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I've been going to GW stores on and off for 20 years. Admittedly the last few I've tried to visit have been closed.

They still need to close the store for lunch, and what if you have people playing a game at the time? a "Back in 15" sign is fine somewhere your customer visits are pretty short, like a newsagent, but pretty terrible if a big part of your business model i that customers can use the space to game/paint.

It's pretty sad that most of the stock is on the shelves, but that just goes to highlight how poor the stock is - there's usually like 1 of everything but the big sellers and new releases, with a weekly restock, so popping in to get something on spec is risky.

Book-keeping and cleaning after hours - in order to do that you have to reduce your open hours further because you're paying the staff to be in when the store isn't making money, or your stretching the working day too far. With cleaning, you may need to reactively clean up during the day - a customer's baby may have been sick (happens with mine all the fething time).


It's easy to run much larger stores with 3 people, the issue isn't with employees per sq foot or per $ in sales, it's about the ability to multi-task. 3 staff members means that if 1 is tied up with something, the other 2 are about to take over and unless you're particularly busy you should be able to manage that without any down time. With a single staff member any distraction at all takes them away from the customers and causes down-time. Did your hardware store have to close for half an hour for lunch, or did you take lunch in turns, for instance?

Edit; I've worked in bars by myself and it's amazing how little you can get done unless it's dead. And I've always had someone in another bar to provide cover.

I think that's the point though, there are long periods of inactivity in the stores anyway. Whenever I go into my local GW, if it's a week day, it's usually just me and the manager, and he's usually painting. Sure sometimes there are a few regulars playing a game, or a random that's wandered in looking for Hornby stuff.

But that's about it. People work on their own in shops all over the world, it's standard practice. It's hardly some Maverick move by GW.

You know the argument of the stores needing only one man because they aren't very busy is really not a good sign....

There's large slabs of the day where you can probably get away with only 1 staff, but it's always going to be a liability, there's only so many times a customer will come up to your shop and see a "back in 15 minutes" sign or wait around while the only staff member has to serve 3 other people before getting to them.

And even if you can get away with only 1 staff during the day on a weekday, come the weekend or evenings if 1 staff is sufficient then you probably need to ask yourself why is the store doing so poorly that it only needs 1 staff, lol.

The number of times I have actually shown up at my local GW and found the manager out to lunch (can happen any time between 12 and 3pm since he can't kick random customers out, just the regulars) is worrying. I head down there like... once a month and I swear this happens every other time.

I can see the point though, you don't NEED two employees at 10am on a Tuesday, but the weekend shifts need two, and a second person that shows up at like 2pm thursday and friday, sends the other to a late lunch, and then stays on until like 10pm for late night gaming while the other gets to go home at a reasonable hour, could be a huge benefit.

PrehistoricUFO wrote:My thing is: why bother going into a GW when the online store, and indeed discount retailers, have a way better selection? You can also save money.

The only time I find myself going into a GW is when I want a kit asap, and my LGS which is close to me doesn't have it. Then I'll drive the extra 20 mins to buy what I'd like to work on that day.

As far as the gaming goes, imo the staff were pretty strict with what can be done in the store. When my friends and I used to chill at the local GW to use their tables (we always bought something, even if it was a paint pot or whatever), the manager was a douche.

We couldn't use Forge World stuff, if it wasn't 3-paints + based it couldn't be on the tables - even if we assembled and bought it that day we couldn't play it to try it out. Don't dare discuss buying models off eBay or online trading sites/swaps. Other game systems were off-limits as well. Rules clarification? Don't ask, they aren't 'walking rulebooks' as it was put to us one time. Eventually I just bought a realm of battle board, and overnight they lost our attendance in bulk. Jerkoffs.

Anyway, that location closed last year. A new store opened up and it's a one-man operation with a new fellow who seems cool enough. Hours are all over the place though, and they seem to change on a monthly basis (updated often on the FB page).

