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Probably a noob question to ask indeed, but I figured whatever the answers are, you guys would have them.

I know the timing of this question is hilariously bad now that Games Workshop stores have 1 person each to man them, but putting this issue aside and addressing the issue without considering need for manpower, why don't Games Workshop stores sell more of their extremely awesome brand?

Things like:

1) Fantasy Flight Games RPG books

2) Video Games

3) Their new card game

4) Forgeworld models (at least this one has probably been asked many times)

5) Etc.

Additionally, wouldn't it be a good idea to also include (for Games Workshop stores that have the extra space, like Games Workshop in Bowie, MD) small LAN computer setups for some still-amazing Dawn of War games, Space Marine, etc.? They could even see a great benefit for being 100% prepared to throw up Eternal Crusade when it comes out. Heck, why not set up a mini-mobile booth for the mobile games they have now, in addition to show off the digital editions of books they have for iPad and Android?

And I haven't even mentioned why I don't see why they can't at least sell some t shirts.

I just don't understand why more isn't being done to appeal to a much wider audience using these techniques when they already have their stores worldwide and all of these things in hand. I know they sell novels and audiobooks, but does anyone know why GW brick & mortar stores don't do any of these (many) other things?

Well GW stores are like any other stores, they will stock whatever is the most profitable in terms of ££ per square inch of shelf space. I would guess Forgeworld wouldn't be popular enough to be sold in GW stores due to its huge price point and niche appeal (even within a market that is itself very niche). Same with video games, Space Marine is a few years old now, not that many people are going to be willing to pay full retail price for it.

They wouldn't stock other company's games on principal I guess, but even if they did I don't think they'd earn as greater return as gw's own products. That's just speculation though.

Becouse the have no clue how to market their product, really or they would be selling all GW IP product in their stories and at the least have links to them on their online store.

Noir wrote:
Becouse the have no clue how to market their product, really or they would be selling all GW IP product in their stories and at the least have links to them on their online store.

I have to admit that is an odd one that they don't even link these businesses that they have deals with or report on them. It's almost like GW is paid one time, up front, for allowing another company to use their license and then that's it forever.

Their strategy revolves around greed, and its driving them out of business.

Because GW's goal is to have one-employee closets in the back corner of a strip mall, not real stores. Their (completely insane) idea is that you're a rabid fanboy who is going to come spend all your money on GW products anyway, so all they need to do is find the absolute cheapest rent in a 50-mile radius and put the new releases on the shelves. And if you don't do that, well, you're not their target market so you don't matter.

KommissarKarl wrote:

They wouldn't stock other company's games on principal I guess, but even if they did I don't think they'd earn as greater return as gw's own products. That's just speculation though.

That doesn't matter. I'd rather sell something at a 30% markup than have something with a 300% markup sat on the shelf. While is suspect you're right in that GW management are content to continue believing they are able to continue in splendid isolation and not even acknowledging other companies who manufacture products based in their own IP, let alone direct competitors to it, it is those sort of principles you can't afford to have in business, all they do is get you bankrupt.

GW stores sell GW products. this does not extend to their lisenced items. I agree it'd proably be a smart busniess move to work with many of their lisencees to sell it (just think how easy it'd be to if someone was buying the deathwatch RPG to sell them on picking up a box of sternguard to use as minis in your RPG

They can't even sell what they have now.

The OP question is a rather good one, it has not been addressed by anything I have heard from GW publications / management comments.

I would hazard a guess that they are very shy of showing any kind of company label or brand other than their own.
Heaven forbid a customer looks up Fantasy Flight and finds X-wing...

It does appear they target high turnover items so maximum profit per shelf space makes sense.

Those other GW items do help draw attention at the smaller neighborhood stores so GW can focus on "core product".

I was recently tempted with the reduced cost original "Dawn of War" complete game pack on Steam.
That game played in such a balanced way, why can it not be balanced on tabletop?
I just want them to put out a movie of 40k with Clint Eastwood as an Inquisitor or a Commissar and play out the rest.

As has been pointed out with much frustration, they have an IP that can expand in so many ways and just is underutilized by their management.
It could be worse and be like Palladium / Harmony Gold with the Robotech IP.

Yes, a very good question.
A good answer of how to fit in more really could help their insistence in making those stores work.

Because they aren't very good at capitalizing on their IP. They could be selling all kinds of stuff at their stores to make them more profitable. It goes hand in hand with the arrogant philosophy of "they will buy what we make". As someone else said, if you aren't buying what's in the store, you just aren't their target customer. If they had an in-store order point for forge world that shipped it to the store for free, they could make more profit without using shelf space on a niche item. This would give people who order FW stuff incentive to go into the store and maybe buy something else while they were there. Add it to the giant list of missed opportunities which are causing the financial slide of the company.

