One of my biggest surprises: Finding Shiren the Wanderer DS on launch day in HMV. Genuinely surprised that they bought in such a niche title.
But then... they'll stock fairly niche DVDs and music, so why not games?
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UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
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One of my biggest surprises: Finding Shiren the Wanderer DS on launch day in HMV. Genuinely surprised that they bought in such a niche title.
But then... they'll stock fairly niche DVDs and music, so why not games?
I've been trying to think of a way stores could do this for ages. I always hate having to try and find a product in an unorganised store. Why can't we do a 'search' in the store but in the same way that we would search for a product on Amazon.
Starwolf_UK
Member
So, looks like that £6 million figure was wildly off the mark (by like over a factor of 20!)...so how low can that share price get?
I'm wondering, so GAME enter administration. At this point administrator (Deloite was it?) makes money any way they can. Would this mean they could sell specific stores to differnet people? What I'm getting at is we could end with Gamestop buying some stores and then a different games retailer ending up with other stores (namely the ones next door as nobody wants pointless duplicate stores).
I'm wondering, so GAME enter administration. At this point administrator (Deloite was it?) makes money any way they can. Would this mean they could sell specific stores to differnet people? What I'm getting at is we could end with Gamestop buying some stores and then a different games retailer ending up with other stores (namely the ones next door as nobody wants pointless duplicate stores).
Forget it. Remember Woolworths? Anything worth buying was gone at the 10% off stage (which we're past). Maybe Deloite will see there is more value is pawning off stock as Crime Converters than there is selling to would be customers.
SuperEpicMan
Banned
We should pitch the idea to dragons den lol
Sir Abacus
Member
Well there's this thing called the alphabet and usually you'd see titles sorted in this manner. There's even a simply rhyme that lets you remember the sorting method of the twenty six individual sorting categories.
Then big publishers determined they wanted their titles at eye level with half a shelf displaying the same four copies of their shitty game and that pretty much fucked it up.
toythatkills
Member
At that point you could probably automate much of it completely like Shopto, and have the store operating like a kind of giant vending machine. Customer buys the game from a self-service thing, and it pops out of a hatch from a warehouse upstairs a few seconds later.
That's the shopping experience of the future.
Sir Abacus
Member
If it stops some minimum wage guy telling me "how awesome is Black Ops 2 going to be and would you like to place a pre-order and how about maybe a strategy guide too" as I try to just buy a fucking game I'm all for it.
This is why I love HMV but hate Game. My local HMV is usually really good at alphabetising but every Game/Gamestation I go to is awful. It really bugs me since my games/blu-rays/CDs are in alphabetical order and it obviously works so why can't they make just a little effort.
kobashi100
Banned
Sir Abacus
Member
Ability to spell is inversely proportional to how much responsibility you're given and lifting games from box to shelf doesn't appear to be high on that list.
Hah, brilliant.
xxczx
Member
Not all Game stores are like that! when I worked there I did my best to keep the titles alphabetical and spent time organizing them
Not all Game stores are like that! when I worked there I did my best to keep the titles alphabetical and spent time organizing them
Perhaps I should have prefaced that as my local Game too. It'd be nice if there were more people who actually bothered with it like you did.
toythatkills
Member
But where do you put CoD: MW?
C for Call of Duty?
M for Modern Warfare?
H for HASN'T THIS SERIES DIED YET?
C for Call of Duty?
M for Modern Warfare?
H for HASN'T THIS SERIES DIED YET?
SuperEpicMan
Banned
You would would put it next to twilight in garbage section
SiegfriedFM
Member
Webhallen in Sweden used to be just a storefront for their website, but they've been opening up more actual stores. They have pretty much what you describe, no actual shelves and stuff, just some demo machines and some browsers locked to their website for looking up stuff.
Azure Phoenix
Member
You have absolutely NO idea how much time and effort goes into alphabetising each store every day. Not one single customer ever puts anything back where they got it from, it's always dumped on the floor, in other parts of the store or just left in whatever section is nearest. Even when I'm tidying the shelves right next to someone they will pick up a game from the B section and then dump it upside down in the E section.
The only way we could ever keep things in alphabetical order is if a staff member was assigned to nothing else all day long, on Saturdays it'd probably need to be two staff members.
The future!
I don't doubt the logistical problems behind it which is why I don't avoid Game or anywhere else because of a pet peeve. That being I often see 3-5 staff members in HMV just organising the different sections so the example you gave is being carried out. Like I said though they seem to have a lot of people that take it in turns to just do that.
Perhaps hiring too many staff to do that sort of thing is part of why HMV may soon be in the crapper?
