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Opening soon, launch Weekend of 11th-12th of April.

It's in Tottenham Court Road, London.

It's listed on the promotional flyers etc as being a "Flagship store".

There will be 4 artwork prints available on the launch weekend.

https://www.facebook.com/WarhammerTottenhamCourtRoad


What one does note is that the store is listed/called : " Warhammer Tottenham Court Road " as opposed to " Games Workshop : wherever"

This is the replacement/rebirth of the long established Plaza shopping centre ( shopping centre = Mall) which is closing.

Staff are transferring over as well, which is good

Flagship store means it has 2 employees?

That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

yeah,
Hopefully flagship means they are creating Warhammer World mk2 in the capital.... one can dream.

Panic...

Have they printed the 25% off coupons in WD yet, or the buy two and get one free for blister packs and box sets?

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

The new unit they have is pretty small (about the same size as a typical high street branch) and most likely only slightly bigger then the old Plaza store (I haven't seen the temporary downstairs store so can't comment on how it compares to that). The new location is also very out of the way for a flagship store, it's in an okay location if you are making a special trip there as it's only a few minutes walk from 2 tube stations but there is very little in the way of general shopper footfall.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Panic wrote:
yeah,
Hopefully flagship means they are creating Warhammer World mk2 in the capital.... one can dream.

Panic...

Sorry, I think you will be disappointed. The new retail unit is only slightly bigger then the typical GW store size.

Honestly, I really don't understand why they don't invest in a big [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius] Warhammer-world scale central shop in Piccadilly Circus or somesuch tourist-heavy location, like the old Troc or where all the tourist tat shops are currently. Play loud music, have paint stations, hire attractive and friendly staff and give demos to everyone who wanders in. Considering the sheer volume of people who travel through central tourist London you'd get heavy footfall and spread the hobby to thousands of cash-rich tourists and kids who pass through daily.

I guess the Covent Garden branch fulfils their tourist quota but it's literally the size of my living room and never has anything I want to buy.

I was told by staff in another store that this is the new flagship, rather than Nottingham, which is being remodelled with three separate shops, including Black Library and presumably less gaming area.

Made real sense to me, the idea of a big store in London for events sounds fantastic

But... looking at the retail space, seems like more of a dinghy than a flagship.

Sometimes in cases like this, retail businesses refer to particular shops as flagship in reference to their sales rather than what they provide. I would think if this is being referred to as flagship by GW internally, then they expect this to be their top store in terms of sales figures.

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Honestly, I really don't understand why they don't invest in a big [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius] Warhammer-world scale central shop in Piccadilly Circus or somesuch tourist-heavy location, like the old Troc or where all the tourist tat shops are currently. Play loud music, have paint stations, hire attractive and friendly staff and give demos to everyone who wanders in. Considering the sheer volume of people who travel through central tourist London you'd get heavy footfall and spread the hobby to thousands of cash-rich tourists and kids who pass through daily.

Central London shop rents are £££££££. I don't think they could afford to do that even without the current low sales.

 Hivefleet Oblivion wrote:
I was told by staff in another store that this is the new flagship, rather than Nottingham, which is being remodelled with three separate shops, including Black Library and presumably less gaming area.

Made real sense to me, the idea of a big store in London for events sounds fantastic

But... looking at the retail space, seems like more of a dinghy than a flagship.

I doubt it will be anything to do with the changes in nottingham, which to be honest I don't think are going to make a huge diffrence to the gaming space there. The current shop there is huge, and how much space can a black library shop take up? Looking at the plans there will be some loss of gaming space, but they had more than they needed anyway 99% of the time, and it will be nice to have a shop you might want to go to if your not gaming. Hopefully they update the AC whilst they are at it. It was horrific last time I went during school holidays. My wife and I walked out without spending anything because of the stink.

 Pacific wrote:
Have they printed the 25% off coupons in WD yet, or the buy two and get one free for blister packs and box sets?

Seeing as no-one else has bitten yet....

Ha ha!

Shame because such sales were always a key feature of the original Tale of Four Gamers.

Can we infer that the "Warhammer" branding has been successful in the trial stores...or are they charging on without market research?

