Warhammer stores

[DBadger]

Why are they so rubbish?

 

I am the kind of person who likes to support my local high street. I don't buy online unless I have to. However with Games Workshop products it's increasingly becoming impossible to buy outside of the 'net.

 

I don't mean on price. I don't care about price. I'm on minimum wage but still try and buy my models from a Warhammer store if I can. Everywhere I knew that was a Stockist has ceased doing so, so the only place I have to buy figs from is Warhammer stores. There are a few near me and...

 

- they all close on Mondays and Tuesdays

- they are all one-man operations for the most part, so close for most of each other day for breaks, lunch, or general short hours

- all very small units with tables crammed in and a small amount of stock on the walls around them

 

I tried to visit mine today and they were closed for Lunch, at 3pm on a Sunday...

 

They will generally only stock one or two of each product, and even then, the range they stock is abysmal. They rarely stock anything I decide to go in for, even if that's something that sounds new and exciting. Outside of a core range everything is online-only...

 

Which defeats the purpose of having a Warhammer store. I expect to be able to buy any GW product when I walk into a GW store. Why not?

 

When there are games on the stores are too busy to walk around and because there are so few staff, you can't shop when there's a game on.

 

They also really, really smell, not because of peoples' personal hygeine necessarily. I think it's just a result of having so many people crammed into one small store.

 

So I rarely shop in them now. Which is a shame, because there's no alternative.

 

I was trying to think of some way they could improve on it. Here are a few ideas:

 

- Concessions

 

If stores have to be one-man operations, they should be concessions within other stores, so that when games are on they can still get models through the tills. Anyone can scan a barcode, but not everyone can run a match.

 

- More stockists

 

Hobbycraft stores are enormous. They have enough room to stock a huge range of GW products if they wanted to.

 

Stores like Waterstones or HMV could easily stock some limited ranges - Waterstones have started stocking Lego after all. At the very least, codices.

 

And... Forbidden Planet? My local doesn't even stock GW, and they have a huge surplus of space.

 

- Larger stores with more options for money making

 

Warhammer Cafe might not be a bad idea, if rolled out in more stores.

 

There's also opportunity to stock things that a FLGS might stock - non-GW products. I am thinking plasticard, foamcore, tools, etc. Even if it's just a little counter-top stand. They could go towards the premium end in doing this, so the profit margin is still there.

 

I dunno.

 

I want to support my local Warhammer store. I'm just increasingly finding it not a place I want to shop.

[Axineton]

I went down to my local warhammer store yesterday and it was packed! They got a new member of staff in there bringing it up to 4 now and he pounced on me straight away agreeing with everything I said and saying how awesome each item I picked up was. Doing my head in! To top that off it stunk in there! 3 blokes in the corner painting smelt of bo, I was gonna tell them to have a wash but I didn’t in the end. The staff were trying to convince me to spend a £100 to get a free Christmas cracker with a prize in because it was the managers birthday. Na your alright was all I said. I brought two packets of sector imperial bases in the end then got out of there.

[DBadger]

^^ I've found they won't take no for a first answer, and don't like you just going in to browse (will follow you around and keep interrogating you)...

 

"I'm just looking, thanks."

 

"Oh, what are you looking at?"

[Gederas]

Oh boy.... Where do I start with this...

 

- they all close on Mondays and Tuesdays

- they are all one-man operations for the most part, so close for most of each other day for breaks, lunch, or general short hours

- all very small units with tables crammed in and a small amount of stock on the walls around them

- Most places that have smaller staff are closed on days like that.

Points 2 & 3: Small stores means they have to be efficient with space management and employees. My apartment (a modified attic) is BIGGER, in square footage, than both of my local GW stores. A STORE is smaller than a bedroom and living room for one person. What does that tell you about how small GW stores are?

 

They also really, really smell, not because of peoples' personal hygeine necessarily. I think it's just a result of having so many people crammed into one small store.

Gamer funk is an amazing thing . At least most people at GW stores smell better than the ones at my FLGS for Friday-Night Magic.... But yes, it's more because of how small the stores are.

 

They will generally only stock one or two of each product, and even then, the range they stock is abysmal. They rarely stock anything I decide to go in for, even if that's something that sounds new and exciting. Outside of a core range everything is online-only...

 

Which defeats the purpose of having a Warhammer store. I expect to be able to buy any GW product when I walk into a GW store. Why not?

