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timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
As I Indicated depends on the country.
Australia, shops are open, builders building, trade men going to houses to work., warehouses operational. I am going to the shops today to buy sports socks and running shorts, as my old ones are worn out, new sports shoes for my son and dropping money in the bank, then straight back home.
My medical practice is as strong as ever, even with the social distancing and the implementation of phone consults.
In mY local health district with 250,000 or so people we have had 42 case, 15 are still active and they are all in isolation. 1 new case in the last 10 days here.
U.K. and as far as I can determine is in complete lockdown.
So the warehouse should be on lockdown in U.K., excellent, and as you indicated should be applauded, but in Australia with almost zero community spread and an almost complete curb stomping of the disease thus far why should there be no resupply of stocked items, when the staff are at work twiddling their thumbs.
GW is a British company operating all over the world. They are not an Australian company. They’ve erred on the more extreme British side and treated ALL of their workers the same. Doesn’t matter if they’re in America, Australia, Antarctica or on Pluto. Again, they should be applauded; they’re one of (if not the only) company that shut down completely other than a WFH website that pays full salary to all their employees. Sorry/not sorry that you can’t get your toy soldiers from GW. But they made a decision that is company wide, not cherry picked all over the world. And whether you and your store appreciate GW showing equal respect to all their employees’ safety, that’s how it is. As I said in the Covid thread, posts like this really show you the true character of some.
Reality is a nice place to visit, but I'd hate to live there.
Manchu wrote:I'm a Catholic. We eat our God.
Due to work, I can usually only ship any sales or trades out on Saturday morning. Please trade/purchase with this in mind.
Easy E wrote: That isn't a problem with the FLGS, it is a problem with people. Why punish the FLGS?
I use to have some "not nice" people come to my coffee shop when I bought it that made the entire place less welcoming. They were long time shoppers, and very consistent. As a store owner I had to think hard about what I wanted to do? Removing long-time, consistent, paying customers who were part of the community had a lot of follow-on effects. Plus, there was the question of if I could replace their revenue with new sales once they were gone. In a small community, if you just up and kick them out, there is blow back.
After making enough changes to "their favorite hang-out" they decided to leave. That took about 3 months. Then it took another 6 months to consistently replace their income. 9 months of work to shift the environment of the store because of "the experience created by customers". Even looking back now, I wonder if it was worth it or if it hurt more than it helped.
In an even lower margin, niche customer business like a LGS, there is very little chance I am attempting to turn away any customers. I need every single one to try and break even. If I excommunicate a popular community member there is a HUGE risk to that, and little chance I can make it back up on "new" traffic.
Without trying to sound too judgmental, this kind of attitude is a huge turn off to me. Once I realize a store has a preferred class of customer, I never go there again.
It has something to do with networks, the idea that there's an optimized collection of customers who cause more and more to come in. But the more I think about it, the more it feels like herd mentality and short term thinking. I try to avoid those kinds of people in the first place.
Which brings me back to the current health care crisis. In the US, there are places that are heavily impacted by this virus, there are places that are not. While it will take some study to understand the factors at work, heavy use of elevators and air quality appear to have the biggest impact on outcomes.
Have a feeling brick and mortar is dead in major cities (at least in the US) that have had health emergencies. Unemployment is > 40% in NYC and 60% in LA, there's not going to be enough of a population with discretionary income to support stores in places like this. While San Francisco hasn't had the kinds of outcomes of the other two, everyone is telecommuting - restaurants are going out of business at a record rate. No one is going to want to go somewhere and spend money, the people there operate off these rules-based social contracts and just don't deviate.
I guess that brings me around to your coffee shop. Do you think having the right class of customers helps or hurts you during this pandemic? Are you counting on that group coming back after this all settles?
Because what I think comes next is something akin to a gaming club, the cost of commercial real estate and warehouse space is very low right now. I'm talking with someone about leasing 5,000 sq feet in a modern office building for < $10k a month in a high-end location right now, near public transportation. A month ago, that same space rented for $13 / sq ft, and the owner is willing to go in on anything between 12 months and 10 years.
Those kinds of deals make it attractive to set up membership clubs of any variety. I could see people in different places creating gaming clubs entirely separate from hobby stores. That would fill a void and allow everyone to just buy from online sources, which are more cost efficient. At that point, with cheap space, I don't know if there's an in-crowd to be had.
