Game and HMV, not surprised they are struggling

Delivery_Driver

I don't eat cheese, any special offer on cheese is funded by me with that logic.

I do agree though that supermarkets and the internet are killing more specialist products at a local level.Especially things that you want to actually need to look at before buying.

Evilm

bluenoseam wrote: »

while loss leading is well known the effect of it is often ignored - do you think it's fair that people are being charged extra on necessities all so you can get a cheaper game?

So you think a game I can pick up online for £5-10 less (than gaming store price) is costing Tesco enough that dropping the price £5 from the gaming store price is causing them to overcharge grocery shoppers? I think you underestimate their buying power!

Even if I do accept your claim you seem to be equating choosing to buy from a cheaper (and more accessible - just pick it up when doing the grocery shopping) shop as theft from other people using that shop. Tesco are charging the old lady buying groceries the same whether I pick up the game or not. And if I don't other people will and they will soon sell out.

If I went in and bought the game and the cashier turned and made the five people behind me pay £1 extra there and then that's a different matter. If its already built into the price tag then why shouldn't I buy it? After all, since I grocery shop there I'm already paying the supposedly higher prices I've probably paid for it myself!

tamiami

People have the choice to purchase their groceries from Tesco - if you find them 1p more that Sainsburys etc., then don't shop there!!

dizziblonde

vyle wrote: »

He's saying that in losing specialist shops like Game, the marketplace is also losing a place that has (one would hope) knowledgable staff who can help the customer pick the right games and peripherals, as well as explain things that customers may not understand.

Somewhere like a supermarket may well have knowledgable staff, but whether they're deployed to the games section, or allowed to spend time serving is another matter.

Supermarkets also lack the selection of a specialist shop.

I had to laugh with this being used in the context of Game... whose staff I find to be among the most useless, apathetic and also utterly utterly sexist among all the highstreet stores... yes I possess a pair of jugs - it does NOT mean I want to go in and buy Barbie's Adventures in the High Street thank you, nor does it automatically mean I'm buying for my boyfriend!

The GameStation offshoot generally seems to have staff who are much more knowledgeable - and I'll be sad to see that part of the empire go - because they're the ones whom I can have a good conversation about different games within a genre and share ideas about what to play next - from both sides... including me commenting on an alpha/beta I was playing that one of their staff was considering picking up.

But their Game-branded stores I generally find utterly dreadful.

Was surprised to see Grainger Games has now made it as far down the country as the Midlands when I went into town recently. Always quite liked them when I lived up in the north east - and any alternative to the Game empire is good... but to be honest, there's that many gaming websites, blogs and media, and so much word-of-mouth among games - that I tend to very much know what I'm looking for in terms of going to buy a game anyway - the only time I got swayed to Game recently was one of their pre-order exclusive bonuses - and they even managed to muck THAT up (took me a while of pestering them but I got it in the end)!

fozmcfc

I haven't shopped in store with Game for years. As a PC gamer, they stopped catering for me years ago. It annoyed me at first, but clearly PC gaming is not what it was in the late 90's, early 2000's.

Game are sufferring just like a lot of the high street, because of online competition and big supermarkets. Not helped, by the cost of parking in high street when you can park for nothing out of town or at a large supermarket.

I really can't see how they can turn things around, without severely reducing their high street present. There is simply no way they can match online and supermarket pricing.

I hope if they do disappear offline, they remain online as the times I have used game online, the service has been excellent.

The high street is disappearing fast and certainly in the next 20 - 50 years, I think we will see it disappear further down to just a few large supermarkets and some shops that sell items that are not going to be more convenient to buy online.

Krojan

As a former employee of both companies (Game, then Gamestation just as Game bought them from Blockbuster) I'm not surprised they're going under, in fact, I'm actually surprised they haven't gone sooner.

Game treated their staff like dirt at all levels, managers who run the stores have no control as to the actual running of their stores and as to what prices to charge for new or preowned goods, what titles were included with console bundles etc, it was constantly frustrating to see competitors (even neighbours) charging less or paying more for the same items when we were supposed to be the market #1.

All head office were concerned about were getting people to buy a "loyalty" card for £3 a pop and getting people to preorder games. It was actually a running joke that on their system staff had set up fake loyalty card accounts such as mr m mouse, dr v ader etc... just to bump pre-order sales up to hit targets.

Gamestation were completly different, you could make your own bundles up, to an extent adjust what you'd buy pre-owned titles for and immediatly price-match competitors on launch day (you'd acutally leave the store and go visit your competitors and price check them locally!) however all these practices stopped as soon as Blockbuster sold Gamestation to Game.

Now Game Group are reaping what they've sown, majorly overpricing in their stores, running offers on out of stock items on their website and offering pittance on trade-ins (£30 for a Nintendo Wii console, thats a £100 less that you paid for it!) it's no surprise they've bled both companies dry and that they now cannot afford to buy stock from EA because they can't get credit, and no doubt other suppliers will demand payment upfront which they cannot afford to do.

The only people I have sympathy for are the front-line staff, their talent and expertise will go to the likes of Tesco shelf stacking or McDonalds burger flipping because no-one else is giving the youngsters jobs these days.

Kite2010

I've told the couple people I know whom got sucked into buying a Game loyalty card to make sure any points of value are spent before Game decides not to honour the loyalty cards

vyle

dizziblonde wrote: »

I had to laugh with this being used in the context of Game...

Well I did use the caveat of "one would hope." My local Games (there were three at one point) had a couple of good staff. I think now they just have a couple in their one store. It looks like an utterly miserable place to work.

I didn't care for my gamestation, but mainly because the music they played in there was awful and loud.

System

Kite2010 wrote: »

I've told the couple people I know whom got sucked into buying a Game loyalty card to make sure any points of value are spent before Game decides not to honour the loyalty cards

I thought game loyalty cards were free?

Helix

goater78 wrote: »

I thought game loyalty cards were free?

They have always been £3, even in the Electronics Boutique days. They may occasionally give them away as a promotion. http://www.game.co.uk/en/game-reward-card-93701