News GAME Group closes 277 stores

GAME Group has announced the closure of 277 stores, chiefly among its Gamestation brand.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2012/03/27/game-closes-277-stores/1

 

"Walsall
42 Old Square Shopping Centre"

Was a crap Gamestation with crappy staff member attitudes anyway...Excuse my French..

 

I think thats the only Edinburgh City Center game gone, the games station closed the tail end of last year and ex EB store closed a while ago.

 

Would love to see an industry analysis do a report on why GAME failed yet GameStop in the US is doing really well.

Was it prices? Maybe GameStop promotes used sales more than GAME? Or is it just easier to make a profit on a low-margin business model in the US?

 

"Manchester (Trafford)
124 Peel Centre, Trafford Centre"

Good, because they already have two Game stores in the Trafford Centre, both close to each other.

 

Same goes for Swindon. 2 Game stores literally within 100m of each other, now one's gone it'll only help the other most likely.

 

Actually just remembered there is one in the shopping center at the east end of Princes Street. I wonder if this speaks to a point raised in an earlier thread, high street rents are simply unaffordable these days so shops tend to gravitate to malls. WH Smith did a similar thing a few years ago now its impossible to get a good selection of magazines in Edinburgh center.

 

Interesting that both my local Game stores have shut but both the Gamestation stores have remained open. Popped into the closest Gamestation yesterday and they said they had just had a good quarter whereas the nearby Game was loosing money like a sieve.

 

Im going into town now, will be interesting to see if my local ones have shut.

 

Couldn't give a rats that GAME & GameStation are closing. Yeah yeah, losing a job sucks multiple balls but GAME used to piss me off with their crap customer service and even crappier prices.

I'll be sure to flip the empty store off if I walk past it.

 

Interesting, they closed both stores in bournemouth, but kept both stores in poole open (they're bout 500m apart)

 

There goes two of my local stores in that list. Wish I'd popped down to one of them earlier in the hopes of a bargain or something =/

 

I was in the Stirling Thistle store at the weekend to spend the remains of my game rewards on a DS game for my son, glad I did. Shame really, but the ground rent in the Thistles & surrounding area is apparently really high. Having said that, any time I was in either store, the Game one was always mobbed though the Gamestation around the corner generally just had a few folk hanging around chatting to the staff.

 

They never forced you to shop their. Ever. Flip off an empty store? Bet you will feel like a bad man right? Even though thousands of people who never dealt with you just lost their job.

What a dick you are.

 

Funny they closed the big game station in Birmingham yet kept the game open, that game station always seemed busy. Must be purely rental cost.

Can't say I am surprised the game station in cannock closed was now mostly used games with a very small selection of new and a pc might have lurked on a random shelf, pity though as the staff were friendly in there a few years back (bit young and loud now though for my tastes)

 

QFT there Pieface.

Quite surprised that both Game Stores near me have survived. I know Gamestation in Bognor closed because Game had a bigger store there, and Game took over the Gamestation Chichester store.
Same goes for the 3 stores in Portsmouth, Game had a store in the Cascades centre, and one on the high street, with a Gamestation just off the High Street.

I never did work out why Game group had multiple stores within a stones throw away from each other, Just doesn't make sense.

Sam

 

Looks like they're closing both the Game and Gamestation in my area (Merthyr). Shame Gamestation is going as that was the better store (the staff were pretty friendly and really helpful there, hopefully they'll be able to move onto bigger and better things). While it seems Cardiff retains at least 2 of the 3 Game stores (not sure if the Gamestation had closed previously).

And they wonder why they weren't making money.

Cardiff had a great store in the Middle of Queen street, 2 floors (lots of PC stuff upstairs), a Gamestation in the Arcade and an EB in the Middle of the Arcade.
First they bought out EB, re-branded it as a Game store, then the Gamestation (but left it as a GS).

Then they moved the original Game 200 yards down the street to a much smaller shop, moved the Gamestation down 2 units in St Davids Center (before closing it entirely I think, at least I don't remember it being there last time I went to Cardiff) and moved the the (EB) Game from St Davids Center 1 to St Davids Center 2 after the shopping center got expanded.

I had a quick look through the ones in Merthyr on Saturday, most of the new titles were at normal prices. saying that, I did manage to pick up a new copy of "Eye Pet & Friends" on the PS3 from Gamestation for my 8 yr old for £1.98 instead of £10 (he loved the first one), but that was the only really cheap game I noticed.

Oh, and Warhammer 40k Space Marine T-Shirts for £3 in Game.

 

Seems like the Gamestation in Maidstone is closing, about 6 months after it opened, whereas the Game store in Week Street is remaining open, despite the fact that it's smaller, less busy and probably has very similar rents (prime spot as opposed to a centre-of-town shopping centre that has reduced rents to remain competitive. Still very busy with lots of through-traffic though).

 

If my memory serves me correctly, all of the ones in Leeds but the White Rose centre are shutting. Bit strange to be honest especially since Huddersfield has 1 Game and 1 GameStation here which I would have thought would have been shut.

Feel sorry for most of the staff but it's all GAME's fault. Poor medium-to-long-term strategies, poor vision and poor senior management within the business

 

I've often though Southampton was oversubscribed with GAME and GameStation stores in striking distance of each other (two being literally 100 metres from each other). Thankfully, the one I worked at on East Street is staying open. Huzzah!