Thankfully, I am out of the Coffee Shop business and had been for about a year. However, my store did have a 3 month shutdown when I owned it due to water damage from a poorly installed ice maker before I owned it. I moved all business to a second location i had and it was a lot of work.....
.... that led to nothing but trouble. My family and employees worked very hard to make things available for our customers at the old location and all we got was negative energy from the few folks that DID make it to the other location. Meanwhile, the people at the second location did not mesh well with the folks from the other location. Overall, it was a disaster. I wish I had just taken the insurance money and closed the first location down instead of powering it through and staying open there another two years. We lost a lot of customers that never came back during that time.
As for FLGS, times are different now, but I have a feeling most small businesses owners won't be getting any sympathy from their customers for these tough times. Contrary to many, I don't think anyone will be coming flooding back.... even it we did get back to pre-COVID-19 normal. Which we won't. Why? because people/customers have now created new habits and methods of purchase and playing that they will hold onto instead of changing back to how this were before. Then layer o the fact that the virus will still be a part of daily life.
As I heard one writer put it, "I care about the economy. I just care a lot more about my mother." Same applies to the old FLGS model.
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I very much doubt this mythical stock buffer exists because all the UK stores are saying when it's gone that is it, and it's why Outpost is buying up trade stock.......
Going to take ages to replenish it because some of it is stuff that wouldn't otherwise have even sold out. My local has sold out of nearly everything and some of its sat on shelves since he opened ....
Another store that sells mainly toys has sold nearly all its stock and they charge RRP!
When GW does reopen they've also got to implement social distancing which will slow down everything at Nottingham unless they can accelerate the move if warehousing to East Midlands Gateway. Guarantee that if that move had been done sooner they'd be operating distribution/online.
Yep, some stuff will take a long time to turn up on shelves again.
If you don't order it, they won't make it, and the shelves will have generic stock on them first.
After this blows over, tell your FLGS or local GW what you want them to buy in. GW will have a good idea about what sells and what doesn't, but how much of that was "it was there, so I bought it"?
TwilightSparkles wrote: which will slow down everything at Nottingham unless they can accelerate the move if warehousing to East Midlands Gateway.
Coventry was promised a GW site at the West Midlands Gateway .
There's only one way to solve this..... FIGHT!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/17 20:33:07
timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
Yeah, I've given GW a lot of... raw sewage... in the past about many things, but I have to give them full credit here. I can't name another international corporation that has put their employees first this way. Not just their physical health, but their economic well-being too. That's going above and beyond for their people.
timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
Yeah, I've given GW a lot of... raw sewage... in the past about many things, but I have to give them full credit here. I can't name another international corporation that has put their employees first this way. Not just their physical health, but their economic well-being too. That's going above and beyond for their people.
Starbucks gave us the option of full PTO at our regular pay and amount of hours from last month until at least May 4th or $3 extra pay for those of us that volunteered to work. That extra pay is being extended until at least June and will be given to everyone after they return to work.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/04/18 01:16:49
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timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
Yeah, I've given GW a lot of... raw sewage... in the past about many things, but I have to give them full credit here. I can't name another international corporation that has put their employees first this way. Not just their physical health, but their economic well-being too. That's going above and beyond for their people.
Starbucks gave us the option of full PTO at our regular pay and amount of hours from last month until at least May 4th or $3 extra pay for those of us that volunteered to work. That extra pay is being extended until at least June and will be given to everyone after they return to work.
My company paid everyone to stay home for four weeks before they began to furlough store and warehouse people. However, the furloughed people got to keep their insurance benefits. Everyone also got a bonus from the previous year and extra cash in their 401K.
Pretty good deal.
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Easy E wrote: My company paid everyone to stay home for four weeks before they began to furlough store and warehouse people. However, the furloughed people got to keep their insurance benefits. Everyone also got a bonus from the previous year and extra cash in their 401K.
Easy E wrote: My company paid everyone to stay home for four weeks before they began to furlough store and warehouse people. However, the furloughed people got to keep their insurance benefits. Everyone also got a bonus from the previous year and extra cash in their 401K.