The problem with stock is that there is so much of it that they can't possibly hope to stock it all unless they're the size of a small department store. As for discount retailers, that just sounds like some suspicious stuff to me. And save money how? unless you;re going to these "Discount Retailers" how do you save money? Honestly, I find it good to go into a GW store if they have the stock on the shelves and if I want something else, I can easily make an order while I'm there. That being said, if you know you need to make an order to get something, then it is better (purely because of convenience) not to go in-store unless it's not out of your way to do so.

As far as staff being strict, that really depends on the store and the individual staff members. In the GW stores I've been to, we could use FW stuff and use our stuff (whether it was based and had 3 colours or not), so that sounds pretty crappy of the store(s) you went to not to let you do that. As far as talking about buying from eBay and other places, it depends on what exactly you're talking about and how you talk about it in relation to these other sellers. It tends to be a taboo subject in general, but as I said, it just depends. Other games systems being off-limits is a no brainer - you're in a GW store. That's not unreasonable.

As for being a douche about you and your friends using the tables and not clarifying rules for you, that's just being a dick.


As for changing hours all the time for the one-man store, I know of a store which runs into a similar problem. The biggest problem is not having someone to fill in (especially on short notice) if the usual person is sick or away or on holidays or something like that.

Snoopdeville3 wrote:

Herzlos wrote:
I think you underestimate how hard it is to do *anything* when you're the only one there.

You have to close the store to take a dump
You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in
You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer
You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in
You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in
You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock?

Literally the only other stores I've encountered with a single staff member are mall kiosks (where they usually have a neighbour to cover for them), or a sandwich shop that was really struggling and couldn't afford a 2nd staff member.

Have you ever visited a GW store before?

You have to close the store to take a dump - Hang a sign "Be back in 15 mins" They all do this, or hold it in until lunch.
You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in - 98% of GW's 1 man store inventory is on the shelves.
You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer - You dont need to supervise a game. Your job is to sell, you can answer questions when they come up and play judge, but this is not their primary job.
You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in - Book keeping is done end of day with no customers in store. Stock is out on shelves already a mention.
You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in - They are hardware stores, cleaning can be done end of day when everyone leaves.
You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time - Unless its the weekend yuo dont really see to many people in the store at once, and most of the time people are just looking anyways.

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock? You are not pinned to the register, there isnt an overflow of customers piling into GW stores and buying out there stock. The only thing the store manager would need to go to the back room for is Web orders. These should all be labeled ready to go before the store opens. So it should take the manager 30 seconds to grab and go.

I've worked in hardware stores that are easily 100x bigger then small 1 man GW stores with only 3 people. 1 cashier, myself and the manager and have a lot more people to deal with then a GW store. Like i said, a 1 man GW store is just that and shouldnt need more then 1 to run it.

This - this I agree with. A one-man store is generally very well run... right up until games night when all of the local players come out of hiding to swarm the store, but given that's a five-ish hour period on average once a week, that's not bad.

I've never been in a one man GW before my local GW has 3 members of staff. And I see people complaining about staff being restrictive but again I've never had that issue you could walk into my local GW and as long as one of the tables are free at the time you can just go ahead and play. They don't care if you use the models you just bought that are still grey. Forgeworld is 100% allowed. I personally think its one of the best wargaming stores ive been in.

 IllumiNini wrote:
As for discount retailers, that just sounds like some suspicious stuff to me.

I'm curious as to why discount retailers sound suspicious to you?

They are pretty damn common around these parts... all it is is someone who got a trade account and sells below GW's inflated RRP.

Herzlos wrote:
Since the 1-man stores seem to be staffed more and more by people who have no hobby experience, the value of that assistance is minimal.

This is what surprised me about the GW opening in my town. I'm almost certain that the manager has never been exposed to the game before her training meetings, but was rather hired for a "sales"position. I'm not saying that hobbyists necessarily make the best managers, but I just can't imagine someone who is not a gamer running a GW. As far as I can tell, the store (which has yet to open) is following in the footsteps of the others.

I genuinely hope that it succeeds. I really do. But the typical list of reasons why it probably won't is already forming.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:

Herzlos wrote:
I think you underestimate how hard it is to do *anything* when you're the only one there.

