Would you buy from:

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**lukewild1982**

For certain things I think its nice to have everything behind counters and force an interaction with the staff. I am not sure I would want it in a hobby place though where you are going to consistently want to take a much closer look at everything.

It has its place but not sure Wargaming is the right place

**ExNoctemNacimur**

One of the things I like to do when buying the models is firstly look for the models. There is a sense of excitement when you realise they have what you want. Then I hold the box and feel the weight. Then I lay my purchases out on a shelf (I buy in big batches, then lay off for a while, then buy another big batch) and think how they'd fit together. Then I buy them. Sometimes I see a cool model and decide to buy that - that's how I ended up with Imotekh.

The store design you suggested would hinder me. I would hate it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gosh I sound like a pain.

**Wardragoon**

ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
One of the things I like to do when buying the models is firstly look for the models. There is a sense of excitement when you realise they have what you want. Then I hold the box and feel the weight. Then I lay my purchases out on a shelf (I buy in big batches, then lay off for a while, then buy another big batch) and think how they'd fit together. Then I buy them. Sometimes I see a cool model and decide to buy that - that's how I ended up with Imotekh.

The store design you suggested would hinder me. I would hate it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gosh I sound like a pain.

You arent the only one who does this

**Azazelx**

insaniak wrote:
K3 wrote:
I thought like that myself, but then i actually got to thinking - what does the back of a box have that a computer terminal wouldnt?

Convenience. I can pick up the box that's on the shelf right in front of me... or I can look in the cabinet, see what I want, consider walking over to the computer terminal and running a search to find out what's actually in the box, after which I have to go track down a staff member to get the box out for me so I can buy it... and decide it's all too much bother, go grab a coffee instead, and next time around just go to the other store up the road that has a more customer-friendly layout.

And you would be able to ask to see any box you wanted.

Which works great, right up until there are more customers in the store than staff.

And that assumes that the customer is feeling inclined to ask, which many of them won't be. Customers, particularly young guys from my experience, don't like asking for help. And if they're just browsing, they have to ask to see this box, and that box, and that one there... Customer starts feeling more embarrassed about wasting the staff member's time with every extra box they ask to see, Staff member sees other customers walking in, but can't go to serve them because he's tied down helping this indecisive idiot who wants to look at everything and won't just buy something and go away, customer starts to pick up on staff member's attitude and decides it's all too hard...

I've spent a large chunk of my working career in retail. I can guarantee you that every little thing that makes it harder, even just in a small way, for your customer to buy your product without having to ask for help will contribute to that customer choosing to shop somewhere else next time.

This man speaks the truth. I don't know how typical or atypical I am, but I don't rely on a local store for gaming table space. I also have more figures than I'll probably paint in my lifetime, and so I'm rarely in a huge rush for a figure that I need right now. I can;t see that being particularly unusual given what we're like in this hobby. So, if I want something, it's easy for me to do it from where I sit right now. I'll just change tabs.. right. Just spent £72.00 at Firestorm games. I'll see the figures in a few weeks. I don't need them massively quick, after all. I didn't even need to shift my arse. There's a local FLGS in my area, and now and then I wander up with my wife. Most of what we buy there is impulse purchases. It's been about 50 of the new GW paint range, a FoW starter set, some FoW dice, and some Chessex Dice. When we go there we might spend $30 or $180 on impulse stuff. If everything was behind the counter and I had to ask to see everything, I'd only ask to see the things that I really want, and none of the things that just look a bit interesting. - because I don't want to be hassling the staff to see everything I might want to look at... so I may as well just buy them online.

**ExNoctemNacimur**

Wardragoon wrote:
ExNoctemNacimur wrote:
One of the things I like to do when buying the models is firstly look for the models. There is a sense of excitement when you realise they have what you want. Then I hold the box and feel the weight. Then I lay my purchases out on a shelf (I buy in big batches, then lay off for a while, then buy another big batch) and think how they'd fit together. Then I buy them. Sometimes I see a cool model and decide to buy that - that's how I ended up with Imotekh.

The store design you suggested would hinder me. I would hate it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Gosh I sound like a pain.

You arent the only one who does this

Oh good! I'm not so peculiar after all.

**MightyGodzilla**

scipio.au wrote:
This man speaks the truth. I don't know how typical or atypical I am, but I don't rely on a local store for gaming table space. I also have more figures than I'll probably paint in my lifetime, and so I'm rarely in a huge rush for a figure that I need right now. I can;t see that being particularly unusual given what we're like in this hobby. So, if I want something, it's easy for me to do it from where I sit right now. I'll just change tabs.. right. Just spent £72.00 at Firestorm games. I'll see the figures in a few weeks. I don't need them massively quick, after all. I didn't even need to shift my arse. There's a local FLGS in my area, and now and then I wander up with my wife. Most of what we buy there is impulse purchases. It's been about 50 of the new GW paint range, a FoW starter set, some FoW dice, and some Chessex Dice. When we go there we might spend $30 or $180 on impulse stuff. If everything was behind the counter and I had to ask to see everything, I'd only ask to see the things that I really want, and none of the things that just look a bit interesting. - because I don't want to be hassling the staff to see everything I might want to look at... so I may as well just buy them online.

This man speaks the truth!! I buy discount online..a lot...for the exact reason Scipio posted I've got two local stores in my area that I visit during my 5-10% of the time that I'm not willing to wait or that I visit just cause I want to. Usually when I impulse buy I walk in meaning to spend $50 and walk out have spent $150. Don't underestimate the importance of making it easy for your customers to make impulse purchases.

The one thing that an online store has over brick and mortars is the amount of customers it reaches. It is not the 20-30% off discount (that's the reason you buy from them, not the reason they succeed). The amount of customers online stores reach actually enables the discount.. Brick and mortars got to make it easy for customers to buy to enable a reason to return value. Salesmanship /sales tactics, levels of stock, ability to impulse buy, discounts, being part of their community are all the main reasons brick and mortars fail or succeed.