Warhammer fans in southern California, rejoice – you’ll soon have a new place to enjoy your favourite hobby. We’re delighted to announce that the Warhammer Store & Cafe: Los Angeles is coming to the area. The exact opening date is yet to be confirmed, but we couldn’t wait to tell you about it.

This new shop is based on the popular Warhammer Citadel in Grapevine, Texas. Just like its successor, the new LA location offers everything you love about a local Warhammer store and much, much more.

Games and models

As well as the same amazing boxed games, rulebooks, and models you’d find in other stores, the Warhammer Store & Cafe: Los Angeles carries an expanded range. You can buy a variety of normally web-exclusive models off the shelf, including releases for games such as Adeptus Titanicus and Necromunda.

Forge World

The store stocks a variety of popular Forge World models, and can order you any Forge World kits to the store – with free shipping!* The models available in-store also include a range of kits that you can usually only get at events.

Black Library

Fans of Warhammer fiction can find a vast library of books and CDs available to buy, from The Horus Heresy series to tales from the world-that-was, alongside the latest and greatest stories from the Age of Sigmar and the 41st Millennium. You’ll even have the chance to grab copies of limited edition books.

Merchandise

You’ll be able to remember your visit to the Warhammer Store & Cafe: Los Angeles with a selection of Warhammer merchandise, including art prints, pin badges, and coffee mugs.

Hobby areas

The store is a venue for Warhammer gaming and hobby events, with plenty of tables available to play on, as well as dedicated space for building and painting.

The cafe

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a store and cafe without a cafe! You can settle down with a hot or cold beverage and a variety of sweet treats – the perfect way to pore over your new codex or lose yourself in an exciting adventure from Black Library.

The Texas cafe serves such delights as the ‘Prospero’ peach tea and ‘Nuln Oil’ mocha,** as well as a selection of Chaos cookies and warpstone muffins, so there’s plenty to look forward to.

The Warhammer Store & Cafe: Los Angeles is in the town of Monrovia, just down the freeway from the tourist hotspots of the City of Angels. Monrovia is an All-American City – literally. It was awarded the accolade for its civic achievements, and was voted the best downtown area in the San Gabriel Valley for its weekly family festival, community events, and great local shopping – which the new Warhammer store will make even better!

Monrovia is also within an easy drive of three major airports, making it a perfect hub for Warhammer events.

You’ll get more news about the store and cafe on their Facebook page, including when you can expect it to open.

The store opening will be a little different than usual because we want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to celebrate safely. We’ll extend the festivities for a few weeks to avoid a big opening-day crowd, and the shop will diligently follow all local social distancing and Covid-19 precautions.

If you’re closer to Texas and want to check out the Citadel Cafe, their Facebook page will tell you everything you need to know.

Voss wrote:
Snerk. Good luck. GW stores never did very well in LA, and Monrovia is way the heck out of the way from _everything_.

Hopefully it'll have better parking than the _five_ spots in front of the titchy little store in Texas.

 Overread wrote:
I'm wondering when GW will start doing Cafe stores in the UK. From what I can see pairing gaming, retail and food is a sure fire way to at least try and both increase footfall and maximise profit per person. Esp for a game that can take several hours so having food on-site is a big draw. Great to see GW doing more in the big US market.

 Arbitrator wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I'm wondering when GW will start doing Cafe stores in the UK. From what I can see pairing gaming, retail and food is a sure fire way to at least try and both increase footfall and maximise profit per person. Esp for a game that can take several hours so having food on-site is a big draw. Great to see GW doing more in the big US market.

Might be a case of, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' because of how saturated in GW stores the UK already is, unlike the US and it's more LFGS-inclined culture.

 Hulksmash wrote:

Voss wrote:
Snerk. Good luck. GW stores never did very well in LA, and Monrovia is way the heck out of the way from _everything_.

Hopefully it'll have better parking than the _five_ spots in front of the titchy little store in Texas.

GW stores did bonkers numbers in LA back in the day. It's why they got one of the first bunkers and why it was one of the last to go.

