34:49 What, now you're drunk? You say how you're "pissed" which means drunk in the UK since at least the 1970s. I think Americans have copied it wrong from us for only a couple of decades, but you're not American, are you? You've been to uni and you don't know what being pissed is? 38:52 Purposefully is the manner in which you do something, like you might walk over to a bar purposefully. The Me262 looks purposeful, like a shark, but you clearly meant deliberately or intentionally as we use them in the UK. There is also "purposely", but we don't use that since Victorian times as archaic, that's why we use deliberately and intentionally. I can tell that you watch a lot of American content and don't read much in your own native language, which is a shame. I also don't want to now that about you, no one really does. What I got told at uni when a spell-checker tricked me into foreign was that I need o choose a dialect and stick to it. You can't stumble into and out of your native dialect, which is proper English and not a degenerated foreign dialect, or people will think that you don't know the difference, which is indeed the case here, that's why we have that. I hope you did a practical or technical degree, for all our sakes.
When I was 12 or 13 I had a game mangager absolutely table me in my second (!) ever 40k game while laughing and pointing out how pathetic my list was. To this day one of the most horrible social interactions I have ever had.
That's horrible, I remember starting MtG with grown ups normal peoples in their 20's, 30's and 40's when I was 12 and it was stressful by itself even if they were kind and patients.
I came here to share a similar story 😂 I started with Space Marines (as you do) in 3rd edition and only really got back into it at the end of 9th. I still have no desire to do the tabletop due to that interaction but I do enjoy the painting side and lore
@@ecwfanatic I'v felt the same but after 20 years im getting back into the tabletop with some mature players and its great. what it should be. we shouldn’t let aholes ruin it for us
The worst manager I ever had to deal with was back in 4th edition, my friends and I came to the shop to play 40k, the manager threatened to throw me and my friends out the shop because we were deciding amongst ourselves what game type to play instead of rolling a D6... When I showed him the part of the rulebook that said players could just pick a mission, he goes "you like being right, don't you?!" He was referred to as "Ponytail Man" up in Aberdeen and was pretty notorious for shit like that.
Holy shit, ginger with glasses and a bandana? This guys such a dick, always had some nice “banter” for me when I came into play. He’s the reason I’ve stopped playing Warhammer.
@@DisturbedbyDeth I love that whoever this guy is, he's THAT well known in Aberdeen that strangers on the internet can come together and share distain for him just by his reputation.
Augh, that story about the families getting strongarmed into paying for stuff they couldn't afford is *heartbreaking*. Imagine your first experience with 40k being a pre-teen essentially getting scammed, and also your parents now remember it as "that game that nearly made me default on my mortgage" in the future.
My mum went to a GW to get me a surprise bday present and the sales guys ripped her off so badly I went back with the receipt and forced them to return every last box of shit
Yeah, had this with my Mum… anyone remember the GW paint gun (they couldn’t even call it an airbrush because it was so crap)? She had been told that it was necessary for ‘the Hobby’.
I can't stand this stuff, taking advantage of poor parents who don't know any better. I get it. You're a store that's there to sell stuff. But upselling customers into shiat you KNOW they don't need is a scummy tactic that shouldn't be condoned.
Starter set that had 2 armies in the US was like 150?-200? GW manager was super cool. Convinced them to both go in on the set. coworker and a new player went halvsies on the 2 army box and they both walked away with a better value on the buy PLUS exclusive units to that box. THOSE are the GW managers I like. Like a store I go to the GW staff actively will shit on things GW does bad. Like the new 50$ sprew cutter, the employees were like "you're in God hand territory, i have no clue what they were thinking but Definitely just buy the army painter one because it's the same quality and 35$ less" and they are super helpful with people especially younger folks who's parents are buying it for them in getting them the absolute best bang for the price. I have assisted in a couple sales as just a guy hanging out. A guy bought his kid a nice starter pack of Orks and the dad was rocking a US army hat and was VERY interested in my guard and ended up buying himself a set of guard. I see them playing there now and again. Makes me happy new people are getting into it.
Man, I don't think I'd make for a good GW Employee. I just wouldn't be able to bring myself to recommend anyone buy those awful overpriced tools. I'd wince and feel guilty every time I saw someone bring them up to the counter not knowing they could get the same thing for way cheaper elsewhere. Like, I could recommend the paint since it's quality even if a tad expensive. I'd recommend the models, and explain what are good value kits, etc. But those tools are where I draw the line.
When I first wanted to get into 40k I knew pretty much nothing outside of a few space marine chapters that I thought were cool. I went into the shop and started talking to the guy running the shop, saying how I don't know much but want to get into it. First thing he asked was "what army are you looking at?". I said I was looking at Blood Angels and he was super chuffed since he said that he played Blood Angels back in the day. I left that day with the €40 starter set, because in his words "give this a shot and see if you like 40k", the best possible response to my questions while also feeling like a reasonable amount to spend as a 16 year old. He then told me about painting and all that, and handed me a box of AoS paint set because he didn't have any of the 40k ones and told me "that set has a black, silver and a red that close enough to Blood Angels". I know some people who are super specific with the shades you use because "that's not accurate to the lore" and it just makes the hobby intimidating. Made me feel, as a newbie, that this game had very set in stone rules, which obviously isn't really the case. Being told "it's close enough" was reassuring. Overall, best experience I feel I could have had as a new player. Now granted I haven't gone back to the hobby because I didn't (and still don't) know anyone who played the game. However, I've moved for college and there's a game shop in the city, so we'll see if anything changes.
Holy shit, that wakes memories. I used to spend a lot of time at my local GW back during my school days on weekends, and the manager really could make-or-break the store. We had this epic, cool guy that ran the place, who was the most funny guy. he did cool events (Gentlemans tourney were everyone had to come in suits and ties, tea was served and no cursing was allowed on the table), auctions and other cool shit. Place was bursting and everyone had a good time. Then, new manager and the place just died over night. Power selling, all fun events were cancelled and staff was swapped out for outright hostile people. Never been there since, except one time when I was shopping in the city and checking for a Free company box. They didn't had none, but didn't stop the then manager from trying to sell me other imperium stuff, and the most amazing thing when I refused that, "Please order from our store, we get a percentage from that" Yeah, sure I want to give in my private data into your shitty PC rather than order from home. Store Manager Martin, you will be missed, GW Frankfurt was never the same without you
The unfortunate truth may been that the "fun manager" was not making the sales the company needed... maybe even breaking even or working at a loss. They sent the new managers in with their new sales training to get sales up... or so they thought.
Interesting, i am very new to Warhammer and got shown the ropes how everything worked with assembling and painting minis by the store manager in Frankfurt, who seemed to be really nice and caring about the place and the people playing there. His name was Jonas. Maybe give it another chance?
The worst GW manager I ever encountered got fired not long after. The guy was showing up to work, but would sit in the back and open the store several hours late. I had to call the GW customer service number to complain. When he was forced to open the store which was an hour after it was sapposed to be open. He was mean mugging me the whole time even though I was not the only one in the store. He was rude, smelled like booze, and bitched when I only bought some paint and a box I came to pick up from an online order. The next time I went to that store, a diffrent guy was there. After talking to him, he told me he was from a store an hour away and would be there every day for the next month. As the previous manager was fired for not opening the store for 3 days and had apparently been living in the stock room for a month. The worst part was the guy had hidden pee jugs randndomly around the back room that had to cleaned up. Even though there was a working bathroom in the store.
Are you f*cking kidding me ? lmfao . its funny but its not but what I laughed at was the Piss Jugs ! Why ? Because my old bosses room mate lived upstairs ! Would NEVER shower once. Had like black hands *no bs here bud ok* and when he kicked him out because he was threatning him and not useing the washroom EVER it took him a few months to figure it out ... same thing ! PISS JUGS ! There was a working bathroom downstairs ! Fu*king trailer park boys piss jugs ! messed up guy. Sorry you had a rough time. I know truckers piss in jugs because they have told me and iv seen them because i had the dishour of working in a dump yard up to my knees in Piss / Shitt and Period ! yess hunreds of dirty tampons / rats . I was comeing down of herione at the time thinking about my life and asking what 1 bad decision can screw your life. Im so glad im not in that dump no more. However we do need people to do that work .
Shout out to Sam at Warhammer Birmingham, the guy is the chillest man I’ve met, sat with me for multiple sessions while I was figuring out my colour scheme and I almost bought nothing from the store, at that time I couldn’t afford to.
This is both tragic and hilarious. I found out recently that the local flagship for GW has died, and from the last time I went in there I can't say I'm remotely surprised. The last words I remember from their store manager was "we're not your hobby box", when the whole place used to be dedicated to lending the store set of tools in the store for new people to assemble and start their first kits. Good on you for trolling that piece of shit.
The current CEO and executives of Warhammer is a bunch of financial guy, who know nothing about boardgame nor miniature and are all about high sales and revenue instead. These guy will squiz out every penny out of the brand, then leaving with tons of money, a record of high sales and a bankrupt brand lossing all its mysteries and charm.
@@kyriakos232 IDK man i think that’s a very cynical way of looking at it, I’d be inclined to believe you if there wasn’t any quality to the models or products
@@crowtein677 sculptors improve to the quality of model, and market team making new model op each for half a year and NERF it to the ground. And gw homes more and more about selling you the newest trinkets: try buy some fw old model and buy a combat patrol, sometimes you can feel the difference. Not to forget that they write stories so hastily they make like 70 percent of the primarches and emperor-forgive me-clowns just so they can bring back Primarches and new factions, turning the background settings from a space opera into a family comedy about daddy issues.
Me: **Kicks in the door** I AM HERE TO PURCHASE EIGHT BLOODTHIRSTERS SHUT UP AND TAKE MY BLOOD MONEY Store Owner: **Moan of pleasure** And Paints? Me: BLOOD... but also I could go with a few more metallics? Store Owner, to himself: _This man will feed my entire family_
GW must have gone on a Dave hiring spree at that time because this sounds exactly like my experience when I thought of getting back into 40k during the dark vengeance era.
Indeed, my most active I was collecting miniatures was around the turn of the millennium. I used to dread going into GW, you’d be pounced on and treated really aggressively - this was in the Cambridge store. I remember going in for a Mordheim warband and getting constantly snide comments about the game being dead and whether I wanted to buy a random 40k army. When me and my mates said we weren’t interested, the guy told us to just pick up what we wanted and leave. No offence to any of the good GW Managers, but I’ve yet to meet you.
Sounds like corporate started a new high-pressure sales requirement/training. I’m relatively new to the hobby, started last year, and my local store is largely fine, I wouldn’t hang out there as it’s small for the expectation of the Warhammer stores, but the manager is cool. He spent a while chatting with me about the novels and suggestions of what to read next. He didn’t pressure or anything, maybe it’s changed since that 6-7 edition time.
Sorry, this era and behaivour is America's fault... They opened a ton of GW stores in the US and started using US sales tactics, it never ends well you would think even the US business owners would figure out that is a failing business model...oh well. Dave either trained or was trained by by the East Coast US Sales manager for GW retail.
You're describing my nightmare gw store manager. His name was Ben. He did every thing younhave described and even belittled players. Now the one thong that finally got him fired. Buying box sets with a discount then returning them for full price. He got caught 4 times before they finally sent a representative in and fired him in front of everyone during a store event it was so beautiful, and worth the 5+ years of watching him be so well an a hole.
Two of the biggest problems with GW stores, GW only products and sales quotas. I understand that GW wants to make sales on GW product, after all it’s their store. Problem is that a large part of supplementary sales that help a store keep afloat are impulse buy items, dice, paints, snacks and drinks and such. Yes GW has dice and paints, but it’s good to have other products and games to supplement sales. The other is the quotas, this causes desperation and thus hard sales tactics. “Gorilla” motivation management methods like this breed animosity of the worst sort, animosity toward the customers. This is bad public relations, no matter what the bottom line says.
Yeah, that's why I ignored my quotas when I worked in retail. Minimal add-on sales, only where it was relevant and appreciated. It actually inadvertently made me a better salesman because people would seek me out for sales because they knew I was genuine. Some didn't even want to spend anything, just chat with me, and I was happy with that.
