GAME to stop ripping you off on game trade ins

CeX were only very briefly operating in the green for a few months before the first lockdown. They had a long spell of debt before that and, as far as I am aware, have been ever since. Their phone business is what keeps them going primarily, but that is quite volatile. They might get more trade for a little while, but I can see them struggling if GAME were to close their stores.

Yeah, I think when they bought gamestation (rip) they were stuck with a lot of long leases.

Someone must have made a spreadsheet that said spunking a fortune on your competitor and all their units was a better bet than going toe to toe with them

I don't know what, specifically, they could have done massively differently tho. It feels inevitable. They were a speciality high st retailer catering for a market demographic that was the most likely to just do stuff online. They couldn't survive on befuddled mums trying to work out how to buy a Nintendo for their kids alone.

Or that they convinced someone they were worth buying

I dunno how you'd keep a chain like GAME going in these days of digital downloads.

Maybe take a leaf out of (what I imagine) Games Workshop stores (are like) and try and create a community place with soft drinks and consoles and events where kids can hang out?

Guess they're kinda screwed then.

A lot of argos stores are just now pick up and collect in sainsbury. Disappointment when I got back to the UK, they closed both

Was KOTI the lass who used to work in GAME, Macclesfield?

If so, I knew her quite well at the time but lost touch when they closed.

True but its demise has also been hastened by vulture capitalism. Smyths has grown and expanded since ToysRUs was bought, loaded with debt and then driven into the ground, for example, so that business model isn't defunct yet.

The high street death spiral would have been slower if we had made even the slightest attempt to prevent predatory takeovers.

The biggest fuckup and the thing that stopped me using them at all was the complete disconnect between their online and bricks and mortar business for *years*. Not being able to click and collect, stock check or even honour the same fucking price rendered them basically useless.

Its been resurrected as a 'brand' here. Its now basically the toy department in larger WH Smiths.

If used physical games disappeared from the high streets it would be sad. Some of my most fond memories are scouring through stacks of used PS2 games picking things up just because they piqued my interest due to some aspect like the cover art. I'd never have been able to play somewhat obscure games like Ring of Red, Shadow of Memories or SOS The final Escape (AKA Disaster Report) without a healthy trade-in economy.

I opted for the Gamecube that generation and started looking elsewhere when the games started drying up, so it was all new to me when I jumped to the PS2, I don't think I'll ever have access to so many interesting games for so little money ever again.

People just stopped shopping in town centres, and have gone to retail parks. Have you attempted to get off one on a weekend? bloody nightmare. Councils are also partly to blame with high rent, and parking charges. You go onto a retail park and it's free.