Two Warhammer Retailers GO TO WAR Over Customers

Ajouté : 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]some point you find a place to start or what are you talking about? We're just going to start. Okay, we're just gonna start. All right, fine. So, it's a crossover that nobody expected. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to two channels, >> double channel, >> Lords of War Games and >> Toy Snowman.

[00:00:16]>> Toy Snowman, my my boy Hi, Amir. I'm Chris.

[00:00:19]>> And uh we uh we've been talking about this doing this for a little while, which is kind of cool. We're at a a convention called Canada Plays and uh we figured let's let's do a little thumb action cuz uh we have pretty different stories.

[00:00:31]>> Yes, we are at the opposite ends. So I'm the filthy guy that sells online and so every time he's cursing it's a first of all >> the degenerate uh population here.

[00:00:40]>> Yeah, we we sell at the scout and we know everybody looks at us disdain.

[00:00:46]Uh so we decided like hey let's talk about some of the differences that in our group because yes most of my sales I would say is 95% um online.

[00:00:54]>> Yeah. And we're not quite completely flipped but you know uh depending on the week it could be 8020 physical online 9010 physical online but never never approaching anywhere close to like even 7030 right. Uh we very much um and I I'll just jump in and try to do like a quick for those maybe that are on on Toy Snowman's channel or like you just to remind people that are watching this for the first time. We have a very what I look for is like a classic hobby shop experience.

[00:01:24]>> Um you know sort of modeled off the Games Workshop.

[00:01:27]>> It's a a cute card store.

[00:01:29]>> It's a inside joke. Oh man. Yeah. So customer just like who who like didn't really look around the shop being like this is like a really cute card store.

[00:01:38]We have like a couple shelves of cards and the rest is just not cards, right?

[00:01:41]It's just funny. No.

[00:01:42]>> Uh but yeah, we kind of modeled off of because you know, myself and Jay um uh our background is Games Workshop and uh and you know, going to those stores and then running them and kind of working in them. So, we kind of you know, you just kind of build things that you know, right? So, we kind of modeled our our shop after that. So, it's it's a very uh as I call like for those older audience members, it's a very cheers experience.

[00:02:02]It's a It's the bar thing where you're like you're going, you get the like hands-on help. You get the like persontoperson conversations. Uh I get to know my customers and we have chats about our kids and you know I know what's going on in people's lives and it's all part of the fun and the experience in the community, right? So >> everybody for me is uh a membership number and >> oh hello 0056.

[00:02:25]>> This guy >> fancy to see you again. Some sometimes some some people we know them by uh their location of where they live like oh this guy lives in the north of Ontario in some desert like it's all I know is it's a PO box and a helicopter has to deliver >> just like the Matrix. He's like this guy's uh this guy's worth this many dollars to me. I I like this guy.

[00:02:46]>> I accept this guy.

[00:02:47]>> This guy's great or whatever. Yeah, >> this is the guy that always gets free shipping and this guy Oh man. No, there is. Um, so I mean, yes, it's definitely less way less personal for us with a customer, right?

[00:02:58]>> But I mean, some customers, you know, when they have over like a hundred orders, repeat orders, you're like, "Yeah, this guy, if I ever meet him, I would shake his head."

[00:03:04]>> You're doing You're doing like the my man thing. You're like, "You're like, "My man, order him again." What a good what a good guy.

[00:03:08]>> What a guy. There's There's a few of them.

[00:03:11]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, let's let's So, we're friends, so this is going to be hard, but like we're going to be we'll try to be a little adversarial here. Let's stir up some drama here.

[00:03:21]uh what like one of the reasons that I at least philosophically avoided building a business like yours, right, is um mostly out of like personal desire, I would say like I envision myself wanting to chat to customers and and kind of like uh the the idea for me of like spending my day packing boxes, >> it's like existential horror or whatever, you know, like so uh you that for me it was it was very much like building a space people wanted to come to and uh and kind of like uh making it I guess a destination even even though it's I don't know if if it is that but um >> that's kind of what it is right tables like I saw people coming into your store so I went to his store obviously and looked around and I just saw people coming in all the time and that's why I heard the oh it's cute little card shop moment I'm like yes he loves that by the way I just want to say one thing before I before I start trashing it >> yeah of course >> is uh he has spray paints in his front counter And I'm like mocking.

