1 hour ago, FoaS said:

I work in EDI myself. What you've outlined seems to be a common occurrence these days for pretty much the same reasons you've mentioned, in my area of the retail world. Yay dropshipping and how it changes the landscape.

What I'm interested in finding out is how game distributors see their dealers.

In our market we keep dealers first. Yeah, the big online players can get price breaks because of quantity but we willingly take a hit to our margins to keep things competitive for the 'mom and pops'. The problem is that the bar is really low to open a business... frankly most retailers don't open shops to make money - they open shops because they love the thing they sell. What this means is that they're by and large not terribly sophisticated and need to be hand held to be successful.

We spend a lot of money teaching our dealers how to be better businesses and the payoff is noticeable. How much is the gaming industry doing this? Probably not enough.

If Alliance wants to be a bigger player they need to invest in their customers and improve their services. Exclusive distribution should allow them to bring in extra revenue to spend on this.

Just now, TaeSWXW said:

What I'm interested in finding out is how game distributors see their dealers.

In our market we keep dealers first. Yeah, the big online players can get price breaks because of quantity but we willingly take a hit to our margins to keep things competitive for the 'mom and pops'. The problem is that the bar is really low to open a business... frankly most retailers don't open shops to make money - they open shops because they love the thing they sell. What this means is that they're by and large not terribly sophisticated and need to be hand held to be successful.

We spend a lot of money teaching our dealers how to be better businesses and the payoff is noticeable. How much is the gaming industry doing this? Probably not enough.

If Alliance wants to be a bigger player they need to invest in their customers and improve their services. Exclusive distribution should allow them to bring in extra revenue to spend on this.

As someone who set up a small business recently and researched (and talked to) Gaming distributors.

- You're treated lousily until you're ordering bulk.

And even then, with Asmodee - the preferential treatment starts and ends with Brick and Mortar stores... Wholesale rate for anyone who deals with anything online is reistricted in both price and availability

1 minute ago, Drasnighta said:

As someone who set up a small business recently and researched (and talked to) Gaming distributors.

- You're treated lousily until you're ordering bulk.

And even then, with Asmodee - the preferential treatment starts and ends with Brick and Mortar stores... Wholesale rate for anyone who deals with anything online is reistricted in both price and availability

Yeah, that's unfortunate.

My company has an annual revenue in excess of $300 million and even then we've got a little under 20 inside reps for a dealer base around 6000 doors. That's several hundred accounts per rep and often results in a situation where a shop isn't paid attention to until they start spending big money. The problem (which is pretty obvious) is that burns a lot of bridges. More retailers are closing than opening so while it feels like you've got bridges to burn... you don't really.

I am pretty confident there aren't any game distributors at our scale meaning they've got even fewer reps servicing a proportionally smaller dealer base.

Might I make a recommendation for you if you're still lacking the service you want? Commit to as few distributors as possible - even if it isn't the best price and make sure they know you're doing it. Spend money on social media and content generation (think Team Covenant). Merchandise well and show that you can bring in non-gamers.

I know, easier said than done, but doing that puts you on the leading edge of modern retail and distributors and manufacturers are always looking to align themselves with movers and shakers. Even if your revenue isn't big they'll want to be pals because you'll be the 'cool' shop. Every sales rep wants to catch the next big shop before they take off.

They're expecting you to be a greasy gamer and not a businessman. Speak their language and they'll have to respond.

Sorry if you already know all this. I don't mean to be patronizing but I'm always shocked by some business owners and how little they know about doing business so I usually start simple.

Can I also say how much I appreciate Armada players? No wild threads complaining about FLGS selling at full MSRP. I haven't seen the phrase "price gouge" even once. Go to the X-Wing forum and these guys are complaining if their local shop is making any profit at all.

21 minutes ago, TaeSWXW said:

Can I also say how much I appreciate Armada players? No wild threads complaining about FLGS selling at full MSRP. I haven't seen the phrase "price gouge" even once. Go to the X-Wing forum and these guys are complaining if their local shop is making any profit at all.

Really X-wing and Armada (all the FFG games tbh) are all competitively priced and far cheaper than other competitors (GW cough cough). I proudly choose to buy all my stuff at the local bricks ad mortar store Gigabites. THey give me all the free space to play, my plastic crack fix, food and coming soon BEER!

18 minutes ago, jamie nasmyth said:

Really X-wing and Armada (all the FFG games tbh) are all competitively priced and far cheaper than other competitors (GW cough cough). I proudly choose to buy all my stuff at the local bricks ad mortar store Gigabites. THey give me all the free space to play, my plastic crack fix, food and coming soon BEER!

omg...

1 hour ago, TaeSWXW said:

Can I also say how much I appreciate Armada players? No wild threads complaining about FLGS selling at full MSRP. I haven't seen the phrase "price gouge" even once. Go to the X-Wing forum and these guys are complaining if their local shop is making any profit at all.

I think Runewars players were complaining about some of the prices and they changed them too. I don't know too much about it. It was for expansions thought.

2 hours ago, CaribbeanNinja said:

omg...

Now we'll get you to all our Armada events!