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1) No, staff arent there to paint or assemble your models. They can assist but whole sale assembly is NOT their job. If you think it is....well, you have entitlement issues.

2) GW UK are prohibited from most promotional efforts, due to the CC ruling a few years back. As producer of a majority share of the modelling market they cannot leverage that in the retail space - so no sales, no giving away free models, no discounts, etc.

3) This seems like a reasonable way to get some interest without falling foul, as raffles are allowable (under certain strict rules, but it isnt a CC issue more a tax / gambling one) and swapping a staffers time to help assemble and paint YOUR army is fair enough. Remeber - thats NOT their job, usually!

Can people also lay off the gw staff member bashing? Yes, some are terrible painters / modellers. If they are in your area, and theyre running this promotion - great, dont bother. However to help batch paint 100 skaven slaves it may well lbe worth the investment, thats oe of the dullest jobs around...!

Well, one of the ex-staff in my local GW is a multiple golden daemon winner, so I'd be totally up for that idea!

nosferatu1001 wrote:2) GW UK are prohibited from most promotional efforts, due to the CC ruling a few years back. As producer of a majority share of the modelling market they cannot leverage that in the retail space - so no sales, no giving away free models, no discounts, etc.

This is really interesting. I just assumed that they stopped doing sales because they're a bunch of donkey-caves. Do you have any hard sources for this? Not that I don't believe you, I just want to take a look at the ruling for myself. Seems like it would be a fascinating read.

nosferatu1001 wrote:2) GW UK are prohibited from most promotional efforts, due to the CC ruling a few years back. As producer of a majority share of the modelling market they cannot leverage that in the retail space - so no sales, no giving away free models, no discounts, etc

That.... kinda sucks. Would definitely explain the lackluster presentation of this.

Seems that the Competition Commission (I assume that's what CC means here) have no record of anything about Games Workshop, the records on their website go back to 2000.

I am assuming that nosferatu1001 is referring to a specific ruling regarding business practices in general rather than a specific judgement against Games Workshop.

That being said, I didn't realise that being the market leader and having a large market share prevented the manufacturer from offering sales or discounts. I stand to be corrected though.

It's more that they are both the monopoly producer (as in, influences the model market to a monopolistic extent) AND retailer for models in the uk.

You are not allowed to use your monopoly in one area (they control production) to unfairly compete against businesses in another area (retail, selling models) - and the old GW half price sales, which they could suck up, definitely broke this rule.

I'd love them to use loyalty cards - I vaguely recall the old skull collectors cards

still it seems very unlikely to happen :(

nosferatu1001 wrote:It's more that they are both the monopoly producer (as in, influences the model market to a monopolistic extent) AND retailer for models in the uk.

You are not allowed to use your monopoly in one area (they control production) to unfairly compete against businesses in another area (retail, selling models) - and the old GW half price sales, which they could suck up, definitely broke this rule.

Without wishing to sound confrontational, is this an actual decision that has been taken and implemented by GW (and which you presumably have been made aware of) or is it something that you have surmised based on the Competition Commission's rules and the absence of any sales/promotions from GW?

It's free, it encourages you to shop at your expensive GW store instead of go online. I love the idea of having a GW employee slave over my models for an hour, I bet the help of highlighting would really help some people.

The only way some of you guys will be happy if it's a "Spend £10, get £1,000 of free stuff" promotion.

So much straw...

i have one of the loyalty cards in my wallet....from glasgow store. is that the only store doing this?

Kijamon wrote:It's free, it encourages you to shop at your expensive GW store instead of go online. I love the idea of having a GW employee slave over my models for an hour, I bet the help of highlighting would really help some people.

The only way some of you guys will be happy if it's a "Spend £10, get £1,000 of free stuff" promotion.

This is an absurd generalization and no one in this thread has said anything remotely like that, to the point I wonder if you are actually interested in participating in this discussion. The only numbers that were thrown up were more like "Spend $250, get a $25 troop box free".

I don't think free product is the only incentive they can offer, nor even necessarily the best. However, my understanding is that the stores only have one person there now (right?) and as such this currently plan will be difficult to accomplish, logistically. Assuming these guys get paid, say, $9 an hour, I suspect a $25 box of troops may actually be cheaper to give away as well; as we know they have an enormous markup on them.

