Spruecutters & Games Workshop

The time has come to clear the air regarding the issues with GW and Spruecutters (Test Valley Models).

GW have a whole list of T's & C's that Independent retailers like myself have to adhere to in order to trade with them.

One of these conditions is that you pay invoices by the end of the month after they were raised.

In August when the shop moved, despite all the great help I had in actually moving, it went way over budget, and I mean way over budget, this was my fault, a lack of foresight, call it what you like.

In order to cover the shortfall, I took out a short term loan and another government backed bounce back loan.

These were totally serviceable at the time, then the UK decided to help out the Ukraine and a large portion of the customer base were moved to what I refer to as the Eastern Front.

The shop basically got behind with all invoice payments, GW in response to this put the shop on a payment plan to pay off said invoices and reduced the credit by 50%.

This was managed by having a pre-order/order system, where new or existing products could be ordered and paid for “up front”

This worked fine, until the start of December when GW started a move to an automated warehouse, (a bit like the one Ocado have/had), add to that the problems with Covid in China, and you have a recipe that doesn’t work very well (All GW printed material comes out of China).

In response to this GW went to allocating stock, as you know with the GT Mission packs and books, the allocations were miniscule compared to what all independents wanted, (I was only allocated 2 GT Mission books)

We are now nearly three months down the line, and things have not improved to any degree, if anything they have got worse.

Deliveries going to the wrong shops

Deliveries not arriving on time

Even less in the way of allocations

Items on the trade price list were no longer available or out of stock.

Hopefully these are problems that GW can and will sort out, however I cannot see it being done overnight, they just don’t seem to care about their own shops, never mind the shops like Spruecutters.

Spruecutters is not the only shop suffering, I am getting enquiries by phone from all over the country for stock that hard to get.

A post by James GS shows that other retailers are as frustrated and annoyed as I am.

Thank you for your continued support.

Can I help?

Yes you can.

I will be reinstating the pre-order system on the website over the weekend, so if you want something, and it’s not in stock, please order it via the website.

When paying in the shop, please use cash as much as possible, this gets your money into the shops bank account a lot quicker, and without the transaction fees associated with cards.

Bring cash on games night to pay for snacks and drinks

If you haven’t already done so, join the membership scheme, it’s great value for money

Spread the word about the shop and the website, I have business cards you can hand out to friends, and opponents at tournaments.

Take part in the events and tournaments that Adam, Jon and Cairne organise, there is a great buzz in the shop when these are on.

Any questions or idea’s please call in at the shop, or DM me on Facebook.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank

James Snelgrove

James GS

Martin Coney

For giving me some great ideas

Jon Carrol

Cairne Keable

Adam Robinson

Katie Robinson

Keith Hendron

Adam Freeman

For all the free advice, moral support, and hard work you put into the business.