Starwolf_UK
Member
My brother just told me the store near home appears to have shut down. Its in an affluent area and there is no Gamestation in this town...then again it was a small and kinda crappy store.
Instead a machine will be showing it you. Possibly with music too while the self service checkout voice thanks you for shopping after you mash no through the questions...twice as the last one was a are you sure you're alright not pre-ordering or having a rewards cards and you hit no making it ask for those again...
Coppertracks
Member
I'm sure I read a couple of months Ebay/Amazon did something very similar in London as a trial run. No idea of how successful it was, but it's something I could see spreading.
I guess it's also an issue of how you lay games out in Game (I can't speak for Gamestation). In the Oxford Street branch, for instance, it seems that you there are two "panels" for new titles on each system - one of which is the chart, which always seems completely arbitrary, and another for everything else which seems to be completely haphazard. As games are generally placed to face front outwards rather than spine outwards, I think this compounds the problem.
he pre-owned section is normally half-decently alphabetised but particularly now with pre-owned stocks so depleted due to the sales this clearly isn't a priority.
HMV, on the other hand, stock virtually everything spine outwards. Not only does this appear to get more stock on the shelves but it's easier to track the alphabetisation and therefore put things back in the right places.
checkeredknight
Member
I have no idea where your local HMV is, but ours is usually a complete state (especially the pre-owned games sections.) Our store can get very messy at weekends, but it's nothing in comparison to my local HMV. I don't blame them, the staff there usually always seem busy behind the tills and there's often no-body tidying on the shop floor that I can see (whereas at our shop we always have at least one person manning the shop floor.) It's a bigger shop than ours with more stuff, can't be easy for them.
JennyTablina
Member
I think people can still appreciate the human experience that comes with the high street, they just need to find a way to better adapt to the changing market.
Walking though Cambridge last week, I noticed there were LOTS of spaces in the Malls, High Street ect. Thankfully some of the spaces seemed to be taking on some prep to be filled come summer but it still looks a bit depressing.
I'm sure even if someone doesn't buy GAME, a new challenger may appear - but may decide to bide their time instead, which isn't all that bad an idea. The market is struggling right now and it seems to me that taking on a business like GAME could be a bit dangerous for a company's health. Specially with that huge amount of debt to pay off
No wonder lenders were not entirely sure of OpCaptia's offer, MCV mentioned they would only pay off the major lenders - which is all well and good, but that leaves the question if they would be able to cover the rest of that debt at all, specially when they have already come to the rescue of one retailer already. Wal-Mart are in better standing, but I worry they are the ones ZombieBBQ mentioned that might be looking to buy more for the store space than for the business really.
Walking though Cambridge last week, I noticed there were LOTS of spaces in the Malls, High Street ect. Thankfully some of the spaces seemed to be taking on some prep to be filled come summer but it still looks a bit depressing.
I'm sure even if someone doesn't buy GAME, a new challenger may appear - but may decide to bide their time instead, which isn't all that bad an idea. The market is struggling right now and it seems to me that taking on a business like GAME could be a bit dangerous for a company's health. Specially with that huge amount of debt to pay off
No wonder lenders were not entirely sure of OpCaptia's offer, MCV mentioned they would only pay off the major lenders - which is all well and good, but that leaves the question if they would be able to cover the rest of that debt at all, specially when they have already come to the rescue of one retailer already. Wal-Mart are in better standing, but I worry they are the ones ZombieBBQ mentioned that might be looking to buy more for the store space than for the business really.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Reminds me of the local gamestations Rayman origins vita stock. The vita section was literally a box at the till and the Rayman box had written on it that it was a download code.
dreamcastmaster
Banned
Be interesting to follow what happens with Game in their potentially final week.
Sir Abacus
Member
At that point I start going to Amazon and waiting for the UPS guy instead of going to my local Gamestop.
dreamcastmaster
Banned
Maybe WH Smiths will start their game section again?
Keyser Soze
Member
Tumbling...
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=1337799
-0.82
edit... looks like it already calmed down. No crazy .50 this time.
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=1337799
-0.82
edit... looks like it already calmed down. No crazy .50 this time.
Indeed, it was 35% down as I was posting, but bounced to 18% lower before I even hit submit, so it's going to be a bumpy ride today. If anyone held shares bought on Thursday or Friday they will be looking a massive hammering potentially if they don't escape. In the last 2 weeks we have had speculation of multiple companies being "interested" in GAME with little solid prospect of any of them working out for shareholders, yet the share price has been hugely affected by each piece of news.