Again, space management. Games Workshop's line for 40k and Age of Sigmar is HUGE. If they stocked EVERYTHING that wasn't webstore exclusive, let's say 5 of each, the stores would need to be three to four times the size they are.
 

I tried to visit mine today and they were closed for Lunch, at 3pm on a Sunday...

You.... Do realize it's illegal for a company to not give a full-time worker a 30-minute lunch break, right?

Sunday GW stores are open from 12 to 6. Lunch breaks are usually given halfway through a shift. Which means, they're closed at 3 for the lunch break. My local store has the one guy working there, but two on-calls. I've seen what happens when the on-calls are there training. They stores are literally TOO SMALL to have more than one person working the store at a time.

 

So basically, all of your complaints are summed up as, you saying you want the stores to be bigger. 

 

Because literally ALL of your complaints tie back to the fact that Warhammer stores are so small.

[DBadger]

I think I'm just reduced to trips up Nottingham to be honest. Part of me thinks they should have fewer, larger stores, but then I know that places like where I live would end up with no store at all if they had to do that.

 

There's a lack of gaming or modeling stores in general though. My city of 250,000 has only a small Warhammer store, with no other model shops whatsoever. There's a Hobbycraft, but like I say they stopped stocking GW products now.

 

As a retail worker I know and appreciate that we need breaks. But my solution wouldn't be to take their breaks away, rather to have some decent staffing. But that has costs. With the surplus of retail workers looking for jobs though, surely a four hour shift a day (weekends at least) would be beneficial. My first retail job was just four hours on a Sunday. The £30 a day that would cost would surely be made up for in the increased trade? I can't be the only one who always seems to rock up when the door's closed.

 

It just seems like we have tiny Warhammer stores and the mighty Warhammer World, with nothing inbetween.

 

Birmingham city centre isn't much better - still has a relatively small GW and not much else model wise. There's a model train shop, but that's about it.

[Aqui]

You need to go to the Coventry store then. They have two staff on, mostly for weekends and busier week periods. It's a small store, but they well enough to keep in stock as much as is possible. As for the gamer funk, well, whilst its inexcusable, its been a thing since time immemorial. Not a thing at the aforementioned store though. And whilst the staff at my local have to keep to targets, I've never had a problem with either of them once I've replied I'm just browsing. Although that might be because they know me well enough to leave me to my own devices.

[Canadian_F_H]

Is this a UK thing? Or a recent thing?

 

It's been a long time since I've been to an official GW store but all the ones I went to were decent sized and has 2 to 4 staff in them. The smallest I went to had 3 4'x8' tables in it.

 

The biggest had 6 such tables and despite having a dozen people playing in it, wasn't too crowded to maneuver thru.

[Panzer]

Without going much into detail it's mostly about GW using their small stores to draw in customers and is fine when they then buy their products elsewhere and play elsewhere. The shops are advertisement, most of their money they make from FLGS and online sales. It also minimizes their costs since paying your own employes and rent and so on is expensive while profiting from the sales of some FLGS costs them basically nothing.

[DBadger]

Shops (and property in general) are pretty small in the UK. We have a lot of old-timey shops that are unsuitable for modern retailers but have low rents so suit a place like Games Workshop.

 

You need to go to the Coventry store then. They have two staff on, mostly for weekends and busier week periods. It's a small store, but they well enough to keep in stock as much as is possible. As for the gamer funk, well, whilst its inexcusable, its been a thing since time immemorial. Not a thing at the aforementioned store though. And whilst the staff at my local have to keep to targets, I've never had a problem with either of them once I've replied I'm just browsing. Although that might be because they know me well enough to leave me to my own devices.

 

Weirdly, Cov is the one place I remember seeing multiple FLGS's. I worked there for a bit on bolster for another store, and had the time of my life with all the little gaming shops.

 

There's no FLGS where I live (Wolvo).

 

I should add my complaints about the staff being pushy aren't about Wolverhampton, I'm sure they're lovely; I try to visit the GW store in any place I'm in.

[Doghouse]

Our local is ok but other than paints I've not really got any reason to go in there because they never have what I want. 

[killersquid]

I spend a lot of time at my local Warhammer store. The manager is fantastic,and we have a pretty strong community. I do most of my painting there at the painting table.

 

I think your millage will vary based on the store, and the community which supports it.

