Can't wait to see Josh's Empire army on his shelf, in the box... unpainted.

A big problem in "geek culture" is the idea that the people who make the things you like are similar to yourself with the same ideals and desires. This leads to the situation where people fanboy certain artists only to be disappointed.... Megaman fans know this.

idk why but my mind went "you know what would be a fun thing to see happen? A stream/video of Josh and Bricky talking warhammer" and now thats something i need to see happen.

Where I grew up, the store had two halves. The front half was the store, the back half was tables to play on. At some point, they turned half that play area into a staff only bit, adding a wall. And we only had one table. And now, that table is apparently gone altogether, and its just more shelves. Because why play game when you could buy product

My local GW store is a bit of a dichotomy, in that the storeowner is a guy who's been in the hobby for ages and wants to preserve how he remembers it, but who's also throttled by corporate regulations. You can build your minis at the table - but you have to use GW clippers, scrapers, and glue You can paint your army in store - but only using GW brushes, handles, and water cups He has no personal issue with 3d printing or 3rd party proxies - you just can't brimg them into the store And don't order online for pickup at his store, because he doesn't get sales credit unless you use the in-store kiosk In short, the GW store feels less of a hobby friendly space - or even an owner friendly space - so much as a GW-corporate friendly space

That's sad man. Every GW store I've been to in Austria, the staff has been lovely and I've never felt like anyone was pushing something on me. Granted i haven't been to all of them and there may very well be some who are predatory. I order most stuff from distributors due to the pricing, but i sometimes still go to the store and pick up something smaller. It's been worth it just for the atmosphere in my mind. As an example, i was looking around a store a few months back and a mom and her little son came in. The salesman was very transparent about the difficulty of assembling and painting the miniatures, especially for a small kid. He ended up giving them the mini of the month for free, so they could figure out if it was something he'd enjoy and didn't even try to sell them anything.

My local GW when I lived in Alexandria VA was an incredibly special moment in my gaming life. It was just a combination of the right people in the right place at the right time to make WH40k and Fantasy (pre-AOS) and even the LOTR mini's game a real community. Spent hours and hours just sitting there painting and chatting. I know that's the exception, not the rule, but man that was a great moment in time.

>you can't have endless growth Tell that to every investor and ceo of every major company in america rn

I remember back when I was 14-15 my local GW would alow us to go game, paint and chill even if we didn't buy much. When I went back 5 or so years later everything had cha ge no community nights no beginner days. I was like wtf. Now I drop in every now and the.n to see what's what. As soon as I walk I say I'm just looking. Don't hit me with the sales bs

We've got a GW store in West Hartford here in CT. It's a smaller version of a GW store and run by just a single person. He's a super cool guy, not pushy, genuinely loves wargaming and modeling. Had a very nice chat with him.

I'm glad my local warhammer shop has a pretty chill dude. He will offer things I may be interested in, but he doesn't try to push a sale. He is just happy to talk about the hobby and help answer questions.

I actually stopped going to my local GW for the most part due to the sales manager. I would stop in for some new release or just to see if they had something for an army and then checkout and then try to just leave. However after the purchase the guy would start asking all sorts of questions. Like, dude, I got my stuff, you have my money. Our relationship has ended for today. Now I just go to friendly stores in the area instead. No fuss, no barrage of questions. I go in, get what I want, or don't, and leave

I played Warhammer 40K for most of my adolescent years. I'm older now, went past a store the other day and thought it'd be fun to maybe just get back into painting the odd model now and then... Then I remembered how I'd be pounced on the moment I came through the door so I didn't go in. Simple as.

its funny really I live in a remote area and so the nearest game store is 2 hours away and YOU BET it's games workshop. Prices are still ridiculous but they have never been pushy whenever I go into that one and are happy to recommend local places to go and play that are closer to where I am because they know all the local groups. It was quite the shock when I travelled into a larger city and discovered how pushy the stores there were

I had a GW staffer once tell me, horrified, that Citadel Paints would not apply to non-Games Workshop miniatures. This was back in the early 2000's. They grew their staff in moulds in Nottingham. They could never get the eyes quite right... I also had a GW staffer tell a friend that they could use their non-Games Workshop miniatures case in his store, but they couldn't tell anyone where they bought it. They've got a lot better since then, but I miss when you could game in the store and they held game nights and events. Those were good times.

