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Most of us have probably had to go into a hobby store at some point, whether it's a GW store, a FLGS, or just a local gaming store that doesn't exactly deserve the "friendly" prefix. As such, we've had to talk to the people running the store, if only for a moment here and there.

This thread is for stories about the people working at your preferred hobby store, things that stick out in your minds as good or bad things that they tend to do. Feel free not to list names or locations, it's not a shaming thread. What inspired me to make this thread was me recounting my experiences with Blizzard's customer service for World of Warcraft. There's been some good, and some not-so-good, and I thought maybe people would like to share and discuss.

I hope this will not be an entirely negative thread, as there are undoubtedly people out there with good experiences to share.

I'll start off with some good things about my local GW. And since I can't really think of anything bad about them, I'll go ahead and say it's the Ottawa store in Ontario, Canada. I've been going there off-and-on for over a decade, and for a stretch in the late '00s to early '10s, I was shopping there so frequently that one of the employees knew me by face and name, even though the only thing I ever did there was buy models and hobby supplies and then leave. (I was playing entirely at home at that point, so it's not like I was buying my stuff there and then playing at a different store, if anyone was wondering about that)

Anyways, I really like two general things that stand out to me about that store.

The first is that the employees, while they will come up to me and ask if there's anything I need help with whenever I enter the store, if I say, "No, thanks." they go back to what they were doing and leave me be, even if what they were doing was just standing around waiting for a customer to come in. If I say, "Yeah, actually, I'm looking for X and Y today." they'll help me find the stuff, regardless of what it is. They don't try to convince me that the stuff I want to buy is a bad choice, or that something else would be better. Maybe they would if I asked about stuff's abilities in games, but I don't, so I dunno.

The second is that at the checkout, while they're scanning items, they'll casually ask if I need any glue, paints, brushes, green stuff, etc. And at least a half-dozen times so far, it's reminded me that yes, I actually did want one or more of those things that day, and had just forgotten about it. I've told them flat-out that I really appreciate them asking that every time, because so often I did forget that stuff.

And I guess a third thing is that I learn neat stuff from the woman I presume is the owner now or something, since she's usually in there and is usually the only employee in there. She really likes tabletop gaming, and from her I learned that unlike what the Internet apparently thinks, GW employees and certain time zones don't get any advance order prior to the official advance orders starting. It was in reference to how the... I forget what it was, some sort of objective thing maybe? Some limited edition thing anyways ...things were sold out so quickly that some people thought GW was selling to earlier time zones and GW employees first. But nope, the only advantage GW employees have is that they know the exact time and date when the pre-orders go live (which is apparently the same exact moment for the entire world) so what she does is park herself at her computer just before that designated time (and apparently it's always the same day of the week at the same exact time, every time) and refreshes the page until it goes live at the designated time, at which point she orders stuff as fast as she can, like a hardcore Blizzard fan buying tickets to Blizzcon. If you were wondering, I've entirely forgotten what day of the week and what time it is that pre-orders go up every month, because my brain is absolutely terrible at remembering details and specifics and I tend to not pre-order stuff anyways so I didn't really make a note of it..

Edit: I apologize for any run-on sentences and poor grammar/word choice. I've been awake for around 29 hours at this point, and the language skills are some of the first things to go.

I really don't like game stores.

A couple of my friends were working at a game store a few months ago and they let me in a few minutes before the place opened one time so I could bring them something or pick something up or maybe both, who knows. Anyhow, we were chatting and I was looking over the merchandise, wondering which games were fun and whether I should get into a new miniatures game or whatever, and it struck me: maybe game stores are okay. I was having fun.

At that moment, one of the other employees walked through the door and that kind of ruined it. So I realized I was only having a good time because I was basically just hanging out with my friends.

Now, my dislike of game stores is not all about or even principally about the people who work there. Like I said, a few of my friends and acquaintances either currently work at game stores or have done so in the past. But aside from my friends I have never really had any stand-out positive experiences.

I think this is because gaming is actually a pretty personal thing for me. And that shouldn't be very surprising considering it is often a matter of how I spend my free time. Me personally, I am the type who looks forward to a friend throwing a party but absolutely dreads going out to a bar. Gaming time for me is actually only somewhat about the games and mostly about the people I get to play games with.