You have to close the store to take a dump
You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in
You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer
You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in
You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in
You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock?

Literally the only other stores I've encountered with a single staff member are mall kiosks (where they usually have a neighbour to cover for them), or a sandwich shop that was really struggling and couldn't afford a 2nd staff member.

Have you ever visited a GW store before?

You have to close the store to take a dump - Hang a sign "Be back in 15 mins" They all do this, or hold it in until lunch.

This is literally closing the store. Or do they leave the door open and unlocked with the sign on it and trust to the goodwill of the general public not to steal anything?

You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in - 98% of GW's 1 man store inventory is on the shelves.

So, there's still 2% of your inventory you'll need to leave the shop floor unattended for then?

You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer - You dont need to supervise a game. Your job is to sell, you can answer questions when they come up and play judge, but this is not their primary job.

Yes, and part of that job is supervising demo games with prospective new customers. Something that is very difficult to do if you keep getting called away.

You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in - Book keeping is done end of day with no customers in store. Stock is out on shelves already a mention.

Yeah, unfortunately admin doesn't always wait obediently to be dealt with at the end of the day, sometimes someone from HO calls up or emails and they need that info NOW. Additionally, how do you think the stock gets to the store and out on to the shelves, exactly?

You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in - They are hardware stores, cleaning can be done end of day when everyone leaves.

Because unpaid overtime is just the bestest!

You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time - Unless its the weekend yuo dont really see to many people in the store at once, and most of the time people are just looking anyways.

This is just so bass ackwards it's laughable. "It's alright guys, just one staff member will do, it'll never get that busy and, even though you're employed as active salespeople, you're expected to just let people wonder around unengaged anyways!"

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock? You are not pinned to the register, there isnt an overflow of customers piling into GW stores and buying out there stock. The only thing the store manager would need to go to the back room for is Web orders. These should all be labeled ready to go before the store opens. So it should take the manager 30 seconds to grab and go.

Right, because 30 seconds has never, in the history of man, been long enough for somebody to out something easily accessible, small and expensive in their pocket? Plus again "the shops aren't that busy" is a terrible (and sort of sad) thing to use as a counter point.

I've worked in hardware stores that are easily 100x bigger then small 1 man GW stores with only 3 people. 1 cashier, myself and the manager and have a lot more people to deal with then a GW store. Like i said, a 1 man GW store is just that and shouldnt need more then 1 to run it.

Then you've worked retail, not retail sales. Retail sales requires a much greater investment of time per customer, and can often take you out of the loop with regard to ongoing procedural stuff for minutes, if not even hours for some high ticket items, at a time.

FMCG like supermarkets etc have a much lower staffing requirement than the sort of shop GW is/is trying to be.

What I'd be furious about if I was managing a gw is all the extra time spent in terms of customer orders, the majority of which the sales and stats don't go to the store, but the online store unless the order was placed in store. That's total horesgak. A store could be in the red based on its in store sales, but in reality millions in stock could have passed through it. When I was in sales, once we started having to compete with our own business's online store it got stupid pretty quick.

I didn't work in a one man, but frequently worked solo days. Serving multiple customers is fine up to 3, after that you know that you aren't giving the till all you could have gotten. After hours restocking and cleaning isn't an issue as they get paid for it, and book keeping is just a part of retail that has to be done, and normally takes 5-10 mins if everything is there. If it isn't, you were the only one working...
Shop lifting was the main problem, especially when you start getting targeted by groups working together to try and distract you. I was always having to ask people to "put it back and don't come back".

How about less speculation, and instead a bit of input from someone who's actually ran a one-man GW store..?

I have ran two different one-man stores, one of them very successfully and profitably for close to 3 years.

When the change happened, I was pretty adamant it wouldn't work; 3 staff and 7 day opening down to just me and 5 days? Crazy! But it did work. With proper training and self-management, it really wasn't an issue running a GW store that worked.

