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Well this sucks if it true. We are moving back to the Baltimore area in April. Was finally gonna get to be near a bunker and see what my chances were to landing a job with them. Now they are moving? I know there has been alot of changes with them in the past 4 years or so but closing up all the stuff in Memphis and centralizing them in MD a and now flip flopping the process and going back to TN? Yikes, crazyness there!

Grot 6 wrote:LMAO!!!! Come on... You didn't see it coming?

North carolina doesn't WANT GW stores. We're fine with our LGS's, Thank you very much!

I'll attest to that! No need to be bothered by red shirts!

Empchild wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:

Just heard that GW HQ was moving from Baltimore to Memphis, where their production facilities are. So now it makes no sense for Gamesday to be in Baltimore after this year.....Chicago maybe?

can you back up this info first? Otherwise you are starting rumors that are un substantiated.

As a mod could you at least try to understand what a rumor is before you act like a jerk. If you have information that shows the rumor is incorrect then you post it. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut. This is a message board for the DISCUSSION of rumors.

brettz123 wrote:

Empchild wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:

Just heard that GW HQ was moving from Baltimore to Memphis, where their production facilities are. So now it makes no sense for Gamesday to be in Baltimore after this year.....Chicago maybe?

can you back up this info first? Otherwise you are starting rumors that are un substantiated.

As a mod could you at least try to understand what a rumor is before you act like a jerk. If you have information that shows the rumor is incorrect then you post it. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut. This is a message board for the DISCUSSION of rumors.

You may want to take some of your own advice, about trying to not act like a jerk. Sort of weakens your arguement when you act worse than the person your telling to shut up.

Back on Topic, my areas of concern are:
-Does this change plans for GD Baltimore 2010 at all?
-How does this affect future GDs in Baltimore?
-Will the Bunker in Glen Burnie remain open?
-How much of the staff moves or doesn't move. I'm friends with a lot of the guys, so on a personal level I hope they stay in Baltimore. As a business person, I'd hate the thought of a huge turnover in the Trade Sales or Promotions teams.

Empchild is not a moderator brettz123


He is a DCM, so he pays a yearly subscription to access the DCM forum and get some other bonus features.

I hate the retention rate of GW trade sales. My local store just got a new rep who has no idea about anything and took over a week and a half to return a call.

Owings Mills has plenty of disposable income in New Town... There is a private elementary school right in the area with 15K tuition per year (per a teacher I ran into, and this was several years ago). The store should do fine if the staff are decent. And, there is no FLGS local to the area. The only LGS I know of are in Baltimore, Towson, or Eldersburg. There isn't even a craft store worth the name in Owings Mills region. The closest craft-type store is a JoAnnes that caters to old ladies. Lots of silk plants and kitsch (ugh). There is a definite void here that can be ummm... what is word.... capitalized on? Exploited? Filled?

There are a ton of GW stores in MD, now with pretty even coverage. If you look at the map of locations on the GW website, there are 6 stores in a ring around Baltimore (counting the new store). Another 4 stores are in more outlying areas (Bmore centric view, of course). The new Owings Mills store nicely fills a gap in the coverage. NoVa has a bunch, too. Seems to me that GW is booming around here. They just need to keep Marylander-itis out of the stores.*

*Marylander-itis: A tendency to sneer at and degrade unfamiliar people or concepts. Also characterized by an utter lack of humor unless it insults someone else. Diagnostic criterion is an overinflated sense of self importance. Not a terminal condition, usually, but can lead to passive aggressive lashing out at anyone in the way.

Point by point:
1) The US HQ is moving. This was confirmed for me today. No date to share though. Again, this was an eventuality that was virtually inevitable after Memphis opened, just a question of when and now the answer is soon.

2) Baltimore Games Day is set in stone as much as any event can be. Reservations on places like the Convention Center are done months and even years in advance, the event is already advertised and tickets being sold. That deal is done and extremely unlikely to change, it would cost GW a ton of money to change it. Of course, that's for 2010. Who knows what 2011 will bring?

3) No word on the Bunker yet, but there may be talk of relocating it somewhere between D.C. and Baltimore. Again, it is part of the rent they are paying on the offices and is sort of free to GW right now, which is to say it doesn't cost them the kind of money it would to rent that space if the store area was the only thing being rented because right now the store area is just a by-product of renting that huge chunk of office park. GW obviously has three options: keep just the store, move the store, close the store. Given the fact they are giving up the office space to which the store is attached, it is extremely unlikely they'd keep that location. If and when they close the current store, let's hope they relocate it somewhere not too far away and maybe in a location that is more visible than the current office park so as to attract more walk-in customers.