Unfortunately I'm so old I remember when GW sold non-GW stuff. Their shops were THE places to go for any wargames and roleplay stuff. Most of the shops were genuinely quite large ( well, the ones I went in like Birmingham and Newcastle) GW shops were always packed. Then they dropped everything non-GW and they were ghost towns overnight
Seriously this whole story with the whole very aggresive salesman behavior is the reason why I do not want to step in a Warhammer store unless necesary. The one that they have in London Tottemham Court Road is notorious for this to the point of cringe.... And I cannot stand it. The only reason why I would go is to get some small games for free because you do not need to pay for the tables and thats it. And even then you clearly have to scare off the store attendants a bit from harrasing you because you are just there trying to chill and play with the miniatures which you have already bought.
As a 48 year old who has played a long time it riles the crap out of me when the manager goes into full sales mode and just won't pick up the hint. It's like being spoken too as a 8 year old. They seem to have throttled back a bit last few years but even at Warhammer world it was getting to the point where I would get approached by 3-4 sales staff going through the same patter on every visit. It always ended up awkward and me verging on telling them straight to leave me alone.
Depends entirely on the manager. All the stores I've been to either locally or while traveling around the US I've only come across super chill managers. The one from my hometown has gotten a lot of support from the company, yet never has pushed a sale on anyone.
@@Ryotbh it totally depends on the person running the store the one near me is a single man store and he’s super nice and well answer any questions u have
Lol it's not hard to sell people shit they want. Their problem is selling shit people don't want. Sales depends on getting as many small sales as possible. Give people as much of the stuff they want for the least profit reasonable.
I remember that time, now the GW store in town gets managed by a good lad that was once a common guy that always played around in store. The old manager now runs his own much better store where he can do what he wants, I remember how full & sick of that GW-sales shit he was
Worst GW manager I ever encountered fired his best employee because that employee sold me his old Catachan army. This GW was in a mall that had a movie theater and I walked in to kill some time while waiting for the midnight showing of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I got to talking with this GW employee, can't remember his name so I'll just call him Todd as he looked like a Todd. He then asked me what army I played and I told him Catachan to which he off handily remarked that he had a Catachan army he was looking to off load. His manager came out and told us if I wasn't buying any thing then I had to leave. So we meet up at a comic shop to look over his army because I was interested in buy some of it, I ended up buying the whole lot, some 500 models for about 200$ U.S. The next week I ran into him at that comic shop. He told me that his manager had heard about our private transaction and fired him for "taking away business from GW." No joke, he got fired for selling me his old army.
I really loved this story when I first brought it up on stream and you happily shared the experience to me and the viewers. And I’m finally glad it’s now a video for us to listen now! Thank you so much MG I salute to you! o7
Listening to these stories makes me feel so grateful for my local GW. The manager of my local is genuinely the kindest dude I've met since moving to my city.
A store manager got me to buy a 6th edition rule book literally the week before 7th was released even though we asked specifically if he’d heard 7th was coming out soon.
Honestly shit like that warrants a call to customer service. I mean seriously unless they’re selling it and you’re getting it for lore and art, and it’s clear that it won’t be current soon, no problem. Hiding that shit a week or two before a new edition is top tier scumbag behavior.
I got put off GW when I was younger as I was looking at Warhammer models and the manager at the store I walked into told me to stop looking around if I wasnt going to buy anything. Id been there a few minutes. This store has since changed location and the manager there now is super chill, he'll ask what I'm after or if I need anything and he'll leave me alone if i just want to look around. I used to go to another store near me and the staff were pretty rude, even when I was actively trying to give them money for large game boxes. I never made any large purchases in that store, for some reason I dont want to give rude people my money, and the other store gets my money whenever I feel a need to buy something in store. I also went to the GW in Edinburgh and the guy would not stop trying to push FW primarchs on me, even though I already have the one for the army I collect. I walked out not having bought anything.
Do you know what I would have done, I would have travelled to another store and bought the rule book. Then next time he asks if I have a rule book I answer "Why yes, I happened to be passing a different store, my loan has cleared and I remembered you were keen for me to have one, so here it is..." Oh gee I should listen to an entire video before commenting lol
I feel like the first 45 minutes were just warm up for that troll in the last like two minutes... and I'm entirely ok with that. That was brilliant. Good on you guys for making that stunt
I'm eternally grateful for the Store Manager who runs my local GW. genuinely one of the nicest most genuine people you will ever meet. Actually was the dude who got me into 8th edition. Friendly, helpful, has good banter and just and all round 100% dude.
Back in the mid/late 90s, I remember going into my local GW with a model that I'd spent an evening painting and was quite proud of, because I wasn't much of a model painter at all. I was looking for some advice on how to do it better and maybe some encouragement. The manager's response was "Oh, I could have done that in about twenty minutes" and he just sort of blew me of. It felt like a really weird sort of gatekeeping...like "You're not good enough to be allowed into the painting side of the hobby so I'll just dismiss you." As I was at Uni at the time I ended up drifting away from the hobby until partway through 5th edition where I happened to be going past the same store and wandered in just to see what sort of stuff was available and what had changed. The whole atmosphere was completely different, the staff were genuinely friendly and helpful and answered my questions and pointed me towards the sorts of things I'd be best starting with to pick up the hobby again. I didn't really get into the painting side of things until 8th Edition tho....so I have a mass of grey plastic...but those same staff have been so damn helpful and encouraging, its hard to think of it as the same store. I used to hate painting, but now thanks to them, at least in part, I really enjoy it. The store mantra seems to be "It's your hobby" and they're super happy to drop whatever they're doing to help someone out or show them how to paint something, or give suggestions on how to mod something.
That story just hurt my soul. This was how i was trained and worked in GW (when the manager was looking) as soon as he looked away i would do my own, Hobby friendly and casual thing. It would always work better than the hard push. Glad i am out of that treadmill
So buying a single pot of paint lowers the stores daily average sale price. I had worked with managers with that sale style. Ruins the store, and I used to hate watching ppl walk out like you described. When you described him piling models on with that high elf player, he also him doing the oh I have a rule book. Managers used to have meet-ups, and they used "complain" about "problem customers" and also ideas on how deal with them. They used to push staffers for up sales and it was super awkward with the role play activities they made us do. I left a horrible manager and left the hobby at the end of assult on blqck reach. After dealing with managers bullying staff and customers, i haven't played 40k or gw games ever since. They have a term for ex gw staff that lewve cause theynrefuse to conform "heritics" Your video reminded me so much of my last gw manager so much I feel for you, man. Also nice troll at the end of the story
Used to work for GW. Had one manager, Andy brought in as a sales superstar, very upsell focussed. If someone came in for a can of black undercoat and you didn't convince them to walk out with a new squad of marines Andy would be having a word with you later. He did everything you described and more. Once he tried to cancel the booked and approved holiday of 3 of the staff the evening before we left because he'd decided to run a stock check that weekend. Told us that we'd all be put on report and fired if we didn't turn up but it was all okay because we could order a pizza. None of us turned up of course. Neither did Andy. Reports went nowhere, the area manager was a friend of ours so quashed it. Andy rearanged the stock check to a few days later. We turned up for this one but Andy did not. He also tried to stiff us for the wages, for holiday pay and a few other things. Andy did not last long after that.
@@MordianGlory I don't know whether to be impressed that you've committed so much time to this hobby to have had more than one of these experiences or depressed that you have more to share after this: the 3rd installment.
@@MordianGlory The worst part is, from what I remember of being a GW employee, this totally tracks. Sorry that happened, glad you stayed in the hobby though! Love the content, love the guard, and can't wait to hear more tournament tales 👍.
@@MordianGlory PS~ I worked at the Factoria Battle Bunker in Washington state in the US, back when they still had bunkers. It was supposed to be like a hub. My least favorite part was our regional manager, very similar to "Dave". Obviously GW is a UK company, all well and good, but he would say shit like "cheers" and "mate" non-stop like a college girl that did a summer abroad. Like come on man, you're a forty year old man that has lived in America your whole life, we know this isnt how you talk.
@@Draichnyr we must not be talking about the same person. It was 20 years ago, maybe I'm getting folks mixed up. Literally every sentence ended with "cheers mate". I started at the shop with a guy who was actually British, then he was gone after like, a month, then all red shirts got axed, then got hired back, then I worked with Ryan for about 9 months before I became a security guard and eventually joined the Army.
Around 20 years ago, after my then-wife buggered off and shacked up with someone else, I rented a room to my local GW store manager. Learned a lot about how GW worked, became good friends with all the staff, who were frequently at my place, playing games and stuff on his PS1 (possibly the PS2 - it was a while ago). They were, to a man, a great bunch of guys. The manager took great care of his staff, and pushed them all to be the best they could be, encouraging them to rise up to management, or just generally helping them with career paths, both in and out of GW. Dude was in the army reserve, and was a bit rough around the edges, but his heart was in the right place. The store really suffered when he was moved on to another Manager role, overseas. One of the red shirts ended up being a great friend, and was my Best Man at my second wedding. Have lost touch with almost all these guys now, but that was a great comfort to me, during a dark period in my life. I haven’t played any GW games for many years, but still play many other war- and board games.
I had just moved to helsinki when 5th edition was coming out. I had started playing in early 4th and decided to get a new army. I was from a very rural part of Finland and there was no one for me to play against so I had mostly been painting and collecting imperial guard with only a couple of games in a nearby bigger town. At helsinki I decided to buy a brand new marine army and ask GW store manager about where to find games. I did not get a clear answer to where and how I get to actually play. Instead he told me its really stupid to just collect and paint minis. I saw the table at the store and there were people playing, but it was a mystery to me how the games happen. After that, no one wanted to answer my questions so I just went home with my marines, painted them and packed them in a box and did not touch or keep up with 40k until 9th came out.
So, there were a few Warhammer stores in my area, but there was one that had a particularly cantankerous manager. He had originally worked under a decent manager at another store, but then they all went to single employee operations, so he got moved to another store. Well, I moved to an apartment not far from his new location, and it was conveniently on the way home from work, so I was like "Great! I can get my games on the way home from work." What a mistake that was. See, we already knew each other, and I knew he was a bit of a dick, but I just wanted to do my hobby. We had a few unpleasant interactions, but the real poisoning of the well happened when the 8th Edition Wood Elf Army Book was released. Now, I had pre-ordered this book, in the store, so he already had my money. When I pick up my book, the one he hands me has damaged corners. Now, I don't know about you, but when I pay for a brand new book, I want a brand new book, so I point this out to him, and he asks me to bring it back next week because he "really needs to make numbers this week." So I'm like "Okay" and bugger off. Come the next week, I return, book in hand, still in the shrink wrap, and he gives me to usual unpleasant look "what do you need?" "Oh, I came to exchange this, cause you told me to come back now instead of exchanging it last week." I shit you not, he rolls his eyes and, word for word, "Ugh, are you still crying about that?" I am taken aback, but I insist on the exchange, he begrudgingly does it, but I am still soured by the experience. I never go to that store again. In fact, I actually drive extra distances to go to other Warhammer Stores to buy my stuff, specifically to not give my business to that Warhammer Store, and my business is not insignificant. As far as I know, he's still working there, and still ruining the hobby for everyone who walks through that door. For those who want to know, it's the Warhammer Store at Kent Station, in Kent, Washington, and the store manager was Jared. Don't be rude to your customers.
I feel a lot of sympathy for Dave. If you have an anxiety problem and find yourself working high pressure commissioned sales, you can very easily fall prey to hating the customer who doesn't help you meet your quotas. Every failed conversion (turning a visit into an arbitrarily large sale) is a strike against your job. You are constantly feeling pressure to be more and more like a shark. Every single person is just innocently visiting your store...but in your head, it very quickly becomes "this motherfucker is going to cost me my job AND my next few hours. Fuck him for coming in and not buying. Doesn't he know i will get fired?"...companies that pay commission are constantly bombarding you with pressure and manipulation. Straight up terror tactics and brainwashing. It is the most soul crushing job out there. Service industry have it very easy compared to sales. You need an extremely confident and stoic heart to be able to come through a high pressure sales job without any sort of hatred for the average customer.
