Is GW a gaming Company or collector's item Company?

[Special Officer Doofy]

13 hours ago, SkimaskMohawk said:

It's why we saw Microsoft post 60%+ growth and close a bunch of studios right after, just so they can pad those numbers. 

 

Well it's working haha

 

 

[The Unseen]

But it isnt sustainable, or really even ethical; and it definitely isnt in the best interest of the consumer. A lot of people lost their jobs so some C-Suite exec could get a fat bonus before they jump ship. And then what do they do next year? They have fewer people making fewer things, and while corpo's just tell their remaining employees to work harder and do more with less, we've basically hit the wall on productivity gains on that front. Individuals are already multiple times more productive than employees were in say the 80s, and collectively are reaching total burnout.

 

Just because it's common, and works to (temporarily) jack share price up doesn't mean we should support such endeavors. 

 

It's quite obvious that modern GW has moved well beyond its starting culture of being run by nerds with a passion project that happens to make money, into a totally corporate style money making endeavor. They still clearly have some passionate people on the staff, but they clearly aren't the ones setting the direction anymore. 

 

I mean, can you imagine  modern GW putting out guides on how to make a new space marine anti-grav vehicle with a deodorant stick and some bitz in their official magazine? That's now basically an over done product catalog.

 

Or no longer letting their showcase painters gain any name recognition after Duncan used them as a spring board? 

Edited May 22 by The Unseen

[Helias_Tancred]

As someone who did work for them, I seriously don't know how they get people to work for them? I'm speaking from the US operation. I have no idea about the UK side, although I can't imagine it being too much better?

 

 

[Marshal Rohr]

Has GW made an acquisition followed by layoffs ever? I think the last company they bought was Sabertooth? Maybe a publishing company in the 00’s? Microsoft operates at an entire different plane of existence than GW. GW could never absorb Warlord, in spite of being a billion dollar enterprise, just to get in on the historical market. They wouldn’t want to and could never raise the capital for it. GW would never in a million years hire every game designer they could, pay them more than they were worth, and give them make work just to deny Mantic game designers. GW is a corporate nightmare, but GW is not a monolithic non state actor. 

[Special Officer Doofy]

3 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

As someone who did work for them, I seriously don't know how they get people to work for them? I'm speaking from the US operation. I have no idea about the UK side, although I can't imagine it being too much better?

 

I remember in the late 90's early 00's the couple GW brick and mortar shops around me were larger and had more staff in there at once. Since I came back in the start of 8th edition, the two nearest to me are those one person stores where they close for lunch and are much smaller, only ever seen one person inside working.

[ZeroWolf]

30 minutes ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

 

I remember in the late 90's early 00's the couple GW brick and mortar shops around me were larger and had more staff in there at once. Since I came back in the start of 8th edition, the two nearest to me are those one person stores where they close for lunch and are much smaller, only ever seen one person inside working.

Most stores are like this now. It was one of the more startling changes when I came back. I mean my local never really had more than 4 staff in total as it wasn't that big but to come back and find one person with "helpers"?

1 hour ago, Marshal Rohr said:

Has GW made an acquisition followed by layoffs ever? I think the last company they bought was Sabertooth? Maybe a publishing company in the 00’s? Microsoft operates at an entire different plane of existence than GW. GW could never absorb Warlord, in spite of being a billion dollar enterprise, just to get in on the historical market. They wouldn’t want to and could never raise the capital for it. GW would never in a million years hire every game designer they could, pay them more than they were worth, and give them make work just to deny Mantic game designers. GW is a corporate nightmare, but GW is not a monolithic non state actor. 

Not yet any way 

Jokes aside, i think that even if GW aspired to be Microsoft size, they'd sooner be bought out by one of the big boys. I mean depending on how this Amazon deal goes, they may buy them (god knows they've made worse decisions) though I admit this veers close to the strange rumour that Disney was going to buy GW at one point which I've never made sense of.

[sonsoftaurus]

GW is an IP company. 