I honestly don't think it's a case of when Administration is called, but when, and if so, will it be a pre-pack with someone swooping in to collect the good bits and dump the rest?
I don't understand shares (which is why I don't understand this I gues...) but why is the share price going up, or at least increasing from what it was at first this morning? I thought shares operated mostly on rumours, and the rumours so far seem to be that the banks don't like OpCapita's bid, no other bids are close to being completed (or at least not publicly rumoured to be close), and they need to find £180 million in a week as opposed to the £20 million previously thought. Are people just hoping for a big profit if they get bought out as opposed to going into administration? Big if at this point...
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Going to be a fantastic counter-point to Osbournes bollocking budget this week when around 6000 people suddenly lose their jobs.
Ninja Moomin
Banned
Surely any company that's genuinely interested in buying Game now would be better placed to simply hold back and wait for the business to go into administration, then buy what assets they want for a song, rather than buy it while it's still imploding and has a bunch of debt to take on?
Can't understand why anyone thinks an 11th hour rescue might happen... unless one of the potential buyers considers it to be so strategically important that they'd rather buy the debt to deprive anyone else a chance at getting their hands on the business?
Going to be very interesting to see what happens if they haven't gone into administration by COB Thursday....
Can't understand why anyone thinks an 11th hour rescue might happen... unless one of the potential buyers considers it to be so strategically important that they'd rather buy the debt to deprive anyone else a chance at getting their hands on the business?
Going to be very interesting to see what happens if they haven't gone into administration by COB Thursday....
Yeah same, im not expecting any rescue package. Considering the levels of debt involved and the potential risk, I can't see who is going to stump up the credentials to buy it all out.
Best case scenario right now is that somebody picks enough out of the wreckage to relaunch another high street store in GAME's place, and that we are not waiting too long for people to get back into jobs. Beyond that, there is no white knight coming over the horizon.
Best case scenario right now is that somebody picks enough out of the wreckage to relaunch another high street store in GAME's place, and that we are not waiting too long for people to get back into jobs. Beyond that, there is no white knight coming over the horizon.
Not happy this morning! Not happy at all!
Let's hope for more bad news to tumble the share price!
I dont think the banks want their £120 million or else by this week, just a chance of repayments being made.
Strange how the rent bill went from £6 Million to 25.
They have no chance of that!
Let's hope for more bad news to tumble the share price!
I dont think the banks want their £120 million or else by this week, just a chance of repayments being made.
Strange how the rent bill went from £6 Million to 25.
They have no chance of that!
toythatkills
Member
I've got just 5000 shares now. In staying put and going for broke
I thought you still had shares though? Or have you sold them?
Edit: I see. Why would you want the share price to go down if you own shares?
IdreamofHIME
Member
Now that was a fire sale. I got so many Xbox games for 49p. KOTOR2, Fable, Fahrenheit, Chaos Theory, Max Payne 2....most of them are still on my shelf sealed. lol.
this article should make anyone think twice about investing in any tech-related highstreet business in the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17405016
The internet contributes to 8.3% of the UK economy, a bigger share than for any of the other G20 major countries, a new study suggests.
Some 13.5% of all purchases were done over the internet in 2010, according to BCG, and this is projected to rise to 23% by 2016.
They predict it will continue to expand at a rate of 11% per year for the next four years, reaching a total value of £221bn by 2016.
That compares with projected growth rates of 5.4% in the US and 6.9% in China.
The internet contributes to 8.3% of the UK economy, a bigger share than for any of the other G20 major countries, a new study suggests.
Some 13.5% of all purchases were done over the internet in 2010, according to BCG, and this is projected to rise to 23% by 2016.
They predict it will continue to expand at a rate of 11% per year for the next four years, reaching a total value of £221bn by 2016.
That compares with projected growth rates of 5.4% in the US and 6.9% in China.
The thing is though I've had better retail customer service in the US than any retail store over here. People don't like customer service just shop online to ignore it, and shop online. I think it is to do with not all but most customer service orientated jobs in the US being based on a tipping culture though.
frankie_baby
Member
The crazy yanks are tipping in video game shops now?
ScreenSplitter
Member
So what's happening? The stores are still open, despite what I imagine to be a stock of a few Fifa games and broken Rock Band peripherals.
frankie_baby
Member
They aint going under til the end of the week when all the bills are due
Question for anyone working for game, are you paid weekly or monthly and what day are you supposed to get paid?
As has already been said, they'll be open until the end of the week. I'm going to pop in today and see if I can get a few last minute deals, but I think it's safe to assume that gamers have picked the stores dry at this point.
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