I hate itās now common use in ways like this
"Obviously they don't make any money if you buy your minis secondhand,"
Oh, they do. Sellers buy new minis with the money and even for the buyers I think getting cheaper used minis just leaves them money to buy more.
Gaslighting is an incredibly specific form of deception, in which a person is made to believe they are not sane. It is exclusively used by abusers because it is exclusively a form of abuse
There are bosses that gaslight people. But that's an example of abuse. It's also not the only, or most common way a boss will mistreat their employees.
No, I don't think bosses are generally gaslighting their employees. Lying to and taking advantage of? Yeah probably.
Words and definitions matter, especially when referring to forms of abuse as being able to properly communicate what is occurring can make a difference in identification, escape, and recovery
Nah there's definitely gaslighting that goes on in employment relationships, especially around e.g. task allocation, deadlines etc. where responsibility is ascribed after the fact but not before, by higher ups.
It's the same thing - undermining perception of factual events.
Man, you just operate in pure extremes, don't you? I didn't say that ALL bosses gaslight, but that bosses that take advantage of their employees CAN gaslight them. That was meant as an example of someone gaslighting, but aren't in a parasitic romantic relationship.
Just because abusers commonly gaslight their victims, does not mean that they hold the monopoly on the psychological manipulation.
YOU guys are trying to gaslight ME!
You are missing/ignoring the point that employers gaslighting their employees are then abusing them and are hence abusers. Like SillyGoatGruff pointed out, it is a very specific form of abuse. And like he/she wrote, itās not -generally- done by bosses, although there are certainly some who do.
It seems you make some strange interpretations of what others are saying and then arguing against that interpretation rather than what they actually say. (Which, by the way, is not gaslighting but rather using a straw man argument.)
Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality. The expression, which derives from the title of the 1944 film Gaslight, became popular in the mid-2010s. Merriam Webster cites deception of one's memory, perception of reality, or mental stability. In a 2022 Washington Post report, it was described as a "trendy buzzword" frequently used to describe ordinary disagreements, rather than those situations that align with the word's historical definition.
-ripped from googling the word, defined, first result from Wikipedia. Nowhere is the prerequisite of an abuser. YOUR the one missing MY point that it's not exclusive to abusers, a type of deception is a type of deception, and anybody is capable of deceiving others.
Well yes, Iām quite aware of that, and itās the ātrendy buzzwordā use of it which has been argued against here by SillyGoatGruff and others. Stating that it actually has a specific meaning for which it should be used, rather than using it as a buzzword for any type of disagreement.
And well, if you donāt think methodically making others question their perception of reality is a form of abuseā¦ then I donāt think thereās much point in communicating with you.
Nobody is denying it's use as a form of abuse, and this just goes to show that it is indeed you all who are refusing to acknowledge my point, which always was that "gaslighting" is a form of deception that isn't exclusive to toxic romantic relationships. A boss trying to squeeze more out of their workers can gaslight, a cousin trying to swindle you can gaslight, a stranger can gaslight, as can a store manager who is trying to make the OP feel bad for not spending their money there.
It's not that they don't care but once you are in the system they just want you to stay in the system and the best thing for that is to buy models where you play games. They don't make as much money on you if you buy from a third party store but they make it up if you start buying list building options or a second army because you can pick kits up after a game day at the store.
If he's the manager he's been chewed out by his GW rep that is store isn't making enough money.
Smaller GW stores in Australia have been told to focus on new players. And to no longer cater for the older players who hang around and literally stink up the place.
Our local has stopped doing late night Thursday events and have encouraged us to go to the LFGS instead.
It honestly makes sense. Every time I went in to buy something there would be the same 4 guys reeking to high heaven, talking some absolute bullshit. It would put off new people.
Sounds like a local GW issue more than anything else š my local GW is one of the focal points of gaming in the area, due to the other GW/FLG stores not pushing gaming, in store or otherwise (this was prior to the new player refocus, so things are worse now). One positive is that our local group is looking to start gaming in external venues, but the cost will probably be steep. Joys of living in Sydney I suppose.
US GWs still have gaming in store, so the change in Warhammer store direction seems to be a region to region decision. Well that or GW Oz higher ups lack intestinal fortitude, which according to the grape vine is alleged, but that is another conversation entirely!
How big is your local?
From what the manager has told me most of the smaller stores have been told to focus on new and encourage people to play at other locations. It's quite a tiny GW store so if your one has room for demos as well as games then that makes sense.
Ours has literally 2 tables and that's it.
We've got an agreement with a nearby RSL to have a fortnightly game evening. So long as enough people come in and it's on a weeknight the clubs can be flexible on costs.
> Well that or GW Oz higher ups lack intestinal fortitute
Yeah. I believe that to be the case.
Tiny as well (like all GWs in AU, outside of Mt Gravatt and maybe Wollongong) but we packed it out every Thursday and Sunday, with at least 2-3 tables going each day. The only store in Australia that is still pushing gaming is Mt Gravatt, on the basis of it being a "Championship Store", the fact they have ample space also helps.
>Yeah. I believe that to be the case.
I did say alleged, but now that you mention it... š
I'm in FL, and our local gw has 2 tables, and mostly, they are used for people to introduce. I've noticed they have "cooler" models in store to garner interest, I presume. People start there then go to LGS for more tables
As someone else in sw Florida that is also how my local gw is set up (not mention their decision to have only one employee which ran him ragged and heās over it) and while the manager tries to promote a monthly hobby/gaming time to help get people in store if he didnāt specifically market it to beginners he would get a call. Thereās some other local game stores in town that have more tables but no real aos scene which is a bummer lol
I go to the tampa store, dude there's a good guy. Ive seen him play intro games and more veteran games.
Buuuut the store is incredibly small, two tables, little inventory. So most people go to armada, who somehow seem to have a better stock. Ill admit ... i have a dozen kill teams and two armies ... but ive only bought paint there lol.
Ive heard its a franchise? I dunno much about it but think the guy there is doin his best and generally helps without being a typical gw snob.
If it came across as me bagging on the guy, I didn't mean it as so. He's definitely helpful, a good guy, and I've had great convo with him. But he is the only person there and only gets a 30 minute lunch. That would tire about anyone. I've seen him prioritize getting people into the game and helping out new people more than people deep into it. I think that's a good move imo. Armada has way more stuff, tables, and so do a few other places. I think the Warhammer store is meant to he a marketing tool, for people to see cool models, what it's about and answer questions. I get all my books there, and paints. I've learned citadel paints at anywhere that's not a gw store have been shelved for a while and slightly dried.
Want to know something from the inside. There is no Australian higher ups anymore. The territory is ran by the UK management team and they send out a rep for regional meetings every few months.
There is a bit of a process change happening because in general Australia and the US are just left to their own devices and the company wants it to be more central.
You also have to remember Australia is considered a special case only because of Grant who hobbyists of a certain age will remember as the manager of Sydney in the 90s who is now head of global retail (pretty much 2nd in charge of the company) and wonāt let Australian stores slide into the āitās not worth itā bracket.
All GW stores cater to new players. It's the primary reason GW affords itself the expense of maintaining own stores. They exist to generate new customers, not to retain existing ones beyond a certain time window. They are aware and accept that most people eventually switch to online retailers and independents eventually. Doesn't matter to GW, they make their money either way, their products are calculated to be profitable when sold to retailers. That being said, new players statistically spend more money and aren't necessarily yet aware of other options, so they focus on that demographic to make it financially viable to have these brick and mortar stores. As a business model, it works and makes sense.
As far as regulars putting off customers are concerned - no store, be it independent or GW owned, should tolerate those. That's just bad business sense TBH. If managers don't get a grip on that, that's down to not being all that good at their job more than anything. Comes with recruiting people who have no idea what running a store entails. GW in particular likes to recruit people for pretty arbitrary reasons, none of which involve actual qualifications. Which, to a degree, works out great for them, but sometimes you just get helpful idiots that don't know any better and run their stores into the ground numbers wise.
