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A Town Called Malus wrote:

Vladsimpaler wrote:
There is no need to be upset.

Spoiler:

That picture is strangely soothing...

Yes.. yes it is..

thanks for posting it !

spacewolf407 wrote:I happen to live 15 mins away from the only GW in Florida, Orlando to be specific. Them opening last year was actually the reason I came back to the hobby after 15 years. Awesome manager, there are always games going on, and the shelves are always stocked.

+1 to this! I go to the same shop and they are always packed with stock, I think the guy's name is Clay and he's a great dude. He says they are really raking in the money at that location!

As much as I understand some of it may be necessary, mine's been going downhill. They used to have a whole two rooms, one which was stock and had three tables in it, the other was filled with tables. Now we only have the first room, and recently its been knocked down to two tables (In fact it may only be one now). Plus seeing as there are so few tables (and apparently SO many people want to play, which is a lie, barely anyone uses them) games have to be under 1000 points and can't last more than about 90 minutes. That's not enough points or time for a really decent game for me.

The GW employee just letf his store to become a train driver. I don't know as I havent been there since, but the new guy might be the person who accidently took £21 worth of my models!

kshaw2000 wrote:The GW employee just letf his store to become a train driver. I don't know as I havent been there since, but the new guy might be the person who accidently took £21 worth of my models!

A train driver? And the employee steals models? I feel sorry for your store.

Joey wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

Joey wrote:Cost of a night out:£30-£40. Cost of a box of troops+paints:~£30. Guess which will last longer?

Which is totally subjective. Hanging out with possibly influential people could have a larger and more lasting impact ( with your connection, maturity growth, perspective ) than a box of plastic soldiers.

What? You mean when people go to clubs and get so drunk they can't speak, they're making connections and improving their lives?
That's bs.
A night out entertains you for an evening, a box of 40k entertains you for a week, maybe more maybe less, depends how much spare time you have.

Astartes before parties!

A train driver?

In the UK, train drivers earn quite good money, much more than (say) a GW store manager would. Granted it's not akin to becoming Queen's Counsel or a GP but it's hardly a poor career move.

Blood and Slaughter wrote:

A train driver?

In the UK, train drivers earn quite good money, much more than (say) a GW store manager would. Granted it's not akin to becoming Queen's Counsel or a GP but it's hardly a poor career move.

To be honest, if I was working in a store with that kind of stuff going down, I'd take any job, really. Props to that man for finding ANY kind of alternative, in this economy.

Blood and Slaughter wrote:

A train driver?

In the UK, train drivers earn quite good money, much more than (say) a GW store manager would. Granted it's not akin to becoming Queen's Counsel or a GP but it's hardly a poor career move.

Plus they get to see all those exotic, faraway places such as Slough or Aldershot. Places the rest of us can only dream about visiting...

A Town Called Malus wrote:

Plus they get to see all those exotic, faraway places such as Slough or Aldershot. Places the rest of us can only dream about visiting...

Says the guy from Cloudsdale...

On topic, The GW near me is alright, but £10 to get there and back isn;t too good. The local Indies are better because I don;t have to pay a massive amount to get there.

The GW Portsmouth throws the best Apoc games though.

I read an article somewhere about how GW's shop-related cost-cutting is inspiring all sorts of other retailers to change their model. They have a very active programme (in the UK certainly) of moving to smaller, cheaper units and reducing both hours and staff. The one-man shop model is the one that other retailers are really liking from what I hear. It is actually quite cheap to run: one guy on maybe £16k, a small, cheap (relatively as retail space is expensive) store unit and overheads. This is one of the main ways thay are rebalancing their operations to return to strong profitability. Never forget that they are a ruthless capitalist enterprise, run by accountants and have not been gamer-run since about 1991 or so when Ansell sold out to retire to the Canary Islands. It's all about cost and margins.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Further to that last post - the cost is further reduced when you consider that GW staff presumably spend a fair percentage of their take-home on GW products. So a manager on £16K will be kicking back maybe £50 a month minimum to GW. In the UK they even tried offering people the chance to volunteer to work in certain GW shops for a couple of hours on a saturday afternoon - unpaid! The reward was access to the staff discount. So GW internships now.

Isengard wrote:I read an article somewhere about how GW's shop-related cost-cutting is inspiring all sorts of other retailers to change their model. They have a very active programme (in the UK certainly) of moving to smaller, cheaper units and reducing both hours and staff. The one-man shop model is the one that other retailers are really liking from what I hear. It is actually quite cheap to run: one guy on maybe £16k, a small, cheap (relatively as retail space is expensive) store unit and overheads. This is one of the main ways thay are rebalancing their operations to return to strong profitability. Never forget that they are a ruthless capitalist enterprise, run by accountants and have not been gamer-run since about 1991 or so when Ansell sold out to retire to the Canary Islands. It's all about cost and margins.

This. For better or for worse (often both at the same time.) this world runs on money. Short term gains beat out long term goals. Who knows? Maybe they'll rethink their business model when they realize they're selling to people, not numbers, and those people are getting pissed off and not buying anymore? I'd hate to see it come to that, but...

TermiesInARaider wrote:

Isengard wrote:I read an article somewhere about how GW's shop-related cost-cutting is inspiring all sorts of other retailers to change their model. They have a very active programme (in the UK certainly) of moving to smaller, cheaper units and reducing both hours and staff. The one-man shop model is the one that other retailers are really liking from what I hear. It is actually quite cheap to run: one guy on maybe £16k, a small, cheap (relatively as retail space is expensive) store unit and overheads. This is one of the main ways thay are rebalancing their operations to return to strong profitability. Never forget that they are a ruthless capitalist enterprise, run by accountants and have not been gamer-run since about 1991 or so when Ansell sold out to retire to the Canary Islands. It's all about cost and margins.

This. For better or for worse (often both at the same time.) this world runs on money. Short term gains beat out long term goals. Who knows? Maybe they'll rethink their business model when they realize they're selling to people, not numbers, and those people are getting pissed off and not buying anymore? I'd hate to see it come to that, but...

I am not a number I am a free man!

Update on my store: Things may be looking up, we got a new manager who is completely new to this game (big wargamer though) and seems really open to change. We convinced them to make it 4 playable tables and move the computer that they had with our urban table for some reason. Also, he is looking to run events...so I guess GW isn't going to ruin this hobby completely..yet.

A Town Called Malus wrote:

TermiesInARaider wrote:

Isengard wrote:I read an article somewhere about how GW's shop-related cost-cutting is inspiring all sorts of other retailers to change their model. They have a very active programme (in the UK certainly) of moving to smaller, cheaper units and reducing both hours and staff. The one-man shop model is the one that other retailers are really liking from what I hear. It is actually quite cheap to run: one guy on maybe £16k, a small, cheap (relatively as retail space is expensive) store unit and overheads. This is one of the main ways thay are rebalancing their operations to return to strong profitability. Never forget that they are a ruthless capitalist enterprise, run by accountants and have not been gamer-run since about 1991 or so when Ansell sold out to retire to the Canary Islands. It's all about cost and margins.

This. For better or for worse (often both at the same time.) this world runs on money. Short term gains beat out long term goals. Who knows? Maybe they'll rethink their business model when they realize they're selling to people, not numbers, and those people are getting pissed off and not buying anymore? I'd hate to see it come to that, but...

I am not a number I am a free man!

HAHAHAHAHA!!!