[00:04:20]>> You love this. You love this.

[00:04:21]>> I was mocking him like you think somebody's going to buy.

[00:04:23]>> He's like, "Oh, you got you got uh what is this? Instead of oh Henry bars, you got like uh primers and glues and and he's just like ripping it or whatever."

[00:04:30]>> And then somebody comes in and like you know talks to me for like listen. Oh yeah, I'll just grab a little black thing. Just like glue like no right away. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

[00:04:41]>> So now I'm like, "Yeah, that's a pretty good idea."

[00:04:43]>> Very strong idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:44]>> No, definitely the impulse buy is obviously way stronger on your end than for me. I don't think I have any impulse buys on my side.

[00:04:51]>> But so I as much as I like I like people, I also can only have a social battery that's you know.

[00:04:58]>> Yeah.

[00:04:59]>> Diminished I guess.

[00:05:00]>> Yeah. Sure. Sure.

[00:05:01]>> Um the other thing is I feel like there is >> you can only like I think you talked about that you can only fame excitement for so long >> on certain things. And for me it's like okay once I saw the release like okay but you know if you come up to me and then you ask me I'm like I for me that's old news.

[00:05:18]>> While some people will be like oh no that's that's completely brand new. I'm like brand new to you but not to me. So I can't be on that same level as you and I have troubles with that.

[00:05:26]>> Right. Right. Right. You got to embrace your inner joker and just feel like uh a little bit crazier or whatever. That's what 20 20 plus years of retail has broken my brain right now. I'm just like it's true though. It's a good point actually. Like so much of customer service is like matching the energy of the person that you're talking to and uh and kind of like finding a way to be excited about the thing that they're excited about which is that's a skill and it's it's not an easy thing to kind of um to do and like you said it it can require a lot of battery power to to kind of do that right. So >> So one thing I want to know so I'm known for like having terrible returns online.

[00:06:00]>> How are the returns on your end? Cuz my returns people don't even return the same figures.

[00:06:04]>> Oh my god. They return like they try to bring different toys and like different like you open the sprew it's empty and you're like oh this guy just >> this is a good this is a good way to go because like this is like talking about like the negatives of both businesses like what are the what are the down we'll start with negatives because that's more fun gets more views right so so negatives is like you're dealing with >> exponentially way more people too though like just just in general >> um and uh and one thing about the online space you can feel free to disagree with me here too is um I I feel like and I hate using this word because it's it's it's probably not entirely fair, but it can be a bit more mercenary, >> right? Yes. In the sense that like >> they might not be toy snowman customers.

[00:06:45]They're just like looking for thing or the cheapest price, right? That either you have it, which is a thing that's good, >> or they're looking for the best price, um most competitive price, right?

[00:06:56]>> So, >> one of the things I always talk about on the channel is like that's that's a that's a tough customer to cater to sometimes.

[00:07:02]>> For sure. Um, yeah, talk about that.

[00:07:04]Yeah, >> I al so whenever somebody talks to me about like competition and everything and I always tell them, >> yeah, I don't look at any Canadian uh retailers for toys or like anything in general because I know my biggest uh competitor is Big Bat Toy Store in the US and some other US stores because So, here's the strange thing about shipping online is that people are able to ship from the US to Canada cheaper than I can ship from Canada to the other side of Canada.

[00:07:30]>> That's wild.

[00:07:31]>> It's horrible.

[00:07:33]Okay, it'll cost me like $17 to ship to ship for $6 or $8 by the post office from like Washington.

[00:07:42]>> They have they have literally quite for those of you that don't, you know, don't live in Canada like or like if you're just in the states, you might not have ever thought about this, but like things are literally subsidized in different ways in countries like so there sometimes it's just like a greater investment in like the US postal service for example, and they just subsidize those rates. Yeah.

