Here’s why Games Workshop is enticing customers to buy directly from them and may not really care about your favorite Local Game Store!
With the severe allocations, the free mini promotion, collector coins, and now more changes to the items they can profit from, it is getting harder and harder for a Local Game Store to rationalize carrying Games Workshop products.
It wasn’t that long ago you thought of a corporate Warhammer store as a place to get some minis and maybe learn about a new game. Most of the stores had a focus on pulling new people into the game. They have never necessarily been the place that hobbyists went to play at, as most locations stores only had small 4×4 tables along with smaller demo tables.
On the other hand, Local Game Stores that had a focus on miniatures, would have larger tables and players in abundance. But with all the recent moves, it looks like GW is trying to change its emphasis to get every gamer, new and old, into their stores.
The Games Workshop Moat
Before you jump all over us, just look at some of the evidence, mainly with how the new coin/mini promotion is working and something curious GW said.
On their investors page, Games Workshop has referred to their Warhammer stores as their “moat”.
They seem to think of their Corporate Warhammer Stores as the Moat that protects their castle or ability to grow profitability in the future.
Now take a look at who supposedly coined this strategy, none other than Warren Buffet.
“Encroach on the castle” and “insurmountable competitive barriers” are interesting phrases. They could be another way to perhaps say reduce profitability and exclusive incentives when referencing local game stores.
Incentives could even be things like free miniatures and exclusive merchandise (like the Citadel coins) and other direct items that you can only get or have shipped to Corporate Warhammer stores.
Is GW Trying to Take Over the Need for Local Game Stores?
The coin and free mini-promotion look great on the surface, but they aren’t focused on creating new gamers at all. It specifically targets existing gamers who want something cool for their army. A random mini for a potential new player basically means nothing.
What’s someone going to do with no paints and a single mini? Not much. And then you look at the coin promotion; honestly, it is pretty cool. But not too many potential new gamers are spending over a hundred dollars to try and grab a coin.
It is just strange because the old focus of those stores used to be to convert potential new Warhammer Hobbyists, not keep existing ones going there instead of Local Game Stores.
Now, when you have an LGS and a Corporate GW in the same town, one store may or may not have gotten their orders allocated, and the other has plenty of stock (cause GW seems to make sure their stores are stocked) along with exclusives like free minis and collector coins, which would you go to just to buy?
Unless you are fiercely loyal to the LGS or they have discounts, the Corporate GW store may start to look more and more appealing, right?
With how hard Local Game Stores have had it this year, it just seems like GW is going out of their way to make it even harder on them by enticing customers to buy directly from them either in-store or online.
Shifting Focus for the Community
If game stores start relying wholly on other games (because they can’t make money from GW products), the community for Warhammer will eventually shrink there. This means you will either have to run “home games” or hope the Corporate Warhammer store has some 2000-point-army-sized tables.
In the meantime, local game stores will have to pivot as many other manufacturers are trying to get consumers to buy directly from them as well.
The most logical pivot, we think, is to charge a reasonable monthly fee for play space along with other incentives.
Otherwise, with the way things are going, it feels like everyone is attempting to cut out Local Game Stores from the equation altogether while the economy is not doing anyone any favors either
Do you think Games Workshop is trying to infringe on Local Game Stores? How do you feel about their shift in terms of their stores and their webstore?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
Rob Baer
Job Title: Managing Editor
Founded Spikey Bits in 2009
Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X
About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures. Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including the Adepticon Team Tournament and American Team Tournaments, and is on a first-name basis with almost every major company in the space.
He’s all gaming all the time. With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. He advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.
While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1908s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.