Pretty good deal.
Do you work for a tabletop gaming company?
It's pretty good for most any company these days...
timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
Wait. GW are paying all of their employees to stay home, even when they can’t work from home?
timetowaste85 wrote: Because the countries of the world all gave varying precautions, GW looked at those and said “we feel the best option is to keep our employees home safe, on paid leave because we can afford to do so, including our warehouse pickers”? They made a choice for safety. Maybe on the side of the extreme, but they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time. Something I haven’t heard any other big name company do completely. They should be applauded, not spat on for this decision. I say good on them.
Wait. GW are paying all of their employees to stay home, even when they can’t work from home?
Yes, though governments providing payments are also something I would expect GW to be tapping into for additional support. So they'll be using government aid as well as their own resources. For GW its likely not beneficial to drop staff; especially when most of their stores are already down to only one or two people. There's very little chaff there to actually dump.
It's not like a super store where they've perhaps half a dozen trained high level staff and then a large body of underlings who are mostly only there to work the tills and stock shelves - ergo low skill easy to retain and non-critical.
So yes I'd expect GW wants to hold onto the majority of their staff. It means high running costs, but they've got resources to tide them over. We might see, at some stage, a backlash whereby the rate of releases slows for a time due to them using money now that was originally earmarked for moulds and suchlike - until such time as resuming sales and operations allows them to recover.
timetowaste85 wrote: ... they’re putting their employees safety first and keeping them paid at the same time....
Wait. GW are paying all of their employees to stay home, even when they can’t work from home?
The UK government is promising that they will pay 80% of a companies employees' wages, if they send them home.
Most companies here are getting told the same thing. I can't remember whether GW said this before or after the 80% announcement.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/22 10:28:18
Just some food for thought. In the area north of Baltimore, in 2000, there were 2 game stores where you could play 40k. One was a comic book store and another was the Armory, before it got bought out by Diamond, I believe. There were Games Workshop stores in at least 2 locations, North of Baltimore, and the Headquarters store ( when GW was in Maryland).
Fast Forward to 2019. Over the years, GW stores opened and closed in several places, until all of the Maryland stores were in southern locations. There are two game stores in Bel Air Maryland, one in Timonium Maryland, one in Cockeysville,one in Essex and one south of Baltimore. Of the two stores that were around in 2000, one closed around then and the other became a solely comic book store around 2012 and finally close.
So yeah....stores will close, and others will fill the vacuum. I went from having 2 places from 2000 to 2006 to play in ( I didn't go to GW stores to game, except for the GW Bunker), to living within 5-10 minutes of 2 stores, and within 30 of 3 others.
I can't say if they will survive this crisis.
I know a famous store to the north of Maryland is in a lot of trouble....They have been around forever, but may not make it now.
Now here's some more bad news. I've worked as a sales manager at two game companies. Most of them operate on a credit basis. That is, a store opens an account, buying their initial stock with cash. If they pass the credit checks, the game company extends them credit, and they pay for their product on a regular basis.
So Bob's Wargame Company extends 20,000 dollars of credit to Mikey's Games and Comics. Mikey might only pay a 1000 bucks a month on his credit, but is able to keep getting product in to sell.
If a lot of these game stores go belly up and can't pay off their credit, the game companies lose out big time. Mikey's not shipping back the product...it's being sold off so Mikey can pay as many of his bills before he shuts down. Or he takes the cash and runs ( Had that happen to an account). Or they charge Peter Jackson's credit card ( Had that happen by one of my accounts).
.Only a fool believes there is such a thing as price gouging. Things have value determined by the creator or merchant. If you don't agree with that value, you are free not to purchase.
Easy E wrote: My company paid everyone to stay home for four weeks before they began to furlough store and warehouse people. However, the furloughed people got to keep their insurance benefits. Everyone also got a bonus from the previous year and extra cash in their 401K.
Pretty good deal.
Do you work for a tabletop gaming company?
No, but a lot of big companies are trying to find a way to keep people getting paid, because without consumers every business dies. Of course, there is a limit to what they can do. When big companies like mine are starting to get desperate for cash and rescind these types of deals, then you know small companies that were not sitting on a huge pile of cash are hurting more.