 

My store has enough room for three 6x4 tables, but there is a fixed budget for how expensive rent the stores can have, so if the store is in an area with more expensive rent/lease rates, you'll find the store will be smaller than one where there is cheaper realestate.

 

For breaks, my store manager takes one 10-15min break each day where he has to close the store. Not unreasonable I think. Being closed two days of the week is not unusual for other retail store, or restaurants.

 

But, like I said, your experience at one store won't be the same at all stores. Same with any other store. It all depends on the community and individual store manager.

 

*Edit

 

I will add, that this is the first official Warhammer/games workshop store I've lived near enough to visit regularly. I lived in a remote area for most of the past decade.

[Axineton]

DBadger would it be easier to go to brum? I’m not clued up on how far you are from there as I’m a southerner and anything past aldershot is north to me lol!

[Burni]

The amount of stuff that direct now amazes me. I went to buy some Electro Priests only to discover you have to order them even in a decent sized, multi staff GW like we have in Liverpool.

 

There’s a big FLGS in the city that even keep SG stuff in stock, so it’s hard to complain too much compared to what options others have.

 

But yeah, that gamer funk...

[Axineton]

The Portsmouth one smells of glue and bo and it sometimes makes me gag when I walk in, no joke.

[m_r_parker]

I think a lot of this is down to where about you are and what your local GW store is. From my personal experience, the Southampton store is great for me (especially the manager Rod, who managed to be fact #33 on the '500 facts' article on WHC) and from chatting to the guys who work there it's apparently one of the best stores on the south coast. It has a manager, two full-timers and one part-timer for the weekends - which is unusually high, but quite a few of the newer managers in the region have been taught the ropes at Southampton under Rod. 

 

A lot of these items are generally focussed around 1) a period where stores were downsized to single-man operation, and 2) physical size of the store. It should be fairly obvious that for having only a single person employed at the shop that they will be closed for two days a week, and neither of those days will be the weekend. Out of base courtesy to the employee they should have 2 days in a row off if they're the sole employee, and statistically the earlier weekdays are the quieter. I would have said Tues and Weds would have been the better options, as it allows the store to be open for Bank Holidays, but it's honestly up to the managers discretion. It's not unreasonable for him to want to have the Bank Holidays off.

 

As for the size, there is a limit to what the store can handle. My local GW manager said that he stocks 'the top 750 items' in the store - and some items do drop out of the physical site and go to an online-order service. Literally last Thursday I was talking about the new Imperial Fist Primaris upgrade sprue, and whether they would be sold individually or as part of combo boxes with Primaris units, and he honestly hopes it's not the latter. For most of the Primaries line he's currently stocking three types of the same unit on his shelves; Regular, Dark Angel and Blood Angel. Adding more of these boxes for his store pushes other models (typically from other armies) out of the shop and onto online. It's a tricky balance, to keep enough stock in to keep people happy without having it there on the shelf for months without anyone buying it. Fortunately the Southampton store is piloting a 24hr delivery service for the store, so if you order something at the terminal before 3pm it will arrive day at the store. It's a decent compromise.

 

As for lunch time closings, again it's about trying to keep to the less busy periods. There have been times at the Southampton store where it's only been a single person in (usually due to sickness) and they've had to close the store for 30 minutes for lunch, between 2:30 and 3:00. Having sat through the day with them, there is a lot of footfall during the traditional lunchtime slot (for 'regular' people working 'regular' jobs) and they want to be open for that and close afterwards. Otherwise they'd be shut at peak times, especially during the week.

 

As for trying to get GW products into other shops, the factor of space really does double-down in this situation. I remember when Hobbycraft used to stock some GW items - it was literally a tiny rack of paints, a couple of core games, the odd codex (not all) and a couple of the uber-popular boxes. There was literally about 2 metres worth of shelving dedicated to it, and there was no way they'd give any more to it because they have their own products to shift. Both Forbidden Planet and Waterstones sell Black Library, but again it's a discussion around physical space and competing with other products. 

[Ishagu]

My local has 3/4 different members of staff and is always full of people. Love it

[Dark_Master]

The Portsmouth one smells of glue and bo and it sometimes makes me gag when I walk in, no joke.