[00:07:58]>> Uh to to send things internally. USPS loses billions a year. Cannibals lo they lose a lot of money too, >> but they try to make money. That's the problem. Trying to make money. Yeah.

[00:08:08]Yeah. Um and that's we're not getting into the politics of that because that's that's a black hole. I support Campost institution. Um but yeah, so that's a great thing and and for me if I was to look at okay, what's a comparable negative experience is um if I have those like negative customer interactions or like uh there's there's a bit more like I don't want to use the word riff raff because that's maybe a bit unfair or whatever, but um you know if we use the bar analogy again and you know I have a lot more people coming into my physical space. I have that those like bad faith people face to face instead of just in a pure online sense, right? So it can be a bit more like uh obnoxious I guess.

[00:08:50]>> Yes. They can also consume your time and you can't really run away.

[00:08:53]>> The time vampires. Yes.

[00:08:54]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:55]>> But for us it's more I feel some people they have an unrealistic standard where they're like I ordered it yesterday.

[00:09:01]It's 12:00.

[00:09:02]>> We live in the Amazon world, right?

[00:09:03]Unfortunately. Right. And and uh I I tell people this all the time. like we don't operate even though they like they own like these like distribution and shipping companies that we have to use a lot of the time we can't still we don't you still don't get the priority service that they give themselves essentially right so it >> it's hard because like sometimes people are like they order it on I don't know let's say Saturday or Sunday post office doesn't deliver for us and we're not using a private carrier we're using chemicals and chemicals is off on the weekend >> so you know me Monday they'll send an email saying hey where's my package I'm like you ordered it on Saturday there's no way for us to give to the Canada post or they won't even pick it up. Yeah.

[00:09:38]>> Until the weekday and they're like, "Oh, you're so slow." I'm like, "You're so slow. You're so slow. I'm going the fastest I can actually.

[00:09:46]>> I'll have you know."

[00:09:48]>> Yeah. I'll have you know.

[00:09:49]>> I feel sometimes we get compared to like giant corporations. But like, you know, if you're in a store, they're not going to like say, "Hey, uh, why are you not like >> you tend So, this is another phenomenon, too, where like I people obviously anyone who's been on the internet can relate to this and also lived in the real world. People tend to be nicer in person.

[00:10:06]>> Yeah.

[00:10:07]>> Generally speaking, I'm not obviously talking about specific examples, but generally people are nicer face to face.

[00:10:12]They won't say the nasty things, but like through the internet, >> they harness the power of anonymity or >> they can just say just the worst things to people, right? And and and that kind of happens. So >> yeah, so that that's what I face quite often. Uh which is why also like for us our customer service is given to somebody else because I it's hard for us you know we're small businesses and we take a lot of things personal even though sometimes it's just per somebody you know lashing out or just you know saying an off the off the cuff comment.

[00:10:40]It's hard for us like you know we own the business so it's hard for us to not take it personal because it is us who built the brand. So for me I can't do customer service so I have to offload it to somebody who's not um >> emotionally invested.

[00:10:53]>> Exactly. So >> yeah smart. That's smart. That's what I have to >> That's good. I mean like that's smart cuz I'm sure there's a lot of people in your situation who aren't doing that and are just taking the lows.

[00:11:02]>> I mean that's why you get the game store kmagin that's >> that is if anyone's wondering how comic book store and the Simpsons guy like these are real pe like this is based on real people right like he used to be he used to be a happy person and you know thousands you just killed the guy and now he's just like hey what do you want?

[00:11:18]>> Do you not have this edition? No I don't have this 13-year-old edition.

[00:11:22]>> So yeah interesting. So, well, let's talk about like uh now we talked about a couple of the negative things like positive things obviously, right? Like um uh let's start with your your business like when you and more specifically >> things that you have an advantage to me over, right? Like a positive to your business.

[00:11:41]>> I think I can recoup my money way faster than you in person. Cuz for me, example, like this week we had uh which it was a huge release. We had the Imperial Guard release, right? The battalions. So for us, we were sold out by I don't know within 5 6 hours.

[00:11:58]>> Hot damn.

[00:11:58]>> So I was like, okay, I know that money is coming into my bank account, you know, Tuesday, Monday.