In terms of hours and opening times/lunch breaks, mostly it was just about being clear. Stores have the main GW page, Facebook and Google with which to advertise opening hours- I just made sure they stayed consistent. I took lunch breaks at as close as possible to the same time every single day. And made sure those times were mentioned in the opening hours.
For anyone who was even vaguely regular, there was no issue with opening hours.
Yes, occasionally a 'back in 5' sign goes up on the door for a toilet break. Really I found anyone who wasn't patient enough to wait, or had issue with lunch breaks etc were pretty unreasonable to begin with and were rarely actual customers.

I never once closed for a whole day within normal opening hours- a handful of times a few hours may have been missed here and there over the years for various reasons (I once almost lopped a finger off with a hobby knife...), but never a whole day.
It was just a case of being prepared- having back up and cover in place for when necessary.

For stock, again, be prepared! Using the shelves well meant having a lot of stock on the shop floor- then you just made sure that the you had back up of the best selling stock in easy to get to places that didn't require you going off of the shop floor.
Talking about stock- all GW stores stock the same top 900 best selling product lines (plus hobby supplies). Stock levels adjust automatically based on sales- if something is popular in store, the min stock level for that kit will be raised. Managers can also alter their own stock levels within reason.
Very few FLGS (in my experience) stock anywhere near the same range and amounts as a GW.

What else was mentioned...
Um, customer service. I grew my business. A lot. That stemmed from Customer service and being able to give excellent service however many customers were in the store at a time. 6 or so customers at a time really wasn't an issue. And definitely not the issue I thought it would be before hand. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of confidence and appropriate training. I think it's too easy to get used to being part of a large team that anything less seems crazy hard.
But it's really not. It's just a matter of prioritising- find out who needs what and how fast! It's one of the advantages to greeting and having conversations with everyone who enters the store- you find out their needs.

Cashing handling/cleaning etc has been covered- it gets done at the end of the day as part of contracted hours- really not an issue... Things like dusting stock can be done while open and quiet too.

Reasons to go to a GW store:
-customer service
-conversation/social
-convenience
-learning hobby skills
-brand/store loyalty

There are many! Not everyone needs/wants any or all of these things, but many, many people do. If they didn't then the stores wouldn't exist!
I served people who knew full well they could get a discount from Element/Triple Helix/Dark Sphere etc, but they were happy to pay the difference for convenience, quickness and my customer service.
Always remember that your needs and opinions don't represent 100% of the hobby population!

That is a big old wall of text sorry!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh quick addition- staffing levels can and will change. There are thresholds for numbers of staff based on store turnover. If you make a bunch of many, you can ask to have staff.

Every GW store in my area (one of which being the regional battle bunker) went out of business within a year of moving to the 1-man model.

...I'll let people draw their own conclusions.

 Xca|iber wrote:
Every GW store in my area (one of which being the regional battle bunker) went out of business within a year of moving to the 1-man model.

...I'll let people draw their own conclusions.

An over-simplification of the circumstances at best is what you've described. For all the rest of us know (and maybe even you know - depending on how much you looking into the issue), the one-staff model may have been a result of progressively declining business with the closure of all the stores being the end game, with all you've done is assigning death to what was just another symptom of the disease. So my conclusion is that you haven't given us the full picture, meaning the conversion to the one-staff store may not be the cause (may not being among the most important operative words in all that I've said) of the closure of the stores.

 IllumiNini wrote:

 Xca|iber wrote:
Every GW store in my area (one of which being the regional battle bunker) went out of business within a year of moving to the 1-man model.

...I'll let people draw their own conclusions.

An over-simplification of the circumstances at best is what you've described. For all the rest of us know (and maybe even you know - depending on how much you looking into the issue), the one-staff model may have been a result of progressively declining business with the closure of all the stores being the end game, with all you've done is assigning death to what was just another symptom of the disease. So my conclusion is that you haven't given us the full picture, meaning the conversion to the one-staff store may not be the cause (may not being among the most important operative words in all that I've said) of the closure of the stores.

Fair enough - I'll agree that there's no way to be certain whether the switch to one-man stores caused their closure.

