A strange turn of events... GW contacting me

[barbedsparky]

I Find this interesting and it could mean any number of things (especially in Tasmania) which is about as far removed from home office as you can get.

Not sure many will see it down here in General, but it's the only place for it.

They approached me (unsolicited) to see if I would be interested in stocking their product in my retail outlet. I have a post office/newsagent/lottery outlet. Apparently this contact is due to a couple of local people phoning GW direct about the possibility of a closer outlet to them. I'm slightly suspicious as the next local supplier is only 10 min away at best (not a GW store). the closest GW store is in the capital city of our state which is no more than 30 min away depending on traffic.

I would love to stock GW product as I am a biased player of the game. My business sense tells me that it would possibly not fulfill my expectations as a retailer.

I have spoken to all of my friends whom still regularly play and they have pretty much unanimously replied that unless they can get internet pricing (or close to it) it would be a no go from the start. I am of the same opinion. They are offering some reasonable incentives, but it only equates to about 10% discount overall. From what I've been seeing and reading 20% would be more realistic in a retail setting (just to even vaguely compete against the internets)

I guess this could mean (and I suspect) they are struggling for storefront retailers, although there are at least 2 others in my general area, or they are in such demand in retail their existing stores can't keep up with demand...

Interested in any opinions on this, if you can be bothered. I will speak to them again in 2 days.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

The local store here offers a 15% discount for gw if you play in either a sigmar or 40k league ($5 entry fee to fix up the stores terrain). The discount and the fact that they are kind to their 40k players (no table fee) means that I buy all my new items through them.

To me, it's odd they would contact you if other local stores sell gw products within a 30 minute drive. My cyber security paranoia is getting the best of me here. Just make sure you can verify that they are actually GW through alternative means.

[barbedsparky]

It's definitely GW legit as far as I can tell. I have no space for hobby/gaming area so it is being presented as a simple retail space as far as they are concerned. It was explained to me that they are trying to offer existing players/hobbyists a local resort to purchasing and leave the recruitment and playing side to the actual GW stores as they have tables and modelling/painting areas assigned.

Not sure of their angle as they apparently do not understand my demographic, or I don't either... (not sure either way at this point)

[yoritomo]

Assuming that it is GW contacting you (which I have no reason to doubt at this point) you need to be careful. Here in the states GW is notorious for making requirements on what you have to stock and/or minimum purchase requirements. Depending on the size of your store this could be quite a burden. Also, GW is fairly strict on their pricing. My local game store is required to sell Games Workshop product at full price (baring sales).

In GW's defense, they have relaxed most of their requirements to stock their products. There still are some though.


I probably don't need to tell you this, but there are a lot of additional concerns when stocking a new product line. Do you have room for several large boxes of GW stuff as well as a paint rack? What existing merchandise do you take out? What is the wholesale cost of GW product? If you offer a 20% discount would you even make a profit?

Before you get onboard with this whole GW thing there are a lot of questions you need to ask yourself as well as the GW rep before you sign up. You need to know exactly what you're getting into before you order anything from GW. The last thing you need as a retailer is to get hit with a large required purchase that will sit on your shelves for years to come.

[barbedsparky]

The requirements they have listed for me seem to be fairly reasonable and for the most part I can remain autonomous in ordering. The display has a fairly small area (1000 w 1800 h 500 d). I could accommodate this relatively easily I think. Stock storage does not seem to be an issue as they are offering free postage on a weekly stock order (no minimum). Paint rack and all stock fit withing the stand dimensions they provided. All non moving stock is available for full credit as is any damaged/unsatisfactory merchandise.

The discount I would offer is entirely up to them. The current rebate they are offering would allow me about a 10% as it stands. I would seek a minimum 20% to be allowed to be competetive. The cost price is what I would be seeking the discount on, no point in making no money in business. Depends on how desperate they are to combat internet sales (I'm guessing they would be high in my area).

I am by no means sold on any of the spiel they give me. It's just marketing, and their job. I am more interested in opinion about whether having minis and such in my shop could be good for my business.

