Black Friday sales & GW ?...

[MithrilForge]

Heya, 

Question - Has GW ever had a Black Friday sale?... it seems every other retail shop in the world has one except for GW....

 

I know they have MTO Chaplains for Black Friday but that's Mega lame .... 

Mithril 

[aa.logan]

BL discounted a selection of ebooks with ‘black’ in their title a few years back

[Xenith]

Heya, 

Question - Has GW ever had a Black Friday sale?... it seems every other retail shop in the world has one except for GW....

 

I know they have MTO Chaplains for Black Friday but that's Mega lame .... 

Mithril 

 

They did one in maybe...2015? Kind of weirdly death company themed, and similar bundles to what they do now, but without any substantial discount. It doesn't really fit their business model, as you'd just buy enough on BF then paint it throughout the year, and tbh, the current BF deals I'm seeing are all terrible, like 5 - 20% off stuff. You get that from local GW stockists anyway. 

[Halandaar]

It doesn't really fit their business model

 

Exactly this; GW also don't participate in all the other usual sale periods other retailers do (after Christmas, end-of-season, summer sale etc) because that's just not how they operate. If they did, nobody would buy during the rest of the year. 

[Domhnall]

There's a bit of a push back to Black Friday deals in the UK, at least with smaller companies. From what I've heard, they're getting fed up with it as they can't compete with the big (multi)national companies who can afford to palm off unsold stock, buy in guff to sell as exclusive deals or some such*. 

 

Also, as a UK company who's a bit sale-shy anyway, there's not so much need to do Black Friday sales. Would they be good to have? Money off is always good! Would they be of much benefit to them? Probably not, unless they used the time to sell of unsold stock 

 

 

* - There are good deals on decent things to be had, but a lot of the "deals" I've seen are as suspect as a tentacle on an Ultramarine.

[Redcomet]

Heya, 

Question - Has GW ever had a Black Friday sale?... it seems every other retail shop in the world has one except for GW....

 

I know they have MTO Chaplains for Black Friday but that's Mega lame .... 

Mithril 

They don’t do it, because they don’t need to. People will buy their stuff anyways. 

[Domhnall]

 

It doesn't really fit their business model

 

Exactly this; GW also don't participate in all the other usual sale periods other retailers do (after Christmas, end-of-season, summer sale etc) because that's just not how they operate. If they did, nobody would buy during the rest of the year. 

 

 

 

Exactly. They don't participate in other sales periods because they don't have to, as they are somewhat of a closed system. They produce everything themselves, so know what will sell and what doesn't, so there probably won't be much 'left over stock' in the back of the warehouse. Also, as they have nothing that is 'seasonal' like clothes, or on a constant path of improvement like electronics (TV's etc) that become obsolete in 6-12 months, they don't have to clear any of this away either.

 

Because of this, they don't *need* to have sales, as sales are most often a time for a clear out to make space for the next season or top of the line tech. 

 

I'd say FLGS are more likely to have sales, as they will have stock they have bought in that hasn't sold as well and want to make space for the new shiny Primaris Lieutenents or what not. 

 

All of this is my personal opinion based on what I've gathered from people in retail, as well as just plain old 'this is what I think...'

[Xenith]

 

Because of this, they don't *need* to have sales, as sales are most often a time for a clear out to make space for the next season or top of the line tech. 

 

This also - GW don't need to flog outdated stock as other than rulebooks, most of their stuff (models) are usable for decades. 

[Dark Shepherd]

We got the Warhammer Day sale/special offers

And we had those Blind Boxes (which I loved and hated in equal measure)

 

Theyll never do a general sale but the stock dumping moves are very interesting to see whats not selling, which seems to have a.correlation with gaming boards

[Halandaar]

There's a bit of a push back to Black Friday deals in the UK, at least with smaller companies. From what I've heard, they're getting fed up with it as they can't compete with the big (multi)national companies who can afford to palm off unsold stock, buy in guff to sell as exclusive deals or some such*. 

 

Yeah, also it's just something that has no tradition in the UK. It's a purely American thing that has been exported around the world thanks to the likes of companies like Amazon; they do a sale, so UK retailers felt like they had to do the same if they wanted to compete over that period.

 

All of this is my personal opinion based on what I've gathered from people in retail, as well as just plain old 'this is what I think...'

 

Speaking as someone who spent many years working in retail, yeah, pretty much. The point is to get rid of the things you didn't manage to sell at full price before they become undesirable either due to season change or being superseded by something else, and make space for new product. 

 

"January" sales (which now start at 6am on Boxing Day, thanks Next) exist entirely to clear the stuff you didn't sell in the run-up to Christmas at full price. Even at 50% off you're probably still making money on it.

 

GW know they can sell their product at full price all year round, so they do. 

 

I'd say FLGS are more likely to have sales, as they will have stock they have bought in that hasn't sold as well and want to make space for the new shiny Primaris Lieutenents or what not. 

 

Indeed; Goblin Gaming have a Black Friday sale which includes a handful of GW items at 30% off. Not a massive additional discount, but it does make it the best price out there on those particular items.

