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"If you use the stores stuff you should support the store."

Thats how I feel. If you can buy it there for what is effectively a couple of dollars more you are supporting your hobbying and doing a good thing. THIS DOES NOT REQUIRE EVERYONE TO BUY A BATTLEFORCE EVERY WEEK.

You spend what you can based on your budget and go from there. I know GW is probably charging me too much for my current minis. However the store that i play at is fun and the manager has become a friend of mine to me that is worth the extra cash to support the store.

Mannahnin wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Agamemnon2 wrote:I would not care. None of the stores I frequent has earned by loyalty to a point where I would step up to defend them pro bono.

Just out of curiosity, what are they supposed to do in order to earn your loyalty? Provide lavish game tables? Keeping every model in stock all the time? 20% discounts across the board? Free cookies?

Good customer service is often enough. I don't know about A2's specific case, but some stores (sadly) are very badly run, by folks more interested in having a personal clubhouse in which to be surrounded by comics and games, rather than in being polite and helpful to customers and keeping a clean and attrative store. Some of those kind of folks are downright unhelpful and unreliable when it comes to ordering stuff for you.

OTOH a true Friendly Local Gaming Store is clean, well-lit, full of our fun toys, and has friendly and supportive staff who welcome you, gladly make special orders, and will turn you on to new products and stuff related to your interests.

This exactly. I buy paint at the local game store, but that's it. The guy who owns it wants to play d&d with his friends, not run a store. It's dirty, he's eccentric, and worst of all he refuses to help anyone if it isn't convenient for him. When the Tervigon/Tyrannofex kit came out, I asked him to order one on the pre-order. He said yeah he'd get one in, along with some thunderwolf cavalry. 2 weeks went by, no kits. We asked, he said he hadn't gotten around to it yet. 2 weeks later, still no kits. The SW player and I ordered our stuff online. 2 weeks after that he gets the kits in, and is upset that we won't buy them.

If he closed down I'd open my own store. His prices are often ABOVE retail (for a lot of the board games and such. He was also charging 35 dollars for boxes of necron warriors when they were 30 on GW's site, etc). He hires mainly teenage/college age girls to run the store (they are gamers, thankfully), but seems to make them and customers uncomfortable with his flirting. He doesn't deserve money from anyone, but he's the only game store in town, so he survives.

We play at WH40K home, so I don't mind if your army is 100% online purchased. However, I do make birthday gift purchases, impulse buys, and paint/hobby supplies from the local store from time to time.

When I played SW:CCG, we played a lot of tournaments at the local stores so I always purchased there, even when online order was 10-20% cheaper. It was just the right thing to do.

It is bad form. I've got stuff online but I try to buy all board games and at least half my 40k stuff from the store I play at.

That OP question is directed towards the customers best I can tell. All this store obligation speak/business model is smoke.

Yes, as a paying customer I think I shouldn't get squeezed off an available table to the resident Mooch-hammer. It's ok if you are reading this and don't agree. You may be a mooch-hammer!

It's not inconveniencing the store. Heck most don't care. But, there's something morally wrong with spending no money in a store and talking up tables every night, and than inviting more mooch buddies!

Nalathani wrote:

Mannahnin wrote:

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Agamemnon2 wrote:I would not care. None of the stores I frequent has earned by loyalty to a point where I would step up to defend them pro bono.

Just out of curiosity, what are they supposed to do in order to earn your loyalty? Provide lavish game tables? Keeping every model in stock all the time? 20% discounts across the board? Free cookies?

Good customer service is often enough. I don't know about A2's specific case, but some stores (sadly) are very badly run, by folks more interested in having a personal clubhouse in which to be surrounded by comics and games, rather than in being polite and helpful to customers and keeping a clean and attrative store. Some of those kind of folks are downright unhelpful and unreliable when it comes to ordering stuff for you.

OTOH a true Friendly Local Gaming Store is clean, well-lit, full of our fun toys, and has friendly and supportive staff who welcome you, gladly make special orders, and will turn you on to new products and stuff related to your interests.

This exactly. I buy paint at the local game store, but that's it. The guy who owns it wants to play d&d with his friends, not run a store. It's dirty, he's eccentric, and worst of all he refuses to help anyone if it isn't convenient for him. When the Tervigon/Tyrannofex kit came out, I asked him to order one on the pre-order. He said yeah he'd get one in, along with some thunderwolf cavalry. 2 weeks went by, no kits. We asked, he said he hadn't gotten around to it yet. 2 weeks later, still no kits. The SW player and I ordered our stuff online. 2 weeks after that he gets the kits in, and is upset that we won't buy them.

If he closed down I'd open my own store. His prices are often ABOVE retail (for a lot of the board games and such. He was also charging 35 dollars for boxes of necron warriors when they were 30 on GW's site, etc). He hires mainly teenage/college age girls to run the store (they are gamers, thankfully), but seems to make them and customers uncomfortable with his flirting. He doesn't deserve money from anyone, but he's the only game store in town, so he survives.

If it's the only gaming store, and he's such an ass - if you could do it better, and are in a position to do so - open a rival store. Offer prices 10-20% under retail, offer a clean shop with a good atmosphere, and advertise everywhere - promote yourself. Hell, stand on the street outside the other shop and give out flyers, letting them know there's a cleaner, cheaper alternative that has ACTUAL service - maybe even offer his staff a job in your store ( I know this is a bit of a douche move but by the sounds of it, who cares with this guy.) and I don't think it would take you too long to send him under.

swordbrotherjim wrote:
What do you think when someone at your local game store buys all their stuff on line and never even buys a sida their complains because of the stores lack of product?

I'd think they were a complete moron who needs to GTFO.

