GW store question

[LordGrise]

So I'm at the one and only GW store in San Antonio, and there's a pretty good crowd for a Wednesday afternoon. I'm up at the very front of the store, in a conversation with another customer concerning priming on the sprue vs off the sprue. I make comment that I really don't use GW paints or primer since they dropped boltgun as a primer; I use Vallejo paints and I prime on the sprue with Tamiya heavy gunmetal. Then, from the cash register, halfway the length and breadth of the store away, the one and only store employee yells, and I do mean yells:

"Hey Craig? Please don't talk about my competition's paints, I'm trying to make a buck here, okay?" All conversations in the store stopped; everyone in the store heard him. I indicated that I would not be back, and I walked out.

Is this customary and acceptable behavior on the part of a GW store employee? And is this standard policy for GW stores? If it is, I can't believe any of them stay in business.

[Capn Stoogey]

I can see his point about the competition, but he didn't have to be such an a$$ hat about it. Sounds like a bit of a tool dude, I'm sure you'll be fine without the store, online is the future anyway!

[doom-kitten]

The guy running GW here in Victoria will actually recommend competition products if he feels they are superior to GW, in addition at events or convention he will literally take you to a competitors booth to show you product and anything that they have that he does not have in stock.

[DrLove42]

Well the fact he heard you across a store would suggest you weren't exactly talking quietly either.

And although he was a bit of a dick about it, hes got every right to ask you to stop.

If you walked into McDonalds and started telling everyone that Burger King was better, cheaper and delivered to their house what would you expect them to do there?

[alshrive]

strictly speaking he had every right to ask you stop although he went about it in an inappropriate way. having worked for gw i understand the quandry this can pose. Frequently i had to deal with people doing this, although i always found a quiet, discreet and polite word did the trick. now the story of banning the regulars because they were interrupting customers and recommending an independent stockist because it was cheaper, that was a different matter........

[Wolfshade]

The only experience I have come across of this was way back in the 90s when a chappie at the store was politely asked not to use a non-GW skeleton in fantasy battle and as it continued it was made evident that is was the third time that he had been spoken to about this and would not be welcomed to play in the shop if he continued.

[MarneusCalgar]

Well, maybe the way of telling you "just shut up" wasn´t the merely correct one, but... I approve the behaviour of the boy at GW...

There are formal etiquettes of behaviouring when entering into a shop, and I don´t think it´s good going into one GW store speaking about the wellness of their competitors... if it were an independant retailer ok, you´re right, but into a GW store... it´s nasty and if he was on the other side of the store and yelled to you... you weren´t whispering precisely.

Maybe GW is not the best enterprise of the world, but you must show a little respect when entering into their stores, and I think you didn´t this time.

[pauljc]

I can see his point about the competition, but he didn't have to be such an a$$ hat about it. Sounds like a bit of a tool dude, I'm sure you'll be fine without the store, online is the future anyway!

Pray tell, how do you effectively demo tactile, visual strategy games to people via the internet? When all the brick-n-mortar stores are gone, so goes our hobby.

[pauljc]

So I'm at the one and only GW store in San Antonio, and there's a pretty good crowd for a Wednesday afternoon. I'm up at the very front of the store, in a conversation with another customer concerning priming on the sprue vs off the sprue. I make comment that I really don't use GW paints or primer since they dropped boltgun as a primer; I use Vallejo paints and I prime on the sprue with Tamiya heavy gunmetal. Then, from the cash register, halfway the length and breadth of the store away, the one and only store employee yells, and I do mean yells:

"Hey Craig? Please don't talk about my competition's paints, I'm trying to make a buck here, okay?" All conversations in the store stopped; everyone in the store heard him. I indicated that I would not be back, and I walked out.

Is this customary and acceptable behavior on the part of a GW store employee? And is this standard policy for GW stores? If it is, I can't believe any of them stay in business.

I agree with the majority here. If you don't know how hard it is for game stores to make a living these days, look into it.

Personally, I think you should go back to the store, apologise for your part in the ruckus, and discuss with the manager that you felt it unecessary for him to shout across the store like that.

Even though I side with the manager's point of view, it was poor customer service (and definitely something his area manager would freak out at). He should have just wandered over and had a quiet word.

Basic rule of etiquette though: don't **** where you play.

[miteyheroes]

"Hey Craig? Please don't talk about my competition's paints, I'm trying to make a buck here, okay?" All conversations in the store stopped; everyone in the store heard him. I indicated that I would not be back, and I walked out.

The GW dude shouldn't have shouted, but you must have been loud as well or he wouldn't have heard you? But he did say please, and said a perfectly valid reason why you shouldn't do what you were doing. And in response you stormed off refusing to ever visit the store again? That seems an overblown response.

So yes. I think both of you acted non-ideally. He shouldn't have shouted; you should have been the bigger man and not let him get to you so much.