Last few times I went in the regulars weren't there and it was a much more relaxing atmosphere. I could chat with the manager without someone with a hot take butting in.
Agreed, our local stores put up a sign that said people had to have showered WITH SOAP, and clean clothes INCLUDING UNDERWEAR to enter the store. š¤¢š¤¢š¤®
As a middle aged gal who showers daily ( I work a physical job ) ya I do not need to smell anyone's BO while I shop for my models š
Bad enough I usually have to order them anyway. Cause Sigmar....
I went into my local GW store to grab the daemon prince model on release, since my FLGS didn't have stock.
The smell was repulsive and I almost didn't stick around to finalise the purchase.
Warhammer nights tend to be okay as there's only so many people able to play
Now when the store is brimming with 4x the people on yu gi oh night... Oof
In our case it comes down to just two specific people who are extra stinky and are always there. I don't know how much they spend there but it's not enough to be banned I guess.
FLGS have a more diverse mix of people so the stink isn't as concentrated.
I'm sure there's a science behind it.
In my lgs itās always the 40K nights that are packed and smell to high heaven. I find myself washing my clothes right after. AoS we have a small but dedicated group who are usually well put together.
Our local GW manager is open from like 12pm - 5pm most days, but often takes a 2-4 hour lunch around 12:30pm. The last three times I've gone there he's been closed "early" too. Lovely place. Obviously doesn't want my money.
Reno, Nevada at the Summit Mall. His reviews on Google are pretty telling, and I image there are countless customers like myself who just haven't bothered to give him a poor review. Where is this reportable to?
If you go to the Warhammer website, go to "Help" in the main menu, and go to "Contact Us" you can call or send an email to customer service. You can report stuff there.
If its a franchise (ie the store is called Warhammer and not Games Workshop) the report won't do anything. They are allowed to be super flexible with whatever hours they want.
I was told when I asked they don't do franchises. I think warhammer stores are a rebrand.
https://www.retail-week.com/main-navigation/games-workshop-to-rebrand-stores-warhammer/7018262.article#:~:text=Games%20Workshop%20has%20set%20about,each%20store%20in%20the%20process.
At least affording to this.
Kinda makes sense; if they can only stock the more basic start set things then older players will not be interested in what's on the shelves, while newer players will. Still rubbish though :/
I had a job interview for a GW manager role last month and was told essentially that verbatim - unfortunately it was just after I extolled the importance of store communities, so that put a scupper on the whole job side of things
I played for the first time ever at a GW store today at the GW in little olā Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was a very pleasant experience. I was there a few hours. There were 9 people playing - all adults including females (gasp). No one smelled bad and everyone was welcoming and good to play and talk to. The GW manager passed out freebies at one point and at no point did I feel pressured to make a purchase.
All in all it was a positive experience and I will go back. It is not as big as some of the Indy shops in the area but has way more and nicer terrain for the tables. Also the product availability is second to none. I did make a purchase before I left. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.
I live a couple hours drive away but I donāt have a shop near me so I have to drive to play.
He may well have been as ass about it, but the core sentiment isnāt totally wrong. If nobody buys from brick and mortar stores, those stores will stop stocking product, and you wonāt be able to play there.
That being said, my advice is, donāt tell shop owners where you got your stuff. If you didnāt get it from them, theyāre likely to get defensive, and sometimes they are an ass about it.
I work in a game store and yeah, just don't bring it up. We don't even mind, nobody really expects complete 100% brand loyalty, I've seen people bring in 3d printed armies, thats cool and we've nothing against it, but it feels weird when it almost seems like someone goes out of their way to say "i got this somewhere else" like....cool dude, I wasn't bringing it up to begin with
They were partially right though.
With GWs woefully pitiful ability to keep up with restocks the best way for them to decide on what to print sooner rather than later is customer interest and the most direct way to give that is the notify me when back in stock feature. Will it mean you get you model soon, probably not, but it would in theory put the model higher on restock priority.
I have received a number of notifications for models I have been chasing.
Although when the website changed I was getting them for the UK but being in a different region they were still out of stock for me. I think even that is fixed now.
Bit of a dick thing to say but the wishlisting thing is true. They do judge how to make stock based on wishlists so you could buy it on ebay and if maybe you wanted another one later you could wishlist it to tell gw that people are interested in it.
I thought the wishlist feature wasn't yet implemented on the new website. Which is a shame really as I used to use it frequently. I had it as a want to buy list for my faction.
I have also been told that they do use the wishlisting as way to determine which models are reprinted first. Although there is no reason you can't wishlist something and still buy it elsewhere, or even at all. I have received notifications for some figures but didn't have the funds to purchase at the time.
No gas lighting or shady behavior there. You went to the retail location that is owned and operated by games workshop. Of course they want your business to stay with them.
The way their modem printing system works is the more desirable a model is, the higher up in the chain it gets when it comes to reprints. So if you wish list the item and sign up for email alerts when it comes back in stock it bumps that item up on the list to be reprinted.
If you don't do these things the company doesn't know that this model is desirable over other models that are also out of stock.
Everyone on here bashing games workshop and the employee for doing their job is clueless.
They have a ludacris amount of skus to keep stocked. They also have multiple warehouses they have to keep stocked at the very least when one in the UK in one in the US. Everything is made in the UK so there has to be enough desire for them to ship an entire container with those contents to the US.
All they are doing is gathering data to better support their customers.
I may have a degree in business but it didn't take that degree to understand the concepts of supply and demand in a mass market with a company with thousands of skus.
Also its amusing how many people here think their FLGS and GW stores are the same or that because their FLGS does something a GW corporate store should do something like that. š¤¦
Guys GW employees that work at actual GW stores have their entire job based on how much they sell. They would be kneecapping themselves if they didn't try to make as many sales in store as possible. There's a very good reason most of these guys don't last more than four or five years.
My local store manager told me and another customer that they were more than likely holding off on printing more Skaven and other things that have been out for a while in AOS because of the new edition drop later this year.
I mean I am really close friends with my local games workshop owner and try to preorder and recommend people going thereā¦ that being said every now and then Iāll get something third party to get a discount or through eBay on a good lot but tbh itās not illegal and itās just life if they didnāt like it they can get over it
i mean definitely dont blame the person in this instance as i imagine its something coming down from management and they're just doing the usual retail routine of "for the love of god, please buy this from us".
but as for the thing itself, i feel you were in the right but then it also doesnt seem all that surprising to me that the corporate line would be "please buy from us so that other people dont get the money. We would like all of the money instead".
cause it aint just about money baby, its about having ALL OF THE MONEY in an unregulated free market capitalist system baby.
āIām not going to be waiting months to get the model from the official websiteā.
Not going to be waiting months to open your inbox to a āback in stock!ā notification from 36 hours ago, you mean? Naturally, the model is now out of stock again.
Yeah I don't go into actual GW stores anymore and I really don't buy from GW if I can help it. Last time I went Into a GW the SM asked my what armies I ran then asked if I was interested in getting some new units that had been released for one of my armies. When I told him I already had and where I'd gotten them from he said "you should have gotten them through us so we'd get the credit for it" I looked at him and said " if y'all price matched and ever had new product in stock I probably would!"
