"WH SMITH censoring wargames mags !!!!!!!" Topic

Ok, I’m out shopping with the family and my seven year old son goes off to buy Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames in WH Smiths while we are looking at the books. He comes back a little later and tells me he can’t have the magazines because they are not for children!

We go over to the mag rack and they are on the highest shelf imaginable, along with Military History etc. The lads mags like Loaded and FMV and Big ‘uns weekly are all at toddler level! He points out the assistant so I ask her what’s going on. She says they don’t want children looking at “this sort of stuff”. I ask her why and she says “war isn’t very nice”. I point out all the computer mags with Battlefield 1942 Secret weapons and Texas chainsaw massacre and blood and guts all over the covers and ask her why they are not being “censored” too.

By this stage I’m getting quite irate and we are drawing a crowd, so the assistant rushes off and gets a manager, who tries the most PC bullshit lines I’ve ever heard on why this is the case. Apparently war is not a game…………………….

He really floundered when challenged over the computer mags and adult mags displayed at lower levels. We were given both titles free of charge (to shut me up I think)

Is this the case in all WH Smiths? Or is this just our loony store? I’m writing some serious letters of complaint by the way.

No, the real question is: Can this trick work when the next issue comes out?

:)

It's getting harder to find both WI&MW in WHS, not all branches stock them sadly. Seems also a North South divide? Manchester and Airports being especially difficult IMO.

Our local smiths (for local people, this is East devon..) sent back all copies of Harbinger becuase "they wouldn't sell here". When asked about the one's we'd ordered, they wouldn't sell either apparently. Smith's are idiots fit only for selling the lottery - support your local newsagent.

Wigan Smiths carries them, but they are that low down on the shelfs there you have to crawl about on your hands and knees to find them.

Luckily Smiths of Wigan (don't confuse this with WH Smiths) is far better.

As for Harbringer, i have subscribed, worth doing because they give you free stuff (2 nice mini's so far).

Craig

This unfortunately seems to be a problem with Smiths generally. My local branch (Canterbury) seems to have a very 'fluid' attitude to what it sells. Last year both magazines seemed to dissapear for a while. Then W.I. came back, now both are on the shelves again. Its the same with general modelling magazines too. Military Modeller dissapeared off the shelf for a while, Scale Model International has gone, and Tamiya magazine is back. I wouldn't mind if they gave some warning; a chalk board in the window stating that from a certain issue, these magazines are unavailable (unless presumably reserved). At least then I wouldn't miss an issue. Strangely, White Dwarf is always there; do they have a bit more clout than the smaller players?
Just don't even get me started on Smiths staffing levels at the tills either!!!!

I complained to WH Smiths at Waterloo London that the entire military section had disappeared- WI was then re-instated.

WH Smith give high flexibility to local managers in deciding what they stock, which can lead to political correctness...so if it ain't there, complain! In writing!

Guess I'm lucky - the Glasgow branch has MW and WI, at a reasonable level - no higher or lower than the assorted lads' mags, either. Dragon and WD seem to lurk around the bottom shelves along with the various SF series mags. The only problem is they keep reorganising the magazine section, so I can never find anything.

I love the fact they put the soft core mens mags on the bottom rack where the kids can get them! PC is just so wrong in so many ways. Yeah, lets encourage kids to be voyeurs and sexually insensitive but oh no they cant see war! Can you say hypocrits!

I find wargames mags impossible to find in Ottawa. The local hobby store sells them, but they're right downtown (on the up side, I get everything there at 10% off for being in OMG)

I wish they were more available elsewhere. Hmm, I know some Ottawa folks read this, anyplace to get interesting mags of the sort in Ottawa?

A very sad situation indeed. I don't mean to detract from the dilema but I find that I am a tad jealous. I live in the states and for starters no book chains at all will carry either mag! On top of that, when I finaly do find a gaming store that carries it I am damn lucky if it doesn't have dust on it and age wrinkles. Heaven forbid that our own local gaming store carry these because, according to the manager, they are not profitable to stock!

So... I am a little green with envy that you can not only get a copy of WI or MW but also that you can properly use your son to get a free, and latest, copy. :)

-MM

I can find WI and MW in my local Smiths. The problem is that I can't find any articles in them worth buying them for :-)

I find my money is better invested in Magweb.

That is the entire jest of our hobby. A lot of people believe we are war mongers. They are extremely short sighted and naive.Also having played chess since I was five and no one has a problem with that ,nor the game Risk there are truly ignorant people out there.

You should try at your local Borders Books store. They have a very extensive selection of wargaming, model making and history magazines including WI, MW and Harbringer! I dont know what the stores in the USA have but here in the UK the selection is far better than your average WHSmiths.