Thank you for your input. I'll have another chat to them on Friday and see what more they can offer.

[barbedsparky]

Well had another conversation with the sales rep today. I put to him my concerns among the other potential issues brought up here by you folk. I was assured that all of the concerns mentioned were covered satisfactorily (Seemed to me at least).

My heart says yes, but my brain still needs to look closer at the figures and what I can set the price point at to still make a reasonable profit while not losing too much to internet pricing.

My biggest concern is my local demographic. Last report in the area suggests 50-59 is the average age. As for my personal customer demographic, I know of only 4 people whom have an interest in the hobby that we currently serve. The flip side of that is whether stocking GW product could bring a new demographic of locals to my store... Also the older more affluent crowd could potentially buy gifts for their younger/interested relatives...

So I guess that's where the risk/reward payoff comes into question. I'm currently doing a small restructure of the business, so this wouldn't happen (if I decide to go ahead with it at all) until the new financial year. Still, that gives more time to do a little more digging and negotiating.

[cypheon]

Wish i had seen this sooner...

If your store doesn't have enough unused space to have a gaming table, selling the game is going to be a losing proposition. People tend to buy where they play, unfortunately. You may see a handful of locals come in for 1 or two things every other month but thats about it.

As for the minimum order business, unless you can get "never a minimum order" in writing, don't believe them. GW has been sued numerous times in the US for forcing stores to always order more than they sold. It always starts small, like say you sold $500 in product. You would then have to order $510 before they ship. Next time you order it has to reach $540 before it ships, and so on and so forth.

Also once a new box set or one-off game comes out, they won't ship your order unless you agree to purchase a couple units of them. My local store had to resort to selling campaign sets and new releases on ebay at whatever price they paid the distributer just to clear shelf space for the next wave of forced new releases that no one in town wanted.

TL;DR: unless you have a few dozen people ready and able to buy GW product every week, and you -know- they'll buy from you first... say no.

[barbedsparky]

Thanks for your response.

My store is not really gaming oriented at all, just a multifaceted small business. So as you suggest it could just be that handful of people coming in to buy 1-2 things a month, which would make it a terrible decision. So in the next 5-6 weeks I'll be putting out feelers into my customer base and community to see what sort of support I could expect.

I do have the once a week/no minimum order/free shipping thing in writing among other concessions that lead me to believe they might really be stretching to make area marketing quotas as the last time I spoke with them, they were really pushing to get me to take the deal before the new financial year, by offering a few things extra (supposedly...).

The last phone call I had with them was with a different chap than I had been dealing with up until now, as he had mysteriously become unavailable. The whole thing smelled of *Darth Vader voice* "I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further".

One of the concessions they had originally offered read as if I would get a 10% total discount on pricing (after rereading the original offer the wording could be considered a little ambiguous). The new guy I spoke with basically said it was 10% extra stock at my discretion. Not the same thing at all. I said I would wait for the original guy to come back and I would deal with him.

Starting to get a little fishier...

[No One]

I'll (basically) second cypheon: especially with Aussie pricing being what it is, unless there's a strong incentive to buy local, people won't. If you could get 10%, that might do it: with ebay coping GST and shipping, that'd probably be competitive-ish (pretty sure there's online stores in Aus that can do 20% and shipping wouldn't be terrible, but if it was only a <10% saving, people might consider shopping local for convenience). But if you weren't the 'pay where you play' thing as well...competitive enough to sell stuff, probably: competitive enough to sell enough to make it worth it? Eh. Especially since there's already stores around.

[barbedsparky]

Thanks for that. Yeah I would be looking to set pricing at about 15-20% off full retail to be even slightly competitive because as you say there are Aus online retailers regularly offering 20% with minimal or free shipping.

I am getting the feeling from my investigations that my demographic is probably not right for this kind of venture.

I might have a few local diehards who would support me, but from what I can gauge not enough to be even close to financially viable unfortunately.

So unless they can offer me a too good to be true deal, it's probably going to be a no sadly...