Is Gamestop the only.....game....in town?

[terry78]

There is a Hollywood Video/Game Crazy a few blocks down from my place, and I went by there last night to browse, and there is a banner up saying the store is closing. Yes, my first instinct is to snatch up all the **** that will be price slashed, but my second was noticing that Gamestop has literally become the only non-internet based gamestore in the country that people can go to. There may be smaller mom and pop style places, but it has a stranglehold on the industry if you want to go into an actual specialty store nowadays. The closest Gamestop is a half hour drive away, and it does bug me.

[Soapy]

Yeah, the closest Gamestop I can go to is 45 to 50 minutes away. You could always go to a Walmart or Target type of store if they're closer to you. I tend to shop at Amazon more than anywhere else though.

[Spidey-Bat]

Originally Posted by Pandamar141

Yeah, the closest Gamestop I can go to is 45 to 50 minutes away. You could always go to a Walmart or Target type of store if they're closer to you. I tend to shop at Amazon more than anywhere else though.

I have about 3 GameStops nearby but I do almost all my shopping at Amazon. No tax and 2-day shipping with Amazon prime is great. Plus they usually take off $2-3 on some games. The only time I go to a B&M store is if there's a deal. But I only go to GameStop if I need something only they would have or if I have credit.

[ProjectPat2280]

I go to what's closest to me, which happens to be gamestop(I live 2 minutes from one). If I lived 40 minutes away from one like u guys, I'd either go online or use target/best buy etc etc

[Addendum]

Target, Best Buy, Hastings, FYE...

I've never seen a mom and pop video game store though.

[terry78]

I know there are retail stores that sell video games, but I mean specialty stores where you can go in, the staff are basically gaming geeks as you are, you can play on the kiosks and request them to put on different games for you, and so on. Target would tell me to **** off.

[ProjectPat2280]

Originally Posted by terry78

I know there are retail stores that sell video games, but I mean specialty stores where you can go in, the staff are basically gaming geeks as you are, you can play on the kiosks and request them to put on different games for you, and so on. Target would tell me to **** off.

Haha i think Gamestop would too.

[BlackLantern]

Originally Posted by terry78

I know there are retail stores that sell video games, but I mean specialty stores where you can go in, the staff are basically gaming geeks as you are, you can play on the kiosks and request them to put on different games for you, and so on. Target would tell me to **** off.

anyone these days will tell you to **** off....that **** ended up here back during Nintendos heyday

[SurfDUI]

Originally Posted by terry78

Target would tell me to **** off.

If you ever come down to the city, on 86th streest there's 2 gamestop w/in a mile of each other. One has always been, and the other used to be an EB.

I hear you sometimes you just want a cheap used game or to shoot the **** about the old days. Also next to the Wal-Mart on 86th there's a Disc Reply, a new store, they have ALL kinds of ****. They got a 3rd party machine that plays Genesis and SuperNintendo games and 8bits in the same console.

They don't have too much of the new stuff, but for the old school is great.

Maybe at Incredible Universe, back when Vanilla Ice was charting.

damn, almost 20 years ago. gettin old

[marvelman2006]

I prefer bestbuy or target or wlamart over gamestop. atleast they dont try to sell you new games opened. I dont like going into a gamestop or fye because I always get hounded about if I want to preorder a game or they try to slam me for having a ps3. Ive been turned off of gamestop beause of there huge mark up of used games. I mean do you really need to sell god of war 3 used for $56.99 and new at $59.99? also I saw they had metal gear 4 used at $26.99 and new at $19.99, I saw that and went what the f.

[terry78]

Game Crazy didn't. They were just very lackadasial in there.

[GL1]

Yeah... I don't ever remember being able to ask someone to put in a game at a gaming store.

Maybe at Incredible Universe, back when Vanilla Ice was charting.

[Spider-Vader]

Yeah, in my city there's only Game Stops.

[amazingfantasy15]

GameStop isn't the only game in town, as people have said Best Buy, Target, Walmart, etc... all sell video games. With the internet now, there's plenty of information to figure out if you want to actually buy a game, so trying it out isn't so important. Hell, for most major releases on PS3 and 360 you can download a demo and play it in the comfort of your own home. I really don't understand why people b*tch about GameStop so much, if you don't like it, don't shop there, there are other options.

[Hush]

I work in a Gamestop and quite frankly, the company does have a stranglehold, can you blame them though? They have just made the best bussiness decissions.

[Havok83]

Gamestop has been the only games only store for a while near me. The last of them was Babbages, Software Etc, EBX, Electronic Boutique, but they all got merged into GS. I surrpisingly discovered GameCrazy when I got a job in NJ a couple of years ago but never went there bc its location wasnt too convenient

[Havok83]

Im surprised people have GS's so far away. For me they are almost as frequent as McDonald's. Theres always at least one within a 10 minute radius of where I go. Near my old job, there was 7 in a 5 mile radius!

[hippie_hunter]

I have two game stores where I live, GameStop and the independent Game Craze (not Crazy).

People were thinking that Game Craze was going to go out of business with the rise of GameStop, the fact that they're incredibly cheap bastards, and somewhat rude, but it turns out they have their own little niche market now. GameStop only sells current games and their supplies of PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and GameBoy Advance games are starting to run low.

But Game Craze sells current release games earlier than GameStop and Wal-Mart to be competitive and they also have a large selection of older titles ranging from all the older systems. They just recently opened a second branch in the mall taking over the old EB Games lot (my mall had two GameStops for years after GameStop took over EB Games and for some reason closed the larger EB Games lot for some reason instead of closing the much smaller GameStop lot)

I'll go to GameStop for current releases because they often offer kick ass pre-order incentives. But I'm the kind of person who would much rather have physical copies of PlayStation games. I have no interest or desire to own PSOne Classics from the PlayStation Store. I go to Game Craze to buy Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. And I'm going to go there to buy Final Fantasy VIII and IX, Grand Theft Auto 1 and 2, and Gran Turismo 1 and 2 when funds come up.

[Addendum]

I used to buy stuff online from Amazon until they quit accepting money orders.

[Sam Fisher]

Ah, Gamestop. The store where the employes give you the game box but forget to put the disc in the box.

[Immortalfire]

Gamestop lost a lot of it's appeal to me, when they ceased carrying old Nintendo and Sega games.

[Spidey-Bat]

Originally Posted by Immortalfire

Gamestop lost a lot of it's appeal to me, when they ceased carrying old Nintendo and Sega games.

So many years I'd just walk right by all those old games I'm glad I did get Starfox 64 since I lost my original cart a few years earlier.

[Immortalfire]

I loved that feature...I was able to find quite a few Genesis games I always wanted for like, 5 bucks.

[hippie_hunter]

Originally Posted by Immortalfire

Gamestop lost a lot of it's appeal to me, when they ceased carrying old Nintendo and Sega games.

Meh, it's not really a big deal when you can have niche specialty retailers (like my local Game Craze which thrives on selling vintage video game titles while they just collect dust at GameStop) or online retailers (Amazon.com or eBay) where you can still find these games in the box for low prices (or incredibly high if you don't know where you're looking).

[Hush]

I hate that we gut games, but in all honesty we are trying to move away from that, we are trying to put more display cases up than gutting. I hate buying the gutted game but at the end of the day only two people have touched the dick buy the time you get it and then you get to. Plus with Blu-rays that doesnt bother me.