We can say that switching to a one-man model clearly did not provide the necessary increase in cost-efficiency (within the 1-year time frame) to keep the doors open. And now we are left with exactly zero GW stores in my area; no battle bunker, no one-man storefronts, no nothing. With that being the case, I think it's safe to conclude that a broad reduction of store staff and the mass closure of store locations across the US has nothing to do with whether GW feels that one-man stores are a good future business model, and more to do with GW aggressively cutting costs in a desperate bid to slow their falling profits.

As for my wider opinion on the whole thing, I frankly think that GW should shutter their brick & mortar stores altogether, and move to a more distributor/FLGS-focused model like WotC, perhaps with some incentives for providing table space and the like. From what I've seen, a one-man store doesn't provide any advantages over a fully staffed store other than lower costs. So if GW wants low-cost brick & mortar locations that can recruit new customers at the rate of a fully staffed battle bunker, moving to support independent shops seems like a much better plan than dragging on with a relatively thin net of understaffed storefronts.

 Lorizael wrote:
Reasons to go to a GW store:
-customer service

I do like my local manager, he's a good bloke. No real different than my FLGS though.

 Lorizael wrote:
-conversation/social

Super had to do when he has to cut the conversation short to help customers.

 Lorizael wrote:
-convenience

Exact same distance to my local GW as my FLGS, but the FLGS has better stock.

 Lorizael wrote:
-learning hobby skills

Honestly, my local GW is crap for that. They have the beginner level tools and an understanding of the basics, but my FLGS has a couple of slayer sword winning models in their display cases, a tong of golden demon trophies, and the owner has recently gotten an article in.. it might have been the Weathering Magazine, one of those better ones that are a ton more detailed than anything GW puts out. They also do actual classes. In general it's probably aimed more at experienced hobbiests, but I'd say the FLG is MUCH better for that.

 Lorizael wrote:
-brand/store loyalty

I like my local manager, sure, and have some store loyalty because of that. Brand loyalty though... GW has burned all of that. After killing WHFB I've got no brand loyalty left.


Reasons to pick a FLGS over a GW:
- Room to actually play games.
- Much larger range of product.
- More knowledgeable staff.
- Better opening hours.
- Cheaper prices for GW product

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:

Herzlos wrote:
I think you underestimate how hard it is to do *anything* when you're the only one there.

You have to close the store to take a dump
You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in
You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer
You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in
You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in
You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock?

Literally the only other stores I've encountered with a single staff member are mall kiosks (where they usually have a neighbour to cover for them), or a sandwich shop that was really struggling and couldn't afford a 2nd staff member.

Have you ever visited a GW store before?

You have to close the store to take a dump - Hang a sign "Be back in 15 mins" They all do this, or hold it in until lunch.

This is literally closing the store. Or do they leave the door open and unlocked with the sign on it and trust to the goodwill of the general public not to steal anything?

You can't visit the stock room when a customer is in - 98% of GW's 1 man store inventory is on the shelves.

So, there's still 2% of your inventory you'll need to leave the shop floor unattended for then?

You can't supervise games whilst dealing with a customer - You dont need to supervise a game. Your job is to sell, you can answer questions when they come up and play judge, but this is not their primary job.

Yes, and part of that job is supervising demo games with prospective new customers. Something that is very difficult to do if you keep getting called away.

You can't deal with cash/stock/book-keeping when a customer is in - Book keeping is done end of day with no customers in store. Stock is out on shelves already a mention.

Yeah, unfortunately admin doesn't always wait obediently to be dealt with at the end of the day, sometimes someone from HO calls up or emails and they need that info NOW. Additionally, how do you think the stock gets to the store and out on to the shelves, exactly?

You can't tidy up or clean when a customer is in - They are hardware stores, cleaning can be done end of day when everyone leaves.

Because unpaid overtime is just the bestest!

You can't handle more than 1 customer at a time - Unless its the weekend yuo dont really see to many people in the store at once, and most of the time people are just looking anyways.