I sometimes read about people who buy their entire armies on commission or from eBay pre-painted ETC and often think WHY?
IT might be just me, but I couldn't ever bring myself to shell out on a HOBBY that I'm not going to have anything to show for except an already
-assembled-already-painted model.
That takes out at least 90% of the fun for me.

For some, the hobby is playing games, not building models.

I find myself in a bit of a weird position on this matter.

On the one hand, I buy(GW product) online at 30% off firstly to save money and secondly to not support GW with direct sales. The non GW LGS locally doesn't restock often and doesn't special order, so I don't buy anything from them really, nor do they have gaming space.

On the other hand, my local GW manager is a really cool guy and I would rather he stick around than be replaced by some sales bot. This store is my only current option for play space locally. So, while I still buy large orders online at 30% off, every now and then I'll pick up something from him at retail value(recently it was the Storm Talon). This is usually small items where 30% isn't gonna break my bank: the odd paint, movement trays, BL books.

So I do patronize his store from time to time, which makes me feel better about playing there. I also paint in store as often as possible to keep up with the local community and to advertise commissions. In doing so, I've become decent friends with the manager so he doesn't seem to mind that my purchases are generally small dollar items. He knows that I'm up to date on ebay and such, he also knows that I keep up with rumors, and luckily he's never tried to sell me a single thing.

I may hate the company, but I love the man. So to me, it's less paying GW and more paying him.

All that said, if it's a GW store, it really doesn't matter where you bought the items as GW still made money on them, even if it was wholesale. An LGS on the other hand needs actual sales as they are retailers and not manufacturers.

Back when I did play at GMI in Riverside, I bought something from them every time I went there to use their tables, even if it was just some magnets and soda.

If you play in a store, you should spend your money there.

If you don't want to support your local store, start/join a club and play there.

I personally make sure to always buy something at my FLGS whenever I plan a major purchase. For example, I could have ordered my entire German Panzerkompanie online and saved probably $5-$10, but I choose to buy the BF miniatures (they don't stock PSC or other miniatures I wanted to order) for the army at the store. They are providing space for you to game for free, and if you purchase nothing from them, you will loose that space to game if they close.

I buy from my FLGS when possible. I dislike it when people order all their gak from online and then come invade a store, hogging all the terrain and complaining about the quality.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:

Agamemnon2 wrote:I would not care. None of the stores I frequent has earned by loyalty to a point where I would step up to defend them pro bono.

Just out of curiosity, what are they supposed to do in order to earn your loyalty? Provide lavish game tables? Keeping every model in stock all the time? 20% discounts across the board? Free cookies?

Stay open past 7pm?

I buy stuff wherever I need to. If it's a whimsy project that I may or may not finish anytime soon, I'm going to get it online, probably. If I just got paid and I'm browsing eBay to fill the void in my life by tithing to the dark god of consumerism, I'm going to get it online, obviously.

Am I in the game store at the time? Sure, if something shiny hits my eye, I'll drop some coin on a couple sets. Who doesn't need another 10 guardsmen?

If it's for my Nid army for the league, and I need it in a week? I'll buy it at the store cause I need it now. You're out of luck if you don't have it, and yes, I know you can order it for me. I need it now. Too bad, I'll just get it myself so I don't have to drive back over to pick it up.

Ultimately, there's more game stores around me than I care to visit, and the ones I play in (however rare that might be) I buy things when it works out, but I don't feel any sort of compulsion to HAVE to buy there. I mean, I understand the concept of "pay where you play" and all that, and I agree, but my personal obligation stops when it starts being inconvenient to do so.

I do really like buying finecast in the stores though. That gives me the chance to engage in some firsthand QA. The other day, I went through the Lash Whip/Bonesword biomorphs to find the one that wasn't 50% superfluous flash, and then found an absolute pristine (actually better than the last pewter one I got) broodlord. Go figure.

Milisim wrote:I have a GW and a really bad local Store.

I choose to play in peoples houses who have 4x8 tables and enough terrain to play with.

Where someone buys a model effects our group none.

The beauty of Garage gaming is that its invite only.. so no TFG or WAACs to ruin my night or some black T shirt wearing Tweeny who knows everything about everything.

Ive got to say that in home gaming is by far the best, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Back when I started gaming there was no internet. You found other players by word of mouth and bulletin boards in stores. Some stores didnt even offer in store gaming. You would simply go there to shop, converse with the employees and other shoppers, and things would come together. Now with the internet its terribly easy to track down local players.

Mad4Minis wrote:

Milisim wrote:I have a GW and a really bad local Store.

I choose to play in peoples houses who have 4x8 tables and enough terrain to play with.

Where someone buys a model effects our group none.

The beauty of Garage gaming is that its invite only.. so no TFG or WAACs to ruin my night or some black T shirt wearing Tweeny who knows everything about everything.

Ive got to say that in home gaming is by far the best, for exactly the reasons you mentioned. Back when I started gaming there was no internet. You found other players by word of mouth and bulletin boards in stores. Some stores didnt even offer in store gaming. You would simply go there to shop, converse with the employees and other shoppers, and things would come together. Now with the internet its terribly easy to track down local players.

Having said that though, there's only a handful of players in my local group that I'd be comfortable having in my home. Also, the local game store is a much better way of growing the hobby, which improves the health of the wargaming community as a whole. Gaming at home is great, but I think it's important to cover all the bases.

I bought most of my stuff online used, but easily spent twice as much money at my FLGS when I picked up AOBR and paint.

However the owner of the FLGS seemed to take it as a personal insult if I even hinted that I purchased models at another location. I get that he's running a business, and I don't even mind the $5 sit down fee because it's basically in-store credit. What I do mind are the not so subtle hints that my army was inherently inferior because I didn't buy everything through him. That's not how you create a customer base.

Maybe my old comic book store in Annapolis spoiled me on what to expect in customer service.