In so many ways the experience was typical of what you hear about on the internet. I was immediately approached by a friendly store manager who asked a series of questions: am I familiar with Games Workshop, what games do I play, what armies do I play, have I seen the new stuff, etc. Thankfully he was a charming enough guy to not appear to be too pushy, especially given my expectations.
It's been a while since I've been in a GW store, and I noticed that they are more organized now for the newcomer than they used to be with large signs saying "Start Here" and "What's Next." There's also the obvious paucity of non-GW stuff. I keep expecting to see scratchbuilt terrain on tables, but there is no way that is going to happen.
Years and years ago when I first came here to Kansas I got back into GW in a big way because that was the game being played at the FLGS. From that came the pretty sizable Brazen Claws Space Marine army I put together and highlighted on this blog.
On a sale day at a different gaming store I picked up the "Know No Fear" starter set for the most recent edition of Warhammer 40K, a pretty solid deal in terms of miniatures and a mini-version of the new rules.
So once again the question becomes "do I want to play regularly, and commit to spending a bit of cash and time to do it, or do I want to play something out of my house, perhaps irregularly, but with stuff I already have?"