Local GW would have tons of unique character models new in the box on the shelf, but would refuse to sell them and insist I order them this his store computer for delivery and pick up one to two weeks later. Never went back, my FLGS has since gotten all of my business and played many happy tournaments
What killed the fun of going to a games workshop store for me, was the change in tactics basically. So for years we were allowed to hang out, just vibe in the store, meet mates and play pick up games, the usual, everything was great. But new manager rolls in, and with them comes a new policy and this new policy was basically no hanging out with your mates, no pick up games. Everything (building / painting to games) had to be booked in advance, for a set time slot and after that, you’re done and you can jog on and honestly that killed the community we had for the most part, because half the fun of goin on the weekends was seeing all your friends, but they stopped coming too because of the ground rules changes. Obviously they have their reasons for changing the way things were done but to my younger self, that absolutely sucked and I haven’t gone into a store since.
I'm very glad my most recent interactions with GW managers have been really chill the manager at an Indianapolis location literally told me "you don't need to waste your money on brand name shit as a beginner. Just go to lowes or another hobby shop. But I can still help you find similar paint colors, minis, and whatever else."
I've experienced the same sort of stuff myself such as pushy managers preying on new hobbyists and trying to push me to buy crap I never wanted etc. etc. I barely ever go in a GW store anymore for this reason. They are going to loose customers if they carry on like this. Also, well done! You were the bigger person in this and you got the last laugh! I would not have been able to keep my cool as well as you! You, sir, are a legend!
I have a funny "power trip" experience with my nearby GW workers. I was enjoying an incredibly tense game with my friends at their Games workshop, and it came to my turn. I declared my shooting with my redemptor dreadnought against my friends guardsmen, or drukhari (i cant remember which). I was about 13 at the time and way too exciteable about it all, so you can only imagine how my face dropped when an employee said "you cant do that". He claimed that my redemptor dreadnought couldnt shoot its arm weapon because that half of the model was in cover. So, to spite him, i swapped the models arms around and said, "now he can see!", to which he said "thats altering your models mid- game" and proceeded to call an orbital bombardment on my dread, dealing 3 mortal wounds. Somehow this was store policy. Not sure thats how running a GW should be done.
I had the opposite happen when I got back into warhammer. When the manager was scanning my items through he said "hey man just letting you know, this is $*** is that ok?" Which I appreciated but did know how much it was
I've heard that GW rates the efficacy of their stores purely on the sales of whatever starter box is current - putting an unfair pressure on their store managers to sell those boxes in preference over everything else. Don't know if it's true - but it would go a long way to explaining a lot of GW employee behaviour if it is... Not that I'm excusing it!
Ah, this interaction took place during my tenure with the White Tower. The pressure to hit KPIs on Beginner boxes and beginner paint sets was insane which explains a lot of this guys actions, especially for single employee stores. I was taught "Everything if your fault" - if you fail, its your fault, if you succeed, its your fault. No idea what the stores are like now, but during 5th into 6th, it was a hellscape.
As a contrast to all of these crazy stories, I have a good one about my local game store: I was a poor college student who loved the lore and style of 40k, having played Dawn of War as a kid. I also had access to a 3d printer. Upon going to one of their tournaments, I asked the owner if it was alright that I use 3d print models as an army. He seemed reluctant, but agreed to let me play in tournaments, so long as the models looked like the unit they represented. As another criteria, he asked that I try to transition to actual models overtime. I agreed wholeheartedly, and played four of my first tournaments with 3d printed space marines. However, after getting a more stable job, I began buying actual models from the store. It’s now been a year, and because of the generosity of that store owner, I now have a year of memories with 40k, and a painted army of Dark Angels that are majority purchased models. Had I dealt with a GW manager, I would have had to wait a lot longer and my interest might have waned before I got more involved in the hobby.
There was definitely a company-wide shift in how things were run when this era of GW happened. I was an employee at GW in the early 2000s, and this style of selling was frowned upon, as it directly went against one of the Commandments of "establish a rapport with your customers" by getting to know what it is they actually want or need and finding the best product based on that information. The hard sell rarely works and turns off customers from coming back, as they understood repeated custom is what kept them going. Events would be run weekly, the store was bustling every weekend with young teens, the upstairs gaming room used every Tuesday night by the older players. Then the corporate greed amplified, prices got jacked sky high, staffing was cut to skeleton crew levels, events are a bare minimum, if any, and nowadays my local GW is constantly empty. Sometimes you don't even see the staff member (singular) unless someone else is already in the shop.
That is the first video I have watched of you and as someone who played local fantasy 6ed tournaments in my town, it is sad to see that a GW kinda destroyed your expirience of playing the game. I am aware that it was mostly the specific employee but it seems part of the bigger picture of squeezing every dollaroo of paying customers to finance some KPI. I am glad you found a solution and hope everyone learns something from your expirience. Cheers mate good vid
The closest story I have to that is a second edition tournament where my two friends and I had to teach the organizer how to play the game. Wargear cards, Warp deck and everything.
I remember back around the turn of the century, I went to the one local GW store here in Denmark to pickup some white spray primer for my Beastmen army. Of course the guy at the counter (think he was British) asks me what army I am painting and as soon as he hears I'm painting Beastmen, he insists that I purchase this special brown primer instead. The situation escalates to the point where I am surrounded by four GW employees employing pressure tactics. I didn't budge and I never returned to that store gain.
This could be a movie, I can already see the scene where the manager brings a anti-guard list, only to realise it won’t work because he didn’t buy any tanks
I applied to work at a GW store once. The interview mainly consisted of do you feel comfortable making and are you able to make pressure sales and pressure upsales. There was very little to do with knowing the IP and games (i played most 40k factions in various army sizes and a lot of fantasy too) and didn't get the job. When i asked for feedback on my interview it was basically that I described the experience I would want not how GW wanted me to shop. The thing you said about kids at their birthday too rang true to me as well. I saved for months to buy the new chaos army when it was released and it was like a £400 army but i couldn't go on day of release but my parents were nearby so i gave them a list and they were going to get them for me. Every set that could be bought as single models (especially bikes and obliterators) were switched out for the individuals they got talked into buying the packs of 3 imperial marines and 2 imperial terminator squads. It cost so much that they ended up spending all of the money I'd given them to buy the models so I didnt have money to buy the paints i needed. They basically tricked my parents into buying things i didn't want or need or sold the more expensive variant because they didnt know exactly what boxes it was I wanted. It kind of doesnt work to have imperial bikes in my chaos armies.
Every player is a long term investment for a store, no point squeezing £150 out of a player and they never come back vs them dropping like £400 in a year because they felt welcome.
That guy should never be allowed to manage a store like that! It's ridiculous and deserves to be fired on the spot for doing such mean tactics to those poor customers! >:( I'm so glad that you not only survived those horrible days, but you even had the last laugh at his expense! Well played and cheers to you on that one, Mordian Glory! Huzzah! \(^.^)/
Wow. This was a trip. I was internally cringing a little, as one of the blueshirts in Warrington was called Dave (when it was still down near the market). *THAT* Dave was absolutely the opposite of what you described. Absolute legend, really friendly and helped me out no end. As soon as you mentioned it was Dark Vengeance - I breathed a massive sigh of relief, it was a good 6 or 7 years after that time! 😮
I wish I had a local independent game store. It feels so awkward in the GW store when they try and get me to buy things and the whole "non-GW things are Taboo"
Ya I hear you. I use to play a table top game called Mage Knight. they were cheaper and sure they were random in the box you never know what you would get but it was fun ! I always lost in warhammer 40 k ( always had fun though ! iv only won 1 game ) but with my Black Powder Rebel army id just destroy people. The ranged seemed to OP so id pick some melee to even it out.
@@savagex466-qt1io Black Powder rebel like 1861 confederate? Because the black powder wargame is the goat unfortunately underated, kinda hard to find opponent for my various armies such as 7years war Prussian or Crimean war finnish-russians
Ugh. That rulebook story made me wince, because my own manager used to try to bully people with that one. I worked in GW Oxford in 2005-06. Obviously, I'm biased, but still. Here's my non-exhaustive list about this hellbaby: - Did the very same pushy tactics referenced here - Had a go at us for not pushing as hard - Was a bit racist and a lot misogynistic - Admitted he was a control freak but did nothing to address it, as if admitting it made it okay - Deducted bathroom breaks from your lunchtime - Cheated against HIS OWN DAUGHTER to win - Claimed that there was no excuse for a rainy February Tuesday to not be as busy as the week before Christmas - Committed 179 counts of gross misconduct as listed in the handbook over one 5-day period when my colleague Craig and I monitored it, whilst always claiming he'd sack us on the spot for gross misconduct - Every time you booked a holiday, he gave you a lecture about how you should always want to be in the store - He gave himself time off at Christmas whilst telling us that it was offensive to him that we would even ask - He said I was a danger to children when he found out I was LGBT (despite the fact he himself regularly perved on young women passing by). Luckily I was planning to leave two months later to start my MA anyway! We used to be encouraged to increase the size of the average sale, which might well explain, though not excuse in any way, his behaviour. It's petty, but every time I encounter one of these types I put an item down for every upsell they attempt.
Though I still have yet to play any tabletop game, I frequent hobby stores regularly since I love to paint (in fact, getting into painting minis helped me retrain my fine motor skills after a serious head injury, AND introduced me to the idea of designing minis for others). I've had the occasional sense of being less than welcome in a store, but thankfully it's not been the norm! Quite the contrary! One of my 'FLGSs' has one guy that gives me a weird 'why are you even in here?' look every time I come in to browse, but our local Warhammer store is super welcoming. Managed to get me actually interested in the setting instead of just looking for something cool to paint up. Such that I've started to think 'does this model team up with my other models if I decide I want to play?' just as often as 'this character looks like an interesting project'. And now I have three very small yet respectable 40k forces :) I can confidently say that if my experience had instead been someone like Dave, I'd have been spooked right out of the setting and wouldn't have bought even a single model or paint there. I work in retail myself, and KPIs be damned -- I'll take a dozen $10 happy regulars over a one-time-visit big sale any day of the week. Now if only I could use my Sphiranx in a 40k Daemons force! It was my first Warhammer model and remains my favourite so far :D
Hello 07, I never had a great experience in a hobby shop as of yet but to be fair I have only really ever gone to two. I unfortunately never really had the excess cash to really dig my teeth into the model/painting side of this wonderful hobby. I do remember trying to pick it up a few times. I remember my first attempt which was probably 15 or more years ago, getting just a starter set from a local gaming store. I open it up and didn't have a clue how to put the models together and the scene was too small to really get any help from anyone in the store. My next attempt was maybe about 4ish years ago when Sigmar was still pretty new. I remember hearing about the guards order system and fell in love with the idea of having massive lines of infantry and giving them orders to “First rank fire, Second rank fire' and seeing "for me at the time" the new Valkyrie flyer. I had daydreams of dropping guard onto objectives before strafing my enemies. However, money being an issue those dreams dies when I saw the price. I have always been into fantasy so I wanted to try Sigmar and got Stormcast. Unfortunately, even though I now lived in a state with a Games Workshop store it was a pretty lonely experience. I would pack up my stuff to go and try to get some painting done while hoping to catch a game but it just never materialized for me. After selling me the box of Sigmar stuff I felt pretty ignored by the manager. I will give him immense credit for helping me to understand how to build and paint my models. Unfortunately I had to sell my miniatures when money got tight. I guess if I was ever to give it another go, I would buy Demons as I could probably play both games for one price.
I haven't finished the video I'm about halfway through but hearing and reading stories like this always makes me appreciate my local gamestore owner/managers/employees. About 8 months ago when I decided after years of consuming warhammer content I'd put together an army I had a choice between local games store and gw store I decided to go to the gamestore first and haven't looked back since between staff that will leave the counter to compare item prices and a nice 10% discount non paint gw items it makes for a great environment.
