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Yeah, the real damage will be economic here, and not loss-of-life, and that will be predominantly self-induced.

 Elbows wrote:
Yeah, the real damage will be economic here, and not loss-of-life, and that will be predominantly self-induced.

It's like a scale, with loss-of-life on one end and economic damage on the other, and governments have to not only figure out where they want to land on that scale but throw darts to set the policy because they can't predict exactly how everything will play out. While in the background the population demonstrates once again that the larger a group of humans becomes more more stupid it collectively behaves.

My FLGS closed the gaming area for the rest of the month.

Regarding the FLGS, here's an article how long viruses can remain viable on surfaces. I would just avoid the gaming area completely. Plenty of miniatures to paint at home. Not that they shouldn't wipe down surfaces, but any public area, particularly public surfaces like door handles, I wouldn't expect to be not touched by another person. If you do go out in public, at least wear some gloves after you leave the car, and before you put away whatever you bought. It's going to be tough for any luxury service industry. Our own FLGS has an online store, and should use staff to review its inventory and vacuum out its warehouse.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/811609026/the-new-coronavirus-can-live-on-surfaces-for-2-3-days-heres-how-to-clean-them

Restaurants need to promote delivery. The virus doesn't transmit through food (see article). Not eating at a restaurants reduces chances of surface-to-surface transmission (eg. door handles and table surfaces), as well as respiratory transmission (no contact with other customers or staff). : https://www.cnet.com/how-to/food-delivery-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-follow-these-3-rules-to-stay-safe/

My closest store announced today that while they are remaining open for now, the gaming areas are closed until further notice. Besides mail order, they also said they would meet you at the door for local pickups so you didn’t have to go inside if you’d rather not.

Yep gaming areas were closed here so until this passes no gaming for me. Ah well. Time to paint!

Though if non critical stores gets closed I will be out of new models(hopefully I can get wave 3 of sisters...) and paints will start run out. Will have to load up on paints when I go to pick sisters!

 RiTides wrote:
A lot of stores aren't owned by a "company"... and with how long this may last, forcing Everything to close would be devastating both to society and to the economy.

Again, I haven't seen that being suggested except in the worst hit places. I'm very open to seeing scientific recommendations to the contrary, if applicable, of course...

Recommendations I've seen are all about sanitation, stopping large gatherings, and taking precautions. Not ending all commerce...

Two issues here though.

In the UK, businesses aren't being forced to close. However, people are being recommended to 'socially distance' themselves, by essentially making sure they don't interact with other people as much as possible.

Problem here, is one of two things will happen:

1) Shops stay open, cos they have not been forced to close so they get no aid from the government (loophole there), and so people see the shops are still open and go "well it can't be that bad" and go out. And the virus spreads like wildfire and we get 260,000 deaths within a year. Minimum. But the shops still make a little money for a while. NHS is on fire.

2) Shops stay open (same reasoning as above), but people actually do as they are told. Hardly anyone goes out. The shops make no money anyway. But the estimated death toll for that year is closer to 20,000. NHS is on fire, but it's less 'Australia circa 2020'.

Or, they could go with 3) Government actually shuts down the shops and gives out relief to the owners and employees. People stay home. Death toll drops, less businesses go bankrupt. This is the one that Italy and other countries are doing, but the UK currently isn't.

Or there's choice USA) It's not happening at all. Lets go to the beach.

Whatever happens, the NHS is going to be on fire. I'd recommend avoiding all dangerous activities as much as possible for the next year. A broken bone or a concussion can kill you, if you can't get any help, and the NHS will have no help to give. And waiting around in A&E is likely to get you infected anyway.

Well, things have progressed in the USA, and now state and local governments have started to issue shelter in place orders. Many municipalites have issued regulations on large gatherings which puts the quabosh on tournments, or even gameplay in stores.

All politics and medicine aside, this is just gutting to FLGS, and other stores as well.

When all of this is over, we shall see how our fair hobby fares. Hopefully people will want to gather and play games, rather than just watch videos and play video games. I am not terribly hopeful. There used to be video arcades. Those are largely a thing of the past.

One of the most ironic things is that gamers are not terribly social. These are not the guys going out partying and hooking up with lots of people. And yet, the hobby is still caught up in this.

My flgs is doing a drive thru haha I think it's the very first in France !

Just got notification today. the FLGS i volunteer at has closed the gaming area until further notice....time to get on some of those painting projects.