[00:12:02]>> Yeah.

[00:12:03]>> So I already have that cash flow like in my u bank account by before the end of the week before I even received the product. The money's there. Yeah.

[00:12:12]>> Right. So I'm feeling pretty good about >> people people are watching already like why would you do this any different than that? That sounds way better. That sounds way better. I want the money now.

[00:12:21]There is a huge downside is that obviously like for your end I can imagine that the customers like who want to come to instore to purchase it >> they're not they can't because I'm sold out right >> right yeah sure so yeah uh just comparing that exact example which is I think a good one to talk about is uh you know I I I'll sell I'll sell like far fewer than air like in terms of pre-orders right um but I have like a list of people that I'm you know just just from having like more instore presence I have like a longer list of like you We call them like the regulars, right? Who are like, "Yeah, I'll take one." And you know, they'll come in and pay on the weekend it comes out or something.

[00:12:57]>> And then like you said, it's it's a slower for me like if I have any extras, those tend to sell a bit a bit slower, right? So, so generally it forces you to operate in a bit more of a um I would say like a bit more conservative, but you tend to be a bit more conservative with your purchases when you when you have like, okay, if there's going to be like four to 10 left over after pre-orders and pickups and stuff, um like I I I'm like, "Okay, well that's that's too many for me." And whereas for someone like you, you're like, "I'll either blow them out right away or, you know, it's it's it's the volume business, so I'm just gonna like I'm going to turn these in. I'm not gonna sweat it too much." That's that's pretty much how we are. Occasional time we we miss hard like you know fullgrim or something and tell the hologram story.

[00:13:38]Oh my god. This is I think one of the first conversations you and I had on the phone which is funny. And we're just like chatting about like allocations and like oh what do you think? Like and this it's so funny that I talked to you guys all the time on this channel and and and and we're twice snowman people. This will maybe be new to you, but like this is the dance that we have every week where it's like you're trying to find the perfect number >> of orders. Yeah.

[00:14:02]>> Of like to get it like to get it perfectly right like and sometimes perfectly right means sold out and sometimes perfectly right is like I want to have enough to last me a couple months.

[00:14:11]>> It's usually not I want to have enough to last me several years.

[00:14:16]>> So here's the here's the problem. So with my business plan of where I can so I want to order everything and it be sold out by you know whatever time and you know I don't I can't really decide like this order this this fulgrum is for this customer this full room for this customer I can't do that that's more of a physical store >> so for me I order a huge amount and I always try to hit like the maximum capacity that I can order >> and the problem is you order amount that you want to get if it sells out but if it doesn't sell out and then games says yeah you want 40 full grams. You get 40 full grims. And I'm just like now I don't feel so good cuz they're giving me the full amount. I want them to cut it, >> you know, because when they cut me off, >> I'm like, "Okay, I ordered the maximum amount. I'm going to make all the profit."

[00:15:02]>> It's like a game of chicken and mouse you have to play. Unfortunately, it's like uh you don't there's like this invisible threshold and you kind of want to hit up against it because you're like, "Oh, that means like this the demand is good and it's probably going to sell through quick." But the second they're like, "No, you can have it all."

[00:15:16]You're like, "Oh no, >> I messed up."

[00:15:18]>> I can I can have it all. Oh god, what have I done? What have I done? How many of these did they make?

[00:15:23]>> You don't know it's bad until they tell you you can have it.

[00:15:25]>> Yeah. And you're like, "Oh, man." Yeah.

[00:15:27]So, we were talking >> what's his name from in with as they were like uh we were asking what what is that game? Ascended.

[00:15:35]>> It's like a new a new TCG game.

[00:15:37]>> Okay. Okay.

[00:15:38]>> And uh >> Oh my gosh.

[00:15:39]>> And he was Michael's like asking like, "Do you guys is it good? Can I have it?"

[00:15:43]And they're like, "You want it? You can have it. And it's like >> isn't that just sum it up right there?

[00:15:48]It's like somebody says you can have it >> if you can get it.

[00:15:50]>> It's not.