Absolutely loving this series, I am so here for all the drama! That revenge story is perfect as well, I was thinking of exactly that from about half-way through. Just my sort of petty . . .
The city where I was staying during my uni days had a GW shop and 2 LGS. The people at the GW shop where incredibly chill (they actually ran a LGS in the site that became the GW store, bringing their clientele with them). Even in the other GW stores I went to I’ve never had an experience like yours (last year I was in a foreign country for work and ai had some spare time so I checked the local GW store out… not only I was left alone but I went out of the store with a box of eldar scouts that I didn’t need because I felt bad about not buying anything!). Seems like it’s something that definitely varies from shop to shop
My closest GW store is run by Dave’s polar opposite. The guy is so passive about the whole thing it’s annoying. Like he barely will give you any information at all for fear of influencing your decision. I went in their to get my first AoS army and asked about some of the armies and he gave me nothing. Me: So what do these guys do? *points as sylvaneth* Him: well they attack stuff. Then I go there in preparation to get back into 40k after 14 years or so in preparation for 10th announcement and bring a friend who’s interested in the game. Me who’s only been fallowing the lore on and off for several years: So how do the grey knights play. Him: Well, their space marines. Seriously, I’ve never seen someone more reluctant to do his job and he owns the store. I can go to Home Depot and vaguely describe the things I need and the people their can tell me exactly where it is and give me options if there’s more than one of the thing but this guy can barely describe the the cliff notes of his products.
Your stories always resonate so much. Our local GW had a great Manager. That guy was basically our Kindergarten teacher, since he had to manage our crowd of hyper and unruly kids every Saturday. Still great acquaintances to this day, 20 years later. One of his subordinates however, not so much. She was always going for the predatory sales tactics and kicked me out of the store once. I played Warhammer fantasy and rolled the random spell that allowed me to transform into a dragon on my Breton lady. Naturally, I didn't have a Dragon model to go along with the spell and I refused to buy a 90$ dragon model on the off-chance that my 1/6 spell that cast on a 12+ on 2d6 turns me into a dragon. She didn't like that and kicked me to the curb, with a one-month suspension.
After AOS was released I mentioned that I was feeling put out because my Bretonnians weren't really in AOS, it was obvious they were now a dead army, my local GW manager pointed to the Stormcast and said there is your Bretonnians. I have never set foot in that store since.
Such a great story, GW's in the early 2000's love it or hate it were such amazing places. The Ottawa Ontario Bayshore store was the kind of store that could only be described as "Selling Creativity". We loved those guys, I was a dirt poor kid from the ghetto and they'd find real ways to get me buying. Like selling me damaged sprews for insanely cheap, or the odd handful of secondhand models. Twenty years later I still remember their names.
The Bayshore store was amazing. A gem amongst the myriad women clothing stores lol. The guys there were amazing. Have you been to the GW on Carling? The dude is a bit weird but he doesn’t push sales or anything sketch like that.
@@Saif-zf9vb Yeah I tried to buy The End and the Death but he tried to pitch the entire story line for Dune. I still like him more than that nasty woman who ran it for the last ten years.
I remember this happening back on the late 90s. My parents would take me there and I'd end up with random units for armies. Wonder if it was GW sales pressure techniques.
My mom and aunt travelled a city with a GW store when I was young, and Mom wanted to surprise me with a little gift. Store manager tried to sell her some Chaos stuff, but Mom didn't bite. She didn't know WHAT I was playing (Space Wolves) but she refused his suggestions by saying "My son's playing the light blue guys with the fur, not the black spikey guys".
This sparks memories, i remember moving away from the local gw to finding a lfgs, any lfgs, even if it was further away and more difficult to get to than the local gw for this exact reason, got out of 40k around 5th ed, got back in with a desire to paint mid 9th and have visited many gw stores in other towns and cities and had a significantly better experience with staff, never gone back to my local gw store though
This has happened in my local store. Lots of players I know don't go in for anything other than paint now. I've went in with the intention of buying stuff and walked out again because of the sales person on a number of occasions. Even brought my niece and nephew in once to look around (their dream scenario) and ofc hassled. The biggest issue I have with them is the lack awareness they seem to have when the person has no interest in speaking to them. The worst story I have from my local was actually my girlfriend she went in no idea what to buy me as a present the sales person asked her what I play she said he has orcs, the shop assistant proceeded to try and sell her the new necron stuff that came in that week (Oddly enough I actually do have necrons as well but ofc the shop assistant had zero clue about that, I have fantasy orcs and 40k Orks almost any orc box would have been good they tried to flog her something totally unrelated to the only thing she knew I'd want.)
Ah man this reminds me of a similar experience back in 2004 at a GW in Bristol. The hard sell was real. Recently got back into the hobby with my nids. Hyped for 10th!
hahaha! This story is awesome! Dave is so fkn petty its hilarious! Crazy story, that was fun. I'm sipping my coffee rolling, and ironically ordering 40k stuff right now in the background! lol Cool story man! 😆
never went to a GW shop but this story makes me appreciate the guys at the store i go to. i was never super into the models but i loved the lore and the books, these guys would let me know how many books they were getting and when and i would come in get books and magazines they were the nicest dudes. never pushed me to buy more and would just be happy i bought most of there books hahaha. good people.
It must be something about the dark vengence era, had a manager try to make me buy a box set, file off all the icons on the dark angles so i could paint and run them as blood angels. Just remember looking at him like he was mad.
This was around the time I moved from Airfix to Games Workshop. Every time I went in I was bamboozled to spending all my pocket money on useless sh*t in the GW store, the manager often made me feel rejected because of my lack of money, to a young teen spending all of your money on a codex and rule book was a big investment. I hated going in there, all the smelly rude older nerds glaring you out of the shop was a horrible experience. Over the years I have collected multiple 1000pt~ armies from GW for painting purposes never really investing into the game outside of games at friends houses because of how poor the gaming environment and community is near me. As it stands my hobby focus eventually moved onto other models and paints and game systems for years before returning for 10th at the moment and building up my sisters army. I recently went into the same shop and the new store manager seems much more inviting, but I still hold that the GW shop near me (tiny, two tables and enough room for 3-4 people at once, should be closed down. Actual hobby stores that do not have agendas to push systems, models, terrible value tools/paints, and books and actually supporting young hobbyists and entry level hobbyists are repressed due to the popularity of GW, I have watched dozens(bit of an exaggeration) of good hobby shops in my area close while GW continues draining hobbyists pockets and putting them off. I do believe the models are now much better value than what they were from when my GW boycott started 10 years ago in fairness.
I just visited the Warhammer Cafe in Monrovia, CA and it was a pretty pleasant experience. It was on the Sunday before Memorial Day so they actually had a lot of traffic and I was surprised at how I got no hard sells. It probably had a little to do with how the holiday weekend meant they had extra foot traffic plus I probably came off as someone already familiar with everything. However I did notice an employee doing painting demos for these two guys and he was infodumping about the different factions and all the primarchs and their lore and it actually worked really well as a sales tactic with one friend finding the Necrons really cool and another really liking Angron and he successfully sold them the rule books, codices and combat patrols for both armies. Considering how many people find out and get into 40K because of the lore it was kinda neat seeing it be used that way in person. Also I actually managed to find a box of the Veterans of the Long War box set so yeah I was gonna buy that since I wanted to make CSM anyway. I mentioned to the guy at the register I was gonna do Iron Warriors and he suggested paints for the dark metallic look and brought them over and showed them to me and then actually went back and put them back on the shelf when I was expecting a hard sell. He made a few more suggestions like Solar Auxilia for cultists bc I mentioned the normal models didn’t fit the look I wanted and I found the whole encounter really productive and cool. So yeah good experiences so far, nice to see the culture has changed compared to the GW stores I remember as a teen
A mate of mine is a store manager, the local GW was a hub for likeminded enthusists for years until it wasn't. I brought it up with him one day and it was a executive decision from above to kill any sort of community, stop people "hanging out" instore and to focus on just selling product. Pretty sad when I think about it, the store use to be a buzz on weekends and now when i drive past it's empty.
This. I remember many years ago, playing “turn up” games in my local GW store against anyone was there. It was fun. I briefly did a small amount of 40k years ago and a friend recently started AOS, I was interested to see what the difference was, I wanted to watch a few games to get a feel for it. I was made to feel unwelcome unless I’m buying a new AOS army. A new army that I don’t even want.
Dude this makes me really thankful for the great GW shopkeeper that introduced me to this stuff when I was a kid. Very chill romanian dude, explained exactly how these models worked, and helped me paint my first space marine for free.
I know someone who bought loads of orks, chaos and dark angels during this time and didn’t even build them, they were still boxed. My mate bought his boxed razorback and predator for £40. He ended up selling the rest to me for £50, including Ravenwing bikers, Chaos Terminators and Jump Pack ones, Ork boyz and bikers. It definitely worked in my favour
Plus my local manager was great, I was going to buy a knight but he told me early about the Renegade box coming out which only cost me a bit more for another knight and some scenery
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
34:49 What, now you're drunk? You say how you're "pissed" which means drunk in the UK since at least the 1970s. I think Americans have copied it wrong from us for only a couple of decades, but you're not American, are you?
You've been to uni and you don't know what being pissed is?
38:52 Purposefully is the manner in which you do something, like you might walk over to a bar purposefully. The Me262 looks purposeful, like a shark, but you clearly meant deliberately or intentionally as we use them in the UK. There is also "purposely", but we don't use that since Victorian times as archaic, that's why we use deliberately and intentionally.
I can tell that you watch a lot of American content and don't read much in your own native language, which is a shame. I also don't want to now that about you, no one really does. What I got told at uni when a spell-checker tricked me into foreign was that I need o choose a dialect and stick to it. You can't stumble into and out of your native dialect, which is proper English and not a degenerated foreign dialect, or people will think that you don't know the difference, which is indeed the case here, that's why we have that.
I hope you did a practical or technical degree, for all our sakes.
This is truly the best comment I have ever had
mate it's english, if a word can't be used 5 different ways then is it even an english word?
"I also don't want to now that about you, no one really does."????? There's a phrase about glasshouses and stones that springs to mind.
Damn Dave came back didn't he
What's wrong with you? Lmao!
The manager broke before the Guard did o7
Oorah
XDXDXD
Rumour has it, Dave the predatory salesman still has the 6th edition rule book to one side waiting for MG to go and buy it.
It's gonna be in his coffin with him hahaha
@@hotcoldman9793 The day MG dies and tries to cross the river Styx, the boatman is gunna be David and his damn rule book.
yeah last i checked the one game store in the King of Prussia mall still has a 7th edition codex for sale
Sad part is Dave still being a predatory salesman part has high chance of being true, since GW loves this kind of people maning their stores.
Ya know I started in 6th edition but I still feel like 7th was where it was at!
When I was 12 or 13 I had a game mangager absolutely table me in my second (!) ever 40k game while laughing and pointing out how pathetic my list was. To this day one of the most horrible social interactions I have ever had.
this is why people never start the hobby/ leave the hobby
That's horrible, I remember starting MtG with grown ups normal peoples in their 20's, 30's and 40's when I was 12 and it was stressful by itself even if they were kind and patients.
dear lord, talk about a power trip. sorry to hear that man
I came here to share a similar story 😂 I started with Space Marines (as you do) in 3rd edition and only really got back into it at the end of 9th.
I still have no desire to do the tabletop due to that interaction but I do enjoy the painting side and lore
@@ecwfanatic I'v felt the same but after 20 years im getting back into the tabletop with some mature players and its great. what it should be.
we shouldn’t let aholes ruin it for us
The worst manager I ever had to deal with was back in 4th edition, my friends and I came to the shop to play 40k, the manager threatened to throw me and my friends out the shop because we were deciding amongst ourselves what game type to play instead of rolling a D6... When I showed him the part of the rulebook that said players could just pick a mission, he goes "you like being right, don't you?!" He was referred to as "Ponytail Man" up in Aberdeen and was pretty notorious for shit like that.
Holy shit, ginger with glasses and a bandana? This guys such a dick, always had some nice “banter” for me when I came into play. He’s the reason I’ve stopped playing Warhammer.