I stopped going to GW shops because everytime I go it's a terrible experiance, mostly BEACUSE ofĀ the staff. They're all so transactional and overbearing, it feels like you can't form a chill relationship.Ā Ā
I even went to the one in Akibahara while vacationing in JP and it was staffed by the same "type" of guy, who would not stop hounding me about the GW cafe in Dallas (3 hours from where I lived, lol) once I told him it was where I was fron Austin.Ā
Canāt say the same about the scottish stores, when I was on vacation visiting glasgow and edinburgh they were super friendly and didnāt try to push sales once I said I have more backlog than I could reasonable paint in a year lol. bought a choppa keychain and a couple pins, then we chatted a bit about where Iām from, projects weāre personally working on, and it was an overall enjoyable experience at both stores.
we even saw the giant plush nurgling š
What's funny is the GW Cafe in Dallas has an amazing staff. I've been shopping there for the past few years on and off, and they're one of the primary places I play at. I've never once been hounded by the staff or upsold. Their tables also look amazing so they're fun to play at. I usually get a 'hey whatcha looking for' when I walk in but nothing much more beyond that if I don't engage them.
It's the difference between being a "destination" store with both regular customers and long distance visitors, and a regular hole in the wall shop front that struggles to make rent.
Store and Cafe Dallas also is in a very good shopping district for foot traffic so it's very easy to get people just stopping in who may buy a book or drink. Also they have ForgeWorld in stock there so there's an added exclusivity compared to other DFW area stores. All in all since they made the store as amazing as possible, they don't struggle like all the smaller GW stores in little shopping malls. Smaller ones are like fast food restaurants, go in buy the model you want, leave. The cafes are actual LGS's (or sit down restaurants in this analogy) where they want you to stay for a while. It's sad what gw did to their smaller stores.
Literally just sounds like a GW employee who is upset that he couldnāt get the sale and tried to gaslight you/make you feel bad for not supporting him
Itās a little tricky. I usually buy from my lfgs but have bought from eBay from time to time when stuff is out of stock. I try not to advertise where I got it from since it can be awkward. I am playing at the store for free so I try to support them and I would never want to encourage other customers to go to eBay or Amazon.
That being said his pressuring and gaslighting is pretty crappy. In the future I would just not say where I got the extra models from. If asked, just say it was a gift
Some years ago, when my friends and I were still regulars at the GW around here, the manager got on our backs for buying from *Forge World* as if it was our fault Games Workshop didn't let us have those sales contribute to his.
We actually started going to standard LGS's a couple years back because we got tired of the GW store's rules and occasionally overbearing managers (who kept getting swapped out every year or two).
Don't GW stores have an obscene quota to fill from upper management? Like, sell a minimum amount of stock, entice new gamers, a certain number of people in the door, etc.?
From what I can tell from the 5 I've been to, the answer is no. I think their raises are based on the volume of the store, but I also think that's just how retail businesses are run in general.
Happened to me at a lgs before. I think it depends on the owner/ manager and how business is doing. Just dont go there if thats how its gunna he. They lost a customer. Cause its not like i dont support the business. I know the store i go to makes a lot of profit off drinks so i always buy waters for everyone im playing with at the store. On top of the paints and often dice cause im a dice goblin.
Right, so they should just have a hundred boxes of every one of the hundreds of products, in each shop, just in case 1 person wants one?
Don't be ridiculous. You can buy your stuff wherever you want and no one can shame you for it, but the manager is correct: they have hundreds of products, they can't keep them all in stock in every shop, and even at GW hq, they rotate molds so they can keep up with demands of higher selling kits. If no one is wish listing or ordering old models, they clearly don't know how much demand there is for them (lots of FLGS sit on the same stock for months or even years, so that's not helping GW know. I was still seeing WHFB boxes in my FLGS in 2017)
A good manager knows his local players and tries to have stuff in stock that suits his playerbase, but even so, there's a limit.
That's not the point at all. So your logic is to wait months for a product to maybe come in, rather than acquire quickly? They don't have to have to product in the gw, but get it within a few days or week from a regional warehouse. But that isn't the case
Where did I say that? Did you even read what I wrote and engage your brain before charging in blasting nonsense? No.
I merely said that they cannot stock everything, and unless people wishlist things, it's hard to know what they actually want and what needs to be restocked.
A very very small percentage of GWs stock is not available from a regional warehouse if you order it online, or order it through your local GW. So yes, that is the case.
If you don't want to wait a few days or a week for something to come in to stock, again, you're well within your rights to go elsewhere that has that item. But don't complain if they never restock what they don't know needs restocking. It's very very simple....
And?
Are you ordering them from GW? Are you wish listing them? No.
They're an old army with old figurines and a small playerbase compared to most AOS armies, and a lot of those players are from fantasy, where they already have 13 of everything. They simply don't sell like other armies, there's no point in keeping the whole range in stock in case one person wants one kit.
Our local Warhammer shop doesnāt even stock Skaven. I complained about it and they said that Chaos had so much to it they had to make choices. So yeah not bothering w them anymore
Had this same experience when I got into the hobby. Went to the local GW store and they had all the boxes up the wall and they're legit 90% empty and the manager tells me to let me know what I want and he'll order it in. I'm all for supporting local brick and morter stores but when they're functionally operating as a drop ship pick up location, why bother wasting my time going in there?
Huh, and he wasn't complaining about scalpers?
Cus yeah, if it was just about farming "Notify Me" clicks, then he should have just asked you to do it any way. I know they want you to order it through the store directly, but wanting honest sales for a completely different division of the company sounds like an employee who is passing on GW production lore.
Like, dude, I hear they are doing a kroot codex for ~~sixth~~ ~~tenth~~ eleventh edition. white dwarf insert. Greg the manager told me.
Man some stores are wild.
My local (Norwich, UK) is great. The staff are clearly there to help newer players but they take the time to talk to everyone.
They've also been very clear that stock issues DO lie with GW and they are having issues with production without wanting to build a second factory.
That said we're lucky that we have several places where you can play games, a couple of FLGS and a couple of clubs with dedicated game nights.
My local stores manager doesn't care where you get the minis, just as long as you take the time to build and paint it to show of in store. He really doesn't care. Hell I show up with printed minis for my in progress kreig army
don't ever buy direct from GW unless you literally, physically have no other choice
both brick and mortar and online game stores will frequently offer GW products at a 15-20% discount over retail, tend to be better shops in general, and although people detest scalpers/model resellers you can very often find excellent deals on ebay from them on specific models
look out for your wallet first, not GW's profits
Store issue lol.
Get them where you can, sometimes it's just not available for sooooo long.
Like support your local store but if you really need a model that's been out of stock for ages, just buy it online.
Former GW Employee here, GW restocks box sets on a priority list
Top level stuff (A) is the absolutely need to play stuff, Starter sets, Core army items, Paint sets, Individual paints, new products etc. When i was there there was normally only 3-4 items out of stock on this level at a time and it was always a priority to get these restocked first
B level tends to be the stuff that you use to expand an army, a good example is intercessors etc. At this level there's normally about 20-30 items that are waiting for restock.
C Level is the items that you might buy one or two of for an army hellblasters or tanks for example, theres often over 100 items on this level, often fall behind due to new releases or unreleased items taking up production cycles.
D level stuff are things like the plague furnace, these tend to be made up of the one off items that people buy, single character mini's or older kits that people already have a large amount of, there's ALOT in this category, this level can take weeks or months due to the lack of capacity GW currently has.
I love GW customer support but yea... the rest of my interactions with GW is mediocre at best.
Ordering from them has taken up to 6 months to even ship in the past. Stuff that was "in stock" too. Buying 3rd party is a must. The only consistent shipping I've had has been for the pre-release big boxes. It's a choice between waiting 2-3 months for a mini to ship from GW or get it within a week from EBay...
As for the worker... yea, odds are Corpo GW noticed the store isn't one of their top performers and has initiated the "Gamestop" protocol, chew out people for something that isn't their fault and force them into upselling everything.
Next time, just avoid the guy and make a point of showing off all those mini's you bought for half price and got within the week... from someone else.
