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mikhaila wrote:A lot of this product goes to direct because of the move away from metal and to plastic. They may still make the metal models, but in cases like 1000 sons, not have the packaging left for them. Rather than print another 10,000 boxs for a product that's being replaced by plastic, they move it to mail order and ship it in generic white boxes. I've got a couple dozen of those generic white boxes in my shop now, and it's growing. My discount is worse, but I hope that's made up for by having product that other shops, including the local GW's don't.

Where else could I spontaneously decide to buy TWO hellcannons one day... and they were In Stock!

Kanluwen wrote:

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Actually in the UK it can't Kan, note my flag, I'm not in the US.

I went to GW Ipswich before Christmas, and they didn't have any of the Harlequins, other than the box.

Hell I was in Warhammer World in Feb, and they didn't have a Skweel Gnawtooth in the official Warhammer World GW store.

They should be able to order them. Many of the GW shops/LGSes have nowhere near an extensive metal blister collection. They'll have the most recent releases, that's usually about it.

As for boxes: Mikhaila already said it far better than I ever could. They've stopped really doing metal boxes in bulk, after a few months when they were released--they go to Direct Only because it's more expensive to maintain the printing on the box art, when instead they can just ship it out to you in a plain white box marked "CITADEL" with the sticker UPC code.

Kan, I know we've agreed on quite a few things and been on the same side defending GW's actions before, but don't they charge what they do to pay for their parts, sculptors, etc etc, including the art designers on the boxes? If I have to pay for the art on the box, I want the damn box-I don't want to pay for a full detailed box, then get a crummy white one. There are no excuses for that. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the art on the box-I'm just making a point that if you charge a certain price for something, that something had BETTER be included in what you are selling.

The argument that GW is declaring war on or trying to drive out discount/trade sellers is absolutely ridiculous. GW doesn't HAVE to sell to trade customers, if it was such a big problem to them as many people seem to think then they just wouldn't do it would they? GW makes money from trade accounts, and without any overheads they probably do pretty well imho. So if there is a reason why trade customers can't/don't stock certain products, then this isn't it. It's far more likely as a previous poster pointed out to be a mould issue or a sale or return agreement in which GW would understandingly not wish to end up with a massive surplus of defunct models when they are replaced/redesigned.

Also, as for blister packs not taking up much space, this is true when compared with standard boxes. However, they may be small, but again the sheer amount of blisters available in the entire GW range still doesn't make it viable to have every single product code in store at all times. At the end of the day and no matter how much you guys don't like it, every GW store has a main objective which overrides everything else, and that objective is recruitment of new gamers and support in the hobby for the newer gamers. GW is a business and if it doesn't recruit new hobbyists then we wouldn't have a hobby either in a few years as Veterans alone don't spend enough money to make the hobby viable. Little Tommy who has only recently started in their hobby isn't going to want/need to order an special metal character model for example, but chances are will want something from the more popular core choices from any of the armies. There's a reason the stuff stocked instore is the better selling items, because that's what newer hobbyists want hence the reason it sells well. That doesn't mean to say that they don't want to supply things for more experienced hobbyists, which is what the web terminal order system is for, but if you've got to choose what lines you stock in store because it's not possible to stock everything, you pick the items which sell! It's pretty simple.

As for the person who said "well why dont they stock everything but keep it in the stock room etc", well that would be because stock costs money, and to keep the whole range of GW products in every store, even if it's not on display, means that there is a hell of a lot of stock floating around all over the place to account for, making it very easy to lose a lot of money in stock discrepancies. Believe me, it all adds up, and as a business potentially losing money when it's a lot simpler to provide a simple and efficient ordering system whereby the smaller selling lines get sent out on an as and when basis, it's clearly the better option.

GW are gradually phasing out metal models in favour of plastic kits, for a variety of different reasons and believe me none of those reasons are just to upset particular hobbyists no matter how much you wish that to be true. You will see more models going to direct only, and smaller and smaller amounts of blisters on sale in stores. They would have made these decisions for a reason/s, and as a business which exists to make money for the continuation of this fantastic hobby, they need to do things which are of a benefit to the Hobby as a whole and which will enable it to continue for many years to come.

