Having the afternoon free, I meandered my way to the city centre games workshop ... mostly to see some of the new Chaos Space Marine miniatures. In the process, I thought I'd scribe a quick review like I have for other Australian city centre GWs (e.g. Perth, Melbourne).
The store itself was leased about 3 years ago, having moved from Queen Street Mall (the main shopping street) to the Queen Adelaide Building. This location means that there are probably less random visitors than there used to be -- indeed, the current location probably necessitates a little local knowledge to get to the place. But it is still in the heart of the city and accessible.
The dimensions of the store are long and thin, with several quality tables available for play inside. I was greeted by one of the staffers, Blake, who had a good chat to me about chaos space marines, death guard, alpha legion and some daemons. He seemed very enthusiastic (but not creepily so!) and friendly -- just what is needed. Seems the staff have nearly 100% turned over from when I was last in Brisbane - they didn't recognize me and vice-versa.
I liked not only the staff, but the open, clean, and well-lit condition of the store (in contrast to where they used to be several years earlier, which was always broody and dark by comparison due to the black painted walls). The layout was good, but perhaps too much LoTR stock in comparison to Melbourne stores which didn't seem to be shifting much. All in all a very pleasant visit!
A good experience at a GW store? Wow...but in a good way.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in Brisbane myself but moved to Adelaide a few months ago.When the shop was run by Marshall it was a horrible experience,you'd walk in there and either be bombarded by his need to show his knowledge of the game systems or be treated like an idiot.When they got their new staff around Xmas 2010 it improved dramatically,it felt very friendly and the staff were young enough and respectful to not tread on us older gamers toes.If you get the chance visit the Chermside store,that was my local before I moved,the staff are friendly but the store is rather small,you'll find them across from Gametraders near the bus terminal entrance.
ReplyDeleteI have had the opposite experience Oktane... I found the store to be much better when Marshall was running it and find the current manager to be a bit of a douche at times. In fact my last 'experience' was that bad I was tempted to write a formal letter to HQ as I found it condescending and just down right rude when I was asking a few questions. Oh well - perhaps he was having a bad day. Either way, I refuse to spend a cent in the store now and will just buy stuff in one of the other ones if needed.
ReplyDeleteTrevor (current manager) is anything but a douche... so I don't know what store you were in. I honestly like him better then Marshall, who was a bit too in your face and REALLY pushed for sales to the point it was irritating.
Delete"...several quality tables available for play inside"
ReplyDeleteOh yea? Is there a secret passage to get to them? I see one large demo table, but no gaming tables. :P
The staff in any GW store are very enthusiastic and very helpfula and fun to talk to . I rememeber I was in my local store once and came out with about £100 worth of stuff! how is that for sales/ lol
ReplyDeleteTo follow up - perhaps Trevor was having a really really bad day as he was really good today when I went in about an order.
ReplyDeleteHi Guys! that's a really interesting (and contrasting) array of comments there about old vs new staffing and the store. Cheers for sharing!
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