This is just so bass ackwards it's laughable. "It's alright guys, just one staff member will do, it'll never get that busy and, even though you're employed as active salespeople, you're expected to just let people wonder around unengaged anyways!"

Basically, you're pinned to the register for all but the briefest intervals. You can't really do much of the above when the store is open, because what happens if a customer comes in whilst you're already in the back rummaging for stock? You are not pinned to the register, there isnt an overflow of customers piling into GW stores and buying out there stock. The only thing the store manager would need to go to the back room for is Web orders. These should all be labeled ready to go before the store opens. So it should take the manager 30 seconds to grab and go.

Right, because 30 seconds has never, in the history of man, been long enough for somebody to out something easily accessible, small and expensive in their pocket? Plus again "the shops aren't that busy" is a terrible (and sort of sad) thing to use as a counter point.

I've worked in hardware stores that are easily 100x bigger then small 1 man GW stores with only 3 people. 1 cashier, myself and the manager and have a lot more people to deal with then a GW store. Like i said, a 1 man GW store is just that and shouldnt need more then 1 to run it.

Then you've worked retail, not retail sales. Retail sales requires a much greater investment of time per customer, and can often take you out of the loop with regard to ongoing procedural stuff for minutes, if not even hours for some high ticket items, at a time.

FMCG like supermarkets etc have a much lower staffing requirement than the sort of shop GW is/is trying to be.

Laugh all you want. GW employees all get 100% of there medical and insurance paid for, multiple managers and a manager from corporate has told me this. For them to put 2 people in there stores they would need to DOUBLE there sales if not more. You want to see more GW stores close?? Then put multiple people working in one store.

Yes a ill be back in 30 mins sign for lunch. Store managers have a designated time for lunch. Most gamers who go there regularly know the time and games are paused. If your lunch time gets interrupted to ring someone up at the register... DEAL WITH IT, they get paid commission.. yes COMMISSION.

They dont get overtime? Boo hoo Managers don't get overtime anyways, any one who cares a bit about the job will put in a few extra/hours in of there own time to do the best they can, if you don't ur a child or just plain lazy, thats whats being a manager is all about.

Yes there 2% of inventory you'll need to leave the shop floor smart guy. A stolen $15-20 blister box here and there is a lot cheaper then hiring a second employee that start at $32k a year !!!!

You will get interrupted judging games.. you dont need to be there 100% of the time.. and if you are not to ring someone up to actually get make money then o well the kids you are babysitting can wait.

You should just shut your mouth before you are embarrass yourself more, read some books and cut down on your forum post time, you obviously have no business sense.

I have been thinking for a while that GW should close all their stores and use the money saved to hit the convention circuit hard, improve relations with FLGS and bring back a proper games day. If done right they could reduce prices and increase profits.

 Lorizael wrote:
Really I found anyone who wasn't patient enough to wait, or had issue with lunch breaks etc were pretty unreasonable to begin with and were rarely actual customers.

How do you know they weren't "rarely actual customers" simply because they weren't being served in a timely manner? Maybe they're unreasonable because they have somewhere else to be and don't want to be waiting for you?

That's the whole point. No one is arguing it's physically impossible to run a store with only 1 person, plenty of stores outside of GW manage it. The question is whether it's a good idea. There's a reason most stores expand to have multiple staff and the ones that don't tend to stay small and quiet (and sometimes the owner is the only staff and they're happy being small and quiet as long as they're paying the bills and putting food on the table). If you employ 2 staff then you don't have to sell twice as much to be better off and most businesses find the value of being able to engage customers and stay open longer is worth it.

Of the 6 other hobby shops nearby 5 of them employ multiple staff, the guy that doesn't is a small operation and is struggling to pay the bills from one month to the next, even though he's the closest hobby shop to me and I know him well and like to support him, I often go elsewhere because he's not open when I need him to be.

I mean, really, it's not like GW are some sort of innovators for running one man stores, for as long as stores have existed people have been trying to cut costs and asking the question "can I get by with paying less staff, or is it going to cost me more in the long run?".