They are not just dumping lines for nothing, the models never to be seen again. They are shuffling lines around to accommodate their ever increasing range whilst still providing us with the opportunity to purchase some of the older/lesser selling models albiet with the fact that we can't have it there and then. I don't know about you guys, but if I was given the choice of GW stocking all their products instore but never releasing any new models at all then I know what I'd choose.

Kroothawk wrote:

Worglock wrote:My local GW is my FLGS and I love it.

And your local Mom and Dad restaurant is McDonald's, right?

Nope. It's the Dogfish Brewpub.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Kanluwen wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:

Worglock wrote:My local GW is my FLGS and I love it.

And your local Mom and Dad restaurant is McDonald's, right?

The term "FLGS" doesn't expressly forbid Games Workshop's stores to be one.

After all:
It's the "Friendly Local Game Store". Not the "Friendly Local Independent Game Store".

or Favorite Local Game Store.

Or as in my case, the -only- local gaming store.

As I've said previously, any of the lions of capitalism that think they can run a better gaming store are welcome to come to the Westminster Maryland area and open one up.

The Decapitator wrote:The argument that GW is declaring war on or trying to drive out discount/trade sellers is absolutely ridiculous. GW doesn't HAVE to sell to trade customers, if it was such a big problem to them as many people seem to think then they just wouldn't do it would they? GW makes money from trade accounts, and without any overheads they probably do pretty well imho. So if there is a reason why trade customers can't/don't stock certain products, then this isn't it. It's far more likely as a previous poster pointed out to be a mould issue or a sale or return agreement in which GW would understandingly not wish to end up with a massive surplus of defunct models when they are replaced/redesigned.

I would not characterise GWs actions as declaring war on trade sellers. In the UK GW lets trade accounts sell certain items. These are put on the market with a big discount which helps get people hooked. Then GW makes these customers come to them to buy other units. It sounds like a rather good business plan, although it does have the stench of corporate greed. I assume the stockists are happy to sell the GW stuff, although I am sure they would be happier if they could sell the full range.

The Decapitator wrote:Also, as for blister packs not taking up much space, this is true when compared with standard boxes. However, they may be small, but again the sheer amount of blisters available in the entire GW range still doesn't make it viable to have every single product code in store at all times.

This may be true, but as I mentioned in my previous post GW could stock five times the number of blisters that they currently do. I cannot believe that space is a factor in their decision.

The Decapitator wrote:As for the person who said "well why dont they stock everything but keep it in the stock room etc", well that would be because stock costs money, and to keep the whole range of GW products in every store, even if it's not on display, means that there is a hell of a lot of stock floating around all over the place to account for, making it very easy to lose a lot of money in stock discrepancies. Believe me, it all adds up, and as a business potentially losing money when it's a lot simpler to provide a simple and efficient ordering system whereby the smaller selling lines get sent out on an as and when basis, it's clearly the better option.

They need to account for stock whether it is in a store stockroom on in a warehouse and you can't possibly be arguing that they should not produce products because they are worth money. It costs GW less money to ship items to the store in bulk than to ship a blister or two to a customer. Given that GW absorbs the cost of free shipping, GW stands to make more money by having the products in the store in large numbers rather than shipping them out in drips and drabs.

The Decapitator wrote:GW are gradually phasing out metal models in favour of plastic kits, for a variety of different reasons and believe me none of those reasons are just to upset particular hobbyists no matter how much you wish that to be true. You will see more models going to direct only, and smaller and smaller amounts of blisters on sale in stores. They would have made these decisions for a reason/s, and as a business which exists to make money for the continuation of this fantastic hobby, they need to do things which are of a benefit to the Hobby as a whole and which will enable it to continue for many years to come.

Although GW may be phasing out metal models, they do not have to make them direct only before replacing them with a plastic kit.

The Decapitator wrote:They are not just dumping lines for nothing, the models never to be seen again. They are shuffling lines around to accommodate their ever increasing range whilst still providing us with the opportunity to purchase some of the older/lesser selling models albiet with the fact that we can't have it there and then. I don't know about you guys, but if I was given the choice of GW stocking all their products instore but never releasing any new models at all then I know what I'd choose.

As I stated earlier in the post, they have plenty of space in their stores for these blisters. They could even reduce the number of pegs for blisters by a factor of two, and still stock more than twice the number of blisters than they currently do.