Oh god, if this is Aberdeen UK I may know who you're on about.
@@me4pie Yeah Aberdeen UK
@@DisturbedbyDeth I love that whoever this guy is, he's THAT well known in Aberdeen that strangers on the internet can come together and share distain for him just by his reputation.
Augh, that story about the families getting strongarmed into paying for stuff they couldn't afford is *heartbreaking*. Imagine your first experience with 40k being a pre-teen essentially getting scammed, and also your parents now remember it as "that game that nearly made me default on my mortgage" in the future.
My mum went to a GW to get me a surprise bday present and the sales guys ripped her off so badly I went back with the receipt and forced them to return every last box of shit
Damn that is sad. Good you went back man.
Yeah, had this with my Mum… anyone remember the GW paint gun (they couldn’t even call it an airbrush because it was so crap)? She had been told that it was necessary for ‘the Hobby’.
@@Ryotbh mateee, that gun was the worse thing from gw I ever bought 😢
I can't stand this stuff, taking advantage of poor parents who don't know any better. I get it. You're a store that's there to sell stuff. But upselling customers into shiat you KNOW they don't need is a scummy tactic that shouldn't be condoned.
Sales is all about charging people too much for shit they don't want.
Starter set that had 2 armies in the US was like 150?-200?
GW manager was super cool. Convinced them to both go in on the set. coworker and a new player went halvsies on the 2 army box and they both walked away with a better value on the buy PLUS exclusive units to that box.
THOSE are the GW managers I like. Like a store I go to the GW staff actively will shit on things GW does bad. Like the new 50$ sprew cutter, the employees were like "you're in God hand territory, i have no clue what they were thinking but Definitely just buy the army painter one because it's the same quality and 35$ less" and they are super helpful with people especially younger folks who's parents are buying it for them in getting them the absolute best bang for the price. I have assisted in a couple sales as just a guy hanging out. A guy bought his kid a nice starter pack of Orks and the dad was rocking a US army hat and was VERY interested in my guard and ended up buying himself a set of guard. I see them playing there now and again. Makes me happy new people are getting into it.
Man, I don't think I'd make for a good GW Employee. I just wouldn't be able to bring myself to recommend anyone buy those awful overpriced tools. I'd wince and feel guilty every time I saw someone bring them up to the counter not knowing they could get the same thing for way cheaper elsewhere. Like, I could recommend the paint since it's quality even if a tad expensive. I'd recommend the models, and explain what are good value kits, etc. But those tools are where I draw the line.
When I first wanted to get into 40k I knew pretty much nothing outside of a few space marine chapters that I thought were cool.
I went into the shop and started talking to the guy running the shop, saying how I don't know much but want to get into it. First thing he asked was "what army are you looking at?". I said I was looking at Blood Angels and he was super chuffed since he said that he played Blood Angels back in the day.
I left that day with the €40 starter set, because in his words "give this a shot and see if you like 40k", the best possible response to my questions while also feeling like a reasonable amount to spend as a 16 year old. He then told me about painting and all that, and handed me a box of AoS paint set because he didn't have any of the 40k ones and told me "that set has a black, silver and a red that close enough to Blood Angels". I know some people who are super specific with the shades you use because "that's not accurate to the lore" and it just makes the hobby intimidating. Made me feel, as a newbie, that this game had very set in stone rules, which obviously isn't really the case.
Being told "it's close enough" was reassuring.
Overall, best experience I feel I could have had as a new player. Now granted I haven't gone back to the hobby because I didn't (and still don't) know anyone who played the game. However, I've moved for college and there's a game shop in the city, so we'll see if anything changes.
Holy shit, that wakes memories. I used to spend a lot of time at my local GW back during my school days on weekends, and the manager really could make-or-break the store. We had this epic, cool guy that ran the place, who was the most funny guy. he did cool events (Gentlemans tourney were everyone had to come in suits and ties, tea was served and no cursing was allowed on the table), auctions and other cool shit. Place was bursting and everyone had a good time.
Then, new manager and the place just died over night. Power selling, all fun events were cancelled and staff was swapped out for outright hostile people. Never been there since, except one time when I was shopping in the city and checking for a Free company box. They didn't had none, but didn't stop the then manager from trying to sell me other imperium stuff, and the most amazing thing when I refused that, "Please order from our store, we get a percentage from that"
Yeah, sure I want to give in my private data into your shitty PC rather than order from home.
Store Manager Martin, you will be missed, GW Frankfurt was never the same without you
Bring back the Gentlemen's tourney!
Man reading that makes me miss how my local used to be. Now it's just a ghost town.. (manager & staff change)
The unfortunate truth may been that the "fun manager" was not making the sales the company needed... maybe even breaking even or working at a loss. They sent the new managers in with their new sales training to get sales up... or so they thought.
Interesting, i am very new to Warhammer and got shown the ropes how everything worked with assembling and painting minis by the store manager in Frankfurt, who seemed to be really nice and caring about the place and the people playing there. His name was Jonas. Maybe give it another chance?
Ist dieser Arschloch Manager immer noch da?
I used to work for GW. Everything you’ve described is exactly what we were forced to do. It’s one of the many reasons I hated working there.
You forgot to say '''.....but we didn't actually do it'''
Yeah Im like 50% through the video and outside of some awkwardness/childishness he just sounds like a sales clerk doing what hes told.
of course they did do it. They wanted to stay employed
@@DjapeKostic what are you, a worm?
@@greg_4201 no, an adult with basic comprehension of the real world.
The worst GW manager I ever encountered got fired not long after. The guy was showing up to work, but would sit in the back and open the store several hours late. I had to call the GW customer service number to complain. When he was forced to open the store which was an hour after it was sapposed to be open.
He was mean mugging me the whole time even though I was not the only one in the store. He was rude, smelled like booze, and bitched when I only bought some paint and a box I came to pick up from an online order.
The next time I went to that store, a diffrent guy was there. After talking to him, he told me he was from a store an hour away and would be there every day for the next month. As the previous manager was fired for not opening the store for 3 days and had apparently been living in the stock room for a month. The worst part was the guy had hidden pee jugs randndomly around the back room that had to cleaned up. Even though there was a working bathroom in the store.
-Do you have any pots of Flash Gitz Yellow?
-I've got jugs of Splash Piss Yellow in the back.
@whichDude Plot twist, it was not his urine. Just really old cum he saved in paint pots.
Are you f*cking kidding me ? lmfao . its funny but its not but what I laughed at was the Piss Jugs ! Why ? Because my old bosses room mate lived upstairs ! Would NEVER shower once. Had like black hands *no bs here bud ok* and when he kicked him out because he was threatning him and not useing the washroom EVER it took him a few months to figure it out ... same thing ! PISS JUGS ! There was a working bathroom downstairs ! Fu*king trailer park boys piss jugs ! messed up guy. Sorry you had a rough time. I know truckers piss in jugs because they have told me and iv seen them because i had the dishour of working in a dump yard up to my knees in Piss / Shitt and Period ! yess hunreds of dirty tampons / rats . I was comeing down of herione at the time thinking about my life and asking what 1 bad decision can screw your life. Im so glad im not in that dump no more. However we do need people to do that work .
Wait wait wait lol he peed into jugs even though there was a bathroom? Why would he do that?
@Min Tint The guy clearly had some problems. If he was an addict or had mental health issues. Your guess is as good as mine why he did it.
Shout out to Sam at Warhammer Birmingham, the guy is the chillest man I’ve met, sat with me for multiple sessions while I was figuring out my colour scheme and I almost bought nothing from the store, at that time I couldn’t afford to.
This is both tragic and hilarious.
I found out recently that the local flagship for GW has died, and from the last time I went in there I can't say I'm remotely surprised.
The last words I remember from their store manager was "we're not your hobby box", when the whole place used to be dedicated to lending the store set of tools in the store for new people to assemble and start their first kits.
Good on you for trolling that piece of shit.
I feel like gw managers during this edition were particularly predatory. This type of guy wasn’t uncommon
The current CEO and executives of Warhammer is a bunch of financial guy, who know nothing about boardgame nor miniature and are all about high sales and revenue instead. These guy will squiz out every penny out of the brand, then leaving with tons of money, a record of high sales and a bankrupt brand lossing all its mysteries and charm.
@@kyriakos232 IDK man i think that’s a very cynical way of looking at it, I’d be inclined to believe you if there wasn’t any quality to the models or products
@@crowtein677 sculptors improve to the quality of model, and market team making new model op each for half a year and NERF it to the ground. And gw homes more and more about selling you the newest trinkets: try buy some fw old model and buy a combat patrol, sometimes you can feel the difference. Not to forget that they write stories so hastily they make like 70 percent of the primarches and emperor-forgive me-clowns just so they can bring back Primarches and new factions, turning the background settings from a space opera into a family comedy about daddy issues.
@@crowtein677 I hope there will be a long way to go for Warhammer 40k, but yeah maybe it's me being cynical.
@@kyriakos232 in the end it’s a business, of course you’re gonna make the newest model OP to sell models no sense in getting mad about it tbh
Me: **Kicks in the door** I AM HERE TO PURCHASE EIGHT BLOODTHIRSTERS SHUT UP AND TAKE MY BLOOD MONEY
Store Owner: **Moan of pleasure** And Paints?
Me: BLOOD... but also I could go with a few more metallics?
Store Owner, to himself: _This man will feed my entire family_
Khornate meets Slaaneshi
I got visions of the gun store owner in Terminator:
"Whoa, I get to close up early."
I imagine the store owner like the cable company guys in that one South Park episode lmao
@@Sonof_DRN2004 If you knew mine, you'd be kinda correct. Mikey is good people though, just ignore the nipple twisting.
Same here
GW must have gone on a Dave hiring spree at that time because this sounds exactly like my experience when I thought of getting back into 40k during the dark vengeance era.
Indeed, my most active I was collecting miniatures was around the turn of the millennium. I used to dread going into GW, you’d be pounced on and treated really aggressively - this was in the Cambridge store.
I remember going in for a Mordheim warband and getting constantly snide comments about the game being dead and whether I wanted to buy a random 40k army. When me and my mates said we weren’t interested, the guy told us to just pick up what we wanted and leave.
No offence to any of the good GW Managers, but I’ve yet to meet you.
Sounds like corporate started a new high-pressure sales requirement/training. I’m relatively new to the hobby, started last year, and my local store is largely fine, I wouldn’t hang out there as it’s small for the expectation of the Warhammer stores, but the manager is cool.
He spent a while chatting with me about the novels and suggestions of what to read next. He didn’t pressure or anything, maybe it’s changed since that 6-7 edition time.
Sorry, this era and behaivour is America's fault... They opened a ton of GW stores in the US and started using US sales tactics, it never ends well you would think even the US business owners would figure out that is a failing business model...oh well. Dave either trained or was trained by by the East Coast US Sales manager for GW retail.
@@verigone2677 That's an odd conclusion.
@@verigone2677 I don't know if you know this but blaming America for everything is a stereotype lol.
You're describing my nightmare gw store manager. His name was Ben. He did every thing younhave described and even belittled players. Now the one thong that finally got him fired. Buying box sets with a discount then returning them for full price. He got caught 4 times before they finally sent a representative in and fired him in front of everyone during a store event it was so beautiful, and worth the 5+ years of watching him be so well an a hole.
Two of the biggest problems with GW stores, GW only products and sales quotas.
I understand that GW wants to make sales on GW product, after all it’s their store.
Problem is that a large part of supplementary sales that help a store keep afloat are impulse buy items, dice, paints, snacks and drinks and such.
Yes GW has dice and paints, but it’s good to have other products and games to supplement sales.
The other is the quotas, this causes desperation and thus hard sales tactics. “Gorilla” motivation management methods like this breed animosity of the worst sort, animosity toward the customers. This is bad public relations, no matter what the bottom line says.
Yeah, that's why I ignored my quotas when I worked in retail. Minimal add-on sales, only where it was relevant and appreciated. It actually inadvertently made me a better salesman because people would seek me out for sales because they knew I was genuine. Some didn't even want to spend anything, just chat with me, and I was happy with that.
