Before my stint at WoTC, I managed a brick & mortar gaming store in Bellevue, WA - the now-defunct Games & Gizmos. I should note that Games & Gizmos still lives on down the road in Redmond, but I think the owners are not associated with the previous incarnations of G&G. In any event, it was a fun job with a neat little store and a good crew. It was also my introduction to Games Workshop and their products, as well as their approach to the hobby and the business.
One of the items that I still have from those days is the black folder pictured above - Codex Rogue Trader, otherwise known as "Games Workshop's Consummate Guide For Independent Retailers." It's a very slick, well-made binder with 23 double-sided pages (4 of which are glossy divider pages) packed with info on how to help your store sell GW product. There are also two laminated sheets that are for running quick and easy demo games of WHFB and 40K.
Immune to both Mt. Dew and Cheetos dust.
The binder is divided up into four sections: the Business Section, the Hobby Section, the How-To Section, and the RT Resources Section. Overall, it's an interesting look at how GW encouraged retailers to attract new players, keep existing ones, and yes, sell GW product. I won't go into a section-by-section breakdown of the binder, but I will say they put a lot of importance on the quality of store staffers. That, and store owners should (if practical) engage customers to help run events like Painting & Terrain Classes.
I have no idea if a current version of Codex Rogue Trader exists or not, but it would be interesting to compare the current version with mine and see how much or how little things have changed in the past decade plus since my binder was published. GW seems to be one of those love 'em or hate 'em companies, yet they have managed to endure for over 35 years now, so they must be doing something right.
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