Everything about their fomo crap for the past three years or so has pretty much gotten me to completely stop spending money on them. I bought a repro Rogue Traders book, that's it. It was print to demand, there wasn't some weirdo line system, you just bought it and waited. That's the absolute worst the experience SHOULD be, but it is frequently much, much worse. Wait in a fake queue for an hour, find out it's sold out. Thanks

A lot of the old guard staff from GW now work down the road at Warlord games, and I'd highly recommend their game systems to people who want to broaden their horizons

I've never had a problem with GW sales staff in the past, but their prices have been in 'ridiculous' territory for a while, soon to be invading 'outrageous' territory after the next price hike. I always use Amazon, Ebay or FLG's to enjoy roughly 20% off their products, but even then, I'm getting to the point where it's incredibly difficult for me to justify the prices of their models. Now that I'm in a position to finally afford the hobby, I barely purchase anything since the prices are outrageous. I DO, however, purchase stock in the company since there are plenty of fans with no self-control.

It's why the places who pressure you the most are Car Dealers, etc. They only need to sell you something once.

Watching this while waiting in the car for my missus and I have a parcel from Goblin at home with some Carnevale in. Goblin Gaming has always been my go to, fantastic service too.

A hobby shop where people are actually playing the ding-dang games is WAY better at drawing people in than running demo games is. If you have enough space you can reserve ONE table for demo games and have 3-4 where people can play, and then people will see the games and want to try it after observing while feeling way more comfortable because they can figure it out more easily by watching first!

Games Workshop has some of the best Fictional universes. they could make a large profit by just releasing a good product at a reasonable price. Instead they seem content to nickel and dime their customers. They consistently underfund projects that they make, such as all the video games and the animated tv show. Its just incredibly sad. I want warhammer to succeed but want GW to fail.

100 percent agree with the opinion on the local gaming store. I go to one here in the UK in Essex and it's literally like walking into a morgue. I swear the staff walk out as I walk in to try and not talk to me.

I'm an aging guy now but in the early days for me (1993, 40K second edition) you could walk into Games Workshop with your paints and models and in my local GW they had tables at the end of two gaming tables where you could sit down and paint your models! I even think they had some store paints if you were missing a colour or wanted to mix something with a colour you did have. My painting wasn't great but I remember the experience and even preferring to go down there to paint rather than sit at home where the lighting wasn't so good. As most people do I dropped the hobby for probably 12-15 years before going back into a store with some spare cash and the painting stations had gone, they had 1 table, and the place was desolate. No atmosphere and yes I was pounced on with the hard sell. I still bought some space wolves, paints, etc but something was missing.... that connection with the store being a great place to be had totally gone and I didn't go back in. As Josh said the hard sell doesn't inspire you to want to return.

I'm getting back into Old World after GW burned me by killing Warhammer Fantasy. I have resolved to play only with third party 3d prints. The whole landscape is wildly different than it was even 10 years ago, with 3d printing, discords, KZfaq, etc

This was always the experience I've had; Every time I went into one of the stores, wanting to take my interest in the hobby from Lore to Game I was thrown a hard sell, hard enough that I didn't want to come back. After 4 different stores in my city all pulled the same stunt, I stopped trying. When I moved to a new city, I gave it one more attempt, thinking it might be different, and got a guy who felt like a used car salesman 5 minutes from closing time. Shady, Greasy, desperate to make a sale or make me feel bad for walking out empty handed. In each case I was immediately given a checklist of about £100 worth of initial purchases in the forms of tools, rulebooks, and a starter set so small I wouldn't be able to play anything without another 2 or 3 kits to round it out, meaning the final amount to even _try the game_ is a £200+ entry fee. So I'd ask if I could visit the store during game nights or something, observe a few games, and see if it was for me. Each time, I got the same response; "If you're not modelling or playing, we don't want you in the store". So I stopped coming to the stores. I still like the lore. I watched every episode of Bruva Alfabusa's _The Emperor's Text to Speech Device_ on repeat, it's now as much comfort watching to me as early seasons of Red Vs Blue, AVGN, or DBZA. I have favorite factions (I'd likely have built around Martian Tech Priests as I'm a huge fan of Rush and appreciate that 2112 is a key part of 40k Lore), I read through several of the books in the Horus Heresy (Took a break at Fulgrim, been meaning to start up again). I own Ian Livingston's "Forest of Doom", and it was the first paperback adventure book I ever owned. Games Workshop successfully killed my interest in buying directly into their product. Even if I didn't like the game itself, I could see myself having bought the odd model of a character I liked so I could have my own collection, each painted as I saw fit. Any time I walk by one of these stores, I stop long enough to appreciate models and architecture on display in the window, then go spend my money on literally _any other hobby._ As for going to alternative stores, I've been unlucky enough to see them all driven out of business, and being disabled, travel is pretty difficult. This is a very high bar for entry, for what is effectively a Chess Club. They clearly have their whales well and truly harpooned. They do not want new customers. P.S.: I have told this story many times over the years, and every time I've been called a liar. This video is the first vindication I've ever had of this behavior, so if you read this, thank you Josh