Game store employees try to talk to me about games and I try to talk to them but the frame of reference is usually so off that it ends up being an awkward waste of time. So for example, a game store employee comes up to me when I am browsing RPGs and starts trying to sell me on Pathfinder as the greatest RPG of all time. Ugh.

That brings up another point. I think and talk about gaming as my hobby, the thing I would rather be doing instead of ... pretty much anything. But game store owners and employees talk to me about gaming as the thing they make money off of. This guy may or may not believe Pathfinder is the greatest RPG of all time but what is actually important to him right now is whether or not I buy it. After all, I'm not just a stranger -- but also a customer.

I love my hobby store. It has a second floor and a bar. The employee's are really great and all of them are gamers. They don't try to sell you something you aren't interested in, they aren't really about selling things. But if you are looking for something, they can probably find it.

View from Second Story, doesn't show the second story game area or the bar (which is also another game area) which is to the bottom left:


My friend wanted an old version of Risk, the one before when they were wooden pieces. They had a boxed game version from 1963.

Video of Game Store:

Cardiff or Derby don't exactly have the cream of the crop when it comes to Hobby stores.

At one point, the highlight of my hobby was to venture into Hobbycraft [generic hobby store here in the UK] and confuse the staff by asking which was the best paints for Airfix. It was grim. They had no idea what they were trying to sell.

Here in Derby, most of the GW staff are pleasant enough. They do what they are supposed to do, which is try and get me to buy things (and promote the hobby, blah, blah). But that's not want I want from a staff member and there constant badgering to buy things turned me off going to the store out of sheer spite. Which is a shame, considering they are probably lovely people.

Spirit Games in Burton is probably my favourite and most engaging hobby store. They have everything from GW to Carcassonne, et all. But the guys there are so pleasant and helpful. They are willing enough to scour through the numerous Reaper miniatures on a shelf to find you the right one. Could not fault how nice they are.

I think it comes down to where they are working. The more relaxed independent stores tend to be nicer and willing to engage in really interesting stories, but the staff at GW are much stiffer when it comes to talking, for they know they'll get it in the neck if they don't sell, sell, sell. That's what I think anyway.

Guardian Games! I bought a Gamezone Mounted Warrior Priest from their bits bin once. They've got everything.

My LGS is technically a GW offshoot I guess you'd call it. They sell everything, but can do the direct to store order if you order something from them. Most of the guys are cool, but there's a couple I don't like. I really only ever talk to one or two of the staff members. Some of the others I've tried to talk to and pretty much gotten the blank look.

I don't buy a lot of stuff from them, but I buy what I can because they have a great community and lots of tables/terrain and host a different game each night. For example you an still play 40k on Warhammer Fantasy night, but Fantasy has precedent.

They also have a forum which is really good for staying up to date on releases, finding people to play with, and general information.

When i lived in The Netherlands, i would go to "Vlieg er uit" in Maastricht, A Kite/magic/boardgame/wargame shop (interesting combination eh) Made some good friends there lot's of different types of people came there from die hard GW fanboys to always looking at the next thing guys, Won a playstation Gran Turismo event there and even a painting contest, Played Chronopia and warzone, 40K, BFG, Necromunda, Inquisitor, Stalingrad and other games. The owner is not really into the gaming aspect but had a long time employee who was a enthusiastic gamer.

Never liked to GW stores because of their clingy nature.

Here in Japan i go to Iconoclasm in Osaka, i nice shop with lots of different systems for sale, but it is tiny and has only one table.

I split my time between Calgary and Vancouver. The GW in Vancouver is unreal. By far my favorite place to go for anything Warhammer related. Great staff, great regulars, huge, loads of tables, just everything I want in a gaming store.

The last GW here in Calgary is godawful. The staff aren't knowledgable, no one ever seems to be actually gaming when I go in there, but rather sitting around at the painting table, not painting and talking about comic book movies and the store is so small you can't get away from them and just do your thing.

But we have a couple of good FLGS in Calgary. Sentry Box is great, Myth is very good, but both are far more focused on card games these days than Warhammer. Which I suppose GW did to themselves by being soo aggressive with third party sellers.

A good GW store is still a thing of beauty and I STILL miss the Gastown store in Vancouver 'back in the day'. But I find when I'm in Vancouver I live at the store there and spend a ton of cash there while in Calgary my hobby becomes mostly a stay at home thing. Imo the worst thing GW ever did was when they moved into all those small stores in shopping malls. The larger stores that open out onto the street are always so much better.