Local store dropping reaper

[Club]

I live in a metro area with around a dozen gaming stores, though that goes up and down as one opens and one closes. There, is, however, THE gaming store, the one that carries everything, that has eight or more square meters of reaper minis on the wall. I've bought a lot of reaper stuff from them over the years.

 

I was listening in last night as a buddy of mine talked with the owner. He said that since the kickstarter, reaper's dealer service has gotten so bad that both he and his distributor are planning to drop the line entirely. That he tries to order or special-order minis, and the distro can't get them in stock. And very little new has been released in the last year.

 

As a final note, he's one of the guys who really hates online-only stores, and considers kickstarter to be an extension of that. I'll respect his opinion on the former, if not entirely the latter.

 

This store got big boxes of minis every month, easily a couple thousand $'s worth. I don't know if this is isolated, but if it isn't, it might really behove reaper to pay a lot more attention to their distributor network and the needs of the brick-and-morter stores. I like buying and ordering my minis through him, support local and all that crap. I'd like to be able to in the future, and not being able to will probabbly change how much reaper stuff I get.

 

Moving away from tin is important, given the way it's price keeps climbing. But for at least the next while, tin is the big part of his bottom line with reaper, and apparently his needs along those lines aren't being met.

[Heisler]

I would actually say that this is pretty short sighted on the store's part. While I understand his position, it sends a bad message to his customers.

[LittleBluberry]

I'm confused, is he selling a lot of metal Reaper minis and he's having problems with a few special orders? Or is he not selling as much because there's nothing new? Generally a store carries what sells. Poor service from reps is not good, but generally it's not going to stop a store from carrying a popular product. It feels like there might be more going on than just poor rep service.

[Club]

He sells product. He can't restock. No stock means he isn't selling product.

[kristof65]

Interesting. I've special ordered a whole handful of Reaper minis from one local game store with no issue recently, and another store has had no shortage of Reaper minis on their walls.

 

I wonder what the full story is here?

[CaptainPete]

I recently had an issue ordering a mini via my friend's store. We both said it was probably out of stock because they were trying to get the ROW Kickstarter stuff out. If it was me, I would give them until the end of the year to get things worked out. Then again, I don't run a business, so that might not be the best way to handle it.

 

Hopefully, things get sorted out and your store doesn't drop Reaper stuff.

[Heisler]

Actually, I would like to know which distributor it is.

[Darsc Zacal]

Interesting, but the story sounds odd, like there's something else going on here.

[MonkeySloth]

From what I heard at Gencon the distributors are causing trouble for people that have run kickstarters, don't know why it affects them but they hate it, so to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if this game store just contact reaper they'd actually have no problem getting stuff as I'd wager there's some dishonesty going around from the distributor end. I talked to a lot of game companies and heard pretty much universally the same thing and that some distributors are telling game stores not to buy kickstarted products. The most shocking thing I heard was that many distributors were insisting on 60% to carry anything from a company that used kickstater and there was some very valid scuttlebutt about how those same distributors were quite upset with Reaper over the Bones Kickstarter.

Edited September 15, 2013 by MonkeySloth

[CaptainPete]

The reason I've heard is that the distributors feel that kickstarted projects have already reached market saturation, thus carrying the product is pointless. I'm sure the PDFs that many projects have given out get spread around the internet even faster that illicit scans and the like. There's also some developing issues related to online retailers that clouds the issue further.

Personally, I disagree that even a majority of Kickstarted projects reached market saturation, but I'm no expect. All I know is that I've been unable to afford tons of games and products and I would be first in line to buy them.

[MonkeySloth]

Many people said the market saturation was the line they were given but there were a decent number that said, after they gave me the "market saturation line" that the truth is distributors believe Kickstarter circumvents them so they're actively acting against kickstarted products and companies. Whether that's sour grapes from these companies or the truth is something that I couldn't 100% say but there were enough of them saying the same thing that it makes one think there has to be some truth to it.

 

The one thing that's coming out of all of this is there are some game stores that have decided to become distributors themselves (The War Store is one of them) and they're picking up all the stuff the other distributors are dropping or refusing to carry.

Edited September 15, 2013 by MonkeySloth

[CaptainPete]

Well, it'll be interesting to see how the whole thing turns out. Kickstarter is something new and business will have to adapt or die, as it always has.

[Orlando_the_Technicoloured]

If a significant portion of the stores sales were 'new' reaper minis the KS could have hit them pretty hard as reaper have certainly not released anything like as many new metal minis this year (not impossible if they have enough resident lead-heads)

 

and only the business itself knows how much cash the shelf space is generating, it could well be it's dropped below the threshold where it makes financial sense to have it

 

that said I'd be suspicious of the distributor too whether there might be an issue with the bones ks annoying them, or just that they (or their local rep) might feel it's too much like hard work to do the paperwork for special orders, or even that they might have cut staff to streamline their business end ended up not quite able to do what the used to be able to do

 

At the end of the day IF the wall of Reaper minis make enough money for the store in question they'll call up Reaper direct even if the distributor drops them.... It may take a few months if they try to replace them with other stuff, but at the end of the day it's a business (that is successful as it's been there a fair while) and the owner will go where the money is

[Pingo]

Is there palpable evidence that distributors are actively undermining companies that use Kickstarter?

[Drizzt1080]

Within a week or two of getting my bones kickstarter back in early July. I had my local shop try to get me a few bottles of MS Black Primer. Since I was having bad luck with spray primers, and I like using thinned paints.

 

I knew KS would have an affect on order fulfillment, so wasn't really worried when the retailer said it might take a few tries. They have been trying to order it every time they get something(usually weekly) from every distributor offering my desired Reaper products Instead of backordering it. This weekend I asked them to add some empty squeeze bottles and replacement tips to the things I need.

 

The only time I order Reaper products directly from Reaper is when the order contains an discontinued item, or bits from the boneyard. This is really starting to aggravate me since I don't want to have to order individual minis online, or save up orders until they qualify for free S&H.

 

If the distributors are boycotting Reaper. Reaper needs to a hire a handful of new people, and start having retailers order directly from them.