I'd love to see what UK charity shops are like Australian charity shop book sections are cookbooks from the 80s, and Tom Clancy novels.

"Paying that much money for small bits of plastic is ridiculous" ever heard of LEGO?

There's a FLGS i went to where the owners were nice, and were very involved with their community and hosted lots of 40k/DnD games. It was nice at first. But after a few months it felt (like Josh says) I was always an "outsider" or I was interrupting. I ordered a model for a friend's birthday, called in every weekend to see if it arrived, and after 5 weeks I stopped by the store and the model was on the shelf. Where anyone could have bought it. The final straw was when I ordered some card sleeves and for OVER TWO MONTHS i regularly checked in, and they never showed up. I went to my other FLGS and they had it the very next weekend. Nice people, but not great at running a business.

After a long hiatus i went back to collecting warhammer, but yea mostly buy it through 3rd party. I can remember when Games Workshop had sales, stuff like buy 3 get the cheapest free but thats a long time ago.

I work at an lgs and I agree, welcome people in and let them know to ask you questions when you’re playing games or whatever.

Hearing that description of a Games Workshop store experience (pardon me, Warhammer store) makes me super grateful for Ryan and the staff at the Victoria, BC location. They've always felt super low-pressure when it comes to sales, and I don't think I really appreciated that fact until hearing your description.

We've had a couple GW stores open near here. They come in, draw a lot of attention, run other FLGS out of business, and then eventually close down because people end up hating them and refuse to go. Eventually you are left with no local store and no GW store.

i dont speak to GW anymore, but im glad they introduced me to Wyrd and Corvus Belli.

I have to agree. You don't open a bakery because you like muffins. You open a bakery because you enjoy running a business that provides a product.

Best way a store kept my business was by promising to import the model kit I wanted and call me when it arrived without wanting pre payment or anything. Guy could tell I wanted it and knew that just getting it in was enough to satisfy me and make that sale. Also the couple running the shop are just down right super friendly. Never felt rushed to make a purchase.

3:53 Went to Gamestop with my friend to pick up the Switch he ordered. We decided to stop and look at the games while we were there. Almost as soon as we started looking, the only employee in the store came over and started trying to "help" us- asking what we're looking for, trying to upsell him on controllers and auxiliary stuff (that he either owns or already ordered online,) and we both felt so stressed an pressured that we ended up buying way less games and other stuff than if they had just left us the fuck alone and let us browse in peace.

I only got into warhammer recently and never had any desire to go to a store as I usually order everything I need online. But shortly after the christmas boxes went up for pre order and of course I missed it, I went by my local (northern Germany) GW store to see if they had any. Naturally they didn´t but the salesman was very chill and didn´t push anything on me, but rather recommended some toy stores in my city that dont focus on warhammer, but still might have the boxes, as they often have leftovers, because not many people know they sell warhammer. As far as I could tell the gaming tables were available for regular customers as well, as some dudes showed up while I was talking with the salesman and they just said hey and started playing with their own armies. As I read the comments it seems that experiences like this are exception, but I felt welcome and taken serious, so I will probably return to buy something when I feel like talking about warhammer with some chill people.

My FLGS is a small store but it still has a gaming table, as well as a 'training table'. The employees are the sweetest guys who never push a sale and their recommendations with painting techniques really helped me out! I'd rather get my figures online because of costs, but I always get my paints there and they love to watch me mutter about which contrast paint to buy 😂 I've always felt welcome there, they take their time to help you and if you need a moment they let you be. Shoutout to the Warhammer Store in Breda!

