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1.) GW is desperately cutting corners at any possible angle to maintain the illusion that they're in good shape for the next financial report. Much of GW's current policies, from the website redesign games to forcing bigger models into games to the constant bombardment of new codex's is designed around this.

2.) GW hates gaming-orientated customers and tries to actively drive them away. GW is greedy, but only greedy on their terms. If you care about quality and gaming, they don't want your money. Or at the very least, they want your money but never want to encounter you.

All companies are greedy (yes, even PP). It's how they functon successfully honestly and I don't blame them.

I don't know if GW is really trying to "cut corners", but I will agree that something is a bit off as of late (faster releases but on the flipside, they're smaller like they don't have the money or time to really flesh them out comes to mind for instance).

I feel it's more like they're trying to work as fast as they can to curb a potential run down hill and are giving it a go with whatever they can to make it work. I'm not saying it's a great plan, just seems like the plan they're trying for at the moment.

Based on what I have read, with the bunkers being urned into 1-man stores and then being shut down, it looks like GW is starting to pull back from brick and mortar stores in the US.

Jaceevoke wrote:
Based on what I have read, with the bunkers being urned into 1-man stores and then being shut down, it looks like GW is starting to pull back from brick and mortar stores in the US.

They are trying to open more than they are closing. They are not abandoning the model, they are doubling down on it without look at why it's not working.

What I don't understand is why they limit the stuff that can be soled in B&M FLGS. I understand that interent store undercut them and they don't realy get much out of them , but in places where there is one GW store per country , it is sometimes hard to get the models you want , if they are limited to GW online store only.

Makumba wrote:
What I don't understand is why they limit the stuff that can be soled in B&M FLGS. I understand that interent store undercut them and they don't realy get much out of them , but in places where there is one GW store per country , it is sometimes hard to get the models you want , if they are limited to GW online store only.

Because when you buy through an independent retail store GW doesn't get 100% of the sale price. GW wants you to buy as much stuff as possible directly from them, preferably through the website.

(Of course this is bad in the long run, since independent stores are vital to GW maintaining market share outside the UK, and moving stuff to direct-only is really bad for those stores. But GW is all about the short-term profits right now.)

Yeah , if FLGS don't have stuff that people want then they don't buy stuff there and shops close or they have to find other games to sell. It is also bad for a lot of people like me , who can't buy stuff online .People that can buy stuff online won't be buying them at full price from GW anyway , they will look for cheaper onlne stores. Suddenly playing w40k makes no sense at all.

What are people at GW thinking , that suddenly everyone is going to buy stuff from them directly or something .

That's just it.
If they want people to walk past a GW shop while out in town, taking stock back as direct-only is harming their model.
But, they can't deal with the internet properly, and their business model is decades out-of-date.
Direct-only won't work if it is used for staple models like Wave Serpents. People's impulse-buys will be the new shiny, or the just-one-more, like WS. Only selling thhem online, means lots of people have to make 2 trips to the store, once to order and again to collect.

So, Direct-only contradicts having GW B&M shops.

I think GW is employing a sort of 'split personality' policy. On the one hand, they're trying to adhere to the older business practice of drawing people in by giving them all they need in one place (i.e. the GW b&m stores) which is essentially a relic from the days before the internet, when your local GW might perhaps be the only gig in town. On the other hand they are trying to run a modern 'generic' business model of controlling profits as much as possible and only looking at the short-term bottom line, rather than the survivability of the company. These two things clash horribly, with them not being able to give up the 'we give you everything we need' sapping metric feth-tons of money for results that are 'meh' at best. So they have to make decisions that focus on budget cuts and monopolizing so that don't lose money to third parties etc. Left unchecked as it is now, these two different policies will keep dragging eachother down untill one of them eventually dies. Just the fact that GW doesn't do much in advertising, which for some companies makes up more than half their budget, tells you something is off.

Makumba wrote:
What are people at GW thinking , that suddenly everyone is going to buy stuff from them directly or something .

The short answer is that the idiots running GW think that every country is like the UK, and strategies that work in the UK (with high population density and tons of GW stores) will work everywhere. The fact that even a casual observer can see that the non-UK markets work completely differently doesn't stop them from trying to force reality to conform to their ignorance.

Jaceevoke wrote:
Based on what I have read, with the bunkers being urned into 1-man stores and then being shut down, it looks like GW is starting to pull back from brick and mortar stores in the US.