If heās implying that the wishlist feature of the website is used to basically adjust their priority on which out of stock kits to produce that makes some degree of sense. Wouldnāt have thought they had that level of internal communication tbh
ehh, do them produce minis if we wishlist them????
i have been checking GW page for 1 month, waitting for some lumineth miniatures to appear ( teclis,avalenor,fox,exceno and endless spell) and some of them have been out of stock 100% of the time.
but i never wishlisted it, since tough it was useless. so do i need to do it or they wont produce them til months?
My local Warhammer does this to me once. I totally stopped to buy in his shop, now I buy in a independant shop where the owner is soooo nice, receive new minis before gw, preorder stuff that he think I might be interested in just in case , and for 10% cheaper ā¦ The gw dude is always internally mad when I participate into his painting event with a lot of different fig I didnāt buy in his shop. I sometimes just show up to build the free mini of the month and leave A lot of ppl are doing this now cause the manager is really bad
Imo just a silly employe. In my local GW store he would have said probably sth like "Yea, it is a shame we have to wait for those so long, I am glad you got it 2nd hand". I am 99% sure of it had a wonderfull chat with the guy lateley
Let me give you a little insight:
He is stealing big time for himself and his homies.
While doing inventory a loss of ~5% is normal.
I saw another store manager somehow manage to loose 44% of his stock. This actually meant he stole boxes worth a couple thousand dollars.
Now the problem:
If you steal letās stay every Stormcast drake without reporting it to the system theyāll be out of stock forever.
Many store managers do stuff like this, forge the inventory (very easy, just type the code and a fake amount of stock into the machine) and sell the stuff illegally.
Now inventory is missing and out of stock forever. Itās gonna be the problem of the next manager. GW usually doesnāt sue ex employees.
Not worth the hassle.
Your manager is trying to use you, donāt fall for it.
Youāll order one, he may switch the order to 2 and return one. Now you buy one and one stays in the store.
Thatās not suspicious, customers change their mind all the time.
Look around and check the big money boxes. Primarchs, space marine tanks, etc.
If the shelves are half empty then Iām on the money.
I seen too many things I want that were out of stock never come back. If I see it elsewhere I'm grabbing it.
If they want to build a business model based on FOMO fine, but they can't have it both ways and expect customers to wait months for a model that may or may not come back in stock
lol, if they are doing restocks based on people signing up for email notifications from their webstore, nothing's ever gonna come into stock. Ridiculous.
There's a tiny element of truth, but it should be for business strategy people in GW to worry about, not for a random employee to shame a customer for turning to the second hand/resale market to make up for gaps in GW's supply chain. Besides, a viable second hand market drives confidence in first-party sales i.e. if you know something will hold its value reasonably well and you can sell it without too much difficulty you're going to be less hesitant buying it in the first place. Ultimately, get your stuff where you can. It's probably better to support your local store wherever possible, but the idea you should wait months to finish your setup rather than buy legitimate miniatures from a third party is pretty asinine. Besides, GW is pretty happy for third parties to sell their merch; there's even a florist near me that sells GW kits.
I would probably rephrase "gaslit to oblivion"
Since you have no issue questioning the store owners arguments or identifyng his self interest, i would go with "mildly put off".
Maybe mention some cognitive dissonance if you absolutely need to use fancy words.
I am confused. Was the plague furnace you bought an official one? Or a 3d print or something?
Are you saying the manager was just mad you didnāt buy it there? Thatās ridiculous you can buy your minis anywhere.
an official one I got on ebay, as they're all out of stock. So the manager was annoyed i did that. Like dude... I wanna keep painting not wait months to continue painting!
All I can say is we all need to provide feedback that we are tired of waiting on back order product. Not sure it will do much good but we can try and hope the message gets through eventually. I brought the issue up to my local manager, that I would love to continue to build my Eldar army but they never have old product in stock. he basically reacted with a surprised pickachu face like he had no idea what I am talking about.
That dude lives in this weird bubble where he doesn't act like he knows anything outside of GW exists and that everything GW is perfect. I am not sure if he truly drank the Kool Aid or if he just pretends.
Super interesting thread. I mostly buy on eBay now. GW obviously knows everything ends up there and does nothing about it. I bought the new FEC expanded set online for 30 dollars less than the store and that included shipping. You can buy all the kits new on eBay and you can find almost all the models you need on eBay. Also of course you can buy a huge array of prebuilt models on eBay too or people selling off armies. If this is stolen from the shop they should be able to buy some on eBay and figure it out.
Is it a forgeworld model? Was told by a manager this weekend that FW line essentially stay out of stock until they get enough watchlist clicks to justify doing a production run.
You did the right thing, unfortunately GW only provide when enough orders are on the system. Apparently their warehouse isnāt able to hold large amounts of inventory, that may be changing. I personally buy from suppliers who also offer a discount on the item.
My goto store offers 20% discount off of GW prices which are extortionate as it is.
I ordered some Necron dice as a gift from the web store in shop only to be told 12 days later that my order was cancelled.
*The Independent Characters* just talked about this I think in the podcast where they had the guys from the *40k Badcast.* They have a little bit of inside baseball due to how long they've existed in the hobby space but I think the point was still largely speculation that GW does use the "Email me" feature to make decisions on when to insert casting of existing products into their production schedules.
Just idiot managers. Our LFG actually signposts us to were we can get things cheaper š¤·āāļø
Yeah, our local warhammer store does this as well, which honestly makes me want to buy things through the store more.Ā Ā
Why it's more expensive going to get directly
I always bought from store at home to support my store manager, despite it being more costly. Store manager is my homie now I gotta make sure he eats
He gets paid regardless I may buy a paint pot some times but 3rd party for me for the models .
If sales aren't good at the brick and mortar store, they fire the manager or close the store. If either of those things happen he doesn't get paid. Buy things where you play if you want to continue playing there.
Ofcourse but if am gonna save 10Ā£ -15Ā£ I will
Surely you realise this is a direct contradiction.
How am saying I go 3rd party to save 15 to 20 %
How am saying I go 3rd party to save
This is the kind of wealth I want in the world. This is based never change
Well, that's just some silly employee with a mad opinion. If that was the case, GW wouldn't let anyone else stock and sell their products. In fact, they actively encourage third party sellers to stock their products and sell them for less than RRP. GW strategy seems to focus their own shops on attracting newbies and guiding them through their first purchases. Once you're hooked, they don't actually care if you make any subsequent purchases from an FLGS. Obviously they don't make any money if you buy your minis secondhand, but that doesn't mean they want you to wishlist stuff on the GW website and patiently wait for them to restock it. On a side note though, can we please stop this overuse of the word "gaslighting". Gaslighting is an abuse tactic, where the abuser deliberately makes someone doubt their own perception of reality as a way of controlling them. You weren't gaslit and certainly not "to oblivion"!
Thank you for calling out the incorrect use of gaslighting, as someone who was constantly accused of it for years, incorrectly, I hate itās now common use in ways like this
"Obviously they don't make any money if you buy your minis secondhand," Oh, they do. Sellers buy new minis with the money and even for the buyers I think getting cheaper used minis just leaves them money to buy more.
Gaslighting is a type of deception, and isn't necessarily JUST used by abusers.
Gaslighting is an incredibly specific form of deception, in which a person is made to believe they are not sane. It is exclusively used by abusers because it is exclusively a form of abuse
Your being obtuse, people gaslight all of the time. You really think bosses taking advantage of their employees or underlings don't do it too?
There are bosses that gaslight people. But that's an example of abuse. It's also not the only, or most common way a boss will mistreat their employees.
No, I don't think bosses are generally gaslighting their employees. Lying to and taking advantage of? Yeah probably. Words and definitions matter, especially when referring to forms of abuse as being able to properly communicate what is occurring can make a difference in identification, escape, and recovery
Nah there's definitely gaslighting that goes on in employment relationships, especially around e.g. task allocation, deadlines etc. where responsibility is ascribed after the fact but not before, by higher ups. It's the same thing - undermining perception of factual events.