Unfortunately I'm so old I remember when GW sold non-GW stuff. Their shops were THE places to go for any wargames and roleplay stuff. Most of the shops were genuinely quite large ( well, the ones I went in like Birmingham and Newcastle) GW shops were always packed. Then they dropped everything non-GW and they were ghost towns overnight
@@tommo9757 been to the Newcastle store lately lovely staff by my god it's like a cupboard size of store now
GW stores (at least where I live) exclusively sell GW product. A bag of dice and a pot of paint is still GW product.
FLGS don't have to follow the mantra of the "GW hobby.". The fascist crap from the party line is just stupid.
Lol store manager for my LGS name is Dave. It’s not an official GW store so he’s chill. Smokes weed behind the store and walks around in a silk robe.
@Zero Clutter Unlimited Eric Bowman?
@@andosan5995 Does he also have a gold cane?
Seriously this whole story with the whole very aggresive salesman behavior is the reason why I do not want to step in a Warhammer store unless necesary. The one that they have in London Tottemham Court Road is notorious for this to the point of cringe.... And I cannot stand it. The only reason why I would go is to get some small games for free because you do not need to pay for the tables and thats it. And even then you clearly have to scare off the store attendants a bit from harrasing you because you are just there trying to chill and play with the miniatures which you have already bought.
I’d rather spend 3 quid on a table for the whole day in a games emporium than a games workshop store.
The one where i live is great
As a 48 year old who has played a long time it riles the crap out of me when the manager goes into full sales mode and just won't pick up the hint. It's like being spoken too as a 8 year old. They seem to have throttled back a bit last few years but even at Warhammer world it was getting to the point where I would get approached by 3-4 sales staff going through the same patter on every visit. It always ended up awkward and me verging on telling them straight to leave me alone.
To be fair I remember those dark times. GW went HARD on the staff to hard sell, nightmare for the standard introvert nerf the hobby attracts
This is going to sound weird, but has it changed? I just avoid GW stores due to several bad experiences and buy everything online.
Depends entirely on the manager. All the stores I've been to either locally or while traveling around the US I've only come across super chill managers.
The one from my hometown has gotten a lot of support from the company, yet never has pushed a sale on anyone.
@@Ryotbh it totally depends on the person running the store the one near me is a single man store and he’s super nice and well answer any questions u have
Lol it's not hard to sell people shit they want. Their problem is selling shit people don't want.
Sales depends on getting as many small sales as possible. Give people as much of the stuff they want for the least profit reasonable.
I remember that time, now the GW store in town gets managed by a good lad that was once a common guy that always played around in store. The old manager now runs his own much better store where he can do what he wants, I remember how full & sick of that GW-sales shit he was
Worst GW manager I ever encountered fired his best employee because that employee sold me his old Catachan army. This GW was in a mall that had a movie theater and I walked in to kill some time while waiting for the midnight showing of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. I got to talking with this GW employee, can't remember his name so I'll just call him Todd as he looked like a Todd. He then asked me what army I played and I told him Catachan to which he off handily remarked that he had a Catachan army he was looking to off load. His manager came out and told us if I wasn't buying any thing then I had to leave. So we meet up at a comic shop to look over his army because I was interested in buy some of it, I ended up buying the whole lot, some 500 models for about 200$ U.S.
The next week I ran into him at that comic shop. He told me that his manager had heard about our private transaction and fired him for "taking away business from GW." No joke, he got fired for selling me his old army.
I really loved this story when I first brought it up on stream and you happily shared the experience to me and the viewers. And I’m finally glad it’s now a video for us to listen now! Thank you so much MG I salute to you! o7
Shout out to the Maidstone manager, one of the best dudes I have met running a GW store in 30 years.
Garys a great and very helpful guy
Listening to these stories makes me feel so grateful for my local GW. The manager of my local is genuinely the kindest dude I've met since moving to my city.
A store manager got me to buy a 6th edition rule book literally the week before 7th was released even though we asked specifically if he’d heard 7th was coming out soon.
Yeah sounds like the Canterbury manager. I had the same happen to me.
Honestly shit like that warrants a call to customer service. I mean seriously unless they’re selling it and you’re getting it for lore and art, and it’s clear that it won’t be current soon, no problem. Hiding that shit a week or two before a new edition is top tier scumbag behavior.
Happened to me but I bought my codex online 😂😂😂 almost took me out of the hobby but damn these ad mech models are so beautiful
@@CammieRacing The Canterbury store really is an interesting place.
I got put off GW when I was younger as I was looking at Warhammer models and the manager at the store I walked into told me to stop looking around if I wasnt going to buy anything. Id been there a few minutes. This store has since changed location and the manager there now is super chill, he'll ask what I'm after or if I need anything and he'll leave me alone if i just want to look around. I used to go to another store near me and the staff were pretty rude, even when I was actively trying to give them money for large game boxes. I never made any large purchases in that store, for some reason I dont want to give rude people my money, and the other store gets my money whenever I feel a need to buy something in store.
I also went to the GW in Edinburgh and the guy would not stop trying to push FW primarchs on me, even though I already have the one for the army I collect. I walked out not having bought anything.
Do you know what I would have done, I would have travelled to another store and bought the rule book. Then next time he asks if I have a rule book I answer "Why yes, I happened to be passing a different store, my loan has cleared and I remembered you were keen for me to have one, so here it is..."
Oh gee I should listen to an entire video before commenting lol
I feel like the first 45 minutes were just warm up for that troll in the last like two minutes... and I'm entirely ok with that. That was brilliant. Good on you guys for making that stunt
3d printers are fueled by the the tears of Dave and every other GW store employee that drank the kool aid.
I'm eternally grateful for the Store Manager who runs my local GW. genuinely one of the nicest most genuine people you will ever meet. Actually was the dude who got me into 8th edition. Friendly, helpful, has good banter and just and all round 100% dude.
Back in the mid/late 90s, I remember going into my local GW with a model that I'd spent an evening painting and was quite proud of, because I wasn't much of a model painter at all. I was looking for some advice on how to do it better and maybe some encouragement.
The manager's response was "Oh, I could have done that in about twenty minutes" and he just sort of blew me of. It felt like a really weird sort of gatekeeping...like "You're not good enough to be allowed into the painting side of the hobby so I'll just dismiss you."
As I was at Uni at the time I ended up drifting away from the hobby until partway through 5th edition where I happened to be going past the same store and wandered in just to see what sort of stuff was available and what had changed.
The whole atmosphere was completely different, the staff were genuinely friendly and helpful and answered my questions and pointed me towards the sorts of things I'd be best starting with to pick up the hobby again.
I didn't really get into the painting side of things until 8th Edition tho....so I have a mass of grey plastic...but those same staff have been so damn helpful and encouraging, its hard to think of it as the same store. I used to hate painting, but now thanks to them, at least in part, I really enjoy it. The store mantra seems to be "It's your hobby" and they're super happy to drop whatever they're doing to help someone out or show them how to paint something, or give suggestions on how to mod something.
This makes me so grateful for my local store manager being the chillest most supportive guy.
That story just hurt my soul. This was how i was trained and worked in GW (when the manager was looking) as soon as he looked away i would do my own, Hobby friendly and casual thing. It would always work better than the hard push. Glad i am out of that treadmill
So buying a single pot of paint lowers the stores daily average sale price. I had worked with managers with that sale style. Ruins the store, and I used to hate watching ppl walk out like you described.
When you described him piling models on with that high elf player, he also him doing the oh I have a rule book.
Managers used to have meet-ups, and they used "complain" about "problem customers" and also ideas on how deal with them.
They used to push staffers for up sales and it was super awkward with the role play activities they made us do.
I left a horrible manager and left the hobby at the end of assult on blqck reach. After dealing with managers bullying staff and customers, i haven't played 40k or gw games ever since.
They have a term for ex gw staff that lewve cause theynrefuse to conform "heritics"
Your video reminded me so much of my last gw manager so much I feel for you, man.
Also nice troll at the end of the story
I feel like you missed out in the ultimate troll move of infering you bought the box
Used to work for GW. Had one manager, Andy brought in as a sales superstar, very upsell focussed. If someone came in for a can of black undercoat and you didn't convince them to walk out with a new squad of marines Andy would be having a word with you later. He did everything you described and more.
Once he tried to cancel the booked and approved holiday of 3 of the staff the evening before we left because he'd decided to run a stock check that weekend. Told us that we'd all be put on report and fired if we didn't turn up but it was all okay because we could order a pizza.
None of us turned up of course. Neither did Andy. Reports went nowhere, the area manager was a friend of ours so quashed it. Andy rearanged the stock check to a few days later. We turned up for this one but Andy did not. He also tried to stiff us for the wages, for holiday pay and a few other things.
Andy did not last long after that.
I really enjoy these stories. Keep em coming
Glad you like em! Dont worry I will be doing more :)
Same here I love these so much
@@MordianGlory I don't know whether to be impressed that you've committed so much time to this hobby to have had more than one of these experiences or depressed that you have more to share after this: the 3rd installment.
I used to work for GW, I can't wait to hear this one 🤣.
Hopefully this one isnt about you
@@MordianGlory The worst part is, from what I remember of being a GW employee, this totally tracks. Sorry that happened, glad you stayed in the hobby though! Love the content, love the guard, and can't wait to hear more tournament tales 👍.
@@MordianGlory PS~ I worked at the Factoria Battle Bunker in Washington state in the US, back when they still had bunkers. It was supposed to be like a hub. My least favorite part was our regional manager, very similar to "Dave". Obviously GW is a UK company, all well and good, but he would say shit like "cheers" and "mate" non-stop like a college girl that did a summer abroad. Like come on man, you're a forty year old man that has lived in America your whole life, we know this isnt how you talk.
@@Clutterlicious You're not talking about Drew, are you? I don't remember him ever talking like that . . . .
@@Draichnyr we must not be talking about the same person. It was 20 years ago, maybe I'm getting folks mixed up. Literally every sentence ended with "cheers mate". I started at the shop with a guy who was actually British, then he was gone after like, a month, then all red shirts got axed, then got hired back, then I worked with Ryan for about 9 months before I became a security guard and eventually joined the Army.
Around 20 years ago, after my then-wife buggered off and shacked up with someone else, I rented a room to my local GW store manager. Learned a lot about how GW worked, became good friends with all the staff, who were frequently at my place, playing games and stuff on his PS1 (possibly the PS2 - it was a while ago). They were, to a man, a great bunch of guys. The manager took great care of his staff, and pushed them all to be the best they could be, encouraging them to rise up to management, or just generally helping them with career paths, both in and out of GW. Dude was in the army reserve, and was a bit rough around the edges, but his heart was in the right place.
The store really suffered when he was moved on to another Manager role, overseas.
One of the red shirts ended up being a great friend, and was my Best Man at my second wedding. Have lost touch with almost all these guys now, but that was a great comfort to me, during a dark period in my life.
I haven’t played any GW games for many years, but still play many other war- and board games.
I had just moved to helsinki when 5th edition was coming out. I had started playing in early 4th and decided to get a new army. I was from a very rural part of Finland and there was no one for me to play against so I had mostly been painting and collecting imperial guard with only a couple of games in a nearby bigger town. At helsinki I decided to buy a brand new marine army and ask GW store manager about where to find games. I did not get a clear answer to where and how I get to actually play. Instead he told me its really stupid to just collect and paint minis. I saw the table at the store and there were people playing, but it was a mystery to me how the games happen. After that, no one wanted to answer my questions so I just went home with my marines, painted them and packed them in a box and did not touch or keep up with 40k until 9th came out.
The hard sell is one of the big reasons I stayed out of GW stores for ages.
So, there were a few Warhammer stores in my area, but there was one that had a particularly cantankerous manager. He had originally worked under a decent manager at another store, but then they all went to single employee operations, so he got moved to another store. Well, I moved to an apartment not far from his new location, and it was conveniently on the way home from work, so I was like "Great! I can get my games on the way home from work." What a mistake that was. See, we already knew each other, and I knew he was a bit of a dick, but I just wanted to do my hobby. We had a few unpleasant interactions, but the real poisoning of the well happened when the 8th Edition Wood Elf Army Book was released.