Coyote- All there is on this side of the River is French WD at Réflexions, Galleries de Hull, St. Joseph Boul. But on the plus side, soooooooooo many BDs!

I think you´re lucky you can get them at local press agents at all!

Here in germany, one usually has to specially order them, and their price is, more often than not, around thrice the UK price... and you are lucky to find them. It´s the first time in my life I´m actually considering taking up a subscription...

In my experience you can walk into any newsagents in southern Belgium and there is a better than even chance that you will find a shelf with nothing but military history magazines, militaria collectors magazines and military modelling magazines. I usually take the opportunity to stock up on them when I visit the country.

On my last trip I picked up a superb magazine on weapons of the Franco-Prussian war, plus a magazine covering French military uniforms and battles during the period 1700 - 1914.

Most of these can be obtained on subscription from the publishers.

Barrie

Over here in Hickville, Northern Netherlands, there is nothing worth mentioning about our hobby in the newsstands.

I agree, I cant get copies of any wargames mag in my town but I can get "military modelling" in my local WHS. I get my copies in Leicester's big WHS (the other two in the city dont stock them.)I can order them specially but they are not stored on spec.

In Leicester the mags are stored with the fantasy mags and are no where near the "top shelf stuff".

Military History is displayed on a totally different shelf.

There seems to be no pattern, I can only assume itis local practice.

Hmmmm...

It seems that WH Smith are getting, shall we say, fairly erratic in their procedures.

Since reading Streetline's comments we have been in contact with each of the Devonshire branches of WH Smith and with their head office as we have grown slightly alarmed at this sequence of events.

We (as do all magazine publishers) pay Wh Smith a vast sum of money to stock our publication. A sum that has ballooned due the promotion they are supposed to be running with HARBINGER, from what we've read here they do not seem to be keeping up their end of the deal and we have been forced to act to rectify the situation.

Streetline, please drop us an email at editor@harbingermagazine.com we have some news concerning your local store. And for anyone else who notices these strange occurences please inform us (or the relevant publisher) so that we can nip any of these situations in the bud.

Many thanks

Harbinger

Not a problem in Notts - all inc Harbinger right next to the pokemon and chackie Chan comics; dont know if thats a bigger problem.... : 0)

What is Harbinger ? A new magazine ?

In my local WHSmiths in Telford, there is no problem at all. The magazine is in a specialist section with all the other historical and modeling mags all below head height.

There are plenty of copies, some times they sell out! My local hobby shop also sells them. There is even a WHSmiths 4 miles away in Wellington that also seeles them.

But the funnist thing is that on a trip to our local hospital 'Princess Royal' the little shop there stocks both wargames mags in a 'league of friends' shop! Which was great when I had to queue for a few hours waiting I had some good reading :)

This place sounds like the UK version of Barnes and Noble here in the states. As far as I know they B&N aren't adventureous enough to stock a WI or WD but they do carry lots of ACW mags. I wish they would and I wouldn't care what shelf they put it on.

The experience you had was based on misguided PC behavior which had no logic. Why allow kids access to senseless violence and prevent them from reaching the well thought out mass violence of war?

I don't see why people complain, WH Smith stock lots of sandwiches.
Seriously, I haven't been in a WH Smith in the past six months as they stopped stocking Wired.

Sine then, I moved out of the country.

Are WHSmiths meant to be stocking HARBINGER in all stores? I live in Tamworth and hadn't seen a copy in either of the two stores until I went to Burton On Trent. Its a good read!

That said, I had to to specifically ask where Wargames Illustrated had gone after they stopped stocking it and they brought it back. Hurray!

Huntingdon WHS stocks WI and MW, no problem along with a goodly variety of militaria.
In Cambridge you have to go to Borders.

Harbinger though?
Sorry, not seen that in Huntingdon.
What is your magazine about?

2 mags for free and embarrased serving drones. Chalk a win up for the good guys.

Harbinger is a new miniatures magazine that has lots of mini and game reviews, painting guides ( which have been very good in the first 2 issues ) , and lots of adds for mainly alternatives to GW ( though the mag itself is not anti-gw as far as i can tell ) .

check out the website

harbingermagazine.com

I can also get all the magazines at my local Smith's. My only complaint is that they are stored at knee level for me. My poor aching back.

In Ottawa, you can also try Chapters, where I've seen both WD and WI. The Maison [?] de la Presse Internationale on Bank Street also stocks some wargaming magazines.

-Skeptic

W H Smugs in Jersey,Channel islands, stock WI and MW at ankle height next to the dolls house mags .

I'm going to ask Smugs to move them to the top shelf !

No Harbinger though :0(

Where on Bank St.? I know there's one near the National Gallery at the edge of the Byward Market, but that's nowhere near Bank (on the other side of the Rideau canal...).

