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Anyone heard of this or can help with this, I know its a outlandish request but id like to make my case to GW to open a location >_< I reached out to customer relations earlier today. Shot in the dark but I'm nothing but a optimist.

They did run something akin to that a year or two ago....but that might’ve been more getting a local store to carry their stock?

Reckon you can’t go far wrong with a friendly email?

It might be the case that an email to the right person would work, but that its very easy to end up emailing the wrong department/person and it never filtering through.

I also think that if you want them to open a store you've got to present your case well. A large active gamer group; schools; viable highstreet etc... There's a lot you could do to show them that your area has what they want in terms of potential customerbase.

Also, a local GW store won't benefit you much if you're a current, long-time player. A normal local FLGS would be far better.

If you're in Scanton, PA the closest Warhammer (official hobby center) store is in Allentown. It's just a bit more than a 1 hr. drive. Which IMO is not bad.

Good luck with your endeavor. The conditions have to be just right for them to open a bobby center.

They generally start with a local gaming store to carry their stuff and then, if it moves a sufficient quantity, will consider opening their own store in that area. If you don't have a flgs or even a gs in your area to start with, they probably won't.

At least, that's how it was in my city (2nd oldest regional store in the state). Specialist model store carried their stuff first, then after moving X amount in Y months, they opened their own store a few blocks away.

 chromedog wrote:
They generally start with a local gaming store to carry their stuff and then, if it moves a sufficient quantity, will consider opening their own store in that area. If you don't have a flgs or even a gs in your area to start with, they probably won't.

At least, that's how it was in my city (2nd oldest regional store in the state). Specialist model store carried their stuff first, then after moving X amount in Y months, they opened their own store a few blocks away.

Bet that made your local stores day.

They (GW) repeatedly changed terms of supply with them afterwards, and after a few years of this, the model store just stopped carrying their stuff.

Last year, they started to carry their stuff again (after a 15 year gap). They just moved to a new store, and the GW store is no longer only a couple of blocks away (it's 3 suburbs away now).

GW is notorious for questionable treatment of retail stores and being hugely inconsistent.

When I was 12 or so, back when GW had like two stores in the United States, a local hobby shop agreed to carry to GW product and become an outrider - contingent on the agreement that GW had no interest in opening a retail store in the immediate vicinity. Three months later GW built a store 40 minutes away from them, and seven months later another store nearly 10 minutes from them. The retail said "feth it" and sold off all their GW stuff. That's where I got my first metal Wraithguard for half off.

 Elbows wrote:
GW is notorious for questionable treatment of retail stores and being hugely inconsistent.

When I was 12 or so, back when GW had like two stores in the United States, a local hobby shop agreed to carry to GW product and become an outrider - contingent on the agreement that GW had no interest in opening a retail store in the immediate vicinity. Three months later GW built a store 40 minutes away from them, and seven months later another store nearly 10 minutes from them. The retail said "feth it" and sold off all their GW stuff. That's where I got my first metal Wraithguard for half off.

This is SOP for GW. Let an LGS build the market for GW stuff and then open a GW very close to the LGS and grab their customers.

Yeah my FLG isn't as friendly as a previous store that was opened years ago, back then we had a surging player base but after they closed due to the other stores attitude players dropped off. We do have a great store neighboring but its somewhat of a inconvenience getting there.

Quick update I made a detailed case to GW in regards to opening a store the response went very well. Heres to being optimisic


Cheers.

Also, a local GW store won't benefit you much if you're a current, long-time player. A normal local FLGS would be far better.

This. So much this. The one-man stores are so small that both shelf space (for product), and table space (for gaming) are at an absolute premium. All it takes at my local GW is one small game to be happening and comfortable browsing becomes nearly impossible as you're almost always back-to-back with someone (and I mean that in the literal sense - your backs are actually touching while the shelves are so close that the clam-pack pegs could put your eyes out). On top of that, the goal of those stores is to get people into the hobby, but they don't necessarily care as much about KEEPING them in, so the stock is severely limited. Certainly this is partly due to GW moving so many things to "online only" over the years, but the stock is limited even with that in mind. I've played since Rogue Trader, and have a pretty big collection so it's rare that I need a basic unit (like marines, basic guardsmen, etc). My local GW store opened around 2016/2017 and I've only been able to buy a handful of items from them because the answer is almost always "No. Don't have that. BUT LET"S ORDER IT RIGHT NOW." No thanks. The LGS carries it. IDK if everyone's GW store experience matches that, but mine is definitely geared towards having the very basic starter portions of most armies (and sometimes not even that depending on the army/game), and few of the "big ticket" special units like Mortarion. They have the full paint line (I think anyway - I don't buy paint from there anymore because I tire of hearing about what I "should do with that color", or "You know - you get the same shade faster if you just bought these contrast paints instead").

The guy that runs it is decent enough as these things go, and isn't quite as pushy as some of the other GW store managers I've experienced, but still. The LGS typically has everything I need, and then some, and they are good enough with customer service to know that they're going to blow the sale if they start hounding me with unsolicited painting/modeling advice that's geared towards just getting me to buy the new shiny ...

DerKommandantAndros wrote:
Yeah my FLG isn't as friendly as a previous store that was opened years ago, back then we had a surging player base but after they closed due to the other stores attitude players dropped off. We do have a great store neighboring but its somewhat of a inconvenience getting there.

Quick update I made a detailed case to GW in regards to opening a store the response went very well. Heres to being optimisic


Cheers.

Honestly now is perhaps not the best time to ask. GW is in full shutdown due to the Corona virus situation and opening new stores will be far from their minds right now when they'll have enough trouble keepign the stores and staff they've got; plus then restockign the whole world market (already many stores are running out of stock).