Most of the stores they're "closing" are just being relocated to cheaper parts of town, regardless of how good or bad the location they're moving into is for business. Not too many of the stores are being closed permanently.

 ClockworkZion wrote:
(yes, even PP).
.

Privateer are the greediest TT game company [excluding GW], going by the price to product ratio of their new kits. For example, you would think the Nyss Hunters kits, which requires a excessive amount of effort to assemble 10 near-identical fiudres with bad proportions, would cost much less than the same number of highly characterful and individual hasslefree miniatures. No, they actually cost more.

OT: Seems to be exactly what GW is thinking Makemba.

 sing your life wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:
(yes, even PP).
.

Privateer are the greediest TT game company [excluding GW], going by the price to product ratio of their new kits. For example, you would think the Nyss Hunters kits, which requires a excessive amount of effort to assemble 10 near-identical fiudres with bad proportions, would cost much less than the same number of highly characterful and individual hasslefree miniatures. No, they actually cost more.

OT: Seems to be exactly what GW is thinking Makemba.

Greed makes the world go 'round. It's why "they're doing it to make money" and "they're just greedy" are the worst criticisms of a company. Of course they are. That's how companies work. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

 sing your life wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:
(yes, even PP).
.

Privateer are the greediest TT game company [excluding GW], going by the price to product ratio of their new kits. For example, you would think the Nyss Hunters kits, which requires a excessive amount of effort to assemble 10 near-identical fiudres with bad proportions, would cost much less than the same number of highly characterful and individual hasslefree miniatures. No, they actually cost more.

OT: Seems to be exactly what GW is thinking Makemba.

Greed makes the world go 'round. It's why "they're doing it to make money" and "they're just greedy" are the worst criticisms of a company. Of course they are. That's what companies do. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.

Except you wrote as if PP were some of the least greedy companies around, whilst in actuality they are very greedy.

 sing your life wrote:
Except you wrote as if PP were some of the least greedy companies around, whilst in actuality they are very greedy.

Oh no, that wasn't my intent at all. It was to preemptively strike any defense of PP down before it came up because that's usually the first thing to get posted right after someone says that companies are greedy. PP is not the savior of anything (despite what some parts of the Internet believe), nor do they care about the customers any more than any other company does. Half of what they do seems to be done only because they've seen what didn't work for GW and because of that are avoiding GW's mistakes. It's not out of some special love of the community, but a careful set of calculated business decisions.

You know, like every company.

PP aside, I really think GW needs to reevaluate it's B&M store mentality. They'd easily save a lot of money without them and set themselves up to be more profitable by trimming what is their biggest operating expense item so I'm not sure why they haven't given them a much harder look like they have pretty much everything else.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

 Skinnereal wrote:
IF GW stores closed, and if they did open a franchise chain, what would that do to wargaming?
Most GW stores would close, and reopen as GW sellers, I expect. If GW managers get a head-start on FLGS owners, I expect most would keep going. They could branch out, and stock other lines, to stay viable.

But, as for GW supporting their stores, managers need more leeway. They need an option to adjust prices for promotions. Loyalty schemes, backed by GW itself. The GW shops I've been to have tried to do these kinds of things, but can only do so much.

I blame GW's rather insane sales division who fires people for not making quota. And I don't mean not making quota for an extended period of time. They've apparently done it for as short of a time as a month. I understand they want results but frankly if they rod isn't working they need to try and use the carrot method instead.

If GW moved to the franchise model they would be like Mc'Ds or Burger King franchises and limit the store to only being able to sell whatever GW dicate.

GW seem uninterested in anything other than the items with the highest profit margin, so anything from the webstore and limited editions with big fat markups. They tried the high volume big discount approach a few years ago when just about every webstore that wanted GW had GW and offered 30% off GW, that didn't work so they are trying the exact opposite now, limiting who can sell and how much discount. They have also put in place so many restrictions on FGLS it really isn't worth the time to stock GW unless you sell a lot of it.

Looky Likey wrote:
If GW moved to the franchise model they would be like Mc'Ds or Burger King franchises and limit the store to only being able to sell whatever GW dicate.

Which is exactly like it is now, but GW wouldn't have the financial burden of the stores, nor would they need to actually be responsible for making sure stores succeed. It'd actually be more profitable for them than it is now.

Gosh, I just started thinking about how good a move it would be for GW to start selling franchise opportunities.