 Steve steveson wrote:
Central London shop rents are £££££££. I don't think they could afford to do that even without the current low sales.

Yeah, I was going to say this.

Rents are super-high. Having a massive central London store just doesn't make financial sense.

Maybe they're hoping there will be a bit more in the way of customers up that way?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Steve steveson wrote:
Central London shop rents are £££££££. I don't think they could afford to do that even without the current low sales.

Yeah, I was going to say this.

Rents are super-high. Having a massive central London store just doesn't make financial sense.

Yea, but this is what Apple does. So it must work for companies like GW, which is basically the Apple of table top wargaming...

Well, there's two ways that a central London store can work for a company, firstly, the exposure, if you use your retail locations as advertising, then a high profile location in London is the equivalent of a half time commercial at the Super Bowl.

The other is that central London = beaucoup footfall, if you can parlay this amount of meat passing your door into sales, then it can still make financial sense, it doesn't matter if the rent is £100k a week, if you're generating £200k in profit.

There's also perhaps an argument for being seen to be successful, if people see a store in a high profile location then they will make certain assumptions about the business, if that store makes a loss, then that isn't the end of the world if the other benefits it brings are valuable enough. One has to take a holistic approach with retail chains, some stores may not make a profit, but as long as the losses aren't too severe, the company may decide to continue operating for other reasons.

Having said all that, I don't think any of it really applies to GW.

I was speaking to the staff at the Covent Garden store last week, he stated it is just more a case of re-branding and a refurbish rather than any new superstore type affair.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Well, there's two ways that a central London store can work for a company, firstly, the exposure, if you use your retail locations as advertising, then a high profile location in London is the equivalent of a half time commercial at the Super Bowl.

The other is that central London = beaucoup footfall, if you can parlay this amount of meat passing your door into sales, then it can still make financial sense, it doesn't matter if the rent is £100k a week, if you're generating £200k in profit.

There's also perhaps an argument for being seen to be successful, if people see a store in a high profile location then they will make certain assumptions about the business, if that store makes a loss, then that isn't the end of the world if the other benefits it brings are valuable enough. One has to take a holistic approach with retail chains, some stores may not make a profit, but as long as the losses aren't too severe, the company may decide to continue operating for other reasons.

Having said all that, I don't think any of it really applies to GW.

This is correct, the rent wouldn't matter compared to the sheer footfall and exposure the central London shop would generate. They could also have a computer games section promoting their computer games with stations, tvs and hang-out area; a Black Library section for people who only read, and a separate, co-joined Bugman's pub serving food and drink. Have a cosplay Space Marine walking around for tourists to take pictures with and get people into the store. Give out free Space Marines on weekends. London is the number one tourist destination in the world and Picadilly / Leicester Square is (unfortunately) the epicentre. It's the equivalent of having a million dollar multi-national marketing campaign all the time.

The problem with GW HQ is that they think extremely fething small. I'm curious why you think it doesn't apply?

Piccadilly circus rents can't be that extortionate. All the major retail spaces once occupied by big brands like the Virgin megastore and HMV have been filled with Crest of London souvenir shops selling literal tat.

GW sees its stores as expenses and not investments; it sees money in and money put but doesn't really care about the whys and hows. Continuing the Apple analogy, Apple utilizes its stores largely as publicity and quality control; the majority of Apple sales don't occur in their stores but the majority of problem solving and fixes do. At the same time Apple designs and places their stores to optimize visibility; this because they believe showing off their happy customers and a strong public interest in their product drives a stronger public interest. GW doesn't need to do things on the same level, nor should they, but when they want to place their products on pedestals and sell them at a premium they should learn something from other companies that have similar market positions in other markets.

alphaecho wrote:


Can we infer that the "Warhammer" branding has been successful in the trial stores...or are they charging on without market research?

No, it was not. Most new players now go to the local independent and the Veteran Night is now also relocated to it.
Of course I am just a hater and the sales, as shown in the annual report, are brilliant!

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

The problem with GW HQ is that they think extremely fething small. I'm curious why you think it doesn't apply?

You already answered your own question, GW think far too small, they time and again act as if they're completely oblivious to, or totally dismissive of, anything that doesn't directly put money in the till.

