After continued issues with shipments and availability, Games Workshop is shutting all its warehouses down for a full week, but it might not be that bad.
Sure, Games Workshop has had many issues with inventory levels, getting releases out on time, and even banning stores from restocking certain items twice this year alone. However, this might not be too terrible of an occurrence, and it’s actually not abnormal for many retailers to do.
Games Workshop is Shutting All Their Warehouses Down
Here is the latest on the warehouse shutting down from Warhammer Community.
Games Workshop will be closing its warehouses between the 27th of May and the 3rd of June 2024. Any orders received during this period will be dispatched once the warehouses re-open, at which point normal shipping will resume.
At first glance, this seems like a terrible situation, especially when compounded by the recent issues with ordering and product availability in general. However, this is actually more on the normal side for a retailer.
If you follow GW’s financials, you might have noticed their fiscal year ends in this shutdown period. Retail companies generally do this so they can perform inventory and close out their books in the season when sales are generally slower instead of shutting down at Christmas time just because it is the end of the calendar year (you get the idea there).
While this might be a somewhat normal process for retail companies, this may be the first time we’ve seen Games Workshop announce it to the public. As we said, though, GW has a lot of issues with allocations, and delays, like the Custodes and Orks releases being behind schedule, etc.
Now, they seem to have misforecast the amount of Chaos Battleforces to order as well, which has been a huge hit to revenue for not just themselves but also local game stores that depend on sales of bid new releases to help with overall expenses each month.
With the recent reveal of an off week of just MTO pre-orders for Lord of the Rings, it seems like there may be bigger issues in play here than perhaps what Games Workshop is admitting publically.
What This Means For Orders & The Future
If you want to order anything during the shutdown, you still can; however, it will go into a queue and ship after they re-open. This also means we will probably not see any new pre-orders in that time period (most likely).
Now, let’s move on to why GW is doing this and how it could help going foward. We’ve covered their stock and distribution issues pretty in-depth, but this might be GW’s time to get things in order and really nail down its inventory and fulfillment issues.
Considering they may not have closed down completely worldwide like this in a while, fulfillment has gotten really out of hand, and it seems the robots may not be picking up the slack, so to speak. If you’re looking on the bright side, this is probably a really good thing overall. Maybe, if they are doing a full inventory, GW can get its stock on point and get back to orders going out on time with, hopefully, fewer allocations.
We’ll have to see if anything changes in the future, but if the comments online and empty store shelves are any indication, GW needs to change the recent cycle of not having enough stock.
Will GW’s Warehouse Closing Affect 4th Edition AoS?
This shutdown might allow 4th Edition AoS to launch without a hitch and have adequate stock will be available to both stores and consumers.
In conclusion, while the temporary shutdown of Games Workshop’s warehouses might cause some inconvenience for customers, it could ultimately lead to a positive change in terms of stock availability and timely deliveries. It is important to keep in mind that this is a common practice for many retailers, and it might just be what GW needs to get its inventory under control.
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