Yeah I can confirm that over here in the Netherlands the whole "upsell" / "hard sell" / "talk to the customer about getting whatever products until he/she actually buys something" is very much a thing they do as well. And indeed, retailers offer anything I want cheaper AND even through online placed orders (so I don't have any salesman interaction at all) compared to GW themselves. And GW is heavily interested to continue such partnerships because in bulk deals with retailers they are always going to sell more than what actually is in demand even for their less popular stuff. With that said, the GW stores are still good for other stuff like live painting, playing games, event and tournament info, unique GW exclusive models and deals and the occassional promotional stuff, but... dealing with GW directly you always wonder "what's the catch here and what is literally the cost of me walking out of this door again, can we not come to an agreement that I might just be passively windowshopping today"? Lmao.

i must be pretty luck have a really nice store and the dude who runs it isnt pushy at all, its always really relaxed and chilled and just have a nice chat about stuff

I agree on the whole prices going too far, I'm on the border of not feeling it's worth anymore with what they've done with some of the new Tomb Kings mini's.... things like the Necrotect are priced alright, things like the Ushabti and Carrion are way overboard. I'm dreading the return of the High Elves though, I want to expand some of my old units but if they price a unit of 10 Sea Guard at 50 bucks or maybe make it a unit of 20 for 62,50 I'll feel conflicted as heck to get them. Same with Silver Helms, Spearmen, Archers etc.

Listening to the GW shop stuff made me really happy with my local gw shop. Very friendly, very easy going, tables open to everyone. Their primary goal is to get you to play, not to sell. They've told me the same that you said. They sell much more by making their shop a hangout place.

The owner of my friendly local hobby shop really knows how to run this kinda business. First time I walked in, on a very busy day, he noticed that I was new, introduced himself, and offered me a coffee on the house. We ended up chatting about our hobbies (I wasn't into Warhammer, but I was into Gunpla), and he ended up teaching me how to paint model kits. Even if I never got into Warhammer, I still like to hang out at the shop to build/paint my Gunpla there and banter with the lads, and I buy my paints from there whenever I can.

I miss the text to speech emperor series, I always rewatch every now and then

As someone who's worked in retail myself, it baffles my mind how management seems to never be able to look past making the numbers of the individual sales as high as possible. I always got push-back from my managers for not pressuring customers into various deals and services, yet I was always the top 1-3 sellers in the stores, because my customers trusted me and wanted to deal with me specifically. They wanted my experience and suggestions and came back to buy more from me on a regular basis and went along with what I had to say. They chase growth, yet do not understand that they need to look long term and not be short sighted to cultivate it.

I learned everything I know about the hobby from the Games Workshop store in Portland, Oregon. The manager there, Tyler, is a great salesman, but puts in the effort to build a relationship with the customer. Always willing to answer questions, help people understand rules, teach you various painting techniques as he used to be into competitive painting. There are a couple tables to play games, and a couple purely for hobbying, and they are always packed every weekend with randos and regulars doing pickup games. The closest thing I ever see him do that could be seen as predatory is asking if you need more glue when checking out. I know this is probably the exception as opposed to the norm, but any game store can be like this. It isn't limited to a Games Workshop store. How the higher ups price and sell miniatures and such is worthy of all sorts of criticism, but just blanket blaming the physical GW stores for the fact they are GW feels ingenuous.

Damn I remember my local GW actually allowing games, not just instructional ones... but that was ages ago.

As a kid the owner of the internet café I hanged out at was playing world of warcraft all day at his desk and was terrible at business

You can just 3D print your own warhammer figs with a relatively small investment. Don’t let some game store or simp guilt you out of it. The files are out there for either cheap or free.

My local Warhammer store host multiple gaming events each week. It is up to the manager on how to run their store and let people come in and play.

"I am a massive hypocrite and I'm going to buy those all when they come out" Yeah... yeah... I know that feeling lmfao

LGS near me, that I bought MTG products from a few times, tried to guilt trip me about buying sealed products instead of singles, then said "people like you are what is wrong with this community". Ye nah, never going back to that shit ever again. Don't value me looking to spend money there, don't value the money i have already spent there, and absolutely don't value me as a returning customer.

