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Rumors are going around that the angels of death are swarming either around or on their way to the Atlanta GW store. It would seem that the rumor of the store closing 2 years ago was true but GW could not get out of their lease so they were stuck there. Now after making endless promises to new staff and the community it seems their HR components of death are ready to drop the hammer.

If this is the case then I am really starting to wonder what the marketing guys at GW are really up to. They have priced themselves on the upper threshold of the market, meaning most people can not continue to add items and new people can not afford to enter the hobby. Their plan seems to be so short term that it makes absolutly no sense. Is there anybody out there that can give us a real clue as to the market strategy of this company?!??

GW stores seem to be forever closing in the States according to Dakka. Amazed there are any left

The pattern seems to be find a hot market...open a store...put all the local buisnesses out of buisness by taking all the customers....close the GW store.

yeah, being from illinois and coming to georgia was a bit of a suprise for me (at least regarding GW stores). there has to be at least 8 in illinois including a bunker while georgia has one... which may now be closing.

Atl had two... Closed one basically over night in Douglasville

If Mall of Ga one is closing that would suck , but the ATL metro area had/has a fair amount of Indy stores, and some offered a discount.


The same thing happened to Memphis.. They opened the BB drove off all the indys then closed the BB , leaving no stores.

TobyDog wrote:Atl had two... Closed one basically over night in Douglasville

If Mall of Ga one is closing that would suck , but the ATL metro area had/has a fair amount of Indy stores, and some offered a discount.


The same thing happened to Memphis.. They opened the BB drove off all the indys then closed the BB , leaving no stores.

What's the point in doing that? Surely if you are going to drive competitors and independents out of business then the whole point is to stick around afterwards when they are all gone and reap the profits - I really don't understand GW's business strategy sometimes...

It makes more sense if you think about GW in terms of being a british colonial oppressor

The british went to a new country, destroyed all the local infrastructure then left when there was nothing left or they got bored

GW's marketing strategy this past year or two has involved a lot of cost cutting, which has included closing stores where they felt the rent was too high for the amount of business or growth they were achieving. Even places like Boston where they had multiple stores have had their stores closed. Sometimes the stores are moved to lower rent locations, sometimes the community is just left hanging. The community in Richmond, VA has the same problem since GW closed the store at Stony Point, a store that was always full of people. Now they are stuck with independent stores that, based on what a friend in that area has told me, do not support the hobby properly.

On the other hand, certain areas have seen stores added and more are planned in some of those areas. One indicator is Battle Bunkers. Part of the plan is to have Battle Bunkers as community "hubs" with "feeder" stores around them in the community. Smaller stores get people hooked into the hobby, Bunkers provide large scale support for the veteran community as it grows. If you live in an area with a thriving Battle Bunker you're likely to see more stores added in your state. Other market areas seem a lot more arbitrary at this point as to store growth or store closure.

Kirasu wrote:It makes more sense if you think about GW in terms of being a british colonial oppressor

The british went to a new country, destroyed all the local infrastructure then left when there was nothing left or they got bored

We never left because we got bored, more often it was because the emerging new world order demanded that we give back all the countries that we stole. British Colonialism was largely about making a fat pile of cash from indigenous industries (e.g. tea, cotton) that thought they were being given a fair price for their goods (tee hee hee).

And we generally built infrastructure to facilitate trade as opposed to destroying it

Flashman wrote:GW stores seem to be forever closing in the States according to Dakka. Amazed there are any left

Actually, they have more stores now than they did in 2008. The report released in Jul 2009 stated they are trying to close down stores in malls because of the restrictive hours and high lease rates. If they are closing down a mall store in GA, I imagine they will be opening another store soon.

The fact is they make over 40% of their revenue from Hobby Center sales. I doubt they will be closing the only store in the area without opening another one reasonably close by soon.

Having never been to the Mall of Georgia GW, I can't really speak for the quality of that store. What I do know is that Tower Games has just moved to a larger location, and Phoenix games also has a high quality setup -- they're both among the top gaming stores I've ever had the pleasure to visit, and both are very close to the Mall of Georgia. I can't imagine that many people are spending their cash at the GW location rather than at stores that I assume to be bigger, friendlier, and probably cutting them a better deal.

The Arbor Place GW that closed in Douglasville years ago was, at the time, the only place I played. It was cramped, crowded, had unfriendly and poorly trained staff, and you were lucky if you could sneak in a second microscopic scale battle in a day. I played there because I didn't know of any FLGS's in the area at the time. Now the Douglasville community is pretty well dried up, with maybe 6-8 people attending a given RTT at Hobby Hangout.

Maybe they made the right move to close that store with just the one local shop to compete with. So what does that mean for the MoG location with two competing local shops? Just a thought...

There's a fairly preposterous amount of Atlanta stores.

You've got Phoenix, which is literally 5 minutes from the MoG, then Tower which is about 10-15 minutes from there. A little south of that (another maybe 5 minutes) you've got the Gaming Pit. There are 4 stores in about a 20 mile radius.

Going west across town you can get to Giga Bytes, or South across town you can get to Treefort, though that's quite a trek. Atlanta is super saturated with stores.

The funniest thing about that Malecus is that the store that is now the Hobby Hang out was actually there before the GW store was at the mall. They did a lot for the community and events and really did build up the area. Then the GW store opened and competed with him. Several of the staff memebers actually started to play there heh.

Actually there are 4 really good stores to play at in Atlanta. Phoenix games and Giga-Bites are probably the best but Tower is great too and so is the pit.

The problem here is that there is a disturbing pattern with the GW stores over the last few years. In the past they would put stores out in high traffic areas to increase interest and when someone grew to the point of playing major games (anything over 1k) they would introduce them to the hobby area. This allowed them to concentrate on new people. Now their patern seems to be to put the other stores out of buisness then disapear.

