What's the Deal with GriefCom?

[Kae'Yoss]

I would love to see an actual letter/memo/email with WotC stating that. I would think such a policy would be legally actionable by the distributors and their customers (resellers). Though, the mere presence of such a communication would potentially hold enough bad publicity to make things uncomfortable for WotC.

It was being discussed on the Wizards boards and on Maxminis:
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=703371
http://www.maxminis.com/Forums/tabid/104/forumid/74/tpage/1/view/Topic/postid/659380/Default.aspx

Also, look up the Retailer online FAQ
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=retailer/faq

Especially this part

Can I open an online store only?

I'm sorry to say that we will not be able to help you.

If you have or are planning on having an exclusively internet store, you will not be able to purchase products from one of our authorized distributors, as by contact with us, or directly from Wizards of the Coast. We deal with traditional brick and mortar stores only.

If you do ever have a brick and mortar store associated with your business, you may contact us about getting a distributors list or opening an account directly with us, but of course we will ask for proof of that actual storefront at that time.

But Why?

Currently Wizards feels that supporting retailers with storefronts is better for the over all support of our products. It's not just about making the sale but the interaction that consumers find at the retail level. Granted not all stores are great or take the time to demo, run league, or just interact with customers but most do who specialize in these types of games. And it has been these stores that have built our business to what it is currently. This all may change, as the whole nature of retailing changes but for now we will continue to support retail shops while looking ahead.

Can I open a store in my house?

If you have or are planning on running your business from your home, you will not be able to purchase from our authorized distributors, as by contact with us, or from Wizards of the Coast directly. We deal with traditional brick and mortar stores only.

This, of course, is the pinnacle of hypocrisy, as they are selling to amazon, and I don't think they have a storefront. And they don't interact with the customer. Ever tried to call them? You have to dig through page after page until you get a number.

 

[BSF]

Wow. That is just disturbing. I appreciate the sentiment of supporting a retail channel that helped build your business. But my experiences with many local game stores over the years has been less than satisfactory. On the other hand, some of the best service I have received has been from a guy that online did online sales.

I agree that it is hypocritical. If WotC is truly worried about supporting the LGS, then they should be worried about the heavy discounting Amazon provides. It certainly appears to be more lip service than a real concern.

 

[carmachu]

I would love to see an actual letter/memo/email with WotC stating that. I would think such a policy would be legally actionable by the distributors and their customers (resellers). Though, the mere presence of such a communication would potentially hold enough bad publicity to make things uncomfortable for WotC.

No you wouldnt want that. I speak from experience.

Games Workshop has done such a thing, and frankly it SUCKS from a consumer POV. You cant NOT sell to folks who only have no B&M face, they would have to terminate ANY account that sells online, not just ones that have no brick and mortar.

So you couldnt get ANY book online. Period. Just like you couldnt shop online for miniatures from GW(you can say you have them, and they'd have to call you and order them, but nop one really goes through that hassle).

It sucks on the consumer end. Badly. Of course, its bitten GW a bit in the rear as well....

 

[Bardsandsages]

Wow. That is just disturbing. I appreciate the sentiment of supporting a retail channel that helped build your business. But my experiences with many local game stores over the years has been less than satisfactory. On the other hand, some of the best service I have received has been from a guy that online did online sales.

I agree that it is hypocritical. If WotC is truly worried about supporting the LGS, then they should be worried about the heavy discounting Amazon provides. It certainly appears to be more lip service than a real concern.

It's not that disturbing, or hypcritical. The above mentioned quote refers ONLY to Wizards own direct sales program. This is simply a matter of selective quoting.

