The front page of Bell of Lost Souls has two interesting advertisements that are very telling. Two online retailers, Dicebucket and Miniature Market, are now giving 25% discounts off Games Workshop products.
While most online stores have been giving a 20% discount the past few years, and the word on the street was that it was the maximum you could give according to GW rules for retailers, now we have two major online discounters giving 25%. And I have confirmed with GW that there is no limit to what discounters can give. So where does this stop?
We now seem to be seeing the latest escalation of the GW discounters war! With the standard GW discount being 45% for retailers, that means Miniature Market and DiceBucket are only making 20% on each purchase. And The War Store, the biggest online game retailer and a distributor as well, is still giving 20% off. Will they be forced to match it? I don't think so. War Store has a lot of loyal customers who have been shopping there for years.
So margins are getting thinner, and of course, this is even greater incentive for gamers to NOT support their local game store and instead buy online. Which is frankly not good for the hobby. I personally hate online discounting. If you think long term you realize that it is killing the your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store).
Now we know for a fact that no retailer is allowed to have an online shopping cart of list of GW products on their site. A fact that was confirmed by one of the top people in US trade sales recently. And while Miniature Market doesn't have one and faithfully adheres to GW policies, DiceBucket has an online shopping cart and openly flaunts GW rules.
As I reported previously, this is not good for the long term future of Dicebucket. There is simply no way that GW will permit them to continue to do this. And the only reason they haven't been shut down yet is that they have carefully hidden all information that could lead one to find them. No phone number or address, just an email. But you think GW won't find out? Of course they will, and when they do, Dicebucket is done.
And who does business with a company that won't give you their phone #? I certainly won't.
So again the question is where does this stop? Will we see 30% off soon? How much can a retailer still make an stay in business? And is this good for the hobby? I say no.
Alec
7 comments:
I think online discounting is an even larger problem than just destroying FLGSs. Having a deeper discount is good for a single store if none of the other stores have it, however, what always happens in price wars is that everyone drops the price, and then you end up with the same sales( maybe slightly more), and less profit. In a good business/industry model, a company should focus on giving more services or value rather than dropping price.
The more discount the better!
You know whats not good for the long-term health of the Warhammer hobby? Yearly price raises and an inability to make an army for less than four hundred dollars. The more they raise prices, the harder it is to get new blood into the community. /period.
I support my local game store- I make a good number of my purchases there when I have the money to do so. Need another box of Dire Avengers? Cool, down to the LGS. Do I want to try making a brand new army? Then Im buying online. Were in a global recession and if it wasnt for discounting I couldnt rationalize buying much of anything from GW at all.
Not to mention the internet acts like online retailers are the only ones who discount- not true. Not tournament nights my LGS has 10% off all GW, and if you win sometimes its 20% for the night on top of the prize money. The next closest store has a constant 10% off and theyre doing quite healthily.
Nah, online retailers arent killing LGS'. Bad customer service will. An inability to adapt to changing needs will. Charging people ten bucks at the door to use their tables for the rest of the night will probly too. Online businesses have fewer things to screw up so they appear more stable- but if thats really where the money was youd be seeing more and more of them, not a small dozen of viable retailers.
GW is an appalling company. it is far too overpriced now. I remember the slogan 'for gamers by gamers'..... now all they want is to squeeze every penny out of us. i used to love going into the store to buy new minis and have a yarn with fellow gamers and the fanatic shop employees but now if i buy anything it is usually through some sort of discounted source. more discounts the better. admittedly they are exceptionally high quality but the recent resin changeover has yielded flaws for me. it was the same as buying the overpriced forgeworld products, the resin components are usually poorly formed and they will not accept returns for better quality items. i emailed the repeatedly to receive not one reply. overpriced, shoddy customer services and poor QC... that is the words that sum up this once great company and its subsidiary's
Dicebucket sent me the wrong mini and tried to make me buy it or send it back (at greater cost than the item sent) before they will send me the right one. Then finally said they will complete my order but never sent it. Avoid
try chaosorc, same discount and cheaper/faster postage + Finecast
I haven't purchased a games workshop model in person in over 6 years. I simply will not buy something that is marked up sometimes almost 30% over what it is in the US simply because I'm in Canada. Our dollar has been on par with the US for almost a decade. There is no excuse or reason for it.
It is easy for you to say LGS are cool because living in the UK you have so many choices and such great prices. I like LGS and will support FLGS to give them a start so the hobby grows. If GW was serious about growing the "hobby" they would put their customers first and profits second. Sure every business needs to make a buck, but they cannot continually dismiss their customer's legitimate concerns. They are pricing themselves out of the market and is it any wonder so many long-time wargamers are changing systems?
I like online retailers, I can buy my miniatures at any time of the day or even from my phone on the bus. Some of them do not have the best service but their prices make up for it because at the end of the day you get so much more.
I used to go into GW stores and thought the service was pretty good. I also met a lot of people and we formed our own gaming club. GW is putting their prices up because people are not staying in the scene for as long as they used to and they want to make as much money from them while they can.
Bring on the price wars! Death to DB & DGS!
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