My local GW store has not implemented most of these policies luckily. It's a small store, but I never got pressured by the staff, who just say hi as I return the hi and walk by to browse the small amount of stuff on sale. The tables are also available for anyone to game - first come first serve.

Anybody knows what charity sites to visit to buy the warhammer e-books Josh mentioned? I only know about humble bundle.

Back when I was studying in in Perth Australia, The local Games Workshop had a Games night on Friday evenings. The staff would organize special game scenarios for players and if you didn`t have an army, I believed they would lend you models to participate. The other retain stores did not have discounts the way we do now so i preferred to go to the GW stores. Not to mention they usually had exclusive products only they stocked and the SKULLZ reward cards which i loved. I went to a modern GW or "Warhammer" store recently and everything just seemed....sterile.

My local store in Oslo is awesome. I love going there and chatting. They're always chill and friendly.

Im blessed to have a Warham store near me that has a friendly employee/owner and let's people play games. We have the mini of the month painting contents and leagues too. I will say it is. Blessing and refreshing cause the one 30 min away is very much 'get something get out'.

Dark Sphere Shepherds Bush on a Saturday. You can’t even see the stock on the shelves because of a tournament and the tables in front of all the products

Idk if I agree with this assessment. I've had the exact reverse situation going on (local gaming stores vs Warhammer stores). When I last was in a Warhammer one and people were there playing with the regular hobbyists (I could recognize them because I've been there a few times), it'd be the situation where they didn't approach when I or another got in the store and only acknowledged me when I was at the till with my products. Maybe the local WH store I have is just that different, but when I went to a general wargaming store the staff was very attentive and friendly.

Even when I worked for GW nearly 20 years ago, there was a mentality of the shops being there to introduce people, and the webstore there to make the profit. It was very much an environment of upselling to anyone buying things, be it a bigger box, a painting set, or a white dwarf. But back then, we at least still had communities that would hang out in the store painting and playing games.

You saw two cliff racers in seven seconds. Yep, that's definitely Morrowind.

Man, I wish I was as articulate as you. Very well presented! Even though we rant and rave we are still fans. 30 yrs now.....

Totally agree with the local store part. There is a great one in my town as i love to shop there because its a hub of tabletop and board games. Yet i just don't go to the evening game sessions, not because they are bad (there not) but i just feel on the outside looking in. They say they are friendly, yet why isn't their a table reserved for drop in run by the owner or team leader. Or you turn up late and no gaming space is available, it doesn't give out a good vibe I'm sorry but like you say i shouldn't need to ask (who is selling here) or force myself on a table by saying i'm new. etc

I was a boy when I got into warhammer and the staff member who got me into it moved back to my city after a decade away, going from commission painting to becoming the local GW manager. The change in his demeanour was immediate and detrimental to our friendship. I miss the guy he was before he got the job.

I would just like to say, my first and only time going into a GW store was fantastic. They gave me a free mini, ID lanyard and a Red Gobo Christmas postcard. The guy there showed me how to paint real quick . I even tried it my self. I told him I'm interested but couldn't really afford it right now and just wanted to look. So we talked about the lore for a bit and then I oogled over the Angron figure and just broswed. It was a really nice experience.

this sale experience. This shit is why I decided from get go that I only want to deal with business clients. Sure you tend to deal in larger sum of money and can cause way more damage but you can also always be very direct with your clients.

I didn't see my first official GW store untill about 10 years ago. There were an average of 3 or 4 FLGS in my city of 3 million.

I still remember early last year when my friends dragged me to the local warhammer store, whilst I had no real interest in the hobby. I can be occasionally loud when I joke around and I was loud accidentally whilst in the store and I felt a little bad. So I decided, instead of just standing around and being a nuisance, I tried to engage with the hobby and I approached the clerk about any books I could read to get into warhammer. He was very honest and approachable. He wasn't sure of the best way to get into Warhammer through books but he still gave me some recommendations. I ended up buying the Eisenhorn quadrilogy and now current have around 17 Warhammer books and counting, alongside a couple of the games. If it weren't for the charming man at the store, I'm not sure I would be as into Warhammer as I am now. Good customer experience goes a long way.

