D&D 5E Chapters/Indigo and the death of the FLGS

[Majoru Oakheart]

Checked it out now and when you click on it, it says pre-order, not yet released. Perhaps they changed it online...

They've always shown that online. People who preordered got shipping confirmations yesterday however...don't know if it was EVERYONE who preordered, but some definitely did.

Also, the people who have them in the other thread didn't order online. They went into one of the 3 or 4 Chapters locations that put them on the shelf on Tuesday. Most of the Chapters don't have them on shelves...either the employees at those stores actually saw the notice that they weren't released yet or they never received shipments.

If you check their website and click "Find in store", it'll tell you how many the stores have in stock. I've searched all of Canada and I can only find stores in Ontario that have them, however.

 

[wedgeski]

Very nice post. I'm personally doing everything I can to support game stores over Amazon, but I don't blame anyone who takes advantage of early street dates. If I had a local chain that was doing the same thing, the temptation would be almost overwhelming and I don't know if I'd be able to resist.

 

[the Jester]

I agree that this is a real concern and is unfair on the part of Chapters. Here is hoping that WotC is going to do something to penalize them. I hope [MENTION=697]mearls[/MENTION] or [MENTION=82759]WotC_Trevor[/MENTION] will pop in and speak to the issue- if not revealing how they respond, at least to say, "We're aware of the issue and doing what we can to fix it".

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

I'm happy to say that my FLGS, Ettin Games, tweeted out pictures of their PHB shipment yesterday. Unfortunately, they wouldn't sell until midnight last night. So, I had to set an alarm for 11:30 PM to wake up and go get mine.

 

[Lalato]

Going to the FLGS today after work to pick up the book. It will cost me more, but I'm lucky to be gainfully employed.

 

[SkidAce]

It takes one central distribution point shipping all the books out as soon as they get them, and a lack of a policy in place at stores to hold back books they receive from the distribution point until you've checked the release date. Doesn't seem like a lot of things need to go wrong for this to happen.

At Barnes and Noble, if corporate listed a book as SOS (strict on sale), meaning you cannot sell it before that date, its in bright red on the computer when you get it in, or print out a list to shelve. And they warn us about the fines. Because there are books with street dates that are not fined, and its okay to put them up early if the truck brings them to your store.

so...one slip up by NOT marking it "SOS" or the Chapters equivalent, and the stores think its all good.

 

[SkidAce]

It's also possible that WotC simply doesn't have control over release dates with this part of distribution. Chapters might have a list of publishers that they sell sufficient volumes that they actually will pay attention to release dates and if you're not big enough for them to care, if it arrives, it goes on the shelves. Have employees check release dates of relatively low volume sellers at every store with every shipment is just a waste of money.

National bookstore chains care about release dates for things like the Harry Potter books as they came out. Or the Song of Ice & Fire books. Or maybe the next Fifty Shades type book or whatever. But D&D? Probably not worth the extra administration cost.

Box of books? Put them on the shelf.

This is true...and is what I was saying about the corporate being the deciding factor to annotate the strict sale dates.

Otherwise, there is no limitations.

 

[Gundark]

And that's a win, right?

My point was that WotC needs the books sold at Chapters far more than Chapters needs to sell the books which means that WotC will do nothing against Chapters at the end of the day.

And ultimately (from WotC standpoint) so what if Chapters did sell it earlier? Their product still got sold.

 

[Kobold Stew]

And ultimately (from WotC standpoint) so what if Chapters did sell it earlier? Their product still got sold.

I don't understand this -- if they've bothered set a release date and are trying to support game stores, Chapters' actions undermine that completely. (as I tried to set out in the OP).

 

[Mirtek]

At Barnes and Noble, if corporate listed a book as SOS (strict on sale), meaning you cannot sell it before that date, its in bright red on the computer when you get it in, or print out a list to shelve. And they warn us about the fines. Because there are books with street dates that are not fined, and its okay to put them up early if the truck brings them to your store.

so...one slip up by NOT marking it "SOS" or the Chapters equivalent, and the stores think its all good.

Or Chapters doesn't care what WotC says since it's such a small part of their business that they wouldn't notice it in their books when WotC removes them from their list of retailers.

Sure, it's one thing to ignore the street date of the newest Twillight or Harry Potter and be excluded from selling their sequels, but no longer being allowed to sell D&D is quite different.

I can easily imaginge a conversation:

"WotC just informed us that we're banned from selling their D&D books."
"Wait, what? We sold D&D? Isn't that this game for satanists in steam tunnels?"
"Actually didn't really know we sold it either. Seems we broke a street day or something, whatever."