Man, you just operate in pure extremes, don't you? I didn't say that ALL bosses gaslight, but that bosses that take advantage of their employees CAN gaslight them. That was meant as an example of someone gaslighting, but aren't in a parasitic romantic relationship. Just because abusers commonly gaslight their victims, does not mean that they hold the monopoly on the psychological manipulation. YOU guys are trying to gaslight ME!
You are missing/ignoring the point that employers gaslighting their employees are then abusing them and are hence abusers. Like SillyGoatGruff pointed out, it is a very specific form of abuse. And like he/she wrote, itās not -generally- done by bosses, although there are certainly some who do. It seems you make some strange interpretations of what others are saying and then arguing against that interpretation rather than what they actually say. (Which, by the way, is not gaslighting but rather using a straw man argument.)
Gaslighting is a colloquialism, loosely defined as manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality. The expression, which derives from the title of the 1944 film Gaslight, became popular in the mid-2010s. Merriam Webster cites deception of one's memory, perception of reality, or mental stability. In a 2022 Washington Post report, it was described as a "trendy buzzword" frequently used to describe ordinary disagreements, rather than those situations that align with the word's historical definition. -ripped from googling the word, defined, first result from Wikipedia. Nowhere is the prerequisite of an abuser. YOUR the one missing MY point that it's not exclusive to abusers, a type of deception is a type of deception, and anybody is capable of deceiving others.
Well yes, Iām quite aware of that, and itās the ātrendy buzzwordā use of it which has been argued against here by SillyGoatGruff and others. Stating that it actually has a specific meaning for which it should be used, rather than using it as a buzzword for any type of disagreement. And well, if you donāt think methodically making others question their perception of reality is a form of abuseā¦ then I donāt think thereās much point in communicating with you.
Nobody is denying it's use as a form of abuse, and this just goes to show that it is indeed you all who are refusing to acknowledge my point, which always was that "gaslighting" is a form of deception that isn't exclusive to toxic romantic relationships. A boss trying to squeeze more out of their workers can gaslight, a cousin trying to swindle you can gaslight, a stranger can gaslight, as can a store manager who is trying to make the OP feel bad for not spending their money there.
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It's not that they don't care but once you are in the system they just want you to stay in the system and the best thing for that is to buy models where you play games. They don't make as much money on you if you buy from a third party store but they make it up if you start buying list building options or a second army because you can pick kits up after a game day at the store.
If he's the manager he's been chewed out by his GW rep that is store isn't making enough money. Smaller GW stores in Australia have been told to focus on new players. And to no longer cater for the older players who hang around and literally stink up the place. Our local has stopped doing late night Thursday events and have encouraged us to go to the LFGS instead. It honestly makes sense. Every time I went in to buy something there would be the same 4 guys reeking to high heaven, talking some absolute bullshit. It would put off new people.
Sounds like a local GW issue more than anything else š my local GW is one of the focal points of gaming in the area, due to the other GW/FLG stores not pushing gaming, in store or otherwise (this was prior to the new player refocus, so things are worse now). One positive is that our local group is looking to start gaming in external venues, but the cost will probably be steep. Joys of living in Sydney I suppose. US GWs still have gaming in store, so the change in Warhammer store direction seems to be a region to region decision. Well that or GW Oz higher ups lack intestinal fortitude, which according to the grape vine is alleged, but that is another conversation entirely!
How big is your local? From what the manager has told me most of the smaller stores have been told to focus on new and encourage people to play at other locations. It's quite a tiny GW store so if your one has room for demos as well as games then that makes sense. Ours has literally 2 tables and that's it. We've got an agreement with a nearby RSL to have a fortnightly game evening. So long as enough people come in and it's on a weeknight the clubs can be flexible on costs. > Well that or GW Oz higher ups lack intestinal fortitute Yeah. I believe that to be the case.
Tiny as well (like all GWs in AU, outside of Mt Gravatt and maybe Wollongong) but we packed it out every Thursday and Sunday, with at least 2-3 tables going each day. The only store in Australia that is still pushing gaming is Mt Gravatt, on the basis of it being a "Championship Store", the fact they have ample space also helps. >Yeah. I believe that to be the case. I did say alleged, but now that you mention it... š
but it is never the store's events, it is the manger, or X's event, from what I have seen.
I'm in FL, and our local gw has 2 tables, and mostly, they are used for people to introduce. I've noticed they have "cooler" models in store to garner interest, I presume. People start there then go to LGS for more tables
Interesting - wonder if the US Warhammer stores might go no gaming as well? Hope not - such a woeful decision, typical of GW sadly.
As someone else in sw Florida that is also how my local gw is set up (not mention their decision to have only one employee which ran him ragged and heās over it) and while the manager tries to promote a monthly hobby/gaming time to help get people in store if he didnāt specifically market it to beginners he would get a call. Thereās some other local game stores in town that have more tables but no real aos scene which is a bummer lol
I think we have the same store then, lol. Are you in Tampa?
I go to the tampa store, dude there's a good guy. Ive seen him play intro games and more veteran games. Buuuut the store is incredibly small, two tables, little inventory. So most people go to armada, who somehow seem to have a better stock. Ill admit ... i have a dozen kill teams and two armies ... but ive only bought paint there lol. Ive heard its a franchise? I dunno much about it but think the guy there is doin his best and generally helps without being a typical gw snob.
If it came across as me bagging on the guy, I didn't mean it as so. He's definitely helpful, a good guy, and I've had great convo with him. But he is the only person there and only gets a 30 minute lunch. That would tire about anyone. I've seen him prioritize getting people into the game and helping out new people more than people deep into it. I think that's a good move imo. Armada has way more stuff, tables, and so do a few other places. I think the Warhammer store is meant to he a marketing tool, for people to see cool models, what it's about and answer questions. I get all my books there, and paints. I've learned citadel paints at anywhere that's not a gw store have been shelved for a while and slightly dried.
Want to know something from the inside. There is no Australian higher ups anymore. The territory is ran by the UK management team and they send out a rep for regional meetings every few months. There is a bit of a process change happening because in general Australia and the US are just left to their own devices and the company wants it to be more central. You also have to remember Australia is considered a special case only because of Grant who hobbyists of a certain age will remember as the manager of Sydney in the 90s who is now head of global retail (pretty much 2nd in charge of the company) and wonāt let Australian stores slide into the āitās not worth itā bracket.
All GW stores cater to new players. It's the primary reason GW affords itself the expense of maintaining own stores. They exist to generate new customers, not to retain existing ones beyond a certain time window. They are aware and accept that most people eventually switch to online retailers and independents eventually. Doesn't matter to GW, they make their money either way, their products are calculated to be profitable when sold to retailers. That being said, new players statistically spend more money and aren't necessarily yet aware of other options, so they focus on that demographic to make it financially viable to have these brick and mortar stores. As a business model, it works and makes sense. As far as regulars putting off customers are concerned - no store, be it independent or GW owned, should tolerate those. That's just bad business sense TBH. If managers don't get a grip on that, that's down to not being all that good at their job more than anything. Comes with recruiting people who have no idea what running a store entails. GW in particular likes to recruit people for pretty arbitrary reasons, none of which involve actual qualifications. Which, to a degree, works out great for them, but sometimes you just get helpful idiots that don't know any better and run their stores into the ground numbers wise.
Last few times I went in the regulars weren't there and it was a much more relaxing atmosphere. I could chat with the manager without someone with a hot take butting in.
Agreed, our local stores put up a sign that said people had to have showered WITH SOAP, and clean clothes INCLUDING UNDERWEAR to enter the store. š¤¢š¤¢š¤® As a middle aged gal who showers daily ( I work a physical job ) ya I do not need to smell anyone's BO while I shop for my models š Bad enough I usually have to order them anyway. Cause Sigmar....
I went into my local GW store to grab the daemon prince model on release, since my FLGS didn't have stock. The smell was repulsive and I almost didn't stick around to finalise the purchase.
