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imweasel wrote:

Skinnattittar wrote:Touche pure Capitalist. Unfortunately, retailers with no store have no commercial overhead. So the counterpart issue is that if everyone shifts to online stores, there will be no open gaming stores to play at, which would subsequently crash gaming sales, which would cause online retailers to lose tons of business. With neither places to play nor places to buy, the hobby would die! So some sort of balance needs to be found that pure Capitalism can't come up with.

Or the store could change it's pricing to be more inline with what people will pay.
They don't have to match online prices. They just have to be competitive.
Our lfgs went to 20% discounts for pre-paid orders. Solved that problem easy.
You don't always have to 'sacrifice' for the 'greater good'.
Most things work themselves out. You don't have to force it.

Oh, I didn't say you had to force it, things sometimes find their own balance, actually they usually do... But what work at one place, might not work at others. My local store usually runs in the red (at a loss), but the owners like keeping the place open, they like the people and the bar next door. But even the might Dakka Dakka couldn't save themselves from the internet retailers (whom I still highly disagree with).

Yes, Dakka Dakka was a real store in New Hampshire, USA, Manchester to be specific. I used to go there myself (a little wagging, I know, but it does make me feel a little special, though in no way better than anyone else here), back when they were operating out of, what I think was originally, a maintenance garage? An awkward little building you could only get to by driving one way on the bridge over the Merrimack. If you tried to come the other way, you had to drive around the park to turn around and get in the correct lane. Then they moved into one of the mill buildings on Commercial street. After a few years they were sold to a guy I think was named "Martin?" I met him a couple of times, a friendly African American fellow. He sold it a little while later, not too long though, to someone else (never met him), who renamed the store "Battlefield Manchester." That didn't last long, though.

Place was great! You had to pay a few to play the tables but they had at least six or so, if I recall correctly, a computer with Army Builder you could use, and a printer. The tables were very well done and if you joined the store, you got to play for free and a discount on the products. If you bought a tank or two, the discount paid for itself!

Skinnattittar wrote:

beef wrote:Well if you ant the store owner and his employees to go bust and be unable to feed their families buy online. Just thibk about poor tiny tim at christmas when you have all your online purchase whilst he is out in the cold/heat. It could have been prevented if you kept his father in a job

Why do I care about other people being employed? Does that mean I should start buying things at stores that sell stupid or over priced items? No! If I can go to Walmart to get something cheaper than I would get at a specialty shop, why not go to Walmart? If I want the exact same products, but to feel snootier and pay slightly more, I'll go to Target. If I want high quality items, similar to what Walmart and Target has, I'll go to a specialty store. But if I want model stuff, and that's all I'm interested in, I'll go to the cheapest place I can get it. But if I want to play 40k somewhere besides my own home, I'll have to support a shop. But I don't particularly care about tiny Tim.

Because when game stores go out of business, then game companies go out of business, and there are no more games.

General Hobbs wrote:

Skinnattittar wrote:

beef wrote:Well if you ant the store owner and his employees to go bust and be unable to feed their families buy online. Just thibk about poor tiny tim at christmas when you have all your online purchase whilst he is out in the cold/heat. It could have been prevented if you kept his father in a job

Why do I care about other people being employed? Does that mean I should start buying things at stores that sell stupid or over priced items? No! If I can go to Walmart to get something cheaper than I would get at a specialty shop, why not go to Walmart? If I want the exact same products, but to feel snootier and pay slightly more, I'll go to Target. If I want high quality items, similar to what Walmart and Target has, I'll go to a specialty store. But if I want model stuff, and that's all I'm interested in, I'll go to the cheapest place I can get it. But if I want to play 40k somewhere besides my own home, I'll have to support a shop. But I don't particularly care about tiny Tim.

Because when game stores go out of business, then game companies go out of business, and there are no more games.

Ah! And there is the rub. But remember, GW just has to last long enough for the people in charge to either retire, or jump somewhere else for employment. The issue for gamers is to take the game away from GW, or make a dramatic shift to another game system. VOID tried to do that, unfortunately I was unwilling to way back when they were still jumping around trying to recruit people (it seemed so alien to me back then....).

General Hobbs wrote:2. GW products are not overpriced

They are in my country pal, to the tune of 40% more than you pay for them. So check your facts before you blurt out more nonsense.

General Hobbs wrote:
Because when game stores go out of business, then game companies go out of business, and there are no more games.

Don't confuse a change of distribution methods with the death of an industry.

Yes, CD stores are basically disappearing, but it's weird how music hasn't gone away. Maybe people can use some sort of network of interconnected computers to find the games they want. If only such a thing existed.

General Hobbs wrote:Because when game stores go out of business, then game companies go out of business, and there are no more games.

You're basically using Tim Taylor logic here. If one gaming store falls, then it will have a domino effect of other gaming stores going out of business, resulting in the death of even more gaming stores, until eventually the entire industry crashes because you didn't buy from the FLGS. The economy does not work that way.

imweasel wrote:
Or the store could change it's pricing to be more inline with what people will pay.

They don't have to match online prices. They just have to be competitive.

Our lfgs went to 20% discounts for pre-paid orders. Solved that problem easy.

You don't always have to 'sacrifice' for the 'greater good'.

Most things work themselves out. You don't have to force it.

My old LGS gave that nice 20% discount, but they eventually went under (for unrelated reasons). I bought a sizable amount of stuff in there.

Got a new LGS last month, and they charge full website retail with these lame 10$ coupons (and you can only use 1 per item) they mail you a month later for every 100$ you spend.
Went in there looking to spend almost 300$ with a friend and they looked horrified at the mere suggestion of giving us any sort of bulk discount or when shown a price comparison with other places we could get the stuff. Wasn't even looking for anything sizable, 5% would have been great (considering many LGS's give 20...).
Went and bought the lot on ebay for nearly 30% less even after shipping costs, and it arrived quicker. I honestly tried to support the place, but they turned my free profit down.

I personally could care less if my GW store gets shut down. Its an hour away from me, the people that run it are , literally kicking my girlfriend out because she was playing gameboy while I was playing a game, and they never seem to have the blisters I need. I go there for the players, and if that GW got shut down, there is most likely a FLGS that we can all congregate too. Hobby shops near GW stores tend to carry product but not have tables. If the GW went out of business, They would most likely get tables, therefore increasing their business. Or a new store might even pop up in the absence of the GW giant. One store going out of business does not mean the death of the hobby, it means that a potentially better store could take its place, not having as much competition. So really, in a ed up way, making GW go out of business could help your local economy, a lot in certain places (Oz, I'm looking at you), therefore meaning tiny Tim can have his Christmas goose.

maxinstuff wrote:So there is a GW store within 100 metres of my home, making it the perfect place to get some games in. Do you think I should be supporting this store financially by buying product there?

If you actively play there, then yes, you should buy some stuff there.