Also from the same page:

How do I acquire Wizard's products for my store?
Please be aware that Wizards of the Coast sells only to a specific retail group. These people consist of stores that fall under the category of hobby and game stores or related enterprises. To do this, we work with a number of hobby/gaming distributors all over North America and the selling policies of those distributors may vary from company to company. You will want to contact more than one of the distributors on the list to get a full picture of wholesale pricing information. Go ahead and shop around with them the way you would shop around for your personal shopping needs to find the distributor(s) that suit your needs best. Additionally we have Direct Sales programs as opportunities for retailers to purchase directly from Wizards.

Please be aware that Wizards of the Coast sells its products to retailers primarily through a number of distributors across the country. Their selling policies and prices may vary from company to company. Also be aware that our distributors deal primarily with brick and mortar retail shops, which fall within what is identified as our core market. Examples of stores that fall in our core market include game, hobby, book, collectible and comic stores.

Note the word "primarily." A different word than "exclusively."

I'm a Book Store Looking for Distributor in the U.S. or Canada
Wizards of the Coast uses Random House for the distribution of our products to the book trade. I have included their contact information below.

United States

Random House Customer Service
400 Hahn Road
Westminster, MD 21157

Again, note that there are different rules for the "book trade" as opposed to the hobby trade. Amazon would be serviced by Random House, not a normal game distributor.

The whole problem with the conspiracy theories regarding "predatory" pricing is that they assume that Amazon actually knows anything about the industry and is actively trying to steal the very, very small niche market. The truth is, Amazon only knows what publishers tell them about a product. Whatever information you see on a product description is simply either uploaded automatically from the distributor's database or manually entered by the publisher. Random House provides them with data on all the products available (not just RPGs, we all know how big Random House is), and Amazon's system uploads it and makes it available.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Games Workshop has done such a thing, and frankly it SUCKS from a consumer POV. You cant NOT sell to folks who only have no B&M face, they would have to terminate ANY account that sells online, not just ones that have no brick and mortar.

Quick sidenote- GW has a press release that I just read in the back of KoDT- it seems they're not doing so well.

Then again, they've made some boneheaded moves in the past 5 years. I don't know about anywhere else, but a few years ago, here in D/FW, they opened a stand-alone GW only store in an outlet mall, and jacked up their wholesale price to everyone in the region, ensuring their GW store had the lowest prices on their merchandise.

Logical? On the face of it, perhaps. However, it was also short sighted- most of the local game stores then had a fire sale on GW stuff and didn't reorder. The GW store went belly up (it wasn't in the best location). GW remains hard to find...

 

[Allensh]

Deep discounts rock! I just got the 3.5 core set for 58 bucks vs 90 at the LGS.

Oh yeah? well I just got a Players Handbook for 98 cents!!

of course it was a 1st edition PHB, but hey...

(just injecting a bit of levity here...)

Allen

 

[carmachu]

Quick sidenote- GW has a press release that I just read in the back of KoDT- it seems they're not doing so well.

Then again, they've made some boneheaded moves in the past 5 years. I don't know about anywhere else, but a few years ago, here in D/FW, they opened a stand-alone GW only store in an outlet mall, and jacked up their wholesale price to everyone in the region, ensuring their GW store had the lowest prices on their merchandise.

Logical? On the face of it, perhaps. However, it was also short sighted- most of the local game stores then had a fire sale on GW stuff and didn't reorder. The GW store went belly up (it wasn't in the best location). GW remains hard to find...

No, GW is NOT doing well. At all(which issue of KoDT, I'd lik eto read it).

But if you look VERY carefully at their financial records of the US market, where the ban takes place.....from 2001 on(when the ban took effect), you'll notice for the most part their unit sales have declined year by year by year......(2004 I think was the exception).

SO yes, you can do it. But I think it'll hurt WotC's bottom line with roleplaying games, since if you annoy your customer base and make it difficult for them to get your product, they wont buy it.

GW is a british company, they have a different mindset: in UK, all the shops are GW owned. THey keep trying to do similar things here, but they just dont get the US market isnt the UK one, its NOT the same conditions, the area is MUCH more vast then UK and you cant make the consumer buy your stuff....