Now, I had pre-ordered this book, in the store, so he already had my money. When I pick up my book, the one he hands me has damaged corners. Now, I don't know about you, but when I pay for a brand new book, I want a brand new book, so I point this out to him, and he asks me to bring it back next week because he "really needs to make numbers this week." So I'm like "Okay" and bugger off.
Come the next week, I return, book in hand, still in the shrink wrap, and he gives me to usual unpleasant look "what do you need?" "Oh, I came to exchange this, cause you told me to come back now instead of exchanging it last week." I shit you not, he rolls his eyes and, word for word, "Ugh, are you still crying about that?" I am taken aback, but I insist on the exchange, he begrudgingly does it, but I am still soured by the experience. I never go to that store again. In fact, I actually drive extra distances to go to other Warhammer Stores to buy my stuff, specifically to not give my business to that Warhammer Store, and my business is not insignificant. As far as I know, he's still working there, and still ruining the hobby for everyone who walks through that door.
For those who want to know, it's the Warhammer Store at Kent Station, in Kent, Washington, and the store manager was Jared. Don't be rude to your customers.
I feel a lot of sympathy for Dave. If you have an anxiety problem and find yourself working high pressure commissioned sales, you can very easily fall prey to hating the customer who doesn't help you meet your quotas. Every failed conversion (turning a visit into an arbitrarily large sale) is a strike against your job. You are constantly feeling pressure to be more and more like a shark. Every single person is just innocently visiting your store...but in your head, it very quickly becomes "this motherfucker is going to cost me my job AND my next few hours. Fuck him for coming in and not buying. Doesn't he know i will get fired?"...companies that pay commission are constantly bombarding you with pressure and manipulation. Straight up terror tactics and brainwashing. It is the most soul crushing job out there. Service industry have it very easy compared to sales. You need an extremely confident and stoic heart to be able to come through a high pressure sales job without any sort of hatred for the average customer.
Local GW would have tons of unique character models new in the box on the shelf, but would refuse to sell them and insist I order them this his store computer for delivery and pick up one to two weeks later. Never went back, my FLGS has since gotten all of my business and played many happy tournaments
45:34 😂 I love your brother’s energy, that’s fantastic.
What killed the fun of going to a games workshop store for me, was the change in tactics basically.
So for years we were allowed to hang out, just vibe in the store, meet mates and play pick up games, the usual, everything was great.
But new manager rolls in, and with them comes a new policy and this new policy was basically no hanging out with your mates, no pick up games. Everything (building / painting to games) had to be booked in advance, for a set time slot and after that, you’re done and you can jog on and honestly that killed the community we had for the most part, because half the fun of goin on the weekends was seeing all your friends, but they stopped coming too because of the ground rules changes.
Obviously they have their reasons for changing the way things were done but to my younger self, that absolutely sucked and I haven’t gone into a store since.
I'm very glad my most recent interactions with GW managers have been really chill
the manager at an Indianapolis location literally told me "you don't need to waste your money on brand name shit as a beginner. Just go to lowes or another hobby shop. But I can still help you find similar paint colors, minis, and whatever else."
I've experienced the same sort of stuff myself such as pushy managers preying on new hobbyists and trying to push me to buy crap I never wanted etc. etc. I barely ever go in a GW store anymore for this reason. They are going to loose customers if they carry on like this. Also, well done! You were the bigger person in this and you got the last laugh! I would not have been able to keep my cool as well as you! You, sir, are a legend!
I have a funny "power trip" experience with my nearby GW workers. I was enjoying an incredibly tense game with my friends at their Games workshop, and it came to my turn. I declared my shooting with my redemptor dreadnought against my friends guardsmen, or drukhari (i cant remember which). I was about 13 at the time and way too exciteable about it all, so you can only imagine how my face dropped when an employee said "you cant do that". He claimed that my redemptor dreadnought couldnt shoot its arm weapon because that half of the model was in cover. So, to spite him, i swapped the models arms around and said, "now he can see!", to which he said "thats altering your models mid- game" and proceeded to call an orbital bombardment on my dread, dealing 3 mortal wounds. Somehow this was store policy. Not sure thats how running a GW should be done.
I had the opposite happen when I got back into warhammer. When the manager was scanning my items through he said "hey man just letting you know, this is $*** is that ok?" Which I appreciated but did know how much it was
I've heard that GW rates the efficacy of their stores purely on the sales of whatever starter box is current - putting an unfair pressure on their store managers to sell those boxes in preference over everything else. Don't know if it's true - but it would go a long way to explaining a lot of GW employee behaviour if it is... Not that I'm excusing it!
Had a VERY similar owner of a MTG shop near my hometown. Coinicidentally his name was also Dave..
6'th edition...
Tales like this make me feel very lucky to not have encountered anyone like that in my wargaming journey
Ah, this interaction took place during my tenure with the White Tower. The pressure to hit KPIs on Beginner boxes and beginner paint sets was insane which explains a lot of this guys actions, especially for single employee stores.
I was taught "Everything if your fault" - if you fail, its your fault, if you succeed, its your fault. No idea what the stores are like now, but during 5th into 6th, it was a hellscape.
As a contrast to all of these crazy stories, I have a good one about my local game store:
I was a poor college student who loved the lore and style of 40k, having played Dawn of War as a kid. I also had access to a 3d printer.
Upon going to one of their tournaments, I asked the owner if it was alright that I use 3d print models as an army. He seemed reluctant, but agreed to let me play in tournaments, so long as the models looked like the unit they represented.
As another criteria, he asked that I try to transition to actual models overtime. I agreed wholeheartedly, and played four of my first tournaments with 3d printed space marines. However, after getting a more stable job, I began buying actual models from the store.
It’s now been a year, and because of the generosity of that store owner, I now have a year of memories with 40k, and a painted army of Dark Angels that are majority purchased models. Had I dealt with a GW manager, I would have had to wait a lot longer and my interest might have waned before I got more involved in the hobby.
This ending with the little trolling was brilliant, thank you for this story
My local GW a few years back had a guy so bad that after he got fired the next GW employee had to throw out his fleshlight.
There was definitely a company-wide shift in how things were run when this era of GW happened. I was an employee at GW in the early 2000s, and this style of selling was frowned upon, as it directly went against one of the Commandments of "establish a rapport with your customers" by getting to know what it is they actually want or need and finding the best product based on that information. The hard sell rarely works and turns off customers from coming back, as they understood repeated custom is what kept them going. Events would be run weekly, the store was bustling every weekend with young teens, the upstairs gaming room used every Tuesday night by the older players. Then the corporate greed amplified, prices got jacked sky high, staffing was cut to skeleton crew levels, events are a bare minimum, if any, and nowadays my local GW is constantly empty. Sometimes you don't even see the staff member (singular) unless someone else is already in the shop.
That is the first video I have watched of you and as someone who played local fantasy 6ed tournaments in my town, it is sad to see that a GW kinda destroyed your expirience of playing the game. I am aware that it was mostly the specific employee but it seems part of the bigger picture of squeezing every dollaroo of paying customers to finance some KPI. I am glad you found a solution and hope everyone learns something from your expirience. Cheers mate good vid
The closest story I have to that is a second edition tournament where my two friends and I had to teach the organizer how to play the game.
Wargear cards, Warp deck and everything.
I remember being told that this was how GW trained their staff on how to sell things, unless Dave just trained everyone at this time lol
I remember back around the turn of the century, I went to the one local GW store here in Denmark to pickup some white spray primer for my Beastmen army. Of course the guy at the counter (think he was British) asks me what army I am painting and as soon as he hears I'm painting Beastmen, he insists that I purchase this special brown primer instead. The situation escalates to the point where I am surrounded by four GW employees employing pressure tactics. I didn't budge and I never returned to that store gain.
This series is perfect to listen to while assembling and painting my guard models.
You handled that better than I probably would have and I'm a 34y/o psych nurse 😂 good show mate
This could be a movie, I can already see the scene where the manager brings a anti-guard list, only to realise it won’t work because he didn’t buy any tanks
I applied to work at a GW store once. The interview mainly consisted of do you feel comfortable making and are you able to make pressure sales and pressure upsales. There was very little to do with knowing the IP and games (i played most 40k factions in various army sizes and a lot of fantasy too) and didn't get the job. When i asked for feedback on my interview it was basically that I described the experience I would want not how GW wanted me to shop.
The thing you said about kids at their birthday too rang true to me as well. I saved for months to buy the new chaos army when it was released and it was like a £400 army but i couldn't go on day of release but my parents were nearby so i gave them a list and they were going to get them for me. Every set that could be bought as single models (especially bikes and obliterators) were switched out for the individuals they got talked into buying the packs of 3 imperial marines and 2 imperial terminator squads. It cost so much that they ended up spending all of the money I'd given them to buy the models so I didnt have money to buy the paints i needed. They basically tricked my parents into buying things i didn't want or need or sold the more expensive variant because they didnt know exactly what boxes it was I wanted. It kind of doesnt work to have imperial bikes in my chaos armies.
This story makes me so happy my local Gw store manager is super chill and actually tries to save people money
Every player is a long term investment for a store, no point squeezing £150 out of a player and they never come back vs them dropping like £400 in a year because they felt welcome.
That guy should never be allowed to manage a store like that! It's ridiculous and deserves to be fired on the spot for doing such mean tactics to those poor customers! >:(
I'm so glad that you not only survived those horrible days, but you even had the last laugh at his expense! Well played and cheers to you on that one, Mordian Glory!
Huzzah! \(^.^)/
The Warhammer store in New York City is hands down THE WORST experience I've ever had in a hobby shop.
Wow. This was a trip.
I was internally cringing a little, as one of the blueshirts in Warrington was called Dave (when it was still down near the market).
*THAT* Dave was absolutely the opposite of what you described. Absolute legend, really friendly and helped me out no end.
As soon as you mentioned it was Dark Vengeance - I breathed a massive sigh of relief, it was a good 6 or 7 years after that time! 😮
I wish I had a local independent game store. It feels so awkward in the GW store when they try and get me to buy things and the whole "non-GW things are Taboo"
Ya I hear you. I use to play a table top game called Mage Knight. they were cheaper and sure they were random in the box you never know what you would get but it was fun ! I always lost in warhammer 40 k ( always had fun though ! iv only won 1 game ) but with my Black Powder Rebel army id just destroy people. The ranged seemed to OP so id pick some melee to even it out.
@@savagex466-qt1io Black Powder rebel like 1861 confederate? Because the black powder wargame is the goat unfortunately underated, kinda hard to find opponent for my various armies such as 7years war Prussian or Crimean war finnish-russians
Ugh. That rulebook story made me wince, because my own manager used to try to bully people with that one. I worked in GW Oxford in 2005-06. Obviously, I'm biased, but still. Here's my non-exhaustive list about this hellbaby:
- Did the very same pushy tactics referenced here
- Had a go at us for not pushing as hard
- Was a bit racist and a lot misogynistic
- Admitted he was a control freak but did nothing to address it, as if admitting it made it okay
- Deducted bathroom breaks from your lunchtime
- Cheated against HIS OWN DAUGHTER to win
- Claimed that there was no excuse for a rainy February Tuesday to not be as busy as the week before Christmas
- Committed 179 counts of gross misconduct as listed in the handbook over one 5-day period when my colleague Craig and I monitored it, whilst always claiming he'd sack us on the spot for gross misconduct
- Every time you booked a holiday, he gave you a lecture about how you should always want to be in the store
- He gave himself time off at Christmas whilst telling us that it was offensive to him that we would even ask
- He said I was a danger to children when he found out I was LGBT (despite the fact he himself regularly perved on young women passing by). Luckily I was planning to leave two months later to start my MA anyway!
We used to be encouraged to increase the size of the average sale, which might well explain, though not excuse in any way, his behaviour.
It's petty, but every time I encounter one of these types I put an item down for every upsell they attempt.
Did Dave train Liz my local GW manager? This all sounds so familiar and let's not talk about rudeness to veteran players.