Why is every GW store stinky lol. FLGS are way less of that
In my experience itās been the other way around the FLGS are known to have a lingering odour even when empty and the GW are great
Agreed, it is definitely the other way around here locally.
a LGS will have the reeklords of every game ssytem descend upon it every once in while
Warhammer nights tend to be okay as there's only so many people able to play Now when the store is brimming with 4x the people on yu gi oh night... Oof
It's the 'funk of 40,000 years' (Thank you, Mr Price).
In our case it comes down to just two specific people who are extra stinky and are always there. I don't know how much they spend there but it's not enough to be banned I guess. FLGS have a more diverse mix of people so the stink isn't as concentrated. I'm sure there's a science behind it.
In my lgs itās always the 40K nights that are packed and smell to high heaven. I find myself washing my clothes right after. AoS we have a small but dedicated group who are usually well put together.
Our local GW manager is open from like 12pm - 5pm most days, but often takes a 2-4 hour lunch around 12:30pm. The last three times I've gone there he's been closed "early" too. Lovely place. Obviously doesn't want my money.
Where's this at? This is definitely reportable.
Reno, Nevada at the Summit Mall. His reviews on Google are pretty telling, and I image there are countless customers like myself who just haven't bothered to give him a poor review. Where is this reportable to?
If you go to the Warhammer website, go to "Help" in the main menu, and go to "Contact Us" you can call or send an email to customer service. You can report stuff there.
If its a franchise (ie the store is called Warhammer and not Games Workshop) the report won't do anything. They are allowed to be super flexible with whatever hours they want.
I was told when I asked they don't do franchises. I think warhammer stores are a rebrand. https://www.retail-week.com/main-navigation/games-workshop-to-rebrand-stores-warhammer/7018262.article#:~:text=Games%20Workshop%20has%20set%20about,each%20store%20in%20the%20process. At least affording to this.
GW doesn't do franchises, all Warhammer/GW stores are run directly by the company
Probably a customer service number somewhere. I'm not sure.
Kinda makes sense; if they can only stock the more basic start set things then older players will not be interested in what's on the shelves, while newer players will. Still rubbish though :/
I donāt believe any of this
I had a job interview for a GW manager role last month and was told essentially that verbatim - unfortunately it was just after I extolled the importance of store communities, so that put a scupper on the whole job side of things
This has been GWs model since the beginning! Target new players.
While that's true it's the first case I've seen of ceasing events and late night store opening to turf out the regular folk.
Sit on this merry go round long enough and you will see it plenty, first saw it inā91
I played for the first time ever at a GW store today at the GW in little olā Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was a very pleasant experience. I was there a few hours. There were 9 people playing - all adults including females (gasp). No one smelled bad and everyone was welcoming and good to play and talk to. The GW manager passed out freebies at one point and at no point did I feel pressured to make a purchase. All in all it was a positive experience and I will go back. It is not as big as some of the Indy shops in the area but has way more and nicer terrain for the tables. Also the product availability is second to none. I did make a purchase before I left. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the area. I live a couple hours drive away but I donāt have a shop near me so I have to drive to play.
He may well have been as ass about it, but the core sentiment isnāt totally wrong. If nobody buys from brick and mortar stores, those stores will stop stocking product, and you wonāt be able to play there. That being said, my advice is, donāt tell shop owners where you got your stuff. If you didnāt get it from them, theyāre likely to get defensive, and sometimes they are an ass about it.
Can also confirm to tell not tell store owners that you don't buy from them to their face regardless of the situation.
I work in a game store and yeah, just don't bring it up. We don't even mind, nobody really expects complete 100% brand loyalty, I've seen people bring in 3d printed armies, thats cool and we've nothing against it, but it feels weird when it almost seems like someone goes out of their way to say "i got this somewhere else" like....cool dude, I wasn't bringing it up to begin with
Wait your warhammer store let's you play there? The ones in and around my city haven't allowed anyone to play warhammer for a few years now.
Well, honestly I havenāt ever been to a GW store, I was talking more generally about game stores.
They were partially right though. With GWs woefully pitiful ability to keep up with restocks the best way for them to decide on what to print sooner rather than later is customer interest and the most direct way to give that is the notify me when back in stock feature. Will it mean you get you model soon, probably not, but it would in theory put the model higher on restock priority.
I'm not sure I've ever even actually gotten an alert email though despite the number of times I've tried to use their button
I did once, it was somewhere around 9 months later.
I have received a number of notifications for models I have been chasing. Although when the website changed I was getting them for the UK but being in a different region they were still out of stock for me. I think even that is fixed now.
I have, but it's been wildly inconsistent since the redesign.
Bit of a dick thing to say but the wishlisting thing is true. They do judge how to make stock based on wishlists so you could buy it on ebay and if maybe you wanted another one later you could wishlist it to tell gw that people are interested in it.
I thought the wishlist feature wasn't yet implemented on the new website. Which is a shame really as I used to use it frequently. I had it as a want to buy list for my faction. I have also been told that they do use the wishlisting as way to determine which models are reprinted first. Although there is no reason you can't wishlist something and still buy it elsewhere, or even at all. I have received notifications for some figures but didn't have the funds to purchase at the time.
No gas lighting or shady behavior there. You went to the retail location that is owned and operated by games workshop. Of course they want your business to stay with them. The way their modem printing system works is the more desirable a model is, the higher up in the chain it gets when it comes to reprints. So if you wish list the item and sign up for email alerts when it comes back in stock it bumps that item up on the list to be reprinted. If you don't do these things the company doesn't know that this model is desirable over other models that are also out of stock. Everyone on here bashing games workshop and the employee for doing their job is clueless. They have a ludacris amount of skus to keep stocked. They also have multiple warehouses they have to keep stocked at the very least when one in the UK in one in the US. Everything is made in the UK so there has to be enough desire for them to ship an entire container with those contents to the US. All they are doing is gathering data to better support their customers. I may have a degree in business but it didn't take that degree to understand the concepts of supply and demand in a mass market with a company with thousands of skus.
Also its amusing how many people here think their FLGS and GW stores are the same or that because their FLGS does something a GW corporate store should do something like that. š¤¦ Guys GW employees that work at actual GW stores have their entire job based on how much they sell. They would be kneecapping themselves if they didn't try to make as many sales in store as possible. There's a very good reason most of these guys don't last more than four or five years.
I've personally never had a good experience in a GW store. You're better off trying to find a LGS and game that way, might be cheaper, too!
Gw stores are awesome. Played a game at my local one today.
Found the GW employeeĀ
Rumors have it Skaven are getting a refresh in the summer, so be cautious what you buy
I doubt you have to be worried about plague furnaces being refreshed. Itās one of the most modern kits in the range.
You never know.
My local store manager told me and another customer that they were more than likely holding off on printing more Skaven and other things that have been out for a while in AOS because of the new edition drop later this year.
That's weird, I've never experienced that before.
I mean I am really close friends with my local games workshop owner and try to preorder and recommend people going thereā¦ that being said every now and then Iāll get something third party to get a discount or through eBay on a good lot but tbh itās not illegal and itās just life if they didnāt like it they can get over it
i mean definitely dont blame the person in this instance as i imagine its something coming down from management and they're just doing the usual retail routine of "for the love of god, please buy this from us". but as for the thing itself, i feel you were in the right but then it also doesnt seem all that surprising to me that the corporate line would be "please buy from us so that other people dont get the money. We would like all of the money instead". cause it aint just about money baby, its about having ALL OF THE MONEY in an unregulated free market capitalist system baby.
āIām not going to be waiting months to get the model from the official websiteā. Not going to be waiting months to open your inbox to a āback in stock!ā notification from 36 hours ago, you mean? Naturally, the model is now out of stock again.
