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Brace for new developments.
I heard last week that GW is set to start opening '1 man stores' in new locations in Oz.
Similar to what they wre doing with smaller shops in the UK when I lived there in 1999 and 2000.

1 guy on staff at any time (2 school holidays) shop designed to introduce new people to the game, not to allow people to turn up and play or sit and paint etc.

What’s the sound? It sounds almost like something circling a drain...

Great, 40k from a vending machine. I love how GW stated publicly that internet retailers did nothing to support the hobby...hypocrite much?

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Brace for new developments.
I heard last week that GW is set to start opening '1 man stores' in new locations in Oz.
Similar to what they wre doing with smaller shops in the UK when I lived there in 1999 and 2000.

1 guy on staff at any time (2 school holidays) shop designed to introduce new people to the game, not to allow people to turn up and play or sit and paint etc.

If you missed it already, GW has been doing this all over the globe for the past few years. They tried it in Japan, then they tried it in Europe and the UK, then Mr. Kirby's been trying it everywhere else. Every shop in the US (except for the tiny number of Battle Bunkers which are meant to be large, full-time stores) where they could renegotiate the lease to 35 hours per week they did so well more than a year ago and those shops have only 1 employee. However, they did not eliminate the playing and painting, just the staff and the hours that required having staff. If the store is large enough to support in-store activities, they still have them, but the staff was cut to one person and the hours cut so as to allow for only a single full-time staff member, saving GW a ton of money on staff and other costs associated with longer hours. In places where they could not renegotiate the lease to 35 hours right away they've been slowly doing that as they are able. Nearly every store in US and Canada is now a 1-man operation.

AesSedai wrote:Great, 40k from a vending machine. I love how GW stated publicly that internet retailers did nothing to support the hobby...hypocrite much?

The GW stores around me seem to have only 1 employee around at any time anyway.

The one man "demo store" concept seems to be what GW is embracing for their locations.

To be fair, my local store has at least 4 staff. It's a tiny store . They manage to fit three tables - two of which are allways together, a small painting station and a small counter for the register which is more like an island you can walk around to get to the paints, novels and stuff. It's the smallest GW store I've actually ever seen in Australia so far, and they have at least 4 staff, two of which are part time.

They get nothing like the quantity of business a store that small should get to require 2 full time and 2-3 part time staff. This is the kind of store I could easily see moving to a 1 man store, and I totally would not blame GW. Any other store that size selling a niche product has one staff. Hell, comic stores get more business and egenerally only have one or two staff.

Having more staff on for things like Thurday night, Saturday and school holidays makes sense, since there's a larger amount of people in the store, but other than that, all the staff do is sit there painting their armies and talking gak.

And its going to make thier stand on "supporting locals in aus" even more muddy than before.

Especially when Aussies can still order from GWUK directly at 1/2 the price (+shipping).

H.B.M.C. wrote:Especially when Aussies can still order from GWUK directly at 1/2 the price (+shipping).

Really? It still possible to do that?

Still... with GW's track record with the horror that is T3|-| 1|\|T3RB|_4G, maybe - just maybe - they just don't realize that people can still do that?

It's that, or it's just a really, really hypocritical move.

I was going to say they're either hypocrites, or clueless, but I don't quite think we can rule out the possibility that it's both.

RatBot wrote:I was going to say they're either hypocrites, or clueless, but I don't quite think we can rule out the possibility that it's both.

And, of course, that requires an unnecessary amount of time to find the right portmanteau to desribe them.

I, personally, like Cluecrites, or Hypocress.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Especially when Aussies can still order from GWUK directly at 1/2 the price (+shipping).

You what? How!?!

Brunius wrote:You what? How!?!

When you go to the GW website, select UK from either the entry page or the country drop-down on the bottom of each page. That will display the UK website, with UK prices.

...so if you're in Australia you can order directly from the UK site and they'll still ship it to you? Have you actually tried that H.B.M.C.?

H.B.M.C wrote

Especially when Aussies can still order from GWUK directly at 1/2 the price (+shipping).

I don't know about Auz, but I just tried it for Japan. It appeared to work until the final confirmation where and 80 GBP order turned into this gak:

Merchandise Total:
£160.00
Standard Shipping:
£40.00
Sales Tax:
£0.00
Order Total:
£200.00


So yeah, unlikely.

Sidstyler wrote:...so if you're in Australia you can order directly from the UK site and they'll still ship it to you? Have you actually tried that H.B.M.C.?

Yes a friend did it as a test.

Got it sent from GK UK to a mail forwarder. Then got it sent on to aus, about a 25% saving over getting it from GWAU

Its the standard GW frieght from UK to aus thats the killer.

Feight forwarder isn't quite the same...

Sidstyler wrote:...so if you're in Australia you can order directly from the UK site and they'll still ship it to you? Have you actually tried that H.B.M.C.?

Friend of mine did an order. It showed up without an issue. Difference (factoring in shipping) was AUD$100 off the standard GWOZ price.

Hey guys, would you be so kind as to recommend a freight forwarder. I'm tired of waiting for Wayland to get their RoW going. Which one did your friend use?

AesSedai wrote:Hey guys, would you be so kind as to recommend a freight forwarder. I'm tired of waiting for Wayland to get their RoW going. Which one did your friend use?

We were discussing 2, one was http://www.alfasent.co.uk cant remember what the other one was. The other option was getting it through an american mail forwarder like www.shipito.com. Think the costing works out around the same price GWUS an GWUK

insaniak wrote:

Brunius wrote:You what? How!?!

When you go to the GW website, select UK from either the entry page or the country drop-down on the bottom of each page. That will display the UK website, with UK prices.

Only works if you have never been on the website before (or have cookies disabled). Otherwise you have to delete the www.gamesworkshop.com cookie first to get to the country select page.

No you don't. You just select it from the menu at the bottom.

Out of interest are there not Austrailian discounters that do 25% discounts?

Seems you might get your order quicker and without the potential hassle?

Well, that's what Gw stopped a while ago...

25% off AUS price /= 25% off UK price

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Brace for new developments.
I heard last week that GW is set to start opening '1 man stores' in new locations in Oz.
Similar to what they wre doing with smaller shops in the UK when I lived there in 1999 and 2000.

1 guy on staff at any time (2 school holidays) shop designed to introduce new people to the game, not to allow people to turn up and play or sit and paint etc.

You might've missed it, but stores that were opened in NSW last year or so apparentlly already had this in effect.
Im suprised they already haven't implemented it here in force to be honest, considering they obssessed with cost cutting measures

One man stores? I gather that GW then are unconcerned about shoplifting losses? After all, a 1 man store and a hundred kids is a shoplifters mecca.

A store with a hundred kids in it is GWs Mecca. Shoplifting is written off easily enough, a few pounds of kits going missing is chaeper than redshirt #2, cameras are there for the big stuff. Economics in action.

notprop wrote:A store with a hundred kids in it is GWs Mecca. Shoplifting is written off easily enough, a few pounds of kits going missing is chaeper than redshirt #2, cameras are there for the big stuff. Economics in action.

Which is a sad indictment of society as a whole, that stealing stuff can be "written off". I dunno about anywhere else, but the Cameras in our local GW weren't even real for years, and certain of our number used to "steal" boxed games and stand outside waving them through the window just to catch out the "ever vigilant" staff. And that was with three or four staff. We also used to see the ropey smack-heads in the pub later on, selling on stolen box sets.. dozens of them at a time.

"Writing off" shoplifted materials is one of the reasons why everyone gets to pay just a little bit more for their goods. Sad really.

Why would they do that?