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Hot off of the heels of the situation in NJ, the manager of GW Westminster MD has been 'replaced'. They transferred a manager from another store to manage Westminster. This way they can disrupt the communities of two stores at once. GW sure does know how to kill a gaming community.

Really?

Why are your communities reliant on one individual? Are you sure you are not in a Warhammer related cult?

Staff changes are pretty common in retail from what I gather, more so at GW. It's a shame when a coll person in any group go/leaves, it's a pretty poor group that dies for the loss of one member.

Dude, how am I supposed to keep this casserole warm if you keep using up all the tinfoil to make hats?

what happened?

Retail has high turnover usually in the lower echelons.

If a manager feths up badly or does not meet sales and is a total feth-up, then they get canned with frequency.

But expect new peeps in every few years or so anyway. Such is the nature of the beast.

spaceelf wrote:Hot off of the heels of the situation in NJ, the manager of GW Westminster MD has been 'replaced'. They transferred a manager from another store to manage Westminster. This way they can disrupt the communities of two stores at once. GW sure does know how to kill a gaming community.

They did him a favor: In a five or so years when the guy has gone to college and gotten a job that pays him 3-5 times what he was making at GW he will be thanking them...

notprop wrote:Really?

Why are your communities reliant on one individual? Are you sure you are not in a Warhammer related cult?

You know too much. Two initiates will be at your residence next lunar eclipse.

I suppose from a business perspective moving a successful manager to a location they deem to be in need of a good manager makes sense, but they have to be aware it is disruptive to have widespread management shakeups so hopefully things will quiet back down soon. I do think we can expect these sort of things at a higher frequency in general though, the gw retail branch is due for some serious shifts as the company deals with falling sales.

Edit: just saw my new forum title. I approve

What "situation in NJ"?

The situation in NJ is that a well liked GW manager was recently fired there. The following thread is devoted to the subject. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/407575.page

While I agree that they may have done him a favor by letting him go, it most definitely disrupts the community. (Although with the economy the way it is, loosing a job can be a really bad thing.) We have local comic shops that have been run by the same folks for decades. Sadly, with all of the GW stores around they no longer support tabletop games at all.

GW needs to realize that communities are essential to their stores. Such communities involve their store staff. Changes in staff disrupt communities and lead to lost sales. GWs turn over rate is so high that there are new managers several times a year. To make matters worse, most stores are run by one individual, so a change is staff means that you lose all of your company contacts with the customers.

@ Bookwrack: It takes lots of tinfoil to cover this fantastic eldar dew.

We shall see is a spate of store closings is next.

So wait.

People hate going to Games Workshop stores--but the managers and employees are "essential to the community and stores"?

This day could not get any stranger.

Dais wrote:
I suppose from a business perspective moving a successful manager to a location they deem to be in need of a good manager makes sense

Yup, happens all the time. This has pretty much become my old boss' specialty. When some clown runs a store into the ground, the company sends him in to fix things for a year or two.

spaceelf wrote:
GW needs to realize that communities are essential to their stores.

Unfortunately this seems completely counter to GW's thinking. The store is all that matters; people are disposable, from staff to customers. There will always be someone else in line. How long that stays true remains to be seen...

hungryp wrote:

spaceelf wrote:
GW needs to realize that communities are essential to their stores.

Unfortunately this seems completely counter to GW's thinking. The store is all that matters; people are disposable, from staff to customers. There will always be someone else in line. How long that stays true remains to be seen...

It also seems completely counter to the fanbase's thinking, namely the "I wouldn't play in a GW store if my life depended on it" speeches we see here.

Kanluwen wrote:So wait.

People hate going to Games Workshop stores--but the managers and employees are "essential to the community and stores"?

This day could not get any stranger.

There's a few stores that are presumably above the average and have some loyal customers.

Bookwrack wrote:Dude, how am I supposed to keep this casserole warm if you keep using up all the tinfoil to make hats?

Sigged!

Kanluwen wrote:So wait.

People hate going to Games Workshop stores--but the managers and employees are "essential to the community and stores"?

This day could not get any stranger.

Yep. People on the internet have a very odd way of speaking...

GW BAD! GW MANAGERS GOOD! GW KILL HOBBY! GW MANAGERS MAKE HOBBY!

Hurr durr.

Just what we needed... Are we going to have to see a new thread declaring that the end of a hobby community is upon us every time there is a turnover in staff at a GW store?

There are a lot of things that I second guess GW about, but I won't accuse them of being terrible because they make the occasional employee change in their retail stores. Those positions are by no means permanent, and we don't have the slightest idea for the reasons behind a retail clerk being sacked, so let's not assume the reasons are nefarious.

Chowderhead wrote:

Bookwrack wrote:Dude, how am I supposed to keep this casserole warm if you keep using up all the tinfoil to make hats?

Sigged!

Kanluwen wrote:So wait.

People hate going to Games Workshop stores--but the managers and employees are "essential to the community and stores"?

This day could not get any stranger.

Yep. People on the internet have a very odd way of speaking...

GW BAD! GW MANAGERS GOOD! GW KILL HOBBY! GW MANAGERS MAKE HOBBY!

Hurr durr.

Well Chowerhead I have had the unfortunate meeting with one of the Regional Managers after the GW layoffs that happened in '10. I understand that the corporation has to run a business, but this guy was the stereotypical use car salesman. Very slimy. Very cocky. That is the face of Games Workshop that many people see.

So I understand some of the hate.

While it is true that lots of gamers post that they want nothing to do with GW stores, in certain regions there are few other options. Also, by complaining people may hope to improve the stores.

@chowderhead: People on the net do not simply say GW BAD etc.. That is a preposterous simplification. In fact many of the criticisms of GW that I have heard are valid. For example, their prices in Australia are not in line with those in the rest of the world.

In general I think GW customers, regardless of where they buy their products, should be concerned about GW stores. The reason is that GW as a company sinks money into the shops and if they do not do well then it negatively effects GW as a company. Such things as higher prices and worse codicies result.

In my statements I am not defending GW stores. In fact, the world may be better without them. I am simply stating that the way in which they are currently being run is detrimental to the gaming communities at those stores and that this in turn effects GW as a company.