GW to ban all online sales

[Caitsidhe]

I think I just laughed myself into a hernia. Yes, the implications go far beyond bits. I think the next year is going to be very amusing to watch. They are deluded and probably facing a huge financial crisis when the Chapterhouse Court Case comes to a close. This is partly in response to the fact that their lawyers are telling them that they are not going to get the outcome they wanted. It is partly in response to a cooking of the books to maintain share values so they looked "recession proof." There aren't enough stores to close or other general costs to cut anymore to shore up values. They have been hiding their situation pretty well, but eventually the check has to be paid. This year should prove hilarious.

[Blusox69]

[URL="http://youtu.be/SXVKj0KcbIQ"]http://youtu.be/SXVKj0KcbIQ[/URL]

Oldie but goodie

[Hive Mind]

Section III, para. A;

"North American Retailers are not permitted to sell GAMES WORKSHOP products on any website, web-portal, third-party web-portal or other Internet-based platform of any kind."

Pretty unequivocal.

[Absolon]

Waiting to see Mike and or Neal's response to this change. Both of their respective stores do a good volume of sales. I just cant see them taking this without comment

[memnarch_129]

As Hive Mind said above it seems pretty clear cut. After reading most of the Doc it seems that any retailer who buys directly from games workshop CAN NOT in any way sell GW product online. Now there appears to be a way around this that most businesses will probably take, and I think most stores do this now anyway. This change in policy only affect GW affiliate stores, those who buy there stock directly from GW. If a store goes through a distributor, such as Alliance or Diamond, then they are technically not required to abid by this new agreement. Now I didnt check but knowing GW there is probably a clause in there that GW can hold a Distributor responisble if any of their buyers sell GW product online. After sixth I thought GW was going the right direction Game wise, but with these kind of moves business wise I may have to just forget any GW game as if they keep up things like this and the Chapterhouse lawsuit, there is no telling how much longer GW will be profitable or be in business at all.

[Krisken]

As Hive Mind said above it seems pretty clear cut. After reading most of the Doc it seems that any retailer who buys directly from games workshop CAN NOT in any way sell GW product online. Now there appears to be a way around this that most businesses will probably take, and I think most stores do this now anyway. This change in policy only affect GW affiliate stores, those who buy there stock directly from GW. If a store goes through a distributor, such as Alliance or Diamond, then they are technically not required to abid by this new agreement. Now I didnt check but knowing GW there is probably a clause in there that GW can hold a Distributor responisble if any of their buyers sell GW product online. After sixth I thought GW was going the right direction Game wise, but with these kind of moves business wise I may have to just forget any GW game as if they keep up things like this and the Chapterhouse lawsuit, there is no telling how much longer GW will be profitable or be in business at all.

Actually, the specific wording disagrees with your assertion those who purchase through Alliance or Diamond would be able to sell online as both of those are "GW Approved Distributors". It's outlined in the very first paragraph of the document.

[url]https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2zne5ewd4fBemhzRE5KM3BlUGs/edit[/url]

[scarylion]

Sounds to me they are trying to prevent the same sort of thing that happened with HMV etc.. shops going out of business (probably scared them) because people would rather buy the products online for less. Bit of a ****ty thing to do but I can understand where they are coming from, bummer!

[Ghostofman]

Gotta agree that this is little douchey. My more rational half says it's to stop things like Warstore selling unboxed kits with just the more high demand components removed. I've noticed they do things like sell tactical squads without boxes, or stripped razorback kits as unboxed Rhinos in their bits section. But the other half of me sees a scenario where one of the marketing wienies says in a meeting that the total sales value of a GK termie box worth of bitz was around $114 US, and suggests that that constitutes $64 (at least) in "lost profits." If GW starts selling more bits or at least individual frames then I'll at least get where they are coming from, but I don't think they have the infrastructure to sell specific components or frames from actual kits.

I don't mind driving down to my FLGS when I want a fresh new product, I'd rather he get some of my money then GW get all of it. But if I just want one weapon, or component or something I'd rather do without, greenstuff, or do the dreaded thing that shall not be named then buy a $45 NIB kit that I really have no use for.

It's a shame they went this way instead of just saying in the retail policy "We reserve the right to not sell to anyone for any reasons we see fit" and then just call up the real offenders and tell em to knock it off. But this seems like GW's MO: It's easier to just be a jerk then it is to come up with better solution.

It'll be especially interesting to see how far they try and take this when it comes to the various Ebay bits stores.

[Hive Mind]

What they're trying to do is force the people in North America who do not live close to a LGS or cannot access one for whatever reason to buy from GW at full price. North America is not like the UK; lots and lots of people can't just jump in a car or on a bus and be in a city in twenty minutes.

Previously these people were buying online at 20% off GW's prices. Now they have to pay full price from GW's website.

They're also trying to make people drop $60 on a box of GK Terminators if they need a Psycannon.

[lobster-overlord]

Not just people who live away from LGS's, but those who live close to some still would prefer to buy from online retailers because of the discount, and then come in and syphon free table time without spending anymoney in the LGS and expect to be treated equally. Those people are the ones killing the LGS's, not the rural customers. I used to live 2 hours from my nearest store (back in the 90's) and I would travel hours to go to GW because it was the awesome thing to do (no LGS would touch the product back then due to lack of notariety in our area.).

Making blanket asumptions about any part of it is wrong. There are so many different things that are happening.

I know one store in particular that is a large LGS and one of the major bits players that's going to die because of this, and frankly, I'm happy. They treat their local customers like crap and give preference to the online bits customers on product and accessibility.

One LGS has done very well with GW product, despite not offering any kind of discount, and they're going to survive very nicely with this new policy, and I'm glad they will.

John M>