Just come across this video and it couldnt be more true. My first experience of GW was being sold the age of sigmar soul wars box that had unit sizes that were not the same as the actual game so i couldnt play with either of the two armies despite spending a lot of money. GW staff didnt tell me this and pushed that box because the store got bonuses for it. Also agree about local gaming stores. The ones that open in my area always close or do poorly due to bad business decisions or marketing. Lovely people but more hobbyists than entrepreneurs.

I loved going into Games workshop to look at the new models, hated when the staff approached me. Always so pushy I knew a guy who worked there and he would get a talking to if he didn't aggressively push customers to buy

Last time I bought anything from a Games Workshop, the one in Bolton, was just after the pandemic. I used to paint the LOTR miniatures when i was a teen and fancied giving it another go. The guy who served me was actually really helpful. He didn't try to force anything on me. That said, I knew what I wanted specifically so maybe that's why. But he was really friendly, he even gave me a free miniature to practice on because I'd mentioned being out of practice and a little nervous about picking the hobby back up. I'd go back if i fancy something else to paint but if I'd had the treatment you've described, I probably wouldn't go back.

Glad to hear you play Kings of War - great game. I myself am putting together a Basilean army right now in addition to playing Undead and Ratkin.

It's really interesting seeing his thoughts on the actual stores. The store in Exeter near where I live is run by some honestly really nice people. They don't pressure you and they're always more than willing to chat with you about anything relating to or not relating to the hobby for as long as you want. I've done painting in the store's and the managers there are always happy to show me things when I'm unsure, I have them to credit to me being able to use contrast paints. If you want to play the game you can always use the tables if they're free and they set up gaming nights every week for adults if you want to find new people to play against. I don't know, maybe my local store is an outlier or maybe it's different here in UK stores.

In singapore, we only have like only 2 to 3 major gamibg shops Like there's no brick and mortar, no local game stores - if you went to the nearby shopping center, its 99.99999% one of 3 game shop we have here It's really sad, we used to have varieties but all died out and now there's only 3 big name game shops and they are all around the same price and inventory AND the employees guards the big corners like their life depended on it I feel like i'm committing a crime going back there more than once a week, god forbid every week

Interesting that my brother and I had the same experience at our Friendly Local Gaming store. We had no clue who worked there becuase all of their tables were loaded with games amongst themselves. We had the exact sam scenario, had to interrupt to ask for staff, mad really

You can play these games without supporting the company. You never needed their permission to have fun.

Josh is right in people starting shops they love and have a lot of knowledge about. In my city there's a comic store with a guy who definitely loves the comics but zero people skills, doesn't care and you only visit that one time to see how it was and never go back.

Very seldomly will pick up a new ork squad because I still love painting. But I am so very glad I fell in love with the books as a kid. Because they keep me interested to this day. Roll dice? Not in years 😢

It’s sad to hear how much the store changed. I remember as a kid (best part of 20 years ago) going in and finding the staff super friendly and helpful. They never actively tried to sell you anything and were just really passionate about it. You could rock up and use the tables to play if they were free (except the two demo tables which had units on then to begin with). The staff would do painting tutorials with people for free, nothing crazy but how to paint a basic unit in a way you wanted and going over the basic techniques. Heck, a kid I’d often be 20p short or something like that and the staff would be like, that’s okay. I know 20p doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s probably closer to a pound or more nowadays. It takes a lot of confidence to be able to sell your stock for less to nice to a kid. I think towards the end of my tenure using the shops they started to get a lot of aggressive practices pushed on them but the people who were at my local store through my childhood were 10/10 top people. Frankly it was just a nice place to be.

I once called a gaming store to get the price on a sourcebook for some "Elric!" pen & paper. The anwer I got was: "Where do you live?" > I answered my town "Then you can just come find the book yourself." I never shopped there again.

I'll always remember the day I meet a lot of the staff from GW, the "Metallica Guy", etc... at GamesCon Barcelona. Those guys were fucking awesome, like passionate, humble, kind..... I had seen them in my monthly White Dwarf every month for years already at that time, and seeing them in the flesh was unreal. It's been 20 years since then.... OMG!!!! I can tell you, whatever GW becomes it started as few guys that loved what they were doing. FML I bought my first miniature in 1993 LOOL!!!

I remember early 2000s id spend Tuesdays building and painting minis in my city GW.

Yeah I've noticed the change to local GW stores, used to be games going on all the time. Now me and my mates never buy anything from em, just play at our places, buy from third party, Combat company in AUS, and yeah, print a bit of stuff here and there.