Consider this: GW Franchise stores would still only stock GW stuff, and they could still enforce things like online mail orders in store and GW sanctioned events. The big benefit is that the cost of running the store is actually placed on the franchise owner. GW can keep a larger share of the profits (don't have to pay the bills + net profit + annual franchise fees), and the store would be owned by a GW fan (probably a hobbyist themselves) who would have real passion about the product, not to mention a tad more job security than your average one man store manager.

That would probably make me consider shopping at a GW store.

As a former franchisee (not wargaming related) I can heartily endorse what godswildcard says.

Franchising, assuming you have the sort of business model to accommodate it (and any multi site retail will fit) has very little risk for the franchisor.

The only real risk to the franchisor is if they recruit franchisee's that discredit the brand, lack sufficient finances or are looking to operate in inappropriate locations. All of this can be avoided by a suitably stringent vetting process, placing all the real operational risk on the franchisee.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

Looky Likey wrote:
If GW moved to the franchise model they would be like Mc'Ds or Burger King franchises and limit the store to only being able to sell whatever GW dicate.

Which is exactly like it is now, but GW wouldn't have the financial burden of the stores, nor would they need to actually be responsible for making sure stores succeed. It'd actually be more profitable for them than it is now.

They would need to drop the ability of FGLS from being able to stock GW to make it attractive, otherwise I would just open a FGLS and stock a wider range of products thus attracting a wider audience and not be tied into any sort of long term commitment with GW. If GW had a better brand name, think Mc'Ds, then they could charge a premium, but I think that time has past now.

Looky Likey wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:

Looky Likey wrote:
If GW moved to the franchise model they would be like Mc'Ds or Burger King franchises and limit the store to only being able to sell whatever GW dicate.

Which is exactly like it is now, but GW wouldn't have the financial burden of the stores, nor would they need to actually be responsible for making sure stores succeed. It'd actually be more profitable for them than it is now.

They would need to drop the ability of FGLS from being able to stock GW to make it attractive, otherwise I would just open a FGLS and stock a wider range of products thus attracting a wider audience and not be tied into any sort of long term commitment with GW. If GW had a better brand name, think Mc'Ds, then they could charge a premium, but I think that time has past now.

Completely agree. If they suddenly changed to a franchise system, let's say, for everywhere outside of the UK in two years of time (tops) there would be no GW stores outside the UK. The reason I say this is that I fully believe that GW would be just as stringent with any type of franchisee program as they already are with the one-man stores. As a former store operator I can say that I wouldn't touch such an opportunity with a ten foot pole until I could see a much more "up-to-the-franchisee" kind of terms.

godswildcard wrote:
Gosh, I just started thinking about how good a move it would be for GW to start selling franchise opportunities.

Consider this: GW Franchise stores would still only stock GW stuff, and they could still enforce things like online mail orders in store and GW sanctioned events. The big benefit is that the cost of running the store is actually placed on the franchise owner. GW can keep a larger share of the profits (don't have to pay the bills + net profit + annual franchise fees), and the store would be owned by a GW fan (probably a hobbyist themselves) who would have real passion about the product, not to mention a tad more job security than your average one man store manager.

That would probably make me consider shopping at a GW store.

Exactly why I think it would be GW's best move.

Looky Likey wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:

Looky Likey wrote:
If GW moved to the franchise model they would be like Mc'Ds or Burger King franchises and limit the store to only being able to sell whatever GW dicate.

Which is exactly like it is now, but GW wouldn't have the financial burden of the stores, nor would they need to actually be responsible for making sure stores succeed. It'd actually be more profitable for them than it is now.

They would need to drop the ability of FGLS from being able to stock GW to make it attractive, otherwise I would just open a FGLS and stock a wider range of products thus attracting a wider audience and not be tied into any sort of long term commitment with GW. If GW had a better brand name, think Mc'Ds, then they could charge a premium, but I think that time has past now.

Even with franchises there are places that a GW store alone just can't be profitable (small towns for instance) and the stores need a wider range of products to stay afloat. But in larger cities and more metropolitan areas a pure GW store can get the foot traffic to run on just GW products alone. So no, GW shouldn't drop FLGSs.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Coldhatred wrote:
Completely agree. If they suddenly changed to a franchise system, let's say, for everywhere outside of the UK in two years of time (tops) there would be no GW stores outside the UK. The reason I say this is that I fully believe that GW would be just as stringent with any type of franchisee program as they already are with the one-man stores. As a former store operator I can say that I wouldn't touch such an opportunity with a ten foot pole until I could see a much more "up-to-the-franchisee" kind of terms.

