40 Years of Games Workshop Stores!

It's 40 years since Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson opened the first Games Workshop store in West London. Ian has been posting about it on Twitter. The company went from that one store location to the 460+ it has today.

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Games Workshop's 2016-2017 shareholder report gives some info on its current stores: "At the year end we had 462 Games Workshop stores in 23 countries. Our stores contributed 41% of the year's sales. We have 360 one man stores, small sites, each one staffed by only one store manager. We also have 102 multi-man stores, which are constantly reviewed to ensure they remain profitable."

These are broken down as follows:

United Kingdom	147
North America	111
Europe	145
Australia	47
Asia	12
Total	462

[FONT=&amp]Hard to believe that it is 40 years since Steve Jackson and I opened our first Games Workshop retail shop in April 1978 in a little side street in West London. The queue outside was inspiring!

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Posted by Keith Dickinson on Twitter. This is the store today.

"[FONT=&amp]Celebrating 40 years since we moved Games Workshop from a tiny office in Shepherds Bush to our first shop in Hammersmith on 1st April 1978. Here’s the announcement in White Dwarf. Six copies of D&D on offer for 50p each! Bargain. Amazing memories." - Ian Livingstone

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[FONT=&amp]"If you are interested in reading about the crazy first years of Games Workshop from 1975-1985, please pledge here [/FONT]https[FONT=&amp] … It all started with a little fanzine we published called Owl and Weasel in 1975." - Ian Livingstone

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"[FONT=&amp]Celebrating 40 years since Steve Jackson and I opened our first Games Workshop retail shop in April 1978. Proud young owners standing outside!" - Ian Livingstone

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"[FONT=&amp]Celebrating 40 years since Steve Jackson and I opened our first Games Workshop retail store in April 1978 when we had our own pet dragon!" - Ian Livingstone

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"[FONT=&amp]Kind words in 1979 from the great Gary Gygax, co-creator and pioneer of D&D, who sadly is no longer with us." - Ian livingstone[/FONT]​

 

[Grimstaff]

Right in the nostalgia bone! Very cool peek at the past. Wonder how many people nabbed all 6 allowed D&D sets for just a lb each?

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Which one of those blokes is Livingstone and which is Jackson?

As, as an American, here's another naive question...umm...are there still Games Workshop stores? How many?

 

[Morrus]

Which one of those blokes is Livingstone and which is Jackson?

In the one holding the sign, left is Jackson, right is Livingstone.

As, as an American, here's another naive question...umm...are there still Games Workshop stores? How many?

Yes, plenty of them, but I don't know how many. They look very different these days though! I haven't been in one for decades, but I'm pretty sure they just sell Warhammer minis these days.

 

[Gorath99]

Right in the nostalgia bone! Very cool peek at the past. Wonder how many people nabbed all 6 allowed D&D sets for just a lb each?

Only half a pound, so 8 ounce.

Personally, I'd go for that copy of Empire of the Petal Throne, though. Always wanted to take a look at that, but it's so hard/expensive to get hold of.

 

[TerraDave]

There are still a smattering of stores on the east coast. Some seem to be near military bases, and I have heard that 40k is popular with active duty service members.

 

[Morrus]

According to this Jan 2017 article, there are 460 GW stores across the world. Presumably the majority are in the UK. I just did a search on their store finder (which only gets you search up to a hundred mile radius) and there are tons of them within 100 miles of me.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...workshop-fantasy-model-retailer-battles-back/

According to this article 140 of them are in the UK.

https://www.retail-week.com/main-na...nd-stores-warhammer/7018262.article?authent=1

 

[Gorath99]

Interesting. If you set your delivery location to a metric country, they only let you search within a 100 kilometer radius, which is substantially smaller than a 100 mile radius.

From my home in the center of the Netherlands there are 12 GW stores within 100 km, and 24 within 100 miles. More than I expected.

 

[Morrus]

2016-2017 shareholder report.

https://s19485.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Combined-document.pdf

"At the year end we had 462 Games Workshop stores in 23 countries. Our stores contributed 41% of the year's sales. We have 360 one man stores, small sites, each one staffed by only one store manager. We also have 102 multi-man stores, which are constantly reviewed to ensure they remain profitable."

UK - 147
North America - 111
Europe - 145
Australia - 47
Asia - 12

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I remember in the glory days of the 80's I'd read of these shops in WD and wish we had one. Back then GW was far more than just Warhammer/40k of course. Now we have one in the area and I've never set foot in it since I don't play any of their games.