 Talizvar wrote:
The OP question is a rather good one, it has not been addressed by anything I have heard from GW publications / management comments.

Well, in last year's report, Kirby dismissed RPGs, alongside Pokemon, as anachronisms and asked "who remembers them?"

Which pretty much explained why the whole, very successful I'm given to understand, library of FFG 40K RPGs and expansions don't get sold through GW stores!

Are there any cool GW-based video games? Everything I've seen from them video-game-wise has been pretty 2nd rate.

They have a new card game?

 Talizvar wrote:
The OP question is a rather good one, it has not been addressed by anything I have heard from GW publications / management comments.

I would hazard a guess that they are very shy of showing any kind of company label or brand other than their own.
Heaven forbid a customer looks up Fantasy Flight and finds X-wing...

It does appear they target high turnover items so maximum profit per shelf space makes sense.

...
...

Yes, a very good question.
A good answer of how to fit in more really could help their insistence in making those stores work.

Yes, I totally agree.

It would seem to make sense for GW to stock for example all the FFG games based on Fantasy and 40K. They are good games that offer a variety of playing experiences, price points and visual appeal.

GW shops must be very dreary places now that they only have two brand stylings and every single thing on every shelf conforms to them. Unless of course you are already into GW stuff, in which case why go in the shop when you can get it easier on line.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
GW shops must be very dreary places now that they only have two brand stylings and every single thing on every shelf conforms to them. Unless of course you are already into GW stuff, in which case why go in the shop when you can get it easier on line.

The only one I've ever visited wasn't dreary; there was an active group of young adults crammed into the space of a typical strip-mall Subway, taking up every bit of space so that I couldn't browse much of anything in the shop without politely asking numerous people to get out of my way, and an employee who tried repeatedly to get me to buy stuff I had no interest in buying (I don't collect Eldar, dude!!), while trying to talk me out of the stuff I would have considered buying.

After about 10 minutes, claustrophobia got the best of me and I just walked out.

GW would not be able compete with the flgs in my area. They don't have nearly the stock of just GW products that my flgs has, to mention nothing of the loads and loads of non-GW products they offer, and frankly they don't have the gaming expertise either.

 Desubot wrote:
They have a new card game?

FFG have a new(ish?) 40K LCG, yes.

Because FLGS are magical wonderful places where people gather, there's a great variety of product, and there's plenty of space to hang around.

Meanwhile GW stores are tight frustrating places. They only carry GW products, they seem less friendly, and they're understaffed. I've also heard that they pressure people to spend money and make it a hassle to play at their tables.

This stems from how to stores are run- GW stores are set up in a way that's supposed to increase GW profit and encourage people to buy there and leave. The FLGS I go to tend to be set up a little more for comfort, because the owner spends countless hours there and wants to be comfortable. He wants a fun place to work and a community of gamers around him at all times- the dude working at a GW store is just a peon to a corporate ploy, following directions.

I really think that constantly pressuring people to buy stuff all the time isn't a good strategy and might lead to less people buying their long-term. That might sound crazy, but I'm much more inclined to spend my time at a store that's fun to hang around in than a store where I feel like a tool.

I got involved in GW products when I was a teen in the late 80s early 90s. This was around the second edition period. I was playing D&D, Battletech, Axis & Allies, and a friend was trying to teach me Avalon Hill's Squad Leader. My FLGS was a place called the Game Room in Woodbridge Center mall in New Jersey... and they had a whole wall of little bubble packs of metal miniatures by Citadel. I had no idea what Wahammer 40K was all about at this time, but around that time, I went to my first game convention, DexCon, next to Newark airport, and Games Workshop was there with everything in their arsenal, including custom built titans and baneblades. I was hooked from that point on. I collected all the Space Marines and Orks I could get my hands on without so much as an army plan in mind. Anything I thought was cool, I bought with every cent I could scrape together. I read White Dwarf religiously. They reviewed readers paint jobs. They highlighted "rogue trader" stores. Talked about the few official GW stores in the states (the nearest to me was in Virginia or something). Golden Dragon awards. 'eavy Metal. The big GW convention and tournament (i forget the name). It was all so exciting.

When I moved to Florida by car, I passed by, and stopped in that official GW store, and was like a kid in a candy store. I bought a lot more stuff than I could afford and was thrilled.