 

 

We got the Warhammer Day sale/special offers

 

I honestly think that will end up being a one-off, a combination of them producing enough Dominion boxes to match the demand Indomitus had plus the introduction of the made-to-order guarantee at launch putting the usual scalpers off and living them with a lot of leftover stock.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Fun bit of trivia, there was once a GW somewhere in the UK which was inside a Debenhams (Department Store). When that store had a X% off everything in store sale, the GW also took part, only time I know of a GW 'sale'.

[Dark Shepherd]

Do Debenhams even have a toy department? Thought they just did clothes?

[Captain Idaho]

Has GW ever had a sale ever in everness?

 

But then you kids do go out and buy 10 Primaris for £35 ;)

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Do Debenhams even have a toy department? Thought they just did clothes?

They did some toys, but as I understand it this was an entire GW nestled in the Debenhams building.

[Halandaar]

It was in Ipswich, got myself a set of the old Skeleton Warriors there (back when regiments were moving to plastic models with metal command pieces in the box, so I guess around 20 years ago). Edited November 27, 2021 by Halandaar

[Guest Triszin]

gw might of done 1 in the past 10 year.

 

having said that, I do like the idea of doing a Community curated deal round up for the holidays.

 

if its 40k / hobby adjacent, might be a neat little catch all?

[Doghouse]

Fun bit of trivia, there was once a GW somewhere in the UK which was inside a Debenhams (Department Store). When that store had a X% off everything in store sale, the GW also took part, only time I know of a GW 'sale'.

 boxed games for about 5k I think it was at the time but that was way back in very late eighties/early nineties.

 

GW used to run store sales a lot back in the old days and would cut the corner of the blister packs. It was mostly old stock and I think the last was to clear the old metal sisters stock. I do remember one where you could buy one of everything they made, so all minis, paints and boxed games for about 5k I think it was but that was way back in very late eighties/early nineties.

Edited November 27, 2021 by Doghouse

[The Neverborn]

Has GW done sales?

Well sort of they used to do loyalty rewards.

Has GW done black Friday sales?

GW is a British Company, while we do have Black Friday, it's a very very recent thing. Maybe 3-4 years ago was the first time.

So no, I can say GW have never done black friday sales. At least that were available to me

 

Will they do ones in the future?

 

The overwhelming burden of proof is no. GWs product isn't something that has end-of-season and it's broadly speaking incongruent with the wider strategy of games workshop. 

[Dark Shepherd]

 

Do Debenhams even have a toy department? Thought they just did clothes?

They did some toys, but as I understand it this was an entire GW nestled in the Debenhams building.

For our American or European friends this would be like having a Games Workshop in a JC Penney or TK Max or something

[Halandaar]

I guess it was an experiment that was both successful enough to keep open for a number of years, but not successful enough that they opened more of them.

[Sky Potato]

The Debenhams near my parents house had a Game (as in, the video game store) as a complete store inside. Only time I’d ever seen a full store inside of another.

 

I would have thought a GW was too niche to be inside of a department store.

[Dark Shepherd]

Theyve done some curious in a bad way store locations before; they had one in the Blanchardstown Centre in West Dublin, even though it would have to have made the top 3 selling Games Workshops or something just to break even due to high rent. Closed in 2013/2014 after a few years so wasnt even opened in a boom time for GW

[firestorm40k]

It was in Ipswich, got myself a set of the old Skeleton Warriors there (back when regiments were moving to plastic models with metal command pieces in the box, so I guess around 20 years ago).

Ahh yes, I can remember when Debenham did their Blue Cross sales days, the store wide discount also applied to everything in the GW store :D

 

I can remember going there one year to pick up some stuff, it was mad busy, the poor bloke on the till looked like he'd not slept for a month :lol:

[Firedrake Cordova]

GW used to run store sales a lot back in the old days and would cut the corner of the blister packs. It was mostly old stock and I think the last was to clear the old metal sisters stock. 

Ah yes, the "bargain bin" (I think it was 3 for 2 or something like that, back when skeleton warriors were metal and came in blisters of 4 for £5) :)

[Doghouse]

 

GW used to run store sales a lot back in the old days and would cut the corner of the blister packs. It was mostly old stock and I think the last was to clear the old metal sisters stock. 

Ah yes, the "bargain bin" (I think it was 3 for 2 or something like that, back when skeleton warriors were metal and came in blisters of 4 for £5)

 

 

Yeah that was the kind of thing they used to do. I got entire squads of metal Mk1-Mk5 armour dirt cheap one time when they were clearing the stock.

 

They also used to run competitions where you could win money off vouchers on certain products. Due to them not specifying how many vouchers you could use when they ran the competition for the original Space Hulk I entered 3 times winning three £5 off vouchers and got the game for a fiver! :D

 

I think nowadays because of the popularity and almost mainstream nature of their products there is no need for them ever to do sales anymore sadly. They can push prices up and know there is a customer base there willing to pay more.

 

More and more of late I long for the old days of GW and feel disconnected from what it is now. :(

 

I think I am turning into Iacton Qrurze.