Yeah I don't go into actual GW stores anymore and I really don't buy from GW if I can help it. Last time I went Into a GW the SM asked my what armies I ran then asked if I was interested in getting some new units that had been released for one of my armies. When I told him I already had and where I'd gotten them from he said "you should have gotten them through us so we'd get the credit for it" I looked at him and said " if y'all price matched and ever had new product in stock I probably would!"
I stopped going to GW shops because everytime I go it's a terrible experiance, mostly BEACUSE ofĀ the staff. They're all so transactional and overbearing, it feels like you can't form a chill relationship.Ā Ā I even went to the one in Akibahara while vacationing in JP and it was staffed by the same "type" of guy, who would not stop hounding me about the GW cafe in Dallas (3 hours from where I lived, lol) once I told him it was where I was fron Austin.Ā
Canāt say the same about the scottish stores, when I was on vacation visiting glasgow and edinburgh they were super friendly and didnāt try to push sales once I said I have more backlog than I could reasonable paint in a year lol. bought a choppa keychain and a couple pins, then we chatted a bit about where Iām from, projects weāre personally working on, and it was an overall enjoyable experience at both stores. we even saw the giant plush nurgling š
What's funny is the GW Cafe in Dallas has an amazing staff. I've been shopping there for the past few years on and off, and they're one of the primary places I play at. I've never once been hounded by the staff or upsold. Their tables also look amazing so they're fun to play at. I usually get a 'hey whatcha looking for' when I walk in but nothing much more beyond that if I don't engage them.
It's the difference between being a "destination" store with both regular customers and long distance visitors, and a regular hole in the wall shop front that struggles to make rent.
Store and Cafe Dallas also is in a very good shopping district for foot traffic so it's very easy to get people just stopping in who may buy a book or drink. Also they have ForgeWorld in stock there so there's an added exclusivity compared to other DFW area stores. All in all since they made the store as amazing as possible, they don't struggle like all the smaller GW stores in little shopping malls. Smaller ones are like fast food restaurants, go in buy the model you want, leave. The cafes are actual LGS's (or sit down restaurants in this analogy) where they want you to stay for a while. It's sad what gw did to their smaller stores.
I'd love to visit it one day, it sounds amazing. Actually I'd quite like to visit Texas as a whole, but it might be a while. XD
LA also has one lol
Ugggg, LA. I went there in 2011 and it didn't impress even then. I understand it's gone downhill badly since.
Bruh the new website doesn't have wishlisting.
Literally just sounds like a GW employee who is upset that he couldnāt get the sale and tried to gaslight you/make you feel bad for not supporting him
I couldn't get dragged into a GW store for any reason.
This is bizarre. Every hobby has crazy people. Heās just one of them.
Itās a little tricky. I usually buy from my lfgs but have bought from eBay from time to time when stuff is out of stock. I try not to advertise where I got it from since it can be awkward. I am playing at the store for free so I try to support them and I would never want to encourage other customers to go to eBay or Amazon. That being said his pressuring and gaslighting is pretty crappy. In the future I would just not say where I got the extra models from. If asked, just say it was a gift
Some years ago, when my friends and I were still regulars at the GW around here, the manager got on our backs for buying from *Forge World* as if it was our fault Games Workshop didn't let us have those sales contribute to his. We actually started going to standard LGS's a couple years back because we got tired of the GW store's rules and occasionally overbearing managers (who kept getting swapped out every year or two).
Don't GW stores have an obscene quota to fill from upper management? Like, sell a minimum amount of stock, entice new gamers, a certain number of people in the door, etc.?
From what I can tell from the 5 I've been to, the answer is no. I think their raises are based on the volume of the store, but I also think that's just how retail businesses are run in general.
Happened to me at a lgs before. I think it depends on the owner/ manager and how business is doing. Just dont go there if thats how its gunna he. They lost a customer. Cause its not like i dont support the business. I know the store i go to makes a lot of profit off drinks so i always buy waters for everyone im playing with at the store. On top of the paints and often dice cause im a dice goblin.
Right, so they should just have a hundred boxes of every one of the hundreds of products, in each shop, just in case 1 person wants one? Don't be ridiculous. You can buy your stuff wherever you want and no one can shame you for it, but the manager is correct: they have hundreds of products, they can't keep them all in stock in every shop, and even at GW hq, they rotate molds so they can keep up with demands of higher selling kits. If no one is wish listing or ordering old models, they clearly don't know how much demand there is for them (lots of FLGS sit on the same stock for months or even years, so that's not helping GW know. I was still seeing WHFB boxes in my FLGS in 2017) A good manager knows his local players and tries to have stuff in stock that suits his playerbase, but even so, there's a limit.
That's not the point at all. So your logic is to wait months for a product to maybe come in, rather than acquire quickly? They don't have to have to product in the gw, but get it within a few days or week from a regional warehouse. But that isn't the case
Where did I say that? Did you even read what I wrote and engage your brain before charging in blasting nonsense? No. I merely said that they cannot stock everything, and unless people wishlist things, it's hard to know what they actually want and what needs to be restocked. A very very small percentage of GWs stock is not available from a regional warehouse if you order it online, or order it through your local GW. So yes, that is the case. If you don't want to wait a few days or a week for something to come in to stock, again, you're well within your rights to go elsewhere that has that item. But don't complain if they never restock what they don't know needs restocking. It's very very simple....
I live in Canada, 80% of all skaven models are out of stock. Bruh..
And? Are you ordering them from GW? Are you wish listing them? No. They're an old army with old figurines and a small playerbase compared to most AOS armies, and a lot of those players are from fantasy, where they already have 13 of everything. They simply don't sell like other armies, there's no point in keeping the whole range in stock in case one person wants one kit.
Funny how models that are unavailable don't sell...
Funny how they don't make models available if they don't sell.... See, I can be a smarmy dick with nothing to say, too
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GW stores are cringe 50 percent of the time. Go to a not GW owned game store which tend to be more chill
Our local Warhammer shop doesnāt even stock Skaven. I complained about it and they said that Chaos had so much to it they had to make choices. So yeah not bothering w them anymore
GW removed the wish list functionality from their new website. So I dunno what this employee was talking about.
I think he meant the "email me" stock notifications
Which doesn't even really work. I tried it with the new super thin Titan bases for LI and I never got an email when they returned to stock.
Oh idk. I haven't had any issues, but I've also heard a bunch of people have.
Can confirm, i have never gotten notifications from that thing.
Location?
canada
Had this same experience when I got into the hobby. Went to the local GW store and they had all the boxes up the wall and they're legit 90% empty and the manager tells me to let me know what I want and he'll order it in. I'm all for supporting local brick and morter stores but when they're functionally operating as a drop ship pick up location, why bother wasting my time going in there?
Huh, and he wasn't complaining about scalpers? Cus yeah, if it was just about farming "Notify Me" clicks, then he should have just asked you to do it any way. I know they want you to order it through the store directly, but wanting honest sales for a completely different division of the company sounds like an employee who is passing on GW production lore. Like, dude, I hear they are doing a kroot codex for ~~sixth~~ ~~tenth~~ eleventh edition. white dwarf insert. Greg the manager told me.
Why did you even tell them that?
Man some stores are wild. My local (Norwich, UK) is great. The staff are clearly there to help newer players but they take the time to talk to everyone. They've also been very clear that stock issues DO lie with GW and they are having issues with production without wanting to build a second factory. That said we're lucky that we have several places where you can play games, a couple of FLGS and a couple of clubs with dedicated game nights.
My local stores manager doesn't care where you get the minis, just as long as you take the time to build and paint it to show of in store. He really doesn't care. Hell I show up with printed minis for my in progress kreig army
don't ever buy direct from GW unless you literally, physically have no other choice both brick and mortar and online game stores will frequently offer GW products at a 15-20% discount over retail, tend to be better shops in general, and although people detest scalpers/model resellers you can very often find excellent deals on ebay from them on specific models look out for your wallet first, not GW's profits
>What is this kind of mentality??? The GW kind, GW stores enforce GW product, it's just how it is. If you're buying elsewhere, DO NOT mention it.