Would love to see more Warhammer content from Josh.

I can only speak for German GW stores but I know for a fact that: 1. Store managers are discouraged to focus products over customers. 2. Product sold is down the list of KPIs. It is on there sure but the most important metric for stores is the amount of conducted demo activities.

I had a job at PC World back in the day and there was the "golden boy" because he'd get old people to sign up for and buy a bunch of shit they don't need. That's when I knew sales wasn't for me.

This might be a locally dependant thing. Our local GW store isnt pushy at all and we play there all the time.

I go into any GW in my area they all immediately go into snake oil mode and ask what factions I'm interested in, once I fine knowledgeability and familiarity way beyond their own I'm utterly and totally disregarded as a consumer.

I'd love to see Josh do battle reports, I feel like that would be fun to watch a few times.

This is super unfortunate that you've had this experience with GW stores. The ones that I go to and have gone to in my life has been an extremely warm and inviting place. I remember when I was like 15, this guy that worked at the Chicago Battle Bunker (one of their largest stores at the time), his name was Tim and he'd won multiple Golden Demon awards for painting. Whenever I'd come in to paint, he's spend a lot of time sitting down with me and teaching me different techniques for painting. He wasn't the only one in that store like that, and that wasn't the only GW store that had that vibe.

yeah too true about the shops, i never go in one because they are always so intimidating / annoying i'm not into the gaming side of warhammer but if a model comes up that looks cool and looks like a challenge to paint, i'll treat myself every now and then if they were actually a bit better with how they managed the way they sell things i would actually go into them, but they put me off so much on the flip side they have pushed me into 3d printing :D

In regards to the Local Games Shop that have no clue how to handle customers, this is pretty normal for other types of startups too. Most companies are started by someone who likes doing X and wants to do it without having a boss. For example, bakeries are started by people who like to bake bread, cakes, etc. They don't necessarily have any idea how to sell bread and cakes, or how to determine which types of bread and cakes will be popular. They certainly don't know the other business skills like getting good prices from suppliers or balancing the books or managing staff etc. They started a bakery to give themselves a job where they could bake -- and the game shop owner started the shop so they could have a job with all their favourite games.

Kinda wish we had official gw shops in America cause holy shit do they suck at shipping stuff to stores here. I waited 4 months to even be able to even order junith, stores only had 24 hours to order the 2023 Xmas boxes, which they had to fully pay for before they even told you what you were getting. And I’ve heard from multiple store owners saying their gw rep basically said "you don’t have to sell gw product" whenever they complain about how shit their shipping and overall stock of product has been since 10th.

2:40 you can 3d print an army of knights for the cost of 1 knight, you can 3d print an army of better scaled custodians for the cost of 1 box of custodians.

Back in 2004 - 2010, I believe 6th edition and 7th edition. They would have 4 - 6 massive gaming spaces at ALL times for anyone to come in or book the tables to play a few games. Until recently they have completely off limits. This completely stopped me from buying anything at all from games workshop, just being in the store playing i would constantly grab little things like paints brushes drill bits etc, not to mention the occasional model. You are exactly right they've turned people away in droves.

Actually insane that they went from releasing new editions after X years to almost releasing a new box every few months. The fact that we also got so many different tabletop versions of the same universe at double the price. How can a totally not rich person keep up with everything?

So, I have a local gw store where the manager used to be that way, and he transitioned very quickly into the enjoyable experience type and sales tripled. We hate the prices, but we like the guy, and the FLGS in town not only sells stuff at full msrp, despite paying less, they will also sell older pre-owned unbuilt boxed sets at full msrp. Last time I went in, I know for a fact they had a lumineth realm lords army set at msrp that they purchased several months prior. I know they've sold a pre-owned burning of prospero set at full msrp as well. And a pre-owned Indomitus boxed set(with half the models) At over msrp. (It was 60% total msrp for half the box, so 60+60=120>100). So everyone goes to the gw store.

Last time I was in a GW shop was around 2010, and they were pushy as hell back then, and only opened the tables for play on a certain night, the rest of the time it was just for intro games. They shut the store down a couple of years back.

Maybe it's a UK thing, but the flagship Warhammer store in DFW has loads of tables that people play on every day. All the local shops do so as well and the vast majority of them are chill dudes.