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This link on the Bleeding Cool web site, talks of the HMV chain of stores in Great Britain closing 60 stores across the country. This is nothing new because stores have been closing all across the country in England because of hard financial times. What really struck me is the last sentence of the article. For those of you that don't click on random links, I'll post it:
"Games Workshop also happens to be on the skids . . . "
For those of you who are not up on miniature's gaming, Games Workshop is the grandaddy of all miniatures gaming companies. They have been around since 1975 when they opened their first store to sell wooden gaming boards for games such as Go and Mancala and later became the British distributor for the fledgling Dungeons and Dragons Role Playing Game. As the years progressed they formed the Citadel miniatures line that was eventually absorbed into the company proper and by 1990 had over 200 employees. In the 1980's they started their first miniatures game with Warhammer Fantasy and later on that decade Warhammer 40K. By the end of the 1990's Games Workshop was falling on hard times that they blamed on the releases of collectable card games like Magic the Gathering and Pokemon. In the early 2000's they were slowly gaining a share of the market back by trying different things and the release of a miniatures game based on Lord of the Rings. They have dropped production costs somewhat by moving to a computer design process for their miniatures, but the rising costs of the raw materials is going to be offsetting the reduction in price.
The only reason I can think of that Games Workshop is on the skids is because the product they offer is priced so high that only people who have good paying jobs or parents with disposable income can afford the game. The average price of a box of Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard plastic miniatures, before shipping, is right around $25.00 (US) for ten minis. That breaks down to $2.50 a miniature. Then you have to buy the plastic model glue, primer, paint, washes and brushes to assemble and paint them up. That makes the $2.50 a piece miniature cost something along the lines of $4.00 each. You can defray some of the costs by purchasing the paint and primer at a craft/hobby store, but that will only drop your per figure costs to maybe $3.50. Then you have to buy the rule book and that will run you another $57.75 and a codex for the Imperial Guard and that will run you $29.00. So for that one little squad of Imperial Guardsmen you have had to invest something on the order of $175, and that is just to get you started with one little piece of your army.
There has been some talk in the Internet circles I hang around in for miniatures gaming that Games Workshop is going to close some of its stores in the UK and around the world. That would be no skin off my nose because the two that are nearest to me here in the states are either in Grapevine or Frisco and those are easily a twenty minute drive each way. With fuel reaching $3.00 a gallon I don't have the cash to drive up there and back every week.
Their store employees are also kind of pushy about selling you certain things. I caved to the pressure of buying the "limited edition" $100 army case early last year when all I wanted was the one for roughly half that price since I did not have all that many mini's for the game at the time. Little did I know that over a year later two places online would have them for 20% off, no tax and free shipping.
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