For every one GW store that closes... Two more GW stores open in TX.

40kenthusiast wrote:There's a fairly preposterous amount of Atlanta stores.

You've got Phoenix, which is literally 5 minutes from the MoG, then Tower which is about 10-15 minutes from there. A little south of that (another maybe 5 minutes) you've got the Gaming Pit. There are 4 stores in about a 20 mile radius.

Going west across town you can get to Giga Bytes, or South across town you can get to Treefort, though that's quite a trek. Atlanta is super saturated with stores.

Don't forget the Hobby Town USA in Kennesaw which stocks more GW merchandise at any given time than the GW at Mall of Georgia does. It's only 15 minutes north of Giga Bytes, but doesn't have the nice, in-house cafe experience.

I gave up on the hobby town. Although I love meandering through the store and that is where I buy most of my plasticard and terrain building stuff the internal support for the hobby seems to wax and wain. I have been to several of their events where only 2-6 people showed up heh. They do go through a high staff changing rate so maybe things have changed.

Not a lot os stores for us forls on the south end of atlanta, though :(

Who cares if they close the GW store? What value do they really add? None that I can see.

As pointed out, there are 3 nice stores in the same area and everyone buys from the other stores to keep them going. I can't for the life of me imagine why anyone would buy from them with all the other stores around. I can see a positive in that it will push players to the other stores for gaming and purchases.

Who cares if they close the GW store? What value do they really add? None that I can see.

For the thousands of people out there that play games in those stores, paint their models, get assistance from staff and other hobbyists, and make new friends, there's plenty of value to be seen and plenty of people who care.

Are you refering to this particular store?

as much as everyone feels like they're being tough and "sticking it to the man" by slagging GW at every opportunity, the hobby centres tend to bring a lot of new people into the hobby, who may or may not shop at that hobby centre or move on to a FLGS.
The staff who seem to be despised so much here have to deal with people like the ones constantly trash talking them on a daily basis, and at the end of the day, they tried to help people who were and weren't excited for their efforts.
The store closing is a shame, but hopefully the great local hobby shops will be able to support the now "homeless" hobbyists.

I live 5 mins away from Phoenix and 15 mins away from the MoG GW store. Since Phoenix has opened, I haven't been back to the GW store since. Get rid of it, I say, and let free market economy and Capitalism continue to thrive...I have it on good authority that Phoenix has hit the local GW store in the wallet HARD, and combine with SKY-High rent from Simon CO. ( Owner of Mall of GA) there is no reason to keep the GW store open any longer.

I have nothing against GW stores or their employees, but the sooner they adapt and change their market strategy and sales pitches, ( not to mention pricing) the sooner they will become competitive again in the wargaming hobby.

Saldiven wrote:Don't forget the Hobby Town USA in Kennesaw (snip) It's only 15 minutes north of Giga Bytes, but doesn't have the nice, in-house cafe experience.

A whole mess of gamers with an in-house supply of coffee? That has the potential to be downright dangerous. Fun, definitely amusing, but dangerous ...

The one thing the GW stores do well is due to location. With all the foot traffic they see in the malls they really do bring new people into the hobby. Especially at that mall where most of the mall rats running around have plenty of money. If it were not for that level of initiation even Phoenix would be struggling as that is where many of their customer base started. I still think the GW stores have potential, however they need to be run better and with the idea of getting people started.

Endless supply of coffee and gassy foods is even worse. It is a great store though and events there are typically top notch. Same with Phoenix too.

they need to be run better and with the idea of getting people started.

That was true many years ago, but I haven't seen those issues in at least 4 or 5 years.

First, getting people started is the focus in all GW stores. Assisting veterans, who largely take care of themselves anyway, is dropped like a hot potato in favor of assisting newcomers every time that need presents itself.

As for being better run, GW is extremely careful whom they hire these days and they regularly let people go for not being able to meet their high performance standards. These days their stores are neat and clean, brightly lit and every customer is greeted and assisted as they come through the door. Employees who fail to greet and assist people as they come in are usually promptly fired.

I've also had the opportunity to watch many prospective employee assessment centers at the US HQ and they really do sift out the chaff before hiring these days.

BrassScorpion wrote:First, getting people started is the focus in all GW stores. Assisting veterans, who largely take care of themselves anyway, is dropped like a hot potato in favor of assisting newcomers every time that need presents itself.

Makes particularly good sense when you consider how grumpy some vets are about being assisted.

The GW store in ATL is in the wrong place anyway and deserves to go out of business anyway.

They closed the GW Store in Springfield Mall, at Springfield, Virginia... and then opened it at a very close location in one of those "Strip Mall" type places, which seems to give them a bit more freedom (Though it feels and seems like a smaller lot). As another pointed out in this thread, it does seem a bit like they're moving their stores out of the older Mall establishments into something less constricting.

I make it a point to visit the GW-ATL store everytime I come into town and to be honest I can't stand it. The staff was pushy and players were rude and one guy (staff) stood in front of me almost begging me to buy everything I touched, grilling me about all the armies I played ect..ect.. I enjoy mom and pop shops much better and will write down the name of the Atlanta stores named here and will check them out next time I hit town.

BigJon wrote:I make it a point to visit the GW-ATL store everytime I come into town and to be honest I can't stand it. The staff was pushy and players were rude and one guy (staff) stood in front of me almost begging me to buy everything I touched, grilling me about all the armies I played ect..ect.. I enjoy mom and pop shops much better and will write down the name of the Atlanta stores named here and will check them out next time I hit town.

I have to second that same experience in the GW store and I can tell you that had I know the mom and pops were that close I could have avoided that headache altogether.....