Hasn’t changed in 25 years then

 

I am worried as the Manager in my local has recently changed, really afraid we'll get a more ‘corporate ‘ one now

 

DM

 

DM

[Ishagu]

 

The Portsmouth one smells of glue and bo and it sometimes makes me gag when I walk in, no joke.

Hasn’t changed in 25 years then

 

I am worried as the Manager in my local has recently changed, really afraid we'll get a more ‘corporate ‘ one now

 

DM

 

DM

Hopefully a more corporate guy can evict the smelliest people lol

 

It's bad for business after all. I did walk into a VERY smelly GW once. Think it was in Brussels? I was literally gonna buy something as it was the last day of a city break I was on and I wanted to get rid of some Euros. Couldn't last a minute...

[Kite Senet]

It's interesting to me to read all this from the UK. Here in the States, my local Warhammer Store is quite a decent size for a store--certainly larger than you're describing--even though it pales in comparison to my favoured local game store, which is basically in a refinished small warehouse, with proper fixtures for ventilating industrial-grade manufacturing, and to boot it has a better selection of GW models as well as historical wargames, and enough space to run two or three decent-size wargames+TCG tournaments concurrently. Unfortunately it's also in the middle of of a large block of industrial zoning, but it's not a terribly long walk so I don't mind.

 

Anywho, it seems there's quite a bit different between the US and the UK, since the one nearby GW store is the only one in a 4 hour radius. They still close for an hour at lunch time, and it's still run by just one person, though.

[D3L]

sees complaint about small stores and single person, :cussy hours GW policy, *remembers time as a 17yo red shirt, with a bitter thin grin*

looks at the size of my current locale's stores... yep, they're still doing it (no fault of the store managers, they're actually really nice out here), every time I fly back to the UK, I get harassed by overzealous (par of the course) sales staff looking to meet weekly targets ...

small store sizes? hah waves hand at the 80 sqft store in Prince Edward

[Black Knight]

The Shrewsbury store and manager are great. He always welcomes you and lets you get on with looking. He is usually chatting with whoever is near the till but will notice if you glance towards him and walk over when you need help, the way it should be. You cant expect people to remember you but he always remembers my wife and I as we only go there maybe twice a year due to distance.

 

It is a bit cramped but Shrewsbury is a medievil town which mean :cuss poor building space but they have done it in a way you get two 4x4? tables and a painting table. So far there has been no smell that isn't in every other shop that has that crap carpet for flooring which is most of them.

 

I am sorry to say you can't expect to have a store open 8 hours constantly just so that it is open when you decide to walk over to it. If I go shopping for a specific item in town I make sure to check the open times of the store I am going too. I currently live in Germany and its normal over here even for the post office and they get an hour. The UK is a little cavalier when it comes to workers rights. It may be annoying but I never begrudge anyone shutting down to get half an hour lunch when alot of people are forced to sit there with their food while STILL working. Plus it is not £30 a day more, you have to train that person, you have to pay their tax and national insurance, holiday, sick etc, etc. People are expensive thats why we are being replaced by robots.

[Ishagu]

Some stores are definite more bare bones, but it depends on the area and how well they perform. My local is in an affluent area, people have disposable income and the store does well, hence they have more staff, more hobby space, doesn't close on certain days, multiple late evening opening times etc

[Reyner]

The Leeds store is pretty decent, quite big and the staff are great. I haven't been in for a while but I do need some paints... Could walk over at dinner :P

[Sloeberjong]

I hate that oftentimes they're really pushy. In my experience I really have to prepare mentally when I have to go to a Warhammer store. I need to know what I want and get it quick. I don't really want to do all the talk about my army and what it needs and everything. I've been doing this hobby for over 20 years, I don't need your "advise". I'm here to buy something I need and get out (usually). We've had a Warhammer store in town here twice now, and both times it failed and was gone within 2 years of opening. The FLGS is way better, the owner is nicer and it's a better place to play, but with GW's rotten mentality towards external stores he refuses to sell GW any longer (eventhough it sells pretty well). 

 

Anyway, I've been to Glasgow on a city trip, the store there seems ok. It's pretty big and the staff was curious, but not pushy, turns out the guy working there was a fellow Dutchman, what are the odds!

[Panzer]

It's been only a few times I've met a pushy employee in a GW store and then it was usually enough to warn them that if they don't stop bothering me I'll leave and won't buy anything. The other times they usually wait until I've found something I want and then be chatty (or not) while I pay for it.