Games Workshop Southampton

Strictly, this is not a Games Workshop "branded" store: it is a Warhammer store now. That aside, my travels took me to the South Coast of England recently and afforded me a few hours to myself to explore the city of Southampton. As I sometimes do, I decided to do my "mystery shopper" thing and go and locate the Games Workshop store in the city and have a look around. 

Physically, the store is located on East Street, which is just South East of York Gate in the city. East Street is touted as "speciality stores" on the street signage. I found this slightly at odds with the occupants of the buildings. There were plenty of gambling shops, and several charity type shops on the street. Regardless, it seems that GW is a speciality (along with several other genuine specialist shops) on the small street, so that at least is correct. I'm not so sure about the location itself. It feels a little isolated in its position with arguably little footfall from the main high streets north of its location. Indeed, the main railway and bus stops are close enough, but one does have to strike out in the direction of this store to get there, rather than chance upon it. 

The store itself is of a moderate to smaller size. The front window pictured above gives a reasonable impression of the scale and size of the place (and the image below shows in the background the depth of the store, along with a miniature in the window that really took my eye!). 

I found the staff pleasant, easy to talk to and knowledgable about the hobby - which is always good. Indeed, the staff here were very accommodating and didn't apply too much pressure on me. Hence I bought a little something. The stock is reasonable, albeit standard for Games Workshops these days, and the gaming tables / space in the middle adequate for most purposes. 

Overall, this is a nice store, but I do question its physical location - a bit north of York Gate might be a superior location, although I do acknowledge that the rents would correspondingly go up.