New release strangeness

[GomezAddams]

So for the past three days I've been going into my local GW, with a nice hefty wad of money and the carefree attitude to pricing that comes with a regular wage. Its the first time in a year I've gone into GW with any serious intention to buy anything at all, and I really only wanted the creepy spider lord fella, the tomb spider and the wraiths but I'd have easily been talked into some Deathmarks and other bits and bobs.

Friday - No previews, nothing to look at. I was told by the staffer this had been policy for a year but he would hold some back for me tomorrow, lots of interest, buy now etc etc. This is quite surprising. How do you sell a product without having it there? Never mind I thought, I'll try tomorrow as those necrons do look very nice.

Saturday - I go to Nottingham. Now you'd think being in the middle of the city centre, in the heartland of miniatures, they have some on display. I went in the morning to see a staffer desperately building the stalk tank. I asked to look at the sprues and was told they didn't have any open yet but to return later. So I did - roughly four hours later. Same staffer was now hastily painting the stalk tank and still, no sprues never mind built figures.

Sunday - I thought that today would be the day. I even noticed the manager as I entered. Surely he would have whipped things together knowing that head office is a stones throw away and that having products on display is a key selling point. Nope. I looked around and didn't even see sprues so I gave up. I did give the creepy spider lord a look, noticed some miscasts and the price tag of £15 and decided that he wasn't worth the effort at that price, but would probably pick him up online instead.


This is probably all a moan about something or nothing but... can someone please tell me the following
- How on earth I went into Games Workshop, with money to burn, and came away empty handed four times.
- Why, on release day, they didn't even have the sprues out? Forget having them built, I can forgive that if they only get the stock on the day but whose idea was it not to have the sprues out.
- Why a figure was miss priced? Szeras is showing as £13 on the GW website, not £15.

[BramGaunt]

This is probably all a moan about something or nothing but... can someone please tell me the following
1. How on earth I went into Games Workshop, with money to burn, and came away empty handed four times.
2. Why, on release day, they didn't even have the sprues out? Forget having them built, I can forgive that if they only get the stock on the day but whose idea was it not to have the sprues out.
3. Why a figure was miss priced? Szeras is showing as £13 on the GW website, not £15.

I added numbers to make it easier to see what I'm getting at.

1. That's a good question, someone definatly didn't do his job correctly there. No excuse for that.
2. Because they'd have to 'pay' for them themselves. Stores don't get preview copies any more at all. The sprues are visible on the home page. If they want to put something on display they have to take it from a very limited budget they have each month.
3. Since they have to put on price tags in the store manually, it can happen. It's not desireable, but since human error is the biggets problem you cannot rule out, it happens. I one found a Leman Russ labled with 95,- Euro tag (back then it was at 35 Euro), because the new staffer in charge of labeling mixed it up with the Baneblade. Prices are however the same instore and at the homepage. Neither can they charge you more for it, nor can you ask for a smaller price if something is labeled to cheap.

[Spiney Norman]

Interestingly the model in question was incorrectly priced at the store I got it from (Doncaster) they had szeras marked at £15 and Zahndrek at £12, however both models scanned at the correct price and I was not over charged. Maybe some stores just got incorrect pricing info for their labels (do store staff still label their products or do they arrive with the price labels already on?).

At the two nearest GW stores (Doncaster and Sheffield Meadowhall) the only models on display are store staffs personal armies, there are no store display models any more except for the intro tables. I haven't seen a sprue to demonstrate a new product since they axed the black boxes.

[ehlijen]

I get what you're saying, but honestly: did you need to see the assembled minis and sprues to confirm what you describe as already having been your buying decision? Photos of the minis are on the box and sprue photos have been available on the website for a few days as far as I can tell.

I agree that displaying new minis is a good way to advertise them and GW should do it better, but in your case what would it have added as long as the boxes you wanted are up for sale (which I assume they had been since that saturday)?

[shelfunit.]

- How on earth I went into Games Workshop, with money to burn, and came away empty handed four times.

You are not between the ages of 10-16

- Why, on release day, they didn't even have the sprues out? Forget having them built, I can forgive that if they only get the stock on the day but whose idea was it not to have the sprues out.

Welcome to the best marketing stratagy the best minds can envision in action.

- Why a figure was miss priced? Szeras is showing as £13 on the GW website, not £15.

Accidental revealing of the annual price hikes?

[Der_Benson]

shelfunit FTW

[HavoK]

I am also familliar with the "go in with anticipation, come out empty handed" phenomenon. No matter how much money I've got, the prices inside stores always puts me off when I hold the box in my hand and I always come to the conclusion, "Naaaah, Ill just order it"

[Morkash]

Your post made me grin, shelfunit, nice one! The sad thing is ... I see the same reasons...

[GomezAddams]

BramGaunt - Regarding the price tags, thats fair enough but a budget for advertising? That doesn't make sense. Surely GW would be able to write it all off as advertising with the tax man, and bobs your uncle.

Ehlijen - Yup I did as I wanted them for malifaux. If the wraiths were too big for a 40mm warmachine base base then I'd have no use for them, and if the tomb spider was too big for a 50mm I would have had no use for that either. Non of the shots I've seen so far have given me a decent impression of just how big they are, or what floor space they take up. Someone did post up some wraiths here on warseer, but he ended up mounting them on larger bases due to there size.

Shelfunit - re: price rises.. its June/July they do the price rises isn't it?

[shelfunit.]

Shelfunit - re: price rises.. its June/July they do the price rises isn't it?

I'm not 100% on that one - we usually see them around the same time as the annual figures are released, so end of may/june time give or take.

[Satan]

You are not between the ages of 10-16



Welcome to the best marketing stratagy the best minds can envision in action.



Accidental revealing of the annual price hikes?

As a professional marketer I approve of this post.

[blackcherry]

That does sound idiotic. But then, hey I don't know anything about marketing. All I know is that I usually come out of a GW store empty handed.

I guess I'm voting with my wallet?

[abaddonseviltwin]

Since the quality of the Finecast is improving over the initial release that went out, I'm guessing that you need to pay extra for the miscasts...they're limited editions now... if only!

[6mmhero]

If you were in Nottingham then I guess WW is a little tricky to get to instead of Friar Lane?
I liked them having sprues on display and was nice to view all the parts when the black boxes used to be in stores but if you were concerned that much maybe you could have asked about the bases they came on and had a look at the back of the box for how well they fitted on the base (not ideal but a stopgap).

It is odd that you were able to leave the store without your query solved or a purchase made.