Why is WotC trying to kill my FLGS?

[xechnao]

Retail markup needs to be higher on D&D books due to things like shipping costs, lower sales volume, and the physical space they take up, in comparison to MtG.

I see. So D&D as a market product has a higher risk than magic. Haven't thought about that at all. Although I should have.

 

[Fifth Element]

I see. So D&D as a market product has a higher risk than magic.

Yes, I think that's a fair statement. It's more expensive for a retailer to stock D&D than to stock MtG.

 

[Pbartender]

...with the Draconomicon at $40 I don't have any real choice but to order it from Amazon if I want to keep up with the 4E new releases...

Sure you have a choice... Choose to not order out for pizza once, for example, and you'll have the spare money you need to buy it from your local store.

 

[MrMyth]

It has an environmental relation. It is online. Amazon is online too. See how console video games industry prefer to sell to public by DVDs rather than downloads. Wotc could have also chosen to sell the virtual game table and generator with a physical DVD format on a smaller price than an online subscription and sell it through stores only. Yet they chose the subscription way. Perhaps piracy could be a problem to DVDs though?

The main problem there is that it would be a more expensive product to produce for a less profitable price to a more limited audience. In short: a bad idea.

Look, I like my local game shops. I don't want them to close, and so whenever I go by to game in them, I'll pick up some minis or books or the like. But they should be encouraging this through good service and other benefits - it shouldn't be something forced upon gamers.

As far as the hobby as a whole, I think it even does some good to have Amazon and other online stores - both for the gamers who wouldn't buy the product if it was more expensive, and especially for the ones who simply don't have local gaming shops available. You want to deny D&D books to all those people to feed local gaming shops, and I think that would be both bad for the hobby, a short-sighted business practice for WotC, and even unfair to the gamers themselves.

Even if you simply want to put caps on the price online stores sell products at, the problem won't go away entirely - people will order online to get their books delivered directly to them, or because they will still be cheaper via membership discounts with Barnes and Nobles and similar stores that sell online. Meanwhile, WotC will lose business from the many customers who are upset about being forced to suddenly pay more, and thus decide to boycott the product altogether (or pirate it instead.)

 

[Squizzle]

Services are important too. It is not only about production. Yet the right owners of a product could make more money out of it. I do not see where your problem is.

The reason to buy local is to support your local economy--to keep money circulating within your local space instead of leaving it. If most of the money from my buying dollar goes to WotC, the book distributor, the shipping company that delivered the books to the store--I have no reason to buy local anymore, because my buying dollar is only providing slight benefit to my local economy. In such a case, I feel that I should (and do) shop significantly on value (which Amazon provides in spades). This allows me to expend on these inherently non-local (or at least translocal) purchases a lesser amount of my total buying dollar, which means that I've retained it for correspondingly larger transactions that are more genuinely local.

 

[catsclaw227]

Suck it up, buttercup! It's only another 15 dollars (not counting shipping) to buy at MSRP.

Seriously, if you enjoy your store enough to want to keep it, an extra fifteen bucks shouldn't be that big of deal.

Ahhh.... so $15 isn't a big deal to you, but to many that like their game books and like to buy more than one, $10-$15 for each just might BE a big deal.

Sure you have a choice... Choose to not order out for pizza once, for example, and you'll have the spare money you need to buy it from your local store.

I have a wife and family, I support my mother-in-law and I have a hefty mortgage and two cars. I am the only bread-winner in our house. To be able to buy Martial Power, Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes for $64.51 (no shipping or sales tax) instead of $113.09 ($99.85 MSRP + $7.24 tax + $6 gas money), I can take the $49 and give it to my wife to buy something nice for herself (she likes skin care products and cosmetics), or even better, get a pack of 160 diapers for my daughter. It's not about buying one less pizza. It's about how the money gets shifted around our budget.

 

[xechnao]

The reason to buy local is to support your local economy--to keep money circulating within your local space instead of leaving it. If most of the money from my buying dollar goes to WotC, the book distributor, the shipping company that delivered the books to the store--I have no reason to buy local anymore, because my buying dollar is only providing slight benefit to my local economy. In such a case, I feel that I should (and do) shop significantly on value (which Amazon provides in spades). This allows me to expend on these inherently non-local (or at least translocal) purchases a lesser amount of my total buying dollar, which means that I've retained it for correspondingly larger transactions that are more genuinely local.

By this logic you say you want your local economy to export whatever is exportable at 100% and only import what it is 100% importable.

 

[xechnao]

The main problem there is that it would be a more expensive product to produce for a less profitable price to a more limited audience. In short: a bad idea.

Look, I like my local game shops. I don't want them to close, and so whenever I go by to game in them, I'll pick up some minis or books or the like. But they should be encouraging this through good service and other benefits - it shouldn't be something forced upon gamers.

As far as the hobby as a whole, I think it even does some good to have Amazon and other online stores - both for the gamers who wouldn't buy the product if it was more expensive, and especially for the ones who simply don't have local gaming shops available. You want to deny D&D books to all those people to feed local gaming shops, and I think that would be both bad for the hobby, a short-sighted business practice for WotC, and even unfair to the gamers themselves.

Even if you simply want to put caps on the price online stores sell products at, the problem won't go away entirely - people will order online to get their books delivered directly to them, or because they will still be cheaper via membership discounts with Barnes and Nobles and similar stores that sell online. Meanwhile, WotC will lose business from the many customers who are upset about being forced to suddenly pay more, and thus decide to boycott the product altogether (or pirate it instead.)

I see your points. Thing is that you have to balance compromises. But also if what you say is 100% true, I fail to see why there are any DVDs around as a media. OTOH if there was a DDI dvd exposed in stores, I think it would serve itself a pretty nice advertisement. Now that I am thinking about this though I get to remember I read somewhere about a legal arrangement among Hasbro and Atari or EA that prohibited Wotc from such a plan.

 

[Allister]

I have a wife and family, I support my mother-in-law and I have a hefty mortgage and two cars. I am the only bread-winner in our house. To be able to buy Martial Power, Draconomicon and Manual of the Planes for $64.51 (no shipping or sales tax) instead of $113.09 ($99.85 MSRP + $7.24 tax + $6 gas money), I can take the $49 and give it to my wife to buy something nice for herself (she likes skin care products and cosmetics), or even better, get a pack of 160 diapers for my daughter. It's not about buying one less pizza. It's about how the money gets shifted around our budget.

THIS

If the discount was only $10 total, then yeah, I could justify going to my FLGS. Hell, if itwas $20, I could still maybe say, "Im supporting my FLGS".

But at such a huge discount?

I'm sorry, but how can anyone in these tough economic times give that up?

 

[Shroomy]

THIS

If the discount was only $10 total, then yeah, I could justify going to my FLGS. Hell, if itwas $20, I could still maybe say, "Im supporting my FLGS".

But at such a huge discount?

I'm sorry, but how can anyone in these tough economic times give that up?

I'm pretty much a cheapskate, so I wouldn't give up this kind of huge discount even if the economy wasn't spiralling downwards, especially now that I've joined Amazon Prime.