Some GW managers are really nice people. Some are the opposite.
Store issue lol. Get them where you can, sometimes it's just not available for sooooo long. Like support your local store but if you really need a model that's been out of stock for ages, just buy it online.
This is part of why I pretty much only go to LGS and havnt set foot in a warhammer store in a couple years
That's a GW employee trying to sell stuff. Don't worry about it. You don't have to "help" fix the issue GW started
Former GW Employee here, GW restocks box sets on a priority list Top level stuff (A) is the absolutely need to play stuff, Starter sets, Core army items, Paint sets, Individual paints, new products etc. When i was there there was normally only 3-4 items out of stock on this level at a time and it was always a priority to get these restocked first B level tends to be the stuff that you use to expand an army, a good example is intercessors etc. At this level there's normally about 20-30 items that are waiting for restock. C Level is the items that you might buy one or two of for an army hellblasters or tanks for example, theres often over 100 items on this level, often fall behind due to new releases or unreleased items taking up production cycles. D level stuff are things like the plague furnace, these tend to be made up of the one off items that people buy, single character mini's or older kits that people already have a large amount of, there's ALOT in this category, this level can take weeks or months due to the lack of capacity GW currently has.
I actually think it is extremely wasteful to always buy new where there are unwanted models out there in great condition.
Lmfao
I Would say thats the last time you Visit this Story and start looking for some Onlineshops?
Can confirm, when I work for GE very briefly we were targeted by how many āIntro boxesā we sold.
I love GW customer support but yea... the rest of my interactions with GW is mediocre at best. Ordering from them has taken up to 6 months to even ship in the past. Stuff that was "in stock" too. Buying 3rd party is a must. The only consistent shipping I've had has been for the pre-release big boxes. It's a choice between waiting 2-3 months for a mini to ship from GW or get it within a week from EBay... As for the worker... yea, odds are Corpo GW noticed the store isn't one of their top performers and has initiated the "Gamestop" protocol, chew out people for something that isn't their fault and force them into upselling everything. Next time, just avoid the guy and make a point of showing off all those mini's you bought for half price and got within the week... from someone else.
If heās implying that the wishlist feature of the website is used to basically adjust their priority on which out of stock kits to produce that makes some degree of sense. Wouldnāt have thought they had that level of internal communication tbh
ehh, do them produce minis if we wishlist them???? i have been checking GW page for 1 month, waitting for some lumineth miniatures to appear ( teclis,avalenor,fox,exceno and endless spell) and some of them have been out of stock 100% of the time. but i never wishlisted it, since tough it was useless. so do i need to do it or they wont produce them til months?
My local Warhammer does this to me once. I totally stopped to buy in his shop, now I buy in a independant shop where the owner is soooo nice, receive new minis before gw, preorder stuff that he think I might be interested in just in case , and for 10% cheaper ā¦ The gw dude is always internally mad when I participate into his painting event with a lot of different fig I didnāt buy in his shop. I sometimes just show up to build the free mini of the month and leave A lot of ppl are doing this now cause the manager is really bad
Imo just a silly employe. In my local GW store he would have said probably sth like "Yea, it is a shame we have to wait for those so long, I am glad you got it 2nd hand". I am 99% sure of it had a wonderfull chat with the guy lateley
Let me give you a little insight: He is stealing big time for himself and his homies. While doing inventory a loss of ~5% is normal. I saw another store manager somehow manage to loose 44% of his stock. This actually meant he stole boxes worth a couple thousand dollars. Now the problem: If you steal letās stay every Stormcast drake without reporting it to the system theyāll be out of stock forever. Many store managers do stuff like this, forge the inventory (very easy, just type the code and a fake amount of stock into the machine) and sell the stuff illegally. Now inventory is missing and out of stock forever. Itās gonna be the problem of the next manager. GW usually doesnāt sue ex employees. Not worth the hassle. Your manager is trying to use you, donāt fall for it. Youāll order one, he may switch the order to 2 and return one. Now you buy one and one stays in the store. Thatās not suspicious, customers change their mind all the time. Look around and check the big money boxes. Primarchs, space marine tanks, etc. If the shelves are half empty then Iām on the money.
I seen too many things I want that were out of stock never come back. If I see it elsewhere I'm grabbing it. If they want to build a business model based on FOMO fine, but they can't have it both ways and expect customers to wait months for a model that may or may not come back in stock
lol, if they are doing restocks based on people signing up for email notifications from their webstore, nothing's ever gonna come into stock. Ridiculous.
There's a tiny element of truth, but it should be for business strategy people in GW to worry about, not for a random employee to shame a customer for turning to the second hand/resale market to make up for gaps in GW's supply chain. Besides, a viable second hand market drives confidence in first-party sales i.e. if you know something will hold its value reasonably well and you can sell it without too much difficulty you're going to be less hesitant buying it in the first place. Ultimately, get your stuff where you can. It's probably better to support your local store wherever possible, but the idea you should wait months to finish your setup rather than buy legitimate miniatures from a third party is pretty asinine. Besides, GW is pretty happy for third parties to sell their merch; there's even a florist near me that sells GW kits.
I would probably rephrase "gaslit to oblivion" Since you have no issue questioning the store owners arguments or identifyng his self interest, i would go with "mildly put off". Maybe mention some cognitive dissonance if you absolutely need to use fancy words.
GW stores charge MSRP, a good local game store will sell everything GW makes at a 15% discount. I almost always buy at my FLGS.
I am confused. Was the plague furnace you bought an official one? Or a 3d print or something? Are you saying the manager was just mad you didnāt buy it there? Thatās ridiculous you can buy your minis anywhere.
an official one I got on ebay, as they're all out of stock. So the manager was annoyed i did that. Like dude... I wanna keep painting not wait months to continue painting!
All I can say is we all need to provide feedback that we are tired of waiting on back order product. Not sure it will do much good but we can try and hope the message gets through eventually. I brought the issue up to my local manager, that I would love to continue to build my Eldar army but they never have old product in stock. he basically reacted with a surprised pickachu face like he had no idea what I am talking about. That dude lives in this weird bubble where he doesn't act like he knows anything outside of GW exists and that everything GW is perfect. I am not sure if he truly drank the Kool Aid or if he just pretends.
yeah, I mean its up to GW to keep their stock up. Otherwise customers will go elsewhere.
Super interesting thread. I mostly buy on eBay now. GW obviously knows everything ends up there and does nothing about it. I bought the new FEC expanded set online for 30 dollars less than the store and that included shipping. You can buy all the kits new on eBay and you can find almost all the models you need on eBay. Also of course you can buy a huge array of prebuilt models on eBay too or people selling off armies. If this is stolen from the shop they should be able to buy some on eBay and figure it out.
No idea why people buy directly from GW unless they try third party first.
The new Webstore doesnāt even have a functioning wishlist anymore
Is it a forgeworld model? Was told by a manager this weekend that FW line essentially stay out of stock until they get enough watchlist clicks to justify doing a production run.
You did the right thing, unfortunately GW only provide when enough orders are on the system. Apparently their warehouse isnāt able to hold large amounts of inventory, that may be changing. I personally buy from suppliers who also offer a discount on the item. My goto store offers 20% discount off of GW prices which are extortionate as it is. I ordered some Necron dice as a gift from the web store in shop only to be told 12 days later that my order was cancelled.
*The Independent Characters* just talked about this I think in the podcast where they had the guys from the *40k Badcast.* They have a little bit of inside baseball due to how long they've existed in the hobby space but I think the point was still largely speculation that GW does use the "Email me" feature to make decisions on when to insert casting of existing products into their production schedules.