 Arbitrator wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I'm wondering when GW will start doing Cafe stores in the UK. From what I can see pairing gaming, retail and food is a sure fire way to at least try and both increase footfall and maximise profit per person. Esp for a game that can take several hours so having food on-site is a big draw. Great to see GW doing more in the big US market.

Might be a case of, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' because of how saturated in GW stores the UK already is, unlike the US and it's more LFGS-inclined culture.

Voss wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:

Voss wrote:
Snerk. Good luck. GW stores never did very well in LA, and Monrovia is way the heck out of the way from _everything_.

Hopefully it'll have better parking than the _five_ spots in front of the titchy little store in Texas.

GW stores did bonkers numbers in LA back in the day. It's why they got one of the first bunkers and why it was one of the last to go.

Eh? When I was in LA, the GW store in...Santa Monica (I think?) had already come and gone. It died fast as part of the first cut-back of GW stores in the US. It was replaced by an indie store so fast the smog imprints from the 'Games Workshop' signs were still on the walls on and in the building.

Danny76 wrote:
Debenhams wanted to do the same, with some proper branded restaurants in locations for the same reason. It was planned to have at least full restaurants instead of just a cafe, to make it more of a hub, in many locations.
But look how that turned out I guess..

 Overread wrote:

Voss wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:

Voss wrote:
Snerk. Good luck. GW stores never did very well in LA, and Monrovia is way the heck out of the way from _everything_.

Hopefully it'll have better parking than the _five_ spots in front of the titchy little store in Texas.

GW stores did bonkers numbers in LA back in the day. It's why they got one of the first bunkers and why it was one of the last to go.

Eh? When I was in LA, the GW store in...Santa Monica (I think?) had already come and gone. It died fast as part of the first cut-back of GW stores in the US. It was replaced by an indie store so fast the smog imprints from the 'Games Workshop' signs were still on the walls on and in the building.

As I recall US people mentioning, wasn't there issues with many of the US stores being far more product rather than customer driven in how they focused on selling the product. That is the hard sell rather than the hobby sell that we get in the UK. I seem to also recall some mention of them focusing very heavily on providing for the new player and not really welcoming the older established players well.

That a 3rd party opened up that swiftly suggests the problem wasn't with the area ,but with the running of the store.

 Overread wrote:

Danny76 wrote:
Debenhams wanted to do the same, with some proper branded restaurants in locations for the same reason. It was planned to have at least full restaurants instead of just a cafe, to make it more of a hub, in many locations.
But look how that turned out I guess..

They did it years back. At least the Ipswich one had a restaurant on the top floor decades ago - and in the last 10years (ish??) a coffee/cafe on the ground floor as well.

Though I have to say the restaurant never really impressed; it always felt rather overpriced for what you got which wasn't that high grade. I think it didn't help that the building didn't have any windows so it was dining without any light/view. The ground floor one I think did far better, esp as you actually knew it was there (street view) whilst the restaurant upstairs was one of those things you had to know was there in advance.

 Overread wrote:
True, but at the same time the only things I see surviving on the highstreet (outside of covid times) is food outlets. Plus a lot of the newly opening game hubs are food and game hubs. I'd hope/expect its something GW could keep in mind - letting them expand their UK stores hold by pairing them with food outlets. I know Waterstones is wanting to do that more and more. Basically food helps generate income and if its good food, as noted above, it can generate its own market of customers on its own.

Basically survival by pairing up and offering more. Heck it might let GW expand some of hteir stores a bit, right now a good few I've been into are well featured, but quite small to keep the rent down.


In the end the worst thing is indeed that the UK highstreet is basically terrible to actually open a shop on these days between high rate, rents and tax and soforth.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:

What do you mean by UK "highstreet"? Would this be the preferred retail real estate in a UK city? My one time in the UK, I walked Edinburgh's Royal Mile, and there is a "High Street" as part of it, but from context a literally named high street does not appear to be what you meant.

Danny76 wrote:

 Overread wrote:

Danny76 wrote:
Debenhams wanted to do the same, with some proper branded restaurants in locations for the same reason. It was planned to have at least full restaurants instead of just a cafe, to make it more of a hub, in many locations.
But look how that turned out I guess..

They did it years back. At least the Ipswich one had a restaurant on the top floor decades ago - and in the last 10years (ish??) a coffee/cafe on the ground floor as well.

