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I think we're just talking across each other - as I said, I don't dispute that some is better than none when it comes to public-ish gaming space. Full stop. We agree. Next thought: the WH store is not designed to support a community of existing gamers, which is often (but not always) where the LGS comes in.

 Manchu wrote:
I think we're just talking across each other - as I said, I don't dispute that some is better than none when it comes to public-ish gaming space. Full stop. We agree. Next thought: the WH store is not designed to support a community of existing gamers, which is often (but not always) where the LGS comes in.

Depends on the community. Three tables can easily support a small local community.

I think this will really depend on individual experience. My thoughts...

1. GW stores can usually support small local communities.
2. GW stores generally can't support large local communities due to limited table space.
3. GW stores generally can't afford to properly support existing players who rarely spend money because limited space needs to be alloted to people who DO spend money or else the rent doesn't get paid.
4. LGS's come in all shapes and sizes. Some can support large local communities. Some can't support gaming communities at all.
5. LGS's can usually support existing players who rarely spend money due to having alternate income streams (usually Magic the Gathering).

This is very much a YMMV situation. I think an LGS has a higher potential, but less consistency. GW stores have a lower potential, but if you see a sign for one, you generally know what you're gonna get. With an LGS, you might walk into to MtG tables, or a wall of Warmachine and no Warhammer, or a box of Pokemon cards next to a really big baseball card display. Totally variable.

Sure, that is consistent at a high level with what I have been saying throughout the thread.* Of course, it makes sense for the purposes of this conversation to narrow the definition of "LGS" down to "LGS with table space for miniatures gaming" because that is what we are really interested in comparing to WH stores. I find that such LGS generally caters to existing gamers - the theory is providing a place to game translates into sales of stock of that game. Some ITT have been saying the same theory applies to the WH store.

I am sure it does just as an incidental matter - however, my main point is that this is not the actual purpose of the WH store. If it was, then yes it would make sense to criticize GW on the basis of equipping their stores with only 2-3 dedicated gaming tables. But that criticism misses the point that WH stores are not designed to support a community of existing gamers (regardless of whether they are incidentally capable of supporting an extremely small community). That, in turn, gets us back to why WH store managers require and are given discretion to manage how the day-to-day details tables in their stores are used.

* Exception being your Point 3. I think I would prefer friendly, positive customers with nicely painted armies and terrain, even if they rarely purchased anything, because they would offer the strongest customer-to-customer sales pitch.