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The Friendly Local Gaming Store

I live in Christchurch NZ. If you live elsewhere in the world, you may not be quite aware of the tyranny of distance that colours our Wargaming. Wargames toys are 'things' and these things need to be physically sent here. The outcome of that is sometimes an outright rort (witness my turning my back of GW LOTR stuff) but more commonly a tradeoff between choice and delivery time. Either we buy overseas and wait about a week for shipping or we buy what we can get in a local store. I've often had cause to not be super-impressed at the product range or service option two gets me. It has got to a point where I was enthused about X-Wing stuff because I can buy it in a toy or video-games store and at least get a normal level of service.

I accidentally chanced upon a new local games store in Christchurch: Slave to Painting, via my family ordering me things from it (since my long suffering wife tends to avoid stores without a normal level of service). I have no idea who runs it (could even be the Comics guys, in which case: good work) but it features amazing innovations like: using the internet, having an online catalogue, having range in stock, and even advertising itself. I just ordered the figs above yesterday, and they arrived here this morning before I left for work; less than 24 hours turnaround. Í hope they prosper, because I could get used to having lots of choices and getting things quickly...

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  1. John LambsheadSeptember 25, 2014 at 8:49 PM

    Yah, I live in North Kent in one of the outer London suburb cities. It's easy to forget the advantages of living in a region like this compared to the disadvantages - high cost of living, air pollution, choked roads. One of the advantages from my perspective is the ready avaiablity of wargame models, rules, shops, clubs etc.

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    1. JamieSeptember 25, 2014 at 10:18 PM

      Heh, I used to feel safe swimming in our rivers, half our roads seem to be under repair at any given time and the rental market has gone nuts. But at least I can order models in under 24 hours. :-)

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  2. Craig CSeptember 25, 2014 at 9:28 PM

    I didn't realise he had a bricks and mortar store. I just see him spamming Trademe which annoys the hell out of me as I need to trawl though pages of his stuff to find proper gaming content/listings.

    I wish trade me had a virtual store option for outfits like his

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    1. JamieSeptember 25, 2014 at 10:23 PM

      Hi Craig, he/they have a nicely designed (as in accurate stock levels listed) westore. Didn't really noticed slave to painting clustering up the infinity listings, when I looked last Night? May be like a few other stores and chuck surplus stuff up there? I think if you filter your searches you will get around this.

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  3. UnknownSeptember 25, 2014 at 11:55 PM

    I use these husband all the time. STP are really great for turn around times and the flat fiver for postage in NZ is cool

    The one time I had a hiccup they responded via email within a couple of hours so great service all round too.

    Plus they often give you lollipops!

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  4. ScottswargamingSeptember 26, 2014 at 3:28 PM

    Must admit I have used STP for hobby supplies (paints brushes flock etc, but still get figures abroad... still cheaper that way)

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    1. JamieSeptember 26, 2014 at 7:51 PM

      Yeah, I think a FLGS in our part of the world is going to struggle to compete on price, in the near future. Service, matters too, though - Being 'on to it', responsive, and turning things around fast. The likes of Caliver books in the UK is pretty on to it but StP have a huge shipping time advantage over them.

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