August 27th and 28th will be the celebration of the closing of the GW store in Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, MI.
The fellows at the store have some events planned to say goodbye and thank the customers.
I've been critical of GW stores as much as the next guy, but in truth, the GWGLC store was about as good as anyone could expect. They got a tremendous amount of foot traffic, witnessed loads of kids getting dropped off and abandoned, and suffered under the oft-documented GW sales philosophy.
But the staff really was great: friendly, courteous, respectful of us long-timers, knowledgeable, and frankly, real masters of the balancing act they had to perform as salesmen / hobbyists / daycare employees. Maybe that's why GW corporate has treated them fairly well since the announcement to close was made.
My kids got their first "very own" miniatures from that store, and in many ways, my renewed interest in the hobby came from that little slice of the mall adjacent to the food court.
When I started playing GW games, Michigan was second only to Maryland for the state with the most U.S. GW stores. Now we'll just have one, Hampton Village, and if they don't turn down their music I won't spend more than four minutes there ever again.
Best of luck, guys. Thanks for the good times.