GW released the following statement on 15 Jan 2010:

"Games Workshop's business in North America, which includes 86 Hobby centres in the USA and Canada, a large trade business
and the Memphis manufacturing and distribution facility, is the Group's largest operation after the UK and Continental Europe

The Board of Games Workshop believes that the future potential of the Games Workshop Hobby in North America is considerable.
To help exploit this, once the formalities are complete, Tom Kirby, the Group's Executive Chairman, will relocate to the Group's North
American headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland for a period of 18-24 months. This will bring a renewed and increased focus on this business.

Tom will be back in the UK for approximately one week each month to deal with Group matters and to stay close to the Chief Executive
and CFO. He will remain Executive Chairman of Games Workshop Group PLC."

Since then it appears that Mr. Kirby has announced to the US HQ staff that the offices will be moved to Memphis. As usual, some people will relocate and some will not, some will leave voluntarily because they don't wish to relocate and some will likely not be offered the chance. That's SOP for these kinds of corporate moves.

Moving to Memphis looks like a good strategic decision IMO.

mikhaila wrote:

brettz123 wrote:

Empchild wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:

Just heard that GW HQ was moving from Baltimore to Memphis, where their production facilities are. So now it makes no sense for Gamesday to be in Baltimore after this year.....Chicago maybe?

can you back up this info first? Otherwise you are starting rumors that are un substantiated.

As a mod could you at least try to understand what a rumor is before you act like a jerk. If you have information that shows the rumor is incorrect then you post it. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut. This is a message board for the DISCUSSION of rumors.

You may want to take some of your own advice, about trying to not act like a jerk. Sort of weakens your arguement when you act worse than the person your telling to shut up.

Not only that, but EC isn't a Mod, so he's free to act like every other non-special person.

There are no LGS in Towson or Baltimore that have GW. There is Ren Games in Harford County, and there is Games N Stuff in Glen Burnie.

I am basing my opinion on previous game stores located in OM. The clientele who went there ignored GW and went for card games.

Ugh to the Bunker moving south....It is a bad enough commute from north of the city to Glen Burnie.

Again, from my knowledge, it took several of the GW stores in the Baltimore area staff cutbacks to make them profitable. The MD region is not doing well, but of course, the economy is bad.

General Hobbs wrote:

There are no LGS in Towson or Baltimore that have GW. There is Ren Games in Harford County, and there is Games N Stuff in Glen Burnie.

I am basing my opinion on previous game stores located in OM. The clientele who went there ignored GW and went for card games.

Ugh to the Bunker moving south....It is a bad enough commute from north of the city to Glen Burnie.

Again, from my knowledge, it took several of the GW stores in the Baltimore area staff cutbacks to make them profitable. The MD region is not doing well, but of course, the economy is bad.

Last time I was up at Games N Stuff, they had completely stopped selling any GW product, it's all Warmachine/Hordes now.

Platuan4th wrote:

mikhaila wrote:

brettz123 wrote:

Empchild wrote:

General Hobbs wrote:

Just heard that GW HQ was moving from Baltimore to Memphis, where their production facilities are. So now it makes no sense for Gamesday to be in Baltimore after this year.....Chicago maybe?

can you back up this info first? Otherwise you are starting rumors that are un substantiated.

As a mod could you at least try to understand what a rumor is before you act like a jerk. If you have information that shows the rumor is incorrect then you post it. Otherwise please keep your mouth shut. This is a message board for the DISCUSSION of rumors.

You may want to take some of your own advice, about trying to not act like a jerk. Sort of weakens your arguement when you act worse than the person your telling to shut up.

Not only that, but EC isn't a Mod, so he's free to act like every other non-special person.

Modquisition on.
The cranky old man of Dakka is a Mod and now suggests everyone return to the topic at hand. in the future if someone has an issue with posters then report them to the moderator team for their review. Thank you.

Shellfishguy wrote:

Last time I was up at Games N Stuff, they had completely stopped selling any GW product, it's all Warmachine/Hordes now.

Games N Stuff sells GW product. You just have to order it from them. They give you a 10% discount on all GW product. I don't buy from them as I live in Montgomery County and there is a GW store and Dream Wizards nearby, but I do play games/tourneys there.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Empchild is not a moderator brettz123


He is a DCM, so he pays a yearly subscription to access the DCM forum and get some other bonus features.

Ironhide wrote:Moving to Memphis looks like a good strategic decision IMO.

Never been a mod nor want to be nooo thank you. BTW If you read through this you would have seen I recanted! I just spend enough time on here and figured hey $25.00 is cheap to help a site I love!