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
For them to put 2 people in there stores they would need to DOUBLE there sales if not more. You want to see more GW stores close??

I'd love to see them close half their stores and move the other half into real stores again, with tables and enough employees to be open for Friday night gaming.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
DEAL WITH IT, they get paid commission.. yes COMMISSION.

Seriously? That's horrible.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
They dont get overtime? Boo hoo Managers don't get overtime anyways, any one who cares a bit about the job will put in a few extra/hours in of there own time to do the best they can, if you don't ur a child or just plain lazy, thats whats being a manager is all about.

You're really making being a GW employee sound like a really gak job.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:

You should just shut your mouth before you are embarrass yourself more, read some books and cut down on your forum post time, you obviously have no business sense.

Honestly, you're the one who's embarrassing yourself. Your posts sound like you're getting very worked up over this for no reason.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:
Laugh all you want. GW employees all get 100% of there medical and insurance paid for, multiple managers and a manager from corporate has told me this. For them to put 2 people in there stores they would need to DOUBLE there sales if not more. You want to see more GW stores close?? Then put multiple people working in one store.

Yes a ill be back in 30 mins sign for lunch. Store managers have a designated time for lunch. Most gamers who go there regularly know the time and games are paused. If your lunch time gets interrupted to ring someone up at the register... DEAL WITH IT, they get paid commission.. yes COMMISSION.

They dont get overtime? Boo hoo Managers don't get overtime anyways, any one who cares a bit about the job will put in a few extra/hours in of there own time to do the best they can, if you don't ur a child or just plain lazy, thats whats being a manager is all about.

Yes there 2% of inventory you'll need to leave the shop floor smart guy. A stolen $15-20 blister box here and there is a lot cheaper then hiring a second employee that start at $32k a year !!!!

You will get interrupted judging games.. you dont need to be there 100% of the time.. and if you are not to ring someone up to actually get make money then o well the kids you are babysitting can wait.

You should just shut your mouth before you are embarrass yourself more, read some books and cut down on your forum post time, you obviously have no business sense.

Though there is truth buried in this post somewhere, might I direct you here:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/forum_rules.jsp

I know this is typically reserved for MOD and ADMIN users, but try to be polite.


@Xca|iber:

In response to your response to my post (Response-ception ), fair call, buddy. Sums it it pretty well.

 Lorizael wrote:
How about less speculation, and instead a bit of input from someone who's actually ran a one-man GW store..?

Spoiler:

I have ran two different one-man stores, one of them very successfully and profitably for close to 3 years.

When the change happened, I was pretty adamant it wouldn't work; 3 staff and 7 day opening down to just me and 5 days? Crazy! But it did work. With proper training and self-management, it really wasn't an issue running a GW store that worked.

In terms of hours and opening times/lunch breaks, mostly it was just about being clear. Stores have the main GW page, Facebook and Google with which to advertise opening hours- I just made sure they stayed consistent. I took lunch breaks at as close as possible to the same time every single day. And made sure those times were mentioned in the opening hours.
For anyone who was even vaguely regular, there was no issue with opening hours.
Yes, occasionally a 'back in 5' sign goes up on the door for a toilet break. Really I found anyone who wasn't patient enough to wait, or had issue with lunch breaks etc were pretty unreasonable to begin with and were rarely actual customers.

I never once closed for a whole day within normal opening hours- a handful of times a few hours may have been missed here and there over the years for various reasons (I once almost lopped a finger off with a hobby knife...), but never a whole day.
It was just a case of being prepared- having back up and cover in place for when necessary.

For stock, again, be prepared! Using the shelves well meant having a lot of stock on the shop floor- then you just made sure that the you had back up of the best selling stock in easy to get to places that didn't require you going off of the shop floor.
Talking about stock- all GW stores stock the same top 900 best selling product lines (plus hobby supplies). Stock levels adjust automatically based on sales- if something is popular in store, the min stock level for that kit will be raised. Managers can also alter their own stock levels within reason.
Very few FLGS (in my experience) stock anywhere near the same range and amounts as a GW.

