Monday, June 4, 2018

Store Experience: Warhammer Lawrence

Hey Game Fans, we managed to get our expedition to check out the new Warhammer store in Lawrence, Kansas off the ground this weekend and the Wook and i made our pilgrimage to the promised land. For those of you unfamiliar with Kansas, the eastern half is nice with trees, grass, and water. It also has an abundance of large towns/cities/suburbs. Lawrence is about a half an hour west of the Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas City, Kansas metroplex. It’ also about 45 minutes east of Topeka. The other important fact to keep in mind about Lawrence is that it’s home to the University of Kansas, and it’s transient population of about 50,000 students every year. This is a pretty solid place to open up a Warhammer store in my opinion.


The store is in a small shopping center that features an IHOP, a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, a Jason’s Deli and a World Market among a ton of other things. It’s on the Southern end of Lawrence, at 3140 Iowa Street, #109. Currently, it is missing the iconic Warhammer sign, but i am certain that the Facilities folks will get that up and running before too long. Let’s get down to the brass tacks of the store and what i think it does well, and the areas that it can struggle with.


This store is first and foremost a hobby center. It contains all of the tools and equipment you will need to clip your models from their sprues, prepare them, and give them the glue they’ll need to become the models for your army. With the exception of Sigmarite, it contains a full paint assortment, including the sprays. Also present were the texture paints, the specialty bases, and just about anything else you could want to assemble and paint your miniatures.


The store has ample space for the displays it has. I saw two separate display cases for minis, and there were clear sections for New Releases, Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, and Boxed Games. I also saw display boards for Dark Imperium and the Age of Sigmar starter set. When i got there, there were two folks settled in painting, a game of Age of Sigmar going, a painting demo, and a half dozen customers milling about the store.


Not once did i feel crowded, even with that many people in the store, and i could still navigate easily around the place and find what i was looking. It’s a nice change of pace from a couple of other store experiences i’ve had in the past. The Operator of the store, Jonathan, was managing all of these situations and experiences very deftly and moved from group to group making sure that everyone was taken care of.


It was a very satisfying customer service experience for me, and Jonathan was very friendly and knew the products he was selling. His hobby philosophy is very similar to mine, and even the Wook found a game he wants to try the next time we are in the area (Looking at you, Shadespire). It’s very refreshing to find someone who speaks your hobby jargon at a store like this, and i definitely enjoyed this experience.


Now this isn’t a tournament venue. Honestly, i’m not sure the space could accomodate more than 5 or 6 full 4 by 6 tables and still have room to conduct business. That said, it isn’t intended to be a tournament venue. The store space and operating ideas are geared towards a friendly, happy place to experience the hobby and play some games with your friends. They offer hobby demos, places to try the GW family of games, and have fun. That last one is important to me, because i have always believed that if you aren’t having fun, you need to re-evaluate why you are doing something.


Now while i was at the store, I picked up a bunch of supplies for my various projects, including paint for my T’au, Seraphon, Necrons, Adeptus Mechanicus, and Imperial Knights. I maintain that the Knights are the Icing on the cake, and I’ll put work in on them when i finish another project.


I also picked up the start of the Wombotron, (I’m still waiting on the Van Saar Gang, but it is coming with the Knight stuff i pre-ordered). As soon as i have all of the kits in front of me, I’ll start putting together that project with pictures (hopefully).


The store doesn’t carry EVERYTHING, but it has a lot of the stuff you’d pop down to the store for. The bane of my personal existence is the tablet computer where you can order from Games Workshop and have them ship it to the store, or your home address. The upside is that if the thing you’re looking for isn’t there, it can be ordered and in your hands in a couple of days (if it’s not out online). The downside is, that if you have giant meat hook hands like mine, you’re going to spend 20 minutes putting your e-mail address into the system.


This was one of the most pleasant experiences i have had with a hobby store in a very long time, and I will be back up again. I would rate this 4 and half Primarchs (you lose half a primarch without a Sign). Fantastic experience, great hobby potential. Make sure you say hi to Jonathan and let him help you enjoy the hobby and the fun of Warhammer in its many incarnations.


That’s it for us today, Game Fans. Game On.


Oh, the Store address for those of you looking to pop in is


Warhammer Lawrence
3140 Iowa Street, #109
Lawrence, KS 66046


Also, you can find them on Facebook here

No comments:

Post a Comment