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I had a recent discussion with the owner of my FLGS and it left a bad taste of GW in my mouth. They have to get their stuff through a third party, and apparently this is possibly ending soon (not sure if it was on part of the vendor or GW). But if it does they can't carry GW anymore. Apparently to vend from GW you need to purchase 6 of whatever model. In a smaller store there is no way you can sell six of every model. In this sense the online sellers could outlast the smaller FLGS.

For anyone who's interested, I worked out an order I'm going to be making to GW in the next few weeks/months or so.

Ordering it from GW Australia is AUD$200.
Ordering it from GW US is AUD$170.
Ordering it from GW UK is AUD$140.

So if you're looking for a good 'deep discounter', GWUK has 30% off at the moment compred to Australia.

jabbakahut wrote:I had a recent discussion with the owner of my FLGS and it left a bad taste of GW in my mouth. They have to get their stuff through a third party, and apparently this is possibly ending soon (not sure if it was on part of the vendor or GW). But if it does they can't carry GW anymore. Apparently to vend from GW you need to purchase 6 of whatever model. In a smaller store there is no way you can sell six of every model. In this sense the online sellers could outlast the smaller FLGS.

HA! Not really true right now, but was somewhat true about 10 years ago. Or 15 years? A long time ago in any case, and in the first couple of years that GW was offering direct service to retailers. I remember having to order mummies in 6's. Yes, mummies, so it was a long time ago. Takes me back a bit, I had forgotten about it.

Tell the owner to call up GW and ask for their current trade terms. If I remember correctly they are:

45% discount, orders over 400.00 wholesale are shipped for free.
or
Stockist Program: 45% discount, minimum order of 100.00, always ship for free, and get 600.00 a year in prize support. May fax in bitz/direct/collector orders of 50.00 minimum.
or
Partnership Store: same as stockist plus event support is 1800.00 a year, get preview books of new armies, and spiffy little 'Black Boxes' (Recent black boxes included a stomper, or WoR rulebook and armyof the dead and an ent. Thursdays will be a Valkrie and IG Codex). And access to bitz catalogs and the ability to fax in any bitz order, no matter how small.

A stockist store agrees to carry a certain minimum of the main range plastic boxes. Partnership stores carry a larger stock, and have gaming areas, run events, etc. The only real downside for a retailer ordering direct from GW is that blisters come in 2's. (Take one blister, stack upside down on the other, slide them into a small box. Greatly reduces problems in packing and shipping. )

Tell him just to call GW and set up an account.

Thanks mikhaila, I'll bring this up with him, but I don't know if he'll be receptive to it (think about it, some customer is going to tell him how he can do business with GW because he heard from a guy on the net?)

My other hobby has a similar problem... I scuba dive (when I can afford to go someplace warm :( ) and that industry has a big 'issue' with online sellers as well. In this case it can be a bit more severe... Many vendors won't sell to online stores and will not honor warranties or repair part agreements (beyond certain legal minimums) on anything not sold through a licenses real store.

It's actually for much the same reason: an attempt to protect the stores as they're visible and provide a public face. In gaming, the stores are a place to play, run events, and can do demos, potentially growing the market. In the case of dive shops, the stores provide much the same kind of services: training, equipment maintenance, and a visible place to attract new people to the hobby.

The back and forth is very similar with the exception of the warranty issue. The brick and mortar stores are slowly getting smarter and trying to reinvent themselves: acting as travel agents, pushing training, looking for services the online stores can't provide.

I wonder if it makes sense for the game stores to just evolve as well. They may need to be price competitive and look for ways to differentiate themselves: events, table rentals, etc. perhaps?