As General Hobbs points out, most B&M are buying on credit. When they can not pay it back that will have a ripple effect to the distributor and then the game companies.
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So yes I'd expect GW wants to hold onto the majority of their staff. It means high running costs, but they've got resources to tide them over. We might see, at some stage, a backlash whereby the rate of releases slows for a time due to them using money now that was originally earmarked for moulds and suchlike - until such time as resuming sales and operations allows them to recover.
Sure, they’re not getting much in the way of income at the moment. But, with no debt to service, their overall running costs during a shutdown should be relatively negligible - just things like any building rents (I don’t know if they rent their HQ, or own it outright. May be a land lease?).
Compared to other retailers who may have borrowed to expand, that’s a fortunate position. And given their stellar profit margins of the past few years, I can’t see them not riding this out.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Sure, they’re not getting much in the way of income at the moment. But, with no debt to service, their overall running costs during a shutdown should be relatively negligible - just things like any building rents (I don’t know if they rent their HQ, or own it outright. May be a land lease?).
Compared to other retailers who may have borrowed to expand, that’s a fortunate position. And given their stellar profit margins of the past few years, I can’t see them not riding this out.
When you look at a lot of the big names that die during financially troubling times, debt is a huge thing that often kills them. Even the airlines are the same; with many you see that its not so much running and operating costs that's the problem. It's the huge debt that they got in to grow that large in the first place. Debts that don't stop and which, even if they hold off on payments, still sit there gathering interest. Fast growth of many big highstreet names can be a good thing, but it seems that the fast growth and load of debt that it typically results in; is often what drives in the nail and kills them off when times take a downturn.
I'd imagine GW might own their current site; if not then rent and rates would likely be budgeted for a a year ago. Indeed most of their running and operating costs were likely budgeted for a while back and are fairly stable too. So I'd also expect them to ride this out.
As I said earlier, if GW dies in this then chances are things have taken a significantly nasty turn for the UK (at the very least). GW has good profits; good sales and no debt. They've also got a huge rafter of things they can sell off if they really have too and if any ting else they can farm out their IP even more to turn some quick money in an emergency. We'd all rather Uwe Bol made a Warhammer film than Warhammer went under.
As soon as GW properly opens up again, they'd better have enough servers to handle the load.
The number of us who have not bought anything for a while, with very little to have spent money on in that time, that website is going to get hammered.
The same with online stockists. When the HW flow starts back up, it's going to be pot-luck as who gets the GW stock you want.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/23 09:21:55
The lockdown has done wonders for my "Don't buy anything until you paint all the other stuff on your list" commitment. I am getting a crazy itch to drop money on stuff though, so I can't wait till my local store opens. Although I could probably just hit up their website....Gah I just hate paying for shipping for a place that's 20 minutes away.
Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!! The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage
Commodus Leitdorf wrote: The lockdown has done wonders for my "Don't buy anything until you paint all the other stuff on your list" commitment. I am getting a crazy itch to drop money on stuff though, so I can't wait till my local store opens. Although I could probably just hit up their website....Gah I just hate paying for shipping for a place that's 20 minutes away.
GW are reopening their foundry and mail order in a limited capacity. And to help out Indy stores?
They’re making this chap
Available to FLGSfree of charge. Time for us to crack on and support our Indies, no?
Must hit up my local FLGS, see if they’re getting in any. I want one, and also hoping to Loot a few ( without simply clearing their shelves, because that’s not Looting)
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: ... and also hoping to Loot a few ( without simply clearing their shelves, because that’s not Looting)
That's exactly looting, but we know what you mean. I was holding off putting an order in at my FLGS, due to conflicting info on their site. I'd better message them quickly, to get a place in the queue for that bloke, whatever they're charging.
Actually that is an option! But, unfortunately, they are on shorter hours then normal. By the time i'm off work and can get there its closed. So that's not an option sadly.
Also damn, I don't even play 40k and I'd like that model!
Commodus Leitdorf Paints all of the Things!! The Breaking of the Averholme: An AoS Adventure
"We have clearly reached the point where only rampant and unchecked stabbing can save us." -Black Mage
Putting in a second order to my local store. They mail same day so I see it within 2 days. First order came with a free GW glue and this one with a free black wash big pot
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