[Helias_Tancred]

12 hours ago, Special Officer Doofy said:

 

I remember in the late 90's early 00's the couple GW brick and mortar shops around me were larger and had more staff in there at once. Since I came back in the start of 8th edition, the two nearest to me are those one person stores where they close for lunch and are much smaller, only ever seen one person inside working.

 

Yep, they've also wanted to get the stores they had in shopping malls, out of them. I get that nowadays here in the states.

 

You get shafted as a GW store manager, especially the one man store concept. You have some pretty tough sales quotas to meet and your worst barrier to that is Games Workshop itself. They send you little in the way of the new stuff that sells the best. For example take the past release of the Space Marines Company Heroes box set and the other models that released with it. My local GW store got in 3 boxes of Company Heroes. There were guys waiting outside for the store to open at noon to get new models. A local independent gaming store got in 9 boxes of Company Heroes, hence that is where I got mine. 

 

If someone who lives nearby orders something and has it shipped to your store (As a GW store manager) you don't get any sales credit for that towards your quarterly quota, they have to come to your store and use THE PC terminal INSIDE your store for you to get credit. lol. It all boils down to GW wanting to be cheap stiffs, they know that 90% of their store manager positions are gerbil position turnover wheels. My store went through 6 managers over 8 years lol. They don't care. I'm speaking of it here in the states. Not sure about the UK? I know they loosened up considerably during and after Covid in terms of the rigorous sales quotas, but I couldn't imagine them being permanent about that. 

 

Its a GW risk-adverse live-for-short-term-profits and just keep it going sort of mentality? I mean yeah they do plan model releases up to two years out, in that aspect they truly do think and plan ahead but marketing, sales, how they run their stores, doubtful. They are comfortable with the profit level they make, and they know most of the positions are temporary for those they hire.

 

Looking back I value the experience. It wasn't always a pleasant one. I knew going in it would be temporary for me, I had a professional career I took a break from, I lasted two years and that was enough. By the end of those two years I was burnt out, fed up with GW corporate, it reduced my personal enjoyment of the hobby, and I gave no Fs by the end of it ;) ... Overall I would say go for it, IF you understand that its 99% chance of being a temporary experience AND it will depreciate your personal enjoyment of the hobby the longer you do the job. 

 

Edited May 22 by Helias_Tancred

[Firedrake Cordova]

When I was working near it (pre-COVID), my local GW often had 2-3 members of staff in it, which is consistent with the staffing levels in the 1990s.

 

15 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

Yep, they've also wanted to get the stores they had in shopping malls, out of them. I get that nowadays here in the states.

I'm not surprised. Rents and business rates in shopping centres are enough to turn some of the most profitable GW stores in the UK into loss makers.

[DemonGSides]

From the multiple GW people I've spoken to somewhat recently, the US managers understand they're probably a "failure" in the most basic sense of the economics, but they also understand their job is to be the introduction to the hobby, and then people will peel off to their preferred form of interaction with the hobby, whether that's gaming (at another LGS), hobbying, lore-ing, or whatever. 

 

They don't expect you to buy every kit through them, just to start the addiction and come by to visit to grab exclusives every once in a while.

 

That's my experience though. Different things happen everywhere, and it's probably a lot more cutthroat in bigger cities. 

[Helias_Tancred]

5 hours ago, DemonGSides said:

They don't expect you to buy every kit through them, just to start the addiction and come by to visit to grab exclusives every once in a while.

 

 

 

No. At least 6 years ago, no not at all.  You were building a customer base for your store. Your continued employment depended on it. 

 

Edited May 23 by Helias_Tancred

[SvenIronhand]

One-man store is absolutely one of the worst ideas Kirby had.

[DemonGSides]

3 hours ago, Helias_Tancred said:

 

No. At least 6 years ago, no not at all.  You were building a customer base for your store. Your continued employment depended on it. 

 

Your old experiences as a manager probably aren't as true today.

 

I'm literally giving you an anecdote about a manager I've spoken to. You can say "no" but that's what he said. It's essentially he said and you said and you have already said you're out of the business, so I'll probably continue to believe him. 

