Coming from Twin Cities area in MN, does anyone know where to get the new ships (HMP in particular)? My LFG went out of business a few years back, and Ive been buying from Barnes and Noble and shipping from Miniature Mart since. Barnes and Noble doesn’t show that they carry them at all, and Miniature Mart is out of stock. Does anyone know a place that carries them (either online or brick and mortar)?
Edited by Gupa-nupaYou're not far from FFG's offices. Do they have a storefront maybe?
Cool Stuff Inc. had all of them in stock earlier today. And FFG has their Fantasy Flight Game Center in your area.
Edited by necklessone53 minutes ago, Gupa-nupa said:Coming from Twin Cities area in MN, does anyone know where to get the new ships (HMP in particular)? My LFG went out of business a few years back, and Ive been buying from Barnes and Noble and shipping from Miniature Mart since. Barnes and Noble doesn’t show that they carry them at all, and Miniature Mart is out of stock. Does anyone know a place that carries them (either online or brick and mortar)?
Try Dreamers Vault Games in Champlin - they got their new toys in (my preorder made it but I didn’t preorder a hmp for confirmation).
It’s my group’s home base for xwing.
As others have suggested, ffg itself has a store front in Roseville too.
Edited by ScummyRebel12 minutes ago, necklessone said:Cool Stuff Inc. had all of them in stock earlier today. And FFG has their Fantasy Flight Game Center in your area.
Hopefully it's still standing. Minneapolis had it rough this year.
3 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:Hopefully it's still standing. Minneapolis had it rough this year.
It’s still there.
Cool Stuff Inc still has a few (4) HMPs listed as in stock on their Amazon US listing.
uf you still haven’t found them, as of yesterday afternoon when I went to get my preorder Dreamers Vault in Champlin MN had at least two HMPs on the shelf not for preorders. Maybe more because I didn’t pull them back to see what was behind them.
In continental Europe the new staff is hardly available so far
Wish I could have some better advice, Gupa... But these guys said it all.
Only Magic is keeping my local store alive.
Nearest place to play X-Wing is about two/three hours outside that.
A lot of places closing in my town in general.
Yay, Amazon?
Just now, Bucknife said:Yay, Amazon?
Just a personal anecdote, but my oldest daughter and her SO tried to keep a FLGS running for several years. One of the more disheartening experiences from that period is when they'd clean out the trash from the gaming room and find evidence of how the kids were unwrapping the packs they'd bought at Wal-Mart before coming over to use the play space (for free). How can a body stay motivated in the face of behavior like that?
@Spinland , I'm very sorry for your family's experience. It's a true shame and a real problem across the gaming industry.
It behooves FFG, for the longevity of their social games, to create initiatives that support and advantage the survival of flgs's specifically, over corporate retail chains like Target and Amazon and B&Noble, etc...
____
Super-edit:
The issues of prioritization of distribution are extremely expensive and complex... It's problems are actually one of the great opportunities of modern retail. I'm gonna give ffg a huge ball of slack on this one, but I hope that they can provide priority early product releases to targeted stores someday.
Edited by BucknifeOn 9/27/2020 at 10:20 AM, Spinland said:Just a personal anecdote, but my oldest daughter and her SO tried to keep a FLGS running for several years. One of the more disheartening experiences from that period is when they'd clean out the trash from the gaming room and find evidence of how the kids were unwrapping the packs they'd bought at Wal-Mart before coming over to use the play space (for free). How can a body stay motivated in the face of behavior like that?
Wow that is rough. Cannot help but feel for your family in that instance. I think a lot of us with these kinds of hobbies dream of having our own game store, but most of us probably haven't really considered how difficult keeping one running has to be with mega-corporations selling the same thing but for less. I have a bunch of DnD books, but something I don't often admit is that I got all of them off Amazon because they tended to be anywhere from 10-25 bucks cheaper than at the game shops around town. How can you compete with that? I try to support the local businesses when I can but sometimes you just want that new thing before your next paycheck hits, or you might just not be able to get the thing at all without a deal, so what then? I wish I had an answer :/
I know I've shifted away from online. My local stores have earned it.
Flgs's costs are higher.
Their margins are thinner.
If they're super intentional, then they can out-service the big retailers.
There are three services:
1. Convenience
2. Price
3. Quality
Pick one.
Unless you're Amazon.
5 hours ago, Bucknife said:Flgs's costs are higher.
Their margins are thinner.
If they're super intentional, then they can out-service the big retailers.
There are three services:
1. Convenience
2. Price
3. Quality
Pick one.
Unless you're Amazon.
3 is also irrelevant when it’s identical product from the same manufacturer.
FLGS can’t offer any of these directly. Maybe convenience in having product on shelf to buy (mine does).
They do however offer another alternative: venue of experience. I don’t buy at my LGS because they have the best price of our plastic spaceships. I buy them there because I understand that’s the price of my getting to play there. LGS don’t require purchases to play, but in a sense they do because no purchases means not paying the bills and closing.
On 9/25/2020 at 4:45 PM, Hiemfire said:Hopefully it's still standing. Minneapolis had it rough this year.
The city is still there, lol. One looped clip from March of one place can’t knock the rest of it down.