Though I have to say the restaurant never really impressed; it always felt rather overpriced for what you got which wasn't that high grade. I think it didn't help that the building didn't have any windows so it was dining without any light/view. The ground floor one I think did far better, esp as you actually knew it was there (street view) whilst the restaurant upstairs was one of those things you had to know was there in advance.

The restaurant upstairs is the one they wanted to change to make it a proper restaurant. It was very much cafe style.
Downstairs is a Costa, and as you say street level, so easier to do fine.
There was talk of multiple eateries, but either way the plan was to move it to the offices at the front to get a view of the Corn exchange.

 Overread wrote:
Yep, typically a street where you get most of the retail outlets. It's traditionally a single street, but in bigger towns its often more of a blob; typically with a central region that's higher rent/more footfall and then steadily cheaper rents and such as you spread out from it. In general terms its just where people go to shop and where shops tend to be. Roads are often pedestrianised and there's parking/park and ride busses and such nearby.

Thing is the rent-rates of those regions has gone up and up and up. Plus most urban areas aren't really made for lots of car traffic. In recent decades many of the big superstores jumped out of town and built their own huge sprawling superstore parks with lots of parking; easy access to main roads and such. Though the highstreets remained for smaller stores and those that were already there; but steadily over the years they've been getting harder and harder to run.

Danny76 wrote:

Danny76 wrote:

Also, it was highly coincidental that you mentioned theipswich one when that was the one I knew specific details about
Although it was the plan for several.

Indeed, sometimes it can be a small world!

Ancestral Hamster wrote:

 Overread wrote:
Yep, typically a street where you get most of the retail outlets. It's traditionally a single street, but in bigger towns its often more of a blob; typically with a central region that's higher rent/more footfall and then steadily cheaper rents and such as you spread out from it. In general terms its just where people go to shop and where shops tend to be. Roads are often pedestrianised and there's parking/park and ride busses and such nearby.

Thing is the rent-rates of those regions has gone up and up and up. Plus most urban areas aren't really made for lots of car traffic. In recent decades many of the big superstores jumped out of town and built their own huge sprawling superstore parks with lots of parking; easy access to main roads and such. Though the highstreets remained for smaller stores and those that were already there; but steadily over the years they've been getting harder and harder to run.

Thanks for the reply. Ideally, rents would stay reasonable so small businesses could remain, but we've similar problems on this side of the pond. The big corporations will do fine, but the "mom and pop" stores die. Also, in some places as the respectable businesses fold or leave, the sleazy businesses move in, so one gets dives, strip clubs, and sex shops, and the whole atmosphere of the neighborhood changes.

From what I can see small regular service store and stores with low stock costs and high turnover tend to do best. So we tend to see restaurants and mobile phone shops doing well. Both have repeat customers and mobile phone shops don't really need to hold vast amounts of stock to function (its often all in the contract sales and such).

Meanwhile big highstreet names tend to do ok during regular times, but will fold during economic downturns, though there I see it often as a result of loans and investors wanting and needing repayments. They often expand big and fast through taking out that money early, but it comes back to bite them time and time again.

But yeah smaller retail and hobby stores have closed down. GW (as have a few others) have moved from the main to side streets ,but still ok regions of the town; but in general the days of the hobby or highstreet store are long gone for now. It would take a major re-think of tax and rental policies to see them make a return.

 Arbitrator wrote:
What's that one brand of gaming cafes, Geek Retreat? They seem to be doing relatively well (pre-Covid) mixing gaming with your basic burgers/chips/coffees. Granted I think those're your usual LFGS thing of living mainly off Magic but they were expanding.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
Game Haus is the game cafe near me, in Glendale, CA. Never went there myself, since I did not want to pay to play, and unless you get there early, parking in that area is a . Others in the group say it the food is decent, and they have a good game library. They were doing okay pre-Covid, but as you can see from their homepage, they are closed. Anyway, in LA county we're back to take-out only, no more outdoor dining for now.

 Overread wrote:
Even just a drinks and snacks/sandwiches vending machine would do well in a geek shop. The key thing would be having enough room to allow people to eat and game without eating over the game itself.