They wouldn't take the risk on a project like that, and if it didn't make money, rather than looking at the big picture and deciding whether the other benefits were worthwhile, they'd run around like their hair was on fire and close it down at the earliest opportunity.

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

sebigboss79 wrote:

alphaecho wrote:


Can we infer that the "Warhammer" branding has been successful in the trial stores...or are they charging on without market research?

No, it was not. Most new players now go to the local independent and the Veteran Night is now also relocated to it.
Of course I am just a hater and the sales, as shown in the annual report, are brilliant!

Wait what, we have an indie store here now? When did that happen? Unless you mean Black Lion, in which case; pass.

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!

*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!

Hmm. I'm no sure that's much of an improvement in terms of footfall. I thought they might be going for the British Museum crowd, but that end of Tottenham court road is a little away from the main tourist stretch - I imagine it's still going to be people going there as a destination as its not really a tourist shopping area.

Certainly more exposed being right on the street, but ground floor of the plaza on Oxford street itself probably gets more tourists through the door.

overtyrant wrote:

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!

*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!

That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

it's interesting how, when there are many genuine reasons to be cynical about GW, that people have to make up fantasy reasons, too!

We've bought from Dark Sphere for years, there has never been a problem in getting popular items we wanted on the Saturday. In some cases allocations were limited but they even got huge numbers of Space Hulk and Stormclaw, so as long as you ordered early you were fine.

I think was one time they had problems getting hold of some hot Eldar product, IIRC, but that was it.

Davor wrote:

overtyrant wrote:

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!

*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!

That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.

It's well documented. Actually, in an independent model shop I worked in some years the owner there described it happening (and this was in the early 90's!) Deliveries were always OK, the moment a GW store opened down the road they all started turning up late, with reduced quantities and the new lines (which the punters were generally after) were always delayed. In the end he just stopped selling GW stuff.

I've heard of it happening to other stores also, although I've got no idea if it still goes on. I think these days GW are just trying the tactic of using crappy trader deals or just moving new items to direct sales only.

I think the super rich people living in London are a good target audience. I mean who else can affored to buy this stuff?

Off-topic for the main thread, but hopefully pertinent to the discussion of GWs current relationship with independents:

GW don't delay product to Independent retailers, as long as they have ordered in time for it to be shipped/received by the release date. There's generally a two day turnaround, three at the most, and as long as orders go in on a Monday (and are paid for) then new releases should be with independents by Wednesday or Thursday. New releases can't be dispatched by Independent Mail Order before Friday, so will usually arrive Saturday or Monday depending on the delivery method.

In the case of limited edition items, independents have been able to order them ready for for release day sales in their retail shops, but are prevented from posting them out until the following week (as they can't order them for mail order until the Monday after release).

There's obviously a slight caveat in that independents who infringe on the trade agreement (such as by breaking street date) may have releases delayed. There's also no accounting for the inability of certain couriers to actually deliver on time.

Davor wrote:

overtyrant wrote:

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

StraightSilver wrote:
That's a relief, the smaller ground floor Plaza store was awful, so glad it was only a temporary move.

However they will still be hard pressed to compete with Dark Sphere if I'm honest, much better place to shop and usually has a better GW range than GW.

I will however go to the grand opening of the new Warhammer store as they usually have cake...

If it works in the UK like in the US, then it is questionable as to whether or not Dark Sphere will be receiving new releases on time. Or if those releases will be withheld for "reasons" to try and draw customers to the GW official location.

This used to be* a common GW tactic here for many a year!

*they may still do it but there has been no GW or indie here for a long time! Here's hoping Wayland will open a store here!

That is illegal. You can't reduce/make late someone's shipment just to better your store. If that happens GW will have a big lawsuit on their hands. Unless that is legal in UK.

Incompetence is seldom illegal.

If you could prove they intentionally, with malice of forethought, delayed your order to obtain a competitive advantage, then yes, maybe there'd be something they'd be guilty of, although I'm not sure what exactly, and doubt it would carry any notable sanction.

If the warehouse just fluff getting your order out on time? Happens every day.