We don't have WH Smith in Canada (to my knowledge), so why are we colonials chatting here?

Scurvey - I've worked in another type store and seen things from the retailer's point of view. One customer sees a type of book on our shelves and goes ballistic threatening to boycot the store unless we removed it muy pronto. I was about to suggest that since America was theoretically founded on the notion of free exchange of ideas she didn't had the freedom not to buy it or open it and further she might find a scuzzy theocratic dictatorship more to her liking, But then the assistant manager pleaded off with the excuse the objectionable titles were forced on us by an out-of-touch bunch of looneys at our corporate headquarters. Which was too bad because I knew how well she got on with the corporate leadership. Too bad I had to knock it off before we got into a nice verbal furball since that was one screaming fight I really longing to start.

My local Borders sells WI, but the price is pretty inflated-they stuck a 'Imported' sticker on it to justify it (I live in NZ)

I did get a laugh when I saw a thirteen- year old reading a porn magazine in plain sight, and no-one caring :0

I am always slightly surprised that the WHS in Newark stocks and seems to seel so many WI. The magazine is produced in the town and anyone who isn't getting it on sub gets it direct from Duncan. :-)

That said I will bring this up with him as he, like all the other Mag producers has a contract with WHS for them to put their mags into the stores. It might be worth someone who knows him bringing this up with the editor of MW as well. We should put pressure on from both sides, customer and magazine, to make sure the shops are stocking them.

cheers

Tricks

I too am a wee bit envious as the local store here in Mainz (Germany) used to stock WI but now doesn't as it is not being "pushed by the stockist and in Frankfurt the magazines cost as Chris mentioned earlier cost about three times that what they cost in England... :(

Oh well I had the idea of starting a subscription, but it seems a tad expensive...

Joe

Thanks for the Harbinger web address.

I am going to try to get it at the big WHS in Holborn today.

You do have WH Smith in Canada as I was in one in Vancouver airport on Friday. Didn't see WI or Miniature Wargames, though.

In Toronto I used to buy mine in that big newsagent (Canadian News?)in BCE Place. Both magazines seemed fairly easily available in Toronto at least.

They always seem to have a couple of copies of WI in WHSmiths in Putney (London) but you have to be quick because they go so quickly - I'm surprised they don't stock more to keep up with the demand! I have always found that I have to go to WHSmiths to get my copies because I have never found it anywhere else. However, I have to search for it everytime and it has normally been hidden behind something else!

I believe WH Smiths only has outlets at airports in North America and not in tne cities, etc. They complained in their last company report that the North American side of the business was losing money.Perhaps they are not stocking the right magazines.

Regards,

T C

I havent even seen White Dwarf in the usual WH Smith in Victoria Station where I normally buy it for months.

Sainsburys used to stock White Dwarf and they seem to have stopped doing that too.

Vancouver? Agggghhhhhhh! Having never been farther in BC than the Rockies, my sense of being Canadian is failling since I am still missing that one province to visit....

How can a shop can justify pulling WI but then selling White Dwarf? One magazine contains historical articles of some educational quality while the other encourages bad spelling, black magic and indiscriminate violence (well you get my drift..).

I met a lovely girl in Vancouver who was building a nice Ancient Celt army. Started off on Mordheim, then GW LotR, now thinking about El Cid using WAB. So some evidence of the Ork brains transferring over to the righteous way. Not that I was interested in her brains.

And she could cook. Make a wonderful wife. Except I'm already married.

Wasn't it Nelson who said "All men are batchelors past Gibralter"? And Vancouver is an awful lot further than Gibralter.

Getting shelf space in WH Smith as the major retailer is crucial for wargaming's future. Given that wargaming shops are very few and far between, the major distribution channel is mail order. The magazines are therefore crucial, even in a web-based age, particularly for introducing people to a new era, and for getting in new gamers.
And as for Harbinger- no sign at SW London WH Smiths....but I'd buy it if I could find it!

Legatus- You've made me think of the skewered logic I've made about relationships: even though there are more women, there will always be more single guys...

I said the logic was skewered. But then again, romantically, I'm a coward.

I consider 3 branches of Smiths to be "local".

One has WI & WD only.

Two have WI, MW, WD, Harbringer, Military History Illustrated.

One has Borders next door to it which carries all of the above plus S&T, and several American military magazines.

In Smiths WD has a habit of being shelved in all sorts of places - with games, with modelling, with computers, with entertainment ....

Ah,

that might explain why I cant find it.

I just bought White Dwarf in Smiths. It was with all the SF Film and TV magazines like SFX, Buffy etc. Nowhere near the military magazines. Wargames Illustrated in the smaller Smiths seems to go with uncategoried magazines like conde Nast traveller etc arther than with eg Railway or aviation magazines as you might expect. It is frustrating.