A very curious thing has started happening at Games Workshop beginning with the Deathwatch – Allocations. What is going with the flow of new releases?
Industry insiders and retailers alike have been reporting to us since the Deathwatch release extreme allocations on new release products for the first week of release, and many new releases have even sold out on GW’s site as well.
From Arielle, to Kurnoth Hunters, Bonesplittaz, some Deathwatch releases, and even the Void Shield generator, we have been seeing tons of immediate out of stock new releases as of late.
So whats going on? Many retailers are angry this month because to them it looks like GW is throttling back product flow to non-gw stores, while keeping their own stores “well stocked” with the new products.
Last week multiple retailers reported to us they were only allocated TWO copies of the new Angel’s Blade codex, and only TWO copies of the Traitor’s hate book the week before. These same retailers could easily sell 10-20 copies of the any new release codex, and were extremely disappointed with their allocation from the vertically integrated business such as Games Workshop.
We did some digging ourselves and called several GW stores around the country that we had visited in the past to see if they were allocating out their copies of the new books.
They all indicated there was no restrictions on their shipment, however unless you put an order in on GW’s site your book would not be “guaranteed” to be there for you on release day.
Furthermore independent retailers report that several weeks after a product launch (such as the Deathwatch) all models were back available in the quantities they required for their normal customer base.
So whats going on? Many retailers are angry this month because to them it looks like GW is throttling back product flow to non-gw stores, while keeping their own stores “well stocked” with the new products.
Sure there is still outages for units that are just that good in game, or just such a good buy value wise, but we have always seen that sort of thing.
Clownshoes in Nottingham?
What I can remember EVER is GW allocating out only TWO of a new supplement to partner level stores, ever.
So what is going on in Nottingham? Is this a passive aggressive move to mess with the underground bits market and online sellers by disrupting the flow of new releases and forcing the consumer to choose their normal place of purchase OR Games Workshop themselves?
Perhaps GW is just selling so much product it can’t keep up, OR they’re busy running the machines printing something else for this holiday season and dividing their resources to this end.
Will this trend continue? We shall look to next week and the Genestealer cult release to find out more!
Previous GW Product Woes
One step forward, two steps back?
About the Author: Rob Baer
