So I was sort of surprised to hear that the new White Dwarf is not available by subscription. So they want people to go down to the store every week to get it. I heard that they are going allow retailers to return/strip unsold copies so that they will order enough but I wonder if there is a time frame for that. How many weeks of white dwarfs are going to be sitting there on the shelves. Just the most recent one, a months worth. I know that even when I was heavily interested in 40K I would get to a store maybe once a month. This matters if there are actual rules in the magazines that you might want to have before they get destroyed.
I understand their logic. Customers spend X dollars on each store visit so we should encourage them to visit the store more. Maybe they will spend less each time but it will have them more involved and spend more overall. Now I currently live about 20 minutes from a store stocking GW stuff but parking there is a real pain as it is downtown so all told you are talking about an hour of time in the car/walking to get there and back. I am not interested in doing that on a weekly basis for a 4 dollar magazine (parking and gas cost more than the magazine).
Now if you are in the store every week playing games (if GW still support that kind of stuff in store) then I could see this change having no real affect on you and maybe that is how the games stores should try to arrange it such that the weekly 40K game day is one after the new releases arrive but GW has seemed to make that Friday and most game stores around here are currently using those prime weekend slots for collectable card games.
This all assumes that you want what is in the new white dwarf which is another question entirely. Last white dwarf I got was the 40K 5th edition preview one and that was so that I had some idea of the new rules while I waited on Black Reach to be released.
more mistakes here IMO - I've heard the "visions" replacement of the "articles" side is nothing but photos from boxsets, not even any text.
ReplyDeleteconsidering their changes to single person manned stores - with massively reduced hours I don't imagine many folks spend a day a week (any day) at a GW for gaming/painting/hobby purposes.
You just know that some blog will post all the photos from each week so why bother if it's just for this.
A big waste of paper and effort. Poorly thought out.
Thanks for coming by Tristan, I noticed a change in your blog title.
DeleteI was trying to avoid discussing the content so much since I have not looked at them really.
Actually the weekly releases probably work better for the one man stores as it might spread the traffic out more of the month and cut down on overcrowding during the single release day. A single employee can not really deal with more than a couple of customers in the store at a time and do a proper job of selling them stuff.
Another shoot in the foot, as far as I see it.
ReplyDeleteTheres been 10 or more years since last time I bought a WD, but I do have a few (very few) friends that have/had a subscription of it for the usual commodity reasons (car parking, fuel, or simply to avoid forgetting buying it).
Once in a while, reading the mag would lead them into the store to order/buy something they saw on it.
As it stands now I'm almost sure most of them will only stop by the store a couple random times a year.