@Ironhide: I can see where you think that. It is a rather smart move as they will be closer to the factory, as well as in a centralized location. I wonder though how this will effect jobs... sure GW can lay off(still love ya dave and jeff), but even with that this would mean a lot of brass having to move. Some people just don't want to up and move their families so I really wonder how much this will effect their upper eschelon.

I know that one staff member, the guy who is running Gamesday this year, waiting for an offer letter from the company. I would guess that alot of the staff are not even going to be given the option of moving. You can always retrain customer service or human resources and IT people.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Blunt Force Trauma wrote:

Shellfishguy wrote:

Last time I was up at Games N Stuff, they had completely stopped selling any GW product, it's all Warmachine/Hordes now.

Games N Stuff sells GW product. You just have to order it from them. They give you a 10% discount on all GW product. I don't buy from them as I live in Montgomery County and there is a GW store and Dream Wizards nearby, but I do play games/tourneys there.

The big problem with GnS is they seem to be dominated by a really bad gaming club, the Inner Circle.

Sadly yes as IT's are the easiest to replace now adays for cheap. I think it will be very interesting to see the changes that will insue from all this.

I'm not a part of it, but I know a lot of guys from the Inner Circle, and they're always nice to others who aren't a part of their club from what I've seen.

RiTides wrote:I'm not a part of it, but I know a lot of guys from the Inner Circle, and they're always nice to others who aren't a part of their club from what I've seen.

Most clubs are really as their memberships would somewhat dwindle and die out over time if they weren't. Are their any prolific players that we would know in this club?

Not confirming this rumor, but GW's entire accounting department has been in Memphis for years. The reason I know this is because I thought about appling a few years back.

actually, the entire accounting dept (2 people) are in Baltimore, sorry jbunny

Well there HR needs to learn that fact. When I talked to them at the last Games Day about accounting jobs she told me they were located in Memphis. She might have been wrong, but that is what I was told by HR.

GW US has an HR department that is short on a lot of things.

I went in for an interview, was told I would hear from HR in 2-3 days, I had to hound them for 4 weeks to find out they went another direction in management, after being told by HR I was exactly what they were looking for.

lol, so they close almost all of the GW stores south of the mason-dixon line and THEN move the HQ to the south?

I just want to point out that the GW HQ in Maryland was already below the Mason-Dixon line. Just saying.

Really it seems that only the west coasts stores have grown where as the east coast and the rest of the nation has dwindled. Hrmmmmm

Daggermaw wrote:

lol, so they close almost all of the GW stores south of the mason-dixon line and THEN move the HQ to the south?

I just want to point out that the GW HQ in Maryland was already below the Mason-Dixon line. Just saying.

Beat me to it.

Empchild wrote:Really it seems that only the west coasts stores have grown where as the east coast and the rest of the nation has dwindled. Hrmmmmm

Argh... I don't know what to do... they're opening a NEW store in the Baltimore area! The game is not dwindling in Maryland! It's a bad economy for everybody... GW's doing just fine here (if anybody's doing fine in this climate). The Bunker will probably move to a new location, since the HQ appears to be going at some point, but GW in Maryland is doing fine.

/rant off...

Well, FWIW, there's a big honkin' "for lease" sign in front of GWHQ right now...

I also talked with one of the managers I know at The Bunker and he said they were currently looking for a new location more "south". I don't know if he's talking I-97, BW Pkwy, or Rt 1 "south" (or some other road for that matter), but from a purely selfish POV, they all work for me unless they go all the way to College Park. I'm thinking Laurel would be nigh perfect... Nicely between Baltimore and College Park, but avoiding the high rent of Columbia.

He also said, again FWIW, that there was definitely a plan to keep a Bunker in the area.

Vale,

JohnS

Empchild wrote:@Ironhide: I can see where you think that. It is a rather smart move as they will be closer to the factory, as well as in a centralized location. I wonder though how this will effect jobs... sure GW can lay off(still love ya dave and jeff), but even with that this would mean a lot of brass having to move. Some people just don't want to up and move their families so I really wonder how much this will effect their upper eschelon.

Not only is it in a centralized location, but it is also located in a good transportation hub. Most likely the upper echelon will get an ultimatum, "Move or quit." It's all about the bottomline.

cygnnus wrote:He also said, again FWIW, that there was definitely a plan to keep a Bunker in the area.

Interesting. Not to ask a stupid question, but any idea if the "Bunker" also include a retail front/outlet? Can't see how it would survive if it didn't, but curious.

Regards,

AJC