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The customers Shifting Loyalty


Tris

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Hi fellow wyrdos,

I´ve got some questions to those of you responsible for managing your local community:

how do you keep your players attached to the local flgs, during these times of black friday, easter and gen con sales?

 

Our local shop seems worried about the recent pre-release policy of wyrd, he says sales of all the new stuff since the Emissary-release is declining, seemingly because the players buy them at large during wyrds big sales.

 

I don´t want to be the guy to tell others where and what to buy, plus who can blame them, it`s just so temtping to get all the shiny new stuff months before general release, the shop just can`t compete with that.

I´ve started sort of an event and demo game offensive to get more people to play in general, maybe the new ones will provide a boost, but who knows?

 

I keep telling everyone who wants to hear it that we should support the local store as he provides gaming space and has great stock for nearly everything you might need in the hobby, but I fear he could stop supporting events if my players don`t realise that soon :/

 

Has anybody else encountered similar problems?

How would you manage it?

 

I´ve not yet reached wits end, but would be glad to get some input regarding this :)

 

Greetings

Tris

 

PS:

don`t know where to put a topic like that, so I chose "discussions" :P

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I think the main issue with pre-release stuff since Shifting Loyalties is there's just not that much new stuff to begin with. If they pre-release two sets out of four to six new sets that a faction is getting, that's about a third of sales an FLGS might get going instead direct to Wyrd in these sales. Compare to waves one and two where there was so much more getting released, pre releasing the same amount of stuff still meant much more was coming through.

Personally, I think the biggest offender in these sales are the limit rewards. $300us to get all 4 of this years and last years LE models would get you a whole faction. That's a lot of sales not going to an FLGS. $100us for a Miss model isn't so bad, since the last two Gencons that's been just about covered by the Nightmare crew. But Gencon is particularly troublesome with that $300us bracket, sicne it encourages a purchase so large it would probably take you a whole year to get through it without additional purchases from a store. Though don't think there's so many individual takers on that to impact a stores sales.

However, I'd remind them of the monthly promotions. Getting Miss Terious for free with a Zipp crew is a nice incentive, even if all you might do with it is onsell it to absorb some of the cost. I know that in months where there has been a freebie given out for spending $60 at your FLGS, I've spent that $60. Mostly because it would cost more than that after exchange and shipping to grab the model on eBay, so might as well grab some more Malifaux stuff. For example, my Gremlins had been languishing. When they announced the alternate Francisco as a reward, I grabbed quite a bit for Gremlins. Then a bit more, and ended up nearly qualifying for two (if only they would allow that).

If the store manager is feeling it, maybe let him know to remind people. It doesn't take long to just have a look at the promotions page to see what's going, and when regular Malifaux gamers come through, just remind them of what's going on. It's really win-win. He reminds them of a promotion, and they might buy a bunch of stuff. They get a free miniature out of it, but generally it's a miniature they wouldn't be able to buy outside of these sales anyway, so at least it's generation sales for him.

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4 hours ago, Torsul said:

I am sorry but if your players are a bunch of short-sighted, greedy backstabbers, then there is nothing you can do about it.

Brick and mortar store can't compete with onliners and that won't change. If 10% discount and personal gain is more worth to someone then a nearby place to meet people and have fun while gaming you won't change this attitude. i've zero tolerance for such people and there isn't one good excuse (such as the needy-student who is hurt by every dollar lost - in that case: took your time, buy one box less and get it the next month) for 'poaching' the store in using his gaming space but buying stuff online.

 

The OP said nothing about online discounts, just that the store owner was concerned about Wyrds early release policy. So not sure where that came from.

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Yeah, it`s really the temptation of the pre-release that`s getting the majority of them, so hey, that`s something I guess :)

So, I talked to my kind of "core crew" and I think I got them to an understanding, so I think we`re now able to work closer together, also proposed your ideas to the shop, I think we might get some of them through - thanks for the input, sometimes you just need another view on things to get an idea.

 

Greetings

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There's just the desire to have some of the new stuff as soon as you can.  From my understanding though, when a model is actually released into stores, Wyrd waits a little while to throw it up onto their own online store in order to help promote people going to their game stores to make purchases instead.  Nothing they can do about pre-release, though.  And it's not as though people buy everything at pre-release.  I just got the masters I wanted, but other models (Will O' Wisp, Akaname, etc) I wait until they're at one of the local shops to grab.

There's an added issue that might be slightly unique to my area.  The store I generally play at sells zero Malifaux, so I don't have the option to buy from them, and if I want to buy from a local store, it's a 30 or so minute drive to get there depending on traffic.  I still tend to support the store when I can, but sometimes I can't make the trip.

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