Silicon Valley iconic comics store, Lee's Comics, is closing its store, but continuing its eBay and comics mail services. Lee himself is in the vulnerable demographic, so I think this is a wise move.

Game Kastle FLGS will continue their online store, as well as offer store pickup. I hope they use this time to inventory their warehouse, though! Pretty dusty and disorganized when they had their sale there months ago.

While many local forums are asking how we can support local businesses, an overlooked issue, then, is how many of them will prefer to close instead of riding it out. With comics and games, the OLGS, Amazon, and now KS has steadily taken away customers, and, at least here, some of the comic book and game store owners are over forty years old.

I am so, so, so, so glad my FLGS is more of a shipping warehouse than a come-in-person store, lol. They just announced over fb "Hey folks, store's closed for the foreseeable future but as long as the postal service is running we've got you covered! Free shipping on anything over 50 bucks if you live in new england!

I wont be visiting any unnecessary shops or businesses for the foreseeable future. Whilst the situation for businesses and workers is grave, its not my top priority, that being taken up by the safety of my family. to be fair, the only one near me is a gee dubs, and they should be able to weather this storm after their massive profit margins over the last 2 years.

I've stocked up on milliput, and some other hobby supplies to work on some scenic bases, and have plenty of miniatures waiting for paint. It will probably do me good not buying any more for a while.

At least this will give allot of them time to finally have a shower and buy deodorant.

I hardly think this will be the kicker for those things..

Has anyone heard if Miniature Market will continue their online store or are they currently shut down?

 totalfailure wrote:
My closest store announced today that while they are remaining open for now, the gaming areas are closed until further notice. Besides mail order, they also said they would meet you at the door for local pickups so you didn’t have to go inside if you’d rather not.

Sounds like Zombie Planet. I got their newsletter saying the exact same thing a couple days ago. Used to be one of my go-to’s before moving to CT. Hoping George can weather this.

Different stores, but I guess the idea was getting around. Since then, the 'local' stores are now closed altogether. Those without a web presence have no options with the shelter in place rules. I'm about 1.5 hours from Syracuse, Albany, or Watertown. No retail, no drive-up, just mail order, as long as the postal system holds out.

Seems GW is done for now. Not even online.

When was that? store is still available online.

Today. Date is at the bottom!

Besides GW, Ares and Warlord have announced their closures after today, as well as Alliance Game Distribution and Diamond Comics, too. Moves the pain a little higher up the food chain, but at least in places like NY where the stores are closed anyway, they won't be getting shipments of stuff they have no way to sell in many cases. Might ease the burden on your local store a bit, when nothing is coming.

I better make this pile of unpainted minis last!

This will be good for a lot of us. Should hopefully reduce the grey to painted ratio somewhat.

Well like many other states our governor just implemented a shelter in place order for at least 2 weeks starting today. so non-essential businesses are shut down completely. along with non-essential travel. fortunately i have a ton of stuff to paint....rather or not i have enough paint is an entirely different matter.

Yeah I'm Kentucky we've been shut down for about a week. But on that note my group has stopped having games period. It sucks for the group but that's what we gotta do to be safe.

I'm concerned about what will happen with FLGS across the country. This will kill a lot of stores I have a feeling, regardless of any bailout package the government offers, I doubt they'll be fast enough to save a lot of these stores that are barely making ends meet.

Same goes for 3rd party bits makers and model designers out there. Many are small companies that do low volume specialty stuff. I'm planning on putting in a couple orders with my favorites as soon as stuff calms down to try and help them out. I don't really need anything at the moment (the shutdown has been great for the backlog) but given how the economy will probably slow down for a while, hopefully it helps keep their lights on a bit longer.

I ordered three pots of paint from my local, that has a curbside pickup in place. I buy, he puts a box on the steps and I grab and leave. It’s not my local GW, but the game store I first started going to when I moved here. Owner is a great guy and I want to make sure he sticks around. Are three pots a lot? No. But I told him I’ll order more from what he has when I need it.

Just got an update, the closure here in WA state has been extended to star wars day (may the 4th)...another month without games.......but on the up side my DUST armies will look fantastic!

My FLGS (Redcap's Croner in Philly) has closed for the foreseeable future, they've started a gofundme to try to cover costs.

I'm hoping they keep things together until this is over. They're a good shop with a friendly staff and lots of table space.