LA Battle Bunker closing, going through reorg... becoming a "hobby center"

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**Breotan**

Posted to Facebook:

LA Bunker News:

On Sunday, February 24th the Games Workshop Los Angeles Battle Bunker will be closing its doors, to be re envisioned and reopened as a Games Workshop Hobby Center. The new doors will open on Thursday, February 27th.

We thank all of our customers for their patronage and participation in the activities and events that have been showcased at the Los Angeles Battle Bunker over the years. Though our new store won’t be designed around hosting large scale events, you can be assured that you will still have access to the same, great range of Games Workshop product as before, with the ability to enjoy a friendly game and improve your hobby skills in a smaller environment.

This Games Workshop Hobby Center format will allow us to better deliver on great customer service to our wide range of customers who are working on their own collections of models. This change also allows us to better focus on recruiting new customers to our great hobby.

We truly appreciate all of our customers support within the Los Angeles Battle Bunker and we would like to invite you to visit the new Hobby Center beginning on February 27th.

So, what do you guys think?

**combatmedic**

So its official now. Great, one less place to play in the OC area, thats what we need.

**almostreal**

Seems like a solid business move. If something isn't making money, you close it. The retail area of a bunker is no bigger then a one man store...but it has to support a huge gaming area. People playing games doesn't = them buying things.

GW stores aren't the only place to play or even buy their product, it looks like to me that GW is making some big and tough decisions to try to be/remain profitable.

I know the 20 pages following this will be "Yup, GW is dying...I told you that my venom would work...hate hate hate". Ultimately it's a company making decisions to be profitable, they are opening many more stores then they are closing/downsizing.

Flame away GW haters..lol

**H.B.M.C.**

The inexorable march of the 1-man store continues...

**NAVARRO**

almostreal wrote:

Flame away GW haters..lol

I think you just did all that with stellar performance. You should be proud of yourself

**UNCLEBADTOUCH**

Haven't you all heard GW's new motto "give me your money and get the hell out".

**pretre**

almostreal wrote: Ultimately it's a company making decisions to be profitable, they are opening many more stores then they are closing/downsizing.

This may be true, but it doesn't make it any less sad. Big stores with gaming space create more of an incentive for community (or at least so I imagine).

H.B.M.C. wrote:The inexorable march of the 1-man store continues...

Yeah... Pretty lame.

**cincydooley**

While it sucks, if maintaining brand name stores was a profitable endeavor, Privateer Would have at least one. But they don't. Keeping a retail location open is hardly cheap.

**schadenfreude**

What are the nearest stores with gaming tables?

**sharkticon**

Can't say I'm too terribly surprised. It has to have been loosing money. It got hurt bad by a number of GW decisions. The quality of the staff also went down hill. I've been by a lot less ever since, 1) a staffer pulled a knife on me (gak move, even if done in jest), and 2) another staffer identified me to my boss as "that guy with a drinking problem."

Cutting the ability to sell forgeworld, cutting hours in the afternoon (you know, when there are people in the store), and hiring morons does not make for good business.

**combatmedic**

Everywhere I go people post about other gaming options, Game Empire being the most brought up. Thats incredibly far from me. I sit in hour and a half traffic every day going to work, the last thing I want to do is the same thing on a weekend. And before you say it, traffic sucks on the weekends around here, sometimes as badly as the weekday.

**Vaktathi**

The LA battle bunker was the only GW retail outlet worth going to that I'd ever stopped in on, sad news. That said, the retail space couldn't have been cheap and it wasn't exactly a stupendous location.

**pretre**

sharkticon wrote:
1) a staffer pulled a knife on me (gak move, even if done in jest), and 2) another staffer identified me to my boss as "that guy with a drinking problem."

Well, if the second one is true, that might explain the first one.

**RatBot**

I'd say one down, 79 to go, but they're techncially not even closing it, just downsizing it.

I'm not terribly surprised, since 1.) GW Stores are generally a bad idea in the US and 2.) One of the two times I ventured to the Glendale one-man-hole-in-the-wall, he mentioned that he sells more stuff than the Battle Bunker does, and I simply can't imagine he sells huge amounts.

**pretre**

You know they are opening more stores in the US, not less, right?

**RatBot**

I'm fully aware that that's their goal, and I still think they're wasting time and money.

**H.B.M.C.**

pretre wrote:
You know they are opening more stores in the US, not less, right?

And that makes even less sense...

**pretre**

RatBot wrote:I'm fully aware that that's their goal, and I still think they're wasting time and money.