GW was a game and model company by gamers and modellers for gamers and modellers about games and models.

and now....it's not. It's a business, plain and simple, cutting the fat and maximizing profits...or at least that is the plan. Everything they do is designed to sell more product, turn more profit, cut more costs...and I can't blame them. That is what business is about. HOWEVER when your business is selling that magical thrill that I felt as a kid, a one man show in a shoebox size store, a JC Penney catalog of a magazine, and weekly product launch is not going to do it. We players are out here. We feel the thrill generated when GW feels the thrill. Going to the conventions, I got to know Steve Jackson (Illuminati) and the guys from Fasa (Battletech), and you know what. Talking to them made me excited about their games, because THEY were excited about their games. They weren't excited because I was a customer. They were excited to PLAY. I spent several hours talking to some of the artists that painted the artwork from some of the original Magic the Gathering cards. (I'm still sore that I lost the auction for the original "Bad Moon" painting") and those guys love their work, and the product their work became.

Until GW stops thinking like the suits they have become, and starts thinking like a bunch of guys in Crimson Fist and chaos eye T-shirts again, we are going to keep playing their games (because we love the game) but on the "as-cheap-as-I-can" (because we don't care about the producer).

Sorry for the ramble, but that's how I see it.

 Kilkrazy wrote:

Yes, I totally agree.

It would seem to make sense for GW to stock for example all the FFG games based on Fantasy and 40K. They are good games that offer a variety of playing experiences, price points and visual appeal.

Yeah, for very least, they should offer FFG RPG's. Bunch of books won't take that much self space, throw in couple of board or card games in as well so you may have something to sell for a random person who just wanders in.

Lynkon_Lawg wrote:
Until GW stops thinking like the suits they have become, and starts thinking like a bunch of guys in Crimson Fist and chaos eye T-shirts again, we are going to keep playing their games (because we love the game) but on the "as-cheap-as-I-can" (because we don't care about the producer).

This!

Netsurfer733 wrote:I know the timing of this question is hilariously bad now that Games Workshop stores have 1 person each to man them, but putting this issue aside and addressing the issue without considering need for manpower, why don't Games Workshop stores sell more of their extremely awesome brand?

The reason why GW isn't big on capital-intensive, personnel-intensive, big-store, lots-of-products retail is because that business model is nearly dead. The idea of making a sort of GW supercenter may have been a good idea 30 years ago, but it's the exact kind of thing that's forcing companies like Best Buy and Sears out of business today.

GW has been intelligently scaling down their retail operation for some time now. It wouldn't surprise me if in the not too distant future there weren't any GW stores at all, and that it was all done online or through independent retailers. The faster they shed their brick-and-mortar millstones the better.

 Orogen wrote:

Lynkon_Lawg wrote:
Until GW stops thinking like the suits they have become, and starts thinking like a bunch of guys in Crimson Fist and chaos eye T-shirts again, we are going to keep playing their games (because we love the game) but on the "as-cheap-as-I-can" (because we don't care about the producer).

This!

Well said. Having recently got back into 40k after 15+ yrs away, I've recently popped into 2 very different stores selling GW items.

#1 the official GW store. I was constantly pointed towards various "New and exciting" products by some annoying little who insisted on calling me "mate" or "dude" , despite me telling him I was yet to test out my existing army in battle and therefore I was only after the latest white dwarf, which they didn't have in...

#2 the local sell a bit of everything store. The guy there was happy to chat about 40k and the other stuff he played and seemed more excited at the prospect of another 40k player in the area. We also discussed the changes from 2ed to 6th ed and he even suggested I didn't buy a rulebook as 7th ed was just about to be released.

Guess which one I've been back to and bought something from...

 Desubot wrote:
They have a new card game?

GW already had a card game before.

 Ailaros wrote:

Netsurfer733 wrote:I know the timing of this question is hilariously bad now that Games Workshop stores have 1 person each to man them, but putting this issue aside and addressing the issue without considering need for manpower, why don't Games Workshop stores sell more of their extremely awesome brand?

The reason why GW isn't big on capital-intensive, personnel-intensive, big-store, lots-of-products retail is because that business model is nearly dead. The idea of making a sort of GW supercenter may have been a good idea 30 years ago, but it's the exact kind of thing that's forcing companies like Best Buy and Sears out of business today.

GW has been intelligently scaling down their retail operation for some time now. It wouldn't surprise me if in the not too distant future there weren't any GW stores at all, and that it was all done online or through independent retailers. The faster they shed their brick-and-mortar millstones the better.

There's been nothing intelligent about it.

