I don't drink coffee. At the moment I'm not even drinking sodas with caffeine. Be that as it may, I take no offense if you want to label me paranoid or nuts. My assessment is based simply on the facts with a particular emphasis on recent events. I would like to point out that paranoia requires an element of fear. I don't fear Games Workshop, nor do I think they are "out to get me." I have no ax to grind in the matter at all. My Games Workshop product comes from barter, prize support, and/or Ebay.
I never said I think Games Workshop are good at getting younger people into the hobby. I don't think younger people in the U.S. on the whole are interest in the hobby at all. Games Workshop has been around for quite some time and the ratio of young children involved in the hobby has always been a near flat line. Children, in general, don't go to boutique stores. They go to TOY stores, i.e. gaming shops with lots of variety. Young people who end up in a Games Workshop store do so only if their parents take them there. That just isn't the dominant culture over here. However, if I were to give your argument any credence, I would have to see a Games Workshop store setup to be inviting/appealing to the younger set. It isn't. They tend, in general, to be setup like the little stores that sell high end stereo equipment for your car.As for GW moving to an area with a lot of FLGS, well, as you think, GW is great at getting younger people into the hobby, FLGS aren't, they're generally not that F and can be rather intimidating for younger people and those inexperinced in the hobby, they do however have thier uses, they generally have more gaming space and have new games and models for you to try out.
We should always apply critical thinking skills. That isn't paranoia; it is commonsense. If recruitment was their actual goal, Games Workshop stores would be appearing in cities that lack a strong war-gaming presence but that have the right demographics (i.e. potential) for it. If they were aimed at the younger set, they would be appearing in locations were younger children are likely to be "walk ins" and be setup for people to spend more time in them. My point is that if "recruitment" is the goal for these stores and it is just accepted that they are going to be a "loss leader," they are being badly mismanaged for that purpose.
I don't believe they are intended as "loss leaders," or is "recruitment" more important than profit. I think those are the excuses given by people in the company trying to cover their own butts for doing a bad job and by those people who are apologists who simply don't want to call Games Workshop on really poor judgement. I think they place their stores in cities that already have large, healthy gaming populations because they want that business and then were puzzled when they didn't get it. I think their stores ended up financial losers because of bad management and now Games Workshop is changing tactics to try and salvage some timber from the deadfall. I think the people now in charge have a very concise, ambitious (if deluded) plan to try and dramatically alter how their product is placed on the market, consolidating it with themselves as the sole vendor and distribution network.