Re: GW sales down
- From: Myrmidon <Imnot@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2006 03:14:49 GMT
In article <BGbyg.182852$F_3.148123@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
garthas@xxxxxxxxx says...
Hello Garth,
Thanks for the posting - by chance can you post a link to this
item and/or the PDF mentioned at the bottom?
<massive snippage>
On the 'investor relations' section of our corporate web site (which has all
our annual reports since 2001, and the institutional presentations we make)
there is a place where people can post questions for me to answer. Mostly
they are about what new models we are planning (read White Dwarf)
Ah, how investor friendly that is. In other words, the investors can go
out and *BUY* GW's monthly advertisment just so that they can know
what's going on with their investment. Good to see that GW doesn't
descriminate when it comes to pissing on those who provide financial
support one way or another.
, or why we
haven't got a store in Omaha, Nebraska (yet), or why we put our prices up
all the time (we don't)
Hey, good thinking here. Welcome to the word 'semantics' ladies and
gentleman. GW drops a few individual model / unit prices while
increasing the *OVERALL* price of their core ranges - but apparently
continues to assume that we the customers are to stupid to figure this
out? I'd be *MIGHTY IMPRESSED* if GW could show the gaming community
even a single instance in the last 10 to 15 years where the *OVERALL*
price of their core ranges went down rather than up.
but every now and then I get one that touches on
something that needs to be explained. Blair Svendson from Missouri asked
'[why am I] seeing my favorite independent hobby stores going out of
business?'. He was referring to the United States, and so is my response.
This is a question that concerns all of us at Games Workshop - staff,
managers, customers and owners. I'm not certain I know THE answer, but I
have an explanation that fits the facts. Most of these small owner-manager
hobby stores have thrived over the last 20 years or so on role play games,
collectible card games (CCGs) and niche merchandise from fantasy movie
imagery. Role play games and movie merchandise are in decline; CCGs can now
be bought in mass market outlets which hurts hobby store sales.
Remind me again how long the CCG market's been around? It sure as hell
isn't 20 years. And correct me if I'm wrong, but is WTC and the D20
system in major financial decline? I would agree that the RPG industry
saw a decline in the mid 80s to mid or late 90's, but I have yet to see
any indication of an over-all decline in the RPG industry in the last 5
to 7 years or more. In fact quite the opposite. While some of the
massive number of initial offerings from small distributors for the D20
system have disappeared - hell they even brought back 'Gama-World' for
crying out loud! - (in more than a few cases better products beating out
lesser offerings) there are still a metric ton of new RPG systems out on
the market catering to a wide variety of interests. Star Wars, Star
Trek, Babylon 5, Fire Fly, Stargate SG-1, Gurps, White Wolf, BESM,
DreamPod9, etc. Seeing more gaming systems and products than ever on
the market and expanding product lines for these same products, I'm less
than inclined to buy into 'The RPGs and CCGs killed FLGS' idea.
Many ofWhile it's certainly nice to see a bit of acknowledgement that
these stores carry our products very successfully, but they are not enough
to support the whole store. Additionally many of these stores are run as
lifestyle enterprises rather than as for profit businesses; when times get
hard they sometimes respond slowly and weakly which can be, and has been in
many cases, disastrous.
GW's own practices have harmed it, he still doesn't seem to be able to
grasp that a lot of small FLGS have gotten out of the GW business (even
if they're still in business) because of GW's crappy treatment of those
same FLGS owners. Add in the less than brilliant idea to kill off on-
line discount sales in the US at roughly the same time frame as one of
GW's price hikes (which encourage a good number of folks to drop GW from
their gaming habits all together) and GW is puzzled that FLGS that made
a sizeable income on GW item sales are taking a hit?
<More snippage>
OMG! GW's taken to naming staff after RGMW members - the horror! ;)
** Alan is one of a small group of people who are responsible for helping
line management maintain the integrity of our products and our business. He
tends to get very passionate and excited when making points in debate and
thus gets called 'Ranter' Merrett which is a bit unfair, but funnier than
Alan 'Very Passionate And Excited' Merrett.
Business Review
Summary of results:
This year our sales and profits have fallen for two main reasons: firstly,
the continuing decline in sales following an exceptional trading period *,
and secondly, the continued reduction in our sales to independent toy and
hobby retailers, notably in the US, where many smaller independent operators
are ceasing to trade.
This openly begs the question: Why wouldn't the Independants want to
stop dealing with GW? Often the hastle, harrasement, and out-right
dishonesty with which GW sales and support treats the independant store
owners is utterly appalling.
I've spoken with independant store owners throughout the US and even in
Canada who've all pointed out the following...
Support promises by sales department that never materialize including:
Gaming tables
Display materials (I know one owner who was promised one of the large
'life sized' marines when they made their initial order which was in the
high tens of thousands of dollars, and has never received it inspite of
continuing promises.)
Outrider/RTT tournament support.
Limited edition items that are promised show up late, in lower amounts
than promised, or simply don't show up at all.
Sales irregularities...
Overcharging accounts (sometimes for multiple months in a row) *AND*
being extremely slow restore the over-charged funds.
Charging accounts *months in advance* of new product delievery after
promising NOT to place the charges until the product was available for
shipping.
(Prior to GW's Ending the US on-line discount stores) It was common to
have on-line discount retailers point out that their shipments were
routinely late or shorted (inspite of the fact that they routinely
placed orders in the range of 200K dollars or more a month with GW).
[I'd be more than willing to bet that even now, Indie stores that do
better sales are shorted new items rather than short GW stores with low
sales.]
Being forced to carry or initially buy entire sets of *ALL* GW's core
products in order to carry or sell any GW product at all even when
particular store owners knew that certain lines would not sell well in
their area .
Being pressured on a monthly basis to order items that they didn't
want/need/weren't selling well simply because regional GW sales managers
wanted the books to look good no matter what.
Being promised that they (the independants) would be able to return 'old
stock' that wasn't selling when newer product lines came out in exchange
for the newer versions (or at least new items at a discount) only to
find later that they were effectively lied to.
I can't imagine why GW would be having a hard time with declining sales
at independant retail shops...
Myrmidon
--
#1582. I think they call it Warhammer "40K" because that is how
much you are going to have to make per year in order to play.
- Eric Noland
# 1082. Pound for pound I can buy cocaine cheaper than
raise a Warhammer army
- Roy Cox
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/gwprice/
****
RGMW FAQ: http://www.rgmw.org
Or...
http://www.sheppard.demon.co.uk/rgmw_faq/rgmw_faq.htm
.
- References:
- GW sales down
- From: Garth
- GW sales down
- Prev by Date: Re: GW sales down
- Next by Date: Re: Black Tree Design vs GW?
- Previous by thread: Re: GW sales down
- Next by thread: Re: GW sales down
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