If they plan to ultimately ditch physical retail, then they should be doing it sooner rather than later, because it is the single biggest drain on their income. There is absolutely no point in phasing it out gradually, all you're doing is throwing money down the drain, much better to structure the finances to absorb the inevitable dip in finances for the year or two it would take for independent retailers to fill the void and your customers to readjust and do it, quick and clean like a sticks plaster.

That's not going to happen though.

They've declared their intention to continue with rolling out the one man store format, and they continue to poison the well with regard to independent retail, they show no signs of this being some sort of mid-game.

So, taking that at face value, you have a plan for a physical retail estate that runs completely counter to what their product needs to thrive (a focal point for a gaming community) and completely counter to what every single person I've read, seen or spoken to in the last god knows how many years with any sort of retail nouse normally suggests is the way forward. Traditional retail is on it's uppers in most Western economies, people simply go online to make a straight purchase far more often now, and that is only increasing. The way forward for physical retail is to offer a product or service which simply cannot be obtained through Amazon. You know, like a hobby space where people can meet to play, paint and talk about the hobby? The exact thing GW are removing from their stores in order to go after a model that hasn't been relevant for a decade.

To draw a comparison, independent book shops are in serious trouble in the UK, the pressure of Amazon and a handful of large chains (themselves not doing so well) have made them an endangered species. Weirdly, the ones that are doing well are focusing firstly on children's literature, a segment that is still growing strongly in terms of physical books, and secondly, and most pertinently to my point, on making themselves something beyond just a retail space - coffee shops for the adults to have a rest while the little ones can play in a supervised area, story time sessions where the cost of entry is redeemable against the purchase of a book etc, etc. Once you introduce this social element, you get the same network effect that is so important to a wargaming community, and you develop a customer base who is invested in making sure your store sticks around, and will subsequently very likely invest in purchases from you, even with the knowledge that they could be obtaining the same products elsewhere at a lower price.

GW could learn from this, but in actual fact already were doing it, and have chosen to run away from it as fast as they can.

Not intelligent at all.

BobNT wrote:

 Orogen wrote:

Lynkon_Lawg wrote:
Until GW stops thinking like the suits they have become, and starts thinking like a bunch of guys in Crimson Fist and chaos eye T-shirts again, we are going to keep playing their games (because we love the game) but on the "as-cheap-as-I-can" (because we don't care about the producer).

This!

Well said. Having recently got back into 40k after 15+ yrs away, I've recently popped into 2 very different stores selling GW items.

#1 the official GW store. I was constantly pointed towards various "New and exciting" products by some annoying little who insisted on calling me "mate" or "dude" , despite me telling him I was yet to test out my existing army in battle and therefore I was only after the latest white dwarf, which they didn't have in...

#2 the local sell a bit of everything store. The guy there was happy to chat about 40k and the other stuff he played and seemed more excited at the prospect of another 40k player in the area. We also discussed the changes from 2ed to 6th ed and he even suggested I didn't buy a rulebook as 7th ed was just about to be released.

Guess which one I've been back to and bought something from...

Sadly, those guys who love talking fluff, and tactics, and rules lawyering, and modeling, and kit bashing, and unique basing materials USED to be GW themselves!!!

 Mysterious Pants wrote:
Because FLGS are magical wonderful places where people gather, there's a great variety of product, and there's plenty of space to hang around.

Meanwhile GW stores are tight frustrating places. They only carry GW products, they seem less friendly, and they're understaffed. I've also heard that they pressure people to spend money and make it a hassle to play at their tables.

This stems from how to stores are run- GW stores are set up in a way that's supposed to increase GW profit and encourage people to buy there and leave. The FLGS I go to tend to be set up a little more for comfort, because the owner spends countless hours there and wants to be comfortable. He wants a fun place to work and a community of gamers around him at all times- the dude working at a GW store is just a peon to a corporate ploy, following directions.

I really think that constantly pressuring people to buy stuff all the time isn't a good strategy and might lead to less people buying their long-term. That might sound crazy, but I'm much more inclined to spend my time at a store that's fun to hang around in than a store where I feel like a tool.

My GW store is nothing like this. The manager is extremely friendly and greets each customer by name, there is always plenty of room (3 full sized tables), and they never pressure anyone into buying things.

3 Gaming tables you say eh? Looks like his manager will be having a talk with him, if the "MY GW manager quit today" thread.

Davor wrote:
3 Gaming tables you say eh? Looks like his manager will be having a talk with him, if the "MY GW manager quit today" thread.

He got permission from his superiors. The guy from the "My GW manager quit today" thread went behind their backs.

I thought I read he got permission as well. Anyways, good to know Random Dude. I hope he does well.