What else was mentioned...
Um, customer service. I grew my business. A lot. That stemmed from Customer service and being able to give excellent service however many customers were in the store at a time. 6 or so customers at a time really wasn't an issue. And definitely not the issue I thought it would be before hand. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of confidence and appropriate training. I think it's too easy to get used to being part of a large team that anything less seems crazy hard.
But it's really not. It's just a matter of prioritising- find out who needs what and how fast! It's one of the advantages to greeting and having conversations with everyone who enters the store- you find out their needs.

Cashing handling/cleaning etc has been covered- it gets done at the end of the day as part of contracted hours- really not an issue... Things like dusting stock can be done while open and quiet too.

Reasons to go to a GW store:
-customer service
-conversation/social
-convenience
-learning hobby skills
-brand/store loyalty

There are many! Not everyone needs/wants any or all of these things, but many, many people do. If they didn't then the stores wouldn't exist!
I served people who knew full well they could get a discount from Element/Triple Helix/Dark Sphere etc, but they were happy to pay the difference for convenience, quickness and my customer service.
Always remember that your needs and opinions don't represent 100% of the hobby population!

That is a big old wall of text sorry!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh quick addition- staffing levels can and will change. There are thresholds for numbers of staff based on store turnover. If you make a bunch of many, you can ask to have staff.

What period of time where you running these shops? I'm just thinking that what works during boom times might be more difficult when interest in GW has declined significantly. Though that also argues for reducing staff costs, of course.

Three times in the last 3 months I've popped over to GW stores intending to make decent sized impulse purchases (£30+) when I happened to be in town going to job interviews and meeting with agencies and on every occasion said stores were closed due to the weird 1 man opening times.

The impulse to purchase invariably waned by the time I got home to my computer.

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:

You should just shut your mouth before you are embarrass yourself more, read some books and cut down on your forum post time, you obviously have no business sense.

If you know ANYTHING regarding Az's posting history and his prior employment. Just back away. Seriously. There's putting your foot in it and there's this.

Hmm. All I know that 4 out of 5 GW stores were closed within 1 year when they got out of their leases and the last GW store left is a ghost town. The 1 man stores are not really working because 40K is a social game and in those 1 man stores ( at least in my area) this is not happening. They are satellites to GW's internet business.

Wonder how the Spin doctoring is going down in GW Land when they are no longer the Top Dog in the US.

 Adam LongWalker wrote:
Hmm. All I know that 4 out of 5 GW stores were closed within 1 year when they got out of their leases and the last GW store left is a ghost town. The 1 man stores are not really working because 40K is a social game and in those 1 man stores ( at least in my area) this is not happening. They are satellites to GW's internet business.

It's always hard to say whether GW stores closed because they dropped to 1 man or they were doing poorly before 1 man and dropping to 1 man wasn't enough to stop them closing down.

Even going back well before GW dropped to 1 man stores, there were 3 or 4 GW shops I frequented (depending on which year we are talking about) and they all had different levels of success, the same as they do now. I'm still amazed in the last couple of years the most local GW has really started to thrive in spite of only being a 1 man store, it shows how good the manager is IMO, but also IMO I think they'd do even better with a 2nd person so they can run later on Thurs/Fri/Sat and not have such weird hours.

 Grimtuff wrote:

 Snoopdeville3 wrote:

You should just shut your mouth before you are embarrass yourself more, read some books and cut down on your forum post time, you obviously have no business sense.

If you know ANYTHING regarding Az's posting history and his prior employment. Just back away. Seriously. There's putting your foot in it and there's this.

No, no, let the puppy continue to approach the big, growling dog. It's the only way they learn.

This post may be informed by the addition of a puppy to the household in recent weeks

1 man stores aren't a great model,

but it's not only GW running with them, it's pretty much the case for every hobby shop/model shop/gaming store within semi easy reach of me

(with the exception of one store that also sells RC stuff and now drones)

and I'd much rather have a 1 man store that might be closed when I turn up than no store at all