when I ran a game store selling their products they decided to withdraw from the distribution network and sell direct to Retailers (such as myself) at a wholesale discount less than what we had been receiving, which as I recall also included prepaying or immediate payment for their products, the same ones I had been receiving a 30 day dating upon. After contacting them and explaining my displeasure with their new arrangement I talked to my staff and dropped their line in it's entirety. Everyone told me that they were too important a line not to carry and I would have to just do what they said. I sold off the inventory, replaced it with U.S. made products and watched my sales increase.

Eventually GW using information that they gathered through the sales of products to the Retailers in the area who carried them, opened their own store in direct competition with the Retailers that has supported their game lines.

I used to describe them as evil incarnate, but I may have been too charitable in my opinion of them.

much of their product, which the exception of book printing, for stuff sold in the US is now made in the US. They opened a factory to produce plastic models in Memphis a few years ago and now that they stopped making pewter models and everything is either plastic or resign, its all made in the US now. I think that them having their own stores is a good thing, in that it gives people who enjoy the product a way to go to the store, play a game and meet people who are interested in the hobby as well, something that was hard to do pre-internet and pre-Games Workshop stores.

mine however differs in that the store I had in those days did allow people to meet, game in our store, network and enjoy their hobby. We promoted games from all companies, rpg's, historical minis, boardgames, eventually card games when they came along and alike. In the days I describe, their product was all imported with no US production. We pulled them for Ral Partha, Grenadier on the fantasy side and we always carried a diverse amount of historical figs.

It was a different world back then, but I could see that GW had a plan at vertical intergration of their sales (and the resulting profits) and we were going to be left out along with our wholesalers upon whom we and the rest of the supply line depended. They simply wanted the whole pie as I could see it.

My opinion of them never changed as they never gave me a reason to change it. Their direct sales to their accepted Retailers was simply market research for where they would open their own stores after the Retailer had done the work to promote their product for them through various in-store demos, tournaments, workshops and all. I found it to be a sham and I believe I was proven to be correct.