[Helias_Tancred]

4 hours ago, DemonGSides said:

Your old experiences as a manager probably aren't as true today.

 

I'm literally giving you an anecdote about a manager I've spoken to. You can say "no" but that's what he said. It's essentially he said and you said and you have already said you're out of the business, so I'll probably continue to believe him. 

 

Lighten up Francis.

 

Edited May 24 by Helias_Tancred

[appiah4]

12 hours ago, SvenIronhand said:

One-man store is absolutely one of the worst ideas Kirby had.

How does this even work when the manager is sick or goes on vacation?

[Emperor Ming]

2 hours ago, appiah4 said:

How does this even work when the manager is sick or goes on vacation?

Servitors dont get sick or require vacations

[Joe]

23 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I'm not surprised. Rents and business rates in shopping centres are enough to turn some of the most profitable GW stores in the UK into loss makers.

 

For what it's worth, I know there's a lot of stores that aren't making a profit however they more than make up for it by on-boarding new people into the hobby - who subsequently go on to buy through various third-party retailers or another local games store. So whilst there's stores out there that aren't making money directly they are still bringing overall value.

[Sky Potato]

9 hours ago, appiah4 said:

How does this even work when the manager is sick or goes on vacation?

GW use a system where a locum or a supply teacher comes and covers the store for the day. I’ve seen two different people cover my local GW when the usual guy is away over the course of the last 18 months or so.

[Helias_Tancred]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:59 AM, appiah4 said:

How does this even work when the manager is sick or goes on vacation?

 

In the U.S. in years past a store manager could have one or two "on-call" people who were trained to run the point of sales stuff, knew enough about Warhammer to talk shop and you could have them come in when you were sick or away for training. It was handled at the store level, you as the store manager talked to them/"interviewed" them and they got in touch with corporate and did the paperwork side of it, they were then on the books as on calls with GW corporate. They were paid for the days they worked and  they received a 50% store discount (not on FW and only for in-store purchases) 24/7 365 days a year. It was a good gig if you had the sort of main job that allowed for it? I had two on-calls, and I used them a handful of times. If I was going to be out I'd call and see who could cover the store? They loved their discounts ;)

 

A couple years back they changed it. The on-calls were handled solely by U.S. corporate, you as the store manager had 0 role in any of it including deciding on when to use them, and if I recall they no longer got a store discount?

 

Lately, as in the last year or so, anytime the local GW store manager was out sick or had to do training/meetings, the store was just closed. He'd post it on the store FB.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are no more on-calls of any type? /shrug

 

 

Edited May 26 by Helias_Tancred

[ZeroWolf]

51 minutes ago, Helias_Tancred said:

 

In the U.S. in years past a store manager could have one or two "on-call" people who were trained to run the point of sales stuff, knew enough about Warhammer to talk shop and you could have them come in when you were sick or away for training. It was handled at the store level, you as the store manager talked to them/"interviewed" them and they got in touch with corporate and did the paperwork side of it, they were then on the books as on calls with GW corporate. They were paid for the days they worked and  they received a 50% store discount (not on FW and only for in-store purchases) 24/7 365 days a year. It was a good gig if you had the sort of main job that allowed for it? I had two on-calls, and I used them a handful of times. If I was going to be out I'd call and see who could cover the store? They loved their discounts ;)

 

A couple years back they changed it. The on-calls were handled solely by U.S. corporate, you as the store manager had 0 role in any of it including deciding on when to use them, and if I recall they no longer got a store discount?

 

Lately, as in the last year or so, anytime the local GW store manager was out sick or had to do training/meetings, the store was just closed. He'd post it on the store FB.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are no more on-calls of any type? /shrug

 

 

The UK still has them as my local was hiring them, though interestingly while one job was handled through corporate (aka it was on the website) there was others that you had to contact through Facebook for (I believe these were helper roles)

[Evil Eye]

On 5/24/2024 at 11:12 AM, Emperor Ming said:

Servitors dont get sick or require vacations

Please don't give them ideas!