If that happened would we really lose anything though? I mean then at least GW stores will migrate where they'd be most effective and that'd be best for the market as a whole.

I see some people talking about how spread out the stores are. Gw has been launching plans to make more stores in America. They won't always be so spread out, and Gw isn't actually stupid enough to underestimate the American market

 Njal Stormpuppy wrote:
I ... They won't always be so spread out, and Gw isn't actually stupid enough to underestimate the American market

GW can't afford to open enough stores in the USA it's simply too much for them. Also, GW has been underestimating the American market for 25 years. I don't see any reason that's going to change. More GW stores certainly won't help.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

Even with franchises there are places that a GW store alone just can't be profitable (small towns for instance) and the stores need a wider range of products to stay afloat. But in larger cities and more metropolitan areas a pure GW store can get the foot traffic to run on just GW products alone. So no, GW shouldn't drop FLGSs.

I'm not sure you are following what I am saying, if you gave me, as a store owner, the choice to either be able to call my store Games Workshop and only stock GW, or I could call it what I want and still stock GW, MtG, Warmahordes, board games, etc. and there is not a significant financial incentive in the form of discount for being a franchise why on earth would I ever want to reduce what I can stock? GW really doesn't have the brand name needed to bring people into a GW branded store anymore, they aren't in the same league as Apple as much as they pretend they are.

And if there was a significant discount for being a franchise why would GW want to offer that discount when it could sell the same produce to a FGLS for more on top of the FGLS costing less to support? Offering a franchise is more expensive than offering product to retailers as you have to offer branding, marketing, training, etc., retail sales do not need that (although can offer it). Top level franchises, like Mc'Ds, are expensive for a reason, you have top level support, top level brand awareness and good supply of consistent stock. GW can't manage that at the moment for the limited number of FGLS it currently supports as retail customers, they would have to gear up big time to offer the level of support expected.

If GW want to drop unprofitable stores they can do so as soon as it is worth cancelling the lease, I suspect over the coming years a lot of stores across the world will be closed, simply because they do not fit in the low volume, high profit model that GW is aiming itself at.

A key prospect of any franchise is brand recognition and the benefits from being associated with a big name (not many single stores could afford to sponsor the Olympics or run peak time TV ads for instance, but all McDonalds franchisees would have benefitted from the main company doing these things.)

Whether GW offers a strong enough prospect for a franchisee from that viewpoint would be debatable.

 azreal13 wrote:
A key prospect of any franchise is brand recognition and the benefits from being associated with a big name (not many single stores could afford to sponsor the Olympics or run peak time TV ads for instance, but all McDonalds franchisees would have benefitted from the main company doing these things.)

Whether GW offers a strong enough prospect for a franchisee from that viewpoint would be debatable.

True, but if GW cut its B&M in favor of franchised stores then it could actually afford to ramp up production and advertise without going bankrupt.

That's a very strong assertion with not much to back it up.

Costs would drop, sure, but so would income, and it's a coin flip as to whether one would offset the other, and GW, in the form of some exec or another, are on record as stating they don't believe conventional advertising works for them, so why would that belief suddenly change?

 azreal13 wrote:
That's a very strong assertion with not much to back it up.

Costs would drop, sure, but so would income, and it's a coin flip as to whether one would offset the other, and GW, in the form of some exec or another, are on record as stating they don't believe conventional advertising works for them, so why would that belief suddenly change?

Income wouldn't drop by much as they'd be able to mandate stock levels like they do to FLGS so that means money in their pockets every month regardless.

And GW doesn't believe in a lot of things. Like common sense.

They can mandate all they like, if the franchisees are either overburdened with unnecessary stock or are not making sales to generate cash or need replacements, income drops and GW are in less of a position to affect change to try and revive it. In fact, they may find themselves in a position of negative cash flow, as franchisee's incur debt, but are unable to sell sufficient quantities to catch up.

At that point, GW have the option of cutting their losses, or continuing with their support and underwriting the debt in the hope that the store comes good eventually.

Neither is ideal, and the whole situation can be mitigated substantially by sensible vetting as I mentioned before, but franchising would force them to abdicate control of their income to third parties, something they're blatantly phobic about doing in all other dealings, and that's why it won't happen.