H.B.M.C. wrote:And that makes even less sense...

Yeah, I'm not sure how the financials work out on this*. Apparently though they know something I don't and think that the 1 man stores are a great idea. I know they just put on into Portland and Become Legendary is constantly advising of more positions and stores.

* I'm guessing that the overhead on a one-man must just be so low that it makes it economical to have lots of them.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a side note, I always thought of the bunkers and bigger stores with gaming space as a type of loss leader. You provide this kind of space in order to draw people in. Now, I've never been to the LABB, but maybe it wasn't providing even that much.

**Hulksmash**

@Ratbot

I don't think it is. They pay a pretty poor yearly salary (say 32k on average) and are no longer in high end locations. This means, in the current economy, their rent is probably ridiculously low (even in Cali).

Consider that in a beach town (where the yearly temperature pretty much sits at 75-85) in a crap mall outside of a Sears very few english speaking people came out of the store made well over 200k a year in sales. That was with an average of 5 walk-in on a weekday at most (we kept track).

Seems a sound business decision.

@Petre

It did provide solid gaming space and the manager was a good dude. The problem is that it also provided a place for disgruntled "vets" to congregate and act like Dakka usually does in regards to GW. Hence why the original goal of retail stores was to work with FLGS's. GW recruits and then shifts the ones that stick and start to get more involved over to the FLGS.

**azgrim**

If im understaning this right ,there will be alot of displaced bunker regulars ,but where will you all go?

**pretre**

See, that makes a fair amount of sense. (Layman's memory here but...) isn't the highest cost for most retail businesses salary?

**sharkticon**

pretre wrote:
sharkticon wrote:
1) a staffer pulled a knife on me (gak move, even if done in jest), and 2) another staffer identified me to my boss as "that guy with a drinking problem."

Well, if the second one is true, that might explain the first one.

Lol. Never got drunk at the Bunker, even before I sobered up, I knew that was a bad place to drink. The knife came out due to a joke about invul saves after someone shot me with a nerf gun.

**silent25**

combatmedic wrote:
Everywhere I go people post about other gaming options, Game Empire being the most brought up. Thats incredibly far from me. I sit in hour and a half traffic every day going to work, the last thing I want to do is the same thing on a weekend. And before you say it, traffic sucks on the weekends around here, sometimes as badly as the weekday.

Pasadena or San Diego? Just asking because the nightmare of SoCal traffic, it is sometimes quicker to drive to San Diego from LA than from one part of LA to another. Took me once 3-12 hours to drive 20 miles in LA.....

**pretre**

silent25 wrote:
Took me once 3-12 hours to drive 20 miles in LA.....

That's a pretty big range for that trip... Did it involve psychoactives?

**Hulksmash**

Worst drive ever for me. 8 Hours to go from Moorpark to Los Alamitos. 45 minutes without traffic. And I started drving at noon....

Normally it's much more reasonable. Though I'm talking reasonable to someone who grew up in SoCal traffic

**pretre**

Why would you even do that? :boggles:

Is it one of those things where you could have started at 7 and got there at 8 instead?

I mean, I've seen my share of traffic, but LA just needs to be nuked from orbit.

**Hulksmash**

Work. For a few weeks I was commuting till I transferred and I worked 4am-1230pm. I could get to work in 45 minutes at 3am. But that time was just hell. I started on the 405, jumped to the 5, and then jumped to the 605. All of them were crap.....It was a bad, bad day.....But I only encountered something like that once. Timing is important if you're driving in LA.

**combatmedic**

silent25 wrote:
combatmedic wrote:
Everywhere I go people post about other gaming options, Game Empire being the most brought up. Thats incredibly far from me. I sit in hour and a half traffic every day going to work, the last thing I want to do is the same thing on a weekend. And before you say it, traffic sucks on the weekends around here, sometimes as badly as the weekday.

Pasadena or San Diego? Just asking because the nightmare of SoCal traffic, it is sometimes quicker to drive to San Diego from LA than from one part of LA to another. Took me once 3-12 hours to drive 20 miles in LA.....

Only one I know of is the Pasadena one. Its a good hour away in open traffic. The bunker was at most 20 minutes. Every FLGS I went to would close down, I started going to the bunker. Im one of those unlucky few who is in that middle road for prime gaming locations. Maybe Im lazy but I cant justify driving an hour to play a game every other week.

**pretre**

Contact landlord who is now out a tenant.
Make a deal.
Open new FLGS...
Profit?

**Hulksmash**

Seems to be working in Baltimore....