The fact that it's "free" doesn't innately confer "value" onto it. While I personally wouldn't see value in someone else working on my models, no matter how skilled they are, that's merely my opinion. I could understand why other people may feel differently.

Its not such a bad idea, but an hour of someone elses time? No thanks.....Id much rather a couple of £10 blisters or a Tac squad or equivalent.
I cant see GW rolling this out across the board though. Seems like a shop by shop basis type thing, ill ask the red shirts at my local GW on friday I think. See what they make of it...

Craptacular reward

Filbert - personally know of. It's actually pre CC web enabled days (from memory it was M&MC then? Damn departments changing names all the time...), late 90s when GW used to run a LOT of crazy sales.

i don't know if it has been said or not but i think that the staff shouldn't give the free hour of painting or modelling, that is part of the hobby and you should be entitled to do it yourself

My local GW (when I'm in the UK) has a Golden Daemon level painter on staff.
An hour of his painting time is worth the entry, plus bear in mind, it's not the full cost of the stamp you need to consider, it's only the difference in price between GW and the internet, since you'd probably be buying the stuff anyway.

madman12367 wrote:i don't know if it has been said or not but i think that the staff shouldn't give the free hour of painting or modelling, that is part of the hobby and you should be entitled to do it yourself

Huh? So you shouldnt have a friend help assemble your models, ever?

Hard to tell what you're actually saying here...

Even if GW did Necter points or Air miles we would all be ok with it?

In my local store they did on the birthday if you spend cash, win painting comp on the day, or win a 1000 point game you got a raffle ticket and the winners got one of the old models the staff had painted. First out, first choice etc.

Another store party there was the same but it was only wen you bought GamesDay tickets or spent over £100. The prize was a full 2400 fully painted Lizardmen army.

They do the promotions there, just wish they would do it more often.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

nosferatu1001 wrote:

madman12367 wrote:i don't know if it has been said or not but i think that the staff shouldn't give the free hour of painting or modelling, that is part of the hobby and you should be entitled to do it yourself

Huh? So you shouldnt have a friend help assemble your models, ever?

Hard to tell what you're actually saying here...

They can help you on request. Normally they will demonstrate on a arm or a leg and you do the rest while they look after you done it.

Ash - I know that, i know full well what the normal role of a GW staff member is. Which is why people saying "1 hour of their time to be a painting slave? thats what they should be doing anyway!!!!" are WRONG, dead wrong.

An hour of a store guys time putting models together could be very useful. One thing you get *very* good at when working for GW is speed assembly. If all you need are 50 clan rats sticking together, GW staff do it as well as anyone - making this an actual prize.

Full disclosure: hubby is ex-GW, as are approzimately 90% of my friends - who include IT geeks (a bit like me) and lawyers, before anyone chimes in....

Never been inside a GW store so not sure about this, but given their mandated workload (stocking, sales, assembling store product, ect. ect.), does this hour here and there devoted to a particular customer affect what they are required to do by their job in any way (which may also include talking up sales, helping other customers)?

Like most things GW do, it will just be expected that everything else would magicallyt happen....

Never seen a GW store front. I tried to find a Battle Bunker once. Back in the day DakkaDakka had saturday painting contest (winner chose a blister of choice).

Most gaming stores in my area... basically all of them in the state, have a "spend $100 get $10 off next purchase".

As for the reward of a staffer assembling/painting models... I would love to do that for a living.

"50 clan rats assembled? No problem, my friend, just let me cut them off the sprue real quick...(20 minutes pass) Alrighty, lets get these fellas glued together...(20 minutes later) Okay now that about 20 of the 50 are together lets get these ones basecoated so I can begin painting...(20 minutes later) Well, they're not dry yet but I have to take my lunchbreak. Mind spending a few hundred more so I can finish these for you?"

I got really interested when i saw the title.

As has been said, if was "get 5 stamps, get a free blister" i woudl be in there as it mkaes it moderately worthwhile. Although it woudl still take me ages to get a full card.

But posters? Staff painting my models for an hour? Lets be honest, if they are going to do a really good job and make it worthwhile, they would need more than a single hour on a model.

I think I still have some Skullz somewhere...

Praxiss - except they arent allowed to give away free models like that. AS in, strictly not allowed to do so.

Raffles? Yes, as they dont count as "normal trade"
Giveaways of old terrain boards, etc? As above