Though I still have yet to play any tabletop game, I frequent hobby stores regularly since I love to paint (in fact, getting into painting minis helped me retrain my fine motor skills after a serious head injury, AND introduced me to the idea of designing minis for others). I've had the occasional sense of being less than welcome in a store, but thankfully it's not been the norm! Quite the contrary!
One of my 'FLGSs' has one guy that gives me a weird 'why are you even in here?' look every time I come in to browse, but our local Warhammer store is super welcoming. Managed to get me actually interested in the setting instead of just looking for something cool to paint up. Such that I've started to think 'does this model team up with my other models if I decide I want to play?' just as often as 'this character looks like an interesting project'. And now I have three very small yet respectable 40k forces :) I can confidently say that if my experience had instead been someone like Dave, I'd have been spooked right out of the setting and wouldn't have bought even a single model or paint there. I work in retail myself, and KPIs be damned -- I'll take a dozen $10 happy regulars over a one-time-visit big sale any day of the week.
Now if only I could use my Sphiranx in a 40k Daemons force! It was my first Warhammer model and remains my favourite so far :D
Hello 07, I never had a great experience in a hobby shop as of yet but to be fair I have only really ever gone to two. I unfortunately never really had the excess cash to really dig my teeth into the model/painting side of this wonderful hobby. I do remember trying to pick it up a few times.
I remember my first attempt which was probably 15 or more years ago, getting just a starter set from a local gaming store. I open it up and didn't have a clue how to put the models together and the scene was too small to really get any help from anyone in the store.
My next attempt was maybe about 4ish years ago when Sigmar was still pretty new. I remember hearing about the guards order system and fell in love with the idea of having massive lines of infantry and giving them orders to “First rank fire, Second rank fire' and seeing "for me at the time" the new Valkyrie flyer.
I had daydreams of dropping guard onto objectives before strafing my enemies. However, money being an issue those dreams dies when I saw the price. I have always been into fantasy so I wanted to try Sigmar and got Stormcast.
Unfortunately, even though I now lived in a state with a Games Workshop store it was a pretty lonely experience. I would pack up my stuff to go and try to get some painting done while hoping to catch a game but it just never materialized for me.
After selling me the box of Sigmar stuff I felt pretty ignored by the manager. I will give him immense credit for helping me to understand how to build and paint my models. Unfortunately I had to sell my miniatures when money got tight. I guess if I was ever to give it another go, I would buy Demons as I could probably play both games for one price.
I haven't finished the video I'm about halfway through but hearing and reading stories like this always makes me appreciate my local gamestore owner/managers/employees. About 8 months ago when I decided after years of consuming warhammer content I'd put together an army I had a choice between local games store and gw store I decided to go to the gamestore first and haven't looked back since between staff that will leave the counter to compare item prices and a nice 10% discount non paint gw items it makes for a great environment.
Absolutely loving this series, I am so here for all the drama! That revenge story is perfect as well, I was thinking of exactly that from about half-way through. Just my sort of petty . . .
Yeah I was thinking the exact same thing I would have gone to another shop out of spite. I’m glad he did that and made the guy look even more foolish
The city where I was staying during my uni days had a GW shop and 2 LGS. The people at the GW shop where incredibly chill (they actually ran a LGS in the site that became the GW store, bringing their clientele with them). Even in the other GW stores I went to I’ve never had an experience like yours (last year I was in a foreign country for work and ai had some spare time so I checked the local GW store out… not only I was left alone but I went out of the store with a box of eldar scouts that I didn’t need because I felt bad about not buying anything!). Seems like it’s something that definitely varies from shop to shop
My closest GW store is run by Dave’s polar opposite. The guy is so passive about the whole thing it’s annoying. Like he barely will give you any information at all for fear of influencing your decision. I went in their to get my first AoS army and asked about some of the armies and he gave me nothing.
Me: So what do these guys do? *points as sylvaneth*
Him: well they attack stuff.
Then I go there in preparation to get back into 40k after 14 years or so in preparation for 10th announcement and bring a friend who’s interested in the game.
Me who’s only been fallowing the lore on and off for several years: So how do the grey knights play.
Him: Well, their space marines.
Seriously, I’ve never seen someone more reluctant to do his job and he owns the store. I can go to Home Depot and vaguely describe the things I need and the people their can tell me exactly where it is and give me options if there’s more than one of the thing but this guy can barely describe the the cliff notes of his products.
Your stories always resonate so much.
Our local GW had a great Manager. That guy was basically our Kindergarten teacher, since he had to manage our crowd of hyper and unruly kids every Saturday. Still great acquaintances to this day, 20 years later.
One of his subordinates however, not so much. She was always going for the predatory sales tactics and kicked me out of the store once. I played Warhammer fantasy and rolled the random spell that allowed me to transform into a dragon on my Breton lady. Naturally, I didn't have a Dragon model to go along with the spell and I refused to buy a 90$ dragon model on the off-chance that my 1/6 spell that cast on a 12+ on 2d6 turns me into a dragon.
She didn't like that and kicked me to the curb, with a one-month suspension.
After AOS was released I mentioned that I was feeling put out because my Bretonnians weren't really in AOS, it was obvious they were now a dead army, my local GW manager pointed to the Stormcast and said there is your Bretonnians. I have never set foot in that store since.
That happened
Such a great story, GW's in the early 2000's love it or hate it were such amazing places. The Ottawa Ontario Bayshore store was the kind of store that could only be described as "Selling Creativity". We loved those guys, I was a dirt poor kid from the ghetto and they'd find real ways to get me buying. Like selling me damaged sprews for insanely cheap, or the odd handful of secondhand models. Twenty years later I still remember their names.
The Bayshore store was amazing. A gem amongst the myriad women clothing stores lol. The guys there were amazing. Have you been to the GW on Carling? The dude is a bit weird but he doesn’t push sales or anything sketch like that.
@@Saif-zf9vb Yeah I tried to buy The End and the Death but he tried to pitch the entire story line for Dune. I still like him more than that nasty woman who ran it for the last ten years.
I remember this happening back on the late 90s. My parents would take me there and I'd end up with random units for armies. Wonder if it was GW sales pressure techniques.
My mom and aunt travelled a city with a GW store when I was young, and Mom wanted to surprise me with a little gift. Store manager tried to sell her some Chaos stuff, but Mom didn't bite.
She didn't know WHAT I was playing (Space Wolves) but she refused his suggestions by saying "My son's playing the light blue guys with the fur, not the black spikey guys".
This sparks memories, i remember moving away from the local gw to finding a lfgs, any lfgs, even if it was further away and more difficult to get to than the local gw for this exact reason, got out of 40k around 5th ed, got back in with a desire to paint mid 9th and have visited many gw stores in other towns and cities and had a significantly better experience with staff, never gone back to my local gw store though
The manager in Bristol made me so uncomfortable just after lock down over multiple visits that i dont feel comfortable going to gw stores anymore
I had a gw manager put a 700 dollar box set aside for me without asking just because I played the army
This has happened in my local store. Lots of players I know don't go in for anything other than paint now. I've went in with the intention of buying stuff and walked out again because of the sales person on a number of occasions. Even brought my niece and nephew in once to look around (their dream scenario) and ofc hassled. The biggest issue I have with them is the lack awareness they seem to have when the person has no interest in speaking to them. The worst story I have from my local was actually my girlfriend she went in no idea what to buy me as a present the sales person asked her what I play she said he has orcs, the shop assistant proceeded to try and sell her the new necron stuff that came in that week (Oddly enough I actually do have necrons as well but ofc the shop assistant had zero clue about that, I have fantasy orcs and 40k Orks almost any orc box would have been good they tried to flog her something totally unrelated to the only thing she knew I'd want.)
Ah man this reminds me of a similar experience back in 2004 at a GW in Bristol. The hard sell was real. Recently got back into the hobby with my nids. Hyped for 10th!
hahaha! This story is awesome! Dave is so fkn petty its hilarious! Crazy story, that was fun. I'm sipping my coffee rolling, and ironically ordering 40k stuff right now in the background! lol Cool story man! 😆
never went to a GW shop but this story makes me appreciate the guys at the store i go to. i was never super into the models but i loved the lore and the books, these guys would let me know how many books they were getting and when and i would come in get books and magazines they were the nicest dudes. never pushed me to buy more and would just be happy i bought most of there books hahaha. good people.
It must be something about the dark vengence era, had a manager try to make me buy a box set, file off all the icons on the dark angles so i could paint and run them as blood angels.
Just remember looking at him like he was mad.
This was around the time I moved from Airfix to Games Workshop. Every time I went in I was bamboozled to spending all my pocket money on useless sh*t in the GW store, the manager often made me feel rejected because of my lack of money, to a young teen spending all of your money on a codex and rule book was a big investment. I hated going in there, all the smelly rude older nerds glaring you out of the shop was a horrible experience. Over the years I have collected multiple 1000pt~ armies from GW for painting purposes never really investing into the game outside of games at friends houses because of how poor the gaming environment and community is near me. As it stands my hobby focus eventually moved onto other models and paints and game systems for years before returning for 10th at the moment and building up my sisters army. I recently went into the same shop and the new store manager seems much more inviting, but I still hold that the GW shop near me (tiny, two tables and enough room for 3-4 people at once, should be closed down. Actual hobby stores that do not have agendas to push systems, models, terrible value tools/paints, and books and actually supporting young hobbyists and entry level hobbyists are repressed due to the popularity of GW, I have watched dozens(bit of an exaggeration) of good hobby shops in my area close while GW continues draining hobbyists pockets and putting them off.
I do believe the models are now much better value than what they were from when my GW boycott started 10 years ago in fairness.
I just visited the Warhammer Cafe in Monrovia, CA and it was a pretty pleasant experience. It was on the Sunday before Memorial Day so they actually had a lot of traffic and I was surprised at how I got no hard sells. It probably had a little to do with how the holiday weekend meant they had extra foot traffic plus I probably came off as someone already familiar with everything. However I did notice an employee doing painting demos for these two guys and he was infodumping about the different factions and all the primarchs and their lore and it actually worked really well as a sales tactic with one friend finding the Necrons really cool and another really liking Angron and he successfully sold them the rule books, codices and combat patrols for both armies. Considering how many people find out and get into 40K because of the lore it was kinda neat seeing it be used that way in person.
Also I actually managed to find a box of the Veterans of the Long War box set so yeah I was gonna buy that since I wanted to make CSM anyway. I mentioned to the guy at the register I was gonna do Iron Warriors and he suggested paints for the dark metallic look and brought them over and showed them to me and then actually went back and put them back on the shelf when I was expecting a hard sell. He made a few more suggestions like Solar Auxilia for cultists bc I mentioned the normal models didn’t fit the look I wanted and I found the whole encounter really productive and cool.
So yeah good experiences so far, nice to see the culture has changed compared to the GW stores I remember as a teen
A mate of mine is a store manager, the local GW was a hub for likeminded enthusists for years until it wasn't. I brought it up with him one day and it was a executive decision from above to kill any sort of community, stop people "hanging out" instore and to focus on just selling product. Pretty sad when I think about it, the store use to be a buzz on weekends and now when i drive past it's empty.
This. I remember many years ago, playing “turn up” games in my local GW store against anyone was there. It was fun.
I briefly did a small amount of 40k years ago and a friend recently started AOS, I was interested to see what the difference was, I wanted to watch a few games to get a feel for it. I was made to feel unwelcome unless I’m buying a new AOS army. A new army that I don’t even want.
Dude this makes me really thankful for the great GW shopkeeper that introduced me to this stuff when I was a kid. Very chill romanian dude, explained exactly how these models worked, and helped me paint my first space marine for free.
I know someone who bought loads of orks, chaos and dark angels during this time and didn’t even build them, they were still boxed. My mate bought his boxed razorback and predator for £40. He ended up selling the rest to me for £50, including Ravenwing bikers, Chaos Terminators and Jump Pack ones, Ork boyz and bikers. It definitely worked in my favour
Plus my local manager was great, I was going to buy a knight but he told me early about the Renegade box coming out which only cost me a bit more for another knight and some scenery