[GZG] [OT] Boring Business Talk was: Re: Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi!

I've heard rumors of such, and even think there was some similar things
happening here for the first GWUS stores. In 2003, they'd been bragging
about having up to 54 stores in the US, and '...our sales to independent
retailers and our direct sales in North America were sluggish,'. By last
year, they were up to 82 stores, but talking about cutting losers.I'd
hate
to be in a town that had a thriving store, ran under by the process you
describe, then have the company store bug. Not saying it happened, just
an
ugly thought.

http://investor.games-workshop.com/latest_results/Results2003/full_year/
operatingreview.aspx

http://investor.games-workshop.com/latest_results/Results2007/full_year/
businessreview.aspx

I think my partners would pooh-pooh the notion of a direct threat,
though.
They've been much more concerned with WoTC/Hasbro's move to more online
distribution of RPG materials, the 'virtual' version of a company store
moving into town. Our delight at the marvelous sales of the new edition
of
D&D will turn to feelings of betrayal if local roleplayers get the
latest
material, and even play, online. I've seen some of it already.

They're probably right; ours is a small market, and even HobbyTown
perceives us as hardly worth the effort as they're well diversified.
However we see it happen, though, it would be discouraging to promote a
line only to have the company come into town and become direct
competition.

Outside of our business in 'German' board games, which is threatened by
book and toy stores, I'm seeing little other hope as alternatives. I
even
tried talking to Brigade Models, but couldn't find the support around
here.
Wish we could run GZG lines...

The_Beast

Jon (GZG) wrote on 07/08/2008 02:58:36 AM:

***snippage***

> One of the things that did a lot to sour GW's reputation in the UK
> was their practice in the '90s of finding a town with a good, healthy
> independent games shop and initially supporting them up to the hilt,
> giving them loads of incentives to become a major GW stockist (often
> to the detriment of other lines they had been carrying) - then as
> soon as GW's marketing boys saw that said independent's sales of
> their product were up to a certain level, they would move into the
> same town with one of their own stores and effectively withdraw (or
> at least massively downgrade) their support for the independent
> store. Of course, in most cases this meant the independent went
> under, which left the GW store with a monopoly on the gaming scene in
> that town, especially among the kiddies. It's almost impossible not
> to imagine the maniacal laughter ringing through the halls of their
> marketing department as another hapless games shop proprietor loses
> his livelihood before their unstoppable master plan....
>
> I suspect that different business laws in the US made this tactic a
> bit harder for them to implement over there, which may explain why
> the attitude of many US gamers is less vehemently anti-GW than is
> often the case over here - but this happened a lot in the UK, and
> those who were in the hobby at the time have long memories.
>
> All personal opinion of course, and YMMV as usual.....  ;-)

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu
http://vermouth.csua.berkeley.edu:1337/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l