[00:15:51]>> There's your answer in the TCG world.

[00:15:53]Basically, it's like yes.

[00:15:54]>> You like Pokemon? No. Nobody's going to give it to you. Buy other things. Magic >> magic set sold out. You can't have it.

[00:16:00]You got to, you know, sold out. Yeah.

[00:16:03]>> But then they say, "No, you want it."

[00:16:04]You're like, "Wait, no.

[00:16:05]>> You can have all the No, you don't actually want it.

[00:16:09]>> I just wanted to know it was available."

[00:16:10]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:13]>> No, no, no.

[00:16:14]>> Oh, yeah. That's too funny. Well, uh, we won't go too long. Uh, we're going to do a follow-up video here and we're going to kind of talk about a little bit about like minis versus toys. So, stay tuned and watch that. I don't know if >> Tell me tell me your returns. I need to know people need to know about returns.

[00:16:28]How bad are good on your end?

[00:16:31]>> Yeah. I think I think one benefit of the instore experience is that you because you have more of the kind of lever to pull with the customer where you're you're you're you're having that conversation figuring out what they're interested in. There's a lot of like back and forth and kind of like catering to their experience. I feel like because of that you the person ends up with the thing that they want more often >> and there's less buyer remorse because of that. So, we get very few returns.

[00:17:00]Like, it's super low. Um, the only time of year I'll usually have returns is after Christmas, you know, like the gift giving season. You just get this occasional like, >> "Yeah, I got this as a gift from you guys." And, uh, like, quite frankly, it's literally just not what I want or whatever. Can I Can I swap it for something else?

[00:17:16]>> Do you ever have people return like the same item, like a fourth box, but it's the newer version versus the older version? Cuz you know how sometimes they change the box colors?

[00:17:24]>> Yeah. Um, occasionally like we're we're always looking at like um you know is the person making the exchange like uh a customer, you know, like are they are they someone who supports the store and like uh contributes in a positive way or are they just looking to like beat us on a on some sort of like scammy thing, right? So ultimately like we always try to help people that that care about the business, right? and and and and uh and and are just like, "Look, man, I I I buy things from you all the time and uh this thing just whatever, you know, and it's like, "Oh, yeah, of course." Like, let's let's let's work let's figure something out here, right? I think you'll always find uh you have capacity for people that like generally aren't trying to >> I guess for me, I'm a bit more angry towards it because I've it's the shipping cost that we pay.

[00:18:06]>> Well, yeah, it's customer 0046.

[00:18:09]Like that guy, >> he's returning from BC. Yeah, >> I got to ship it to him from BC and he's unhappy and he's going to charge back unless I return it from >> Yeah, that's the problem with my the chargeback threat stuff. So, most of our problems actually come from our online business, which is Isn't that funny? I don't do very much and that's where all the problems are. Yeah, that's surprising. Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed that. Uh, if you guys like these kind of videos, let us know because we have tons of friends in the gaming industry as we as we always talk about on the channel. Like I'm talking to these guys all the time and it helps us get like insights into what we're doing and we all try to help each other. Uh if you want to see more videos like this where we do like store crossovers and kind of things we can have more fun with it too. Let us know in the comments in both channels and give a like.

[00:18:51]>> Yeah. Super smash.

[00:18:52]>> Actually, no. No. There's a hype button now.

[00:18:54]>> Hype.

[00:18:55]>> Yes. If you get hype, it's way better.

[00:18:57]>> It's a better like >> hype this. It's like a super like. It's like when you flip up on >> I don't know if I'm even hyped right now. I'm asking them to hype or whatever. Thanks for watching. We appreciate you. Uh, check out Toy Snowman in Montreal. Very cool shop. I haven't been yet, but like, you know, it's like I said, Mirror and I talk about all the time. And Lords of War Games in Oakville. Um, you could support like you can even buy stuff from you if you're in the States.

[00:19:18]>> If you're in BC, >> you got to like send me like a shady email to order from me in the US, but like he probably is set up already to do it. So, uh, yeah, check it out. Thanks guys for watching.

[00:19:26]>> Take care. Bye.