Today I want to talk about the retail experience for gamers. See, whilst more and more game sales are shifting online, there are still those who chose to pick up their games in an actual store; they have people in and everything. Although there are two chains that dominate game sales on the high street, GAME and GameStation, they’re both owned by Game Group Plc. With that in mind you wouldn’t necessarily expect a radical difference between the two but, in my opinion, they’re fairly different outlets.
GAME seems to be geared towards the general public, people who only pick up a few games a year or are picking something up as a gift for someone else. Staff are dressed so they look approachable, and the stores seem to be bright and airy. Unfortunately, whilst they do present an air of helpfulness the knowledge base seems to be somewhat lacking.
[drop]For anyone who follows gaming news with any regularity it quickly becomes clear that GAME’s staff are more interested in selling than providing useful information to their customers. It would be unfair to accuse them of flat-out lying to customers, particularly without any evidence. However, if you happen to catch a conversation with another customer you do sometimes feel that staff aren’t quite clued up enough on the products they’re selling.In contrast, GameStation is aiming at a completely different chunk of the market. They’re targeting those customers who buy games regularly, those who you could call “gamers” if you were so inclined (although I’m starting to dislike the word). The staff are still relatively friendly, it’s rare to find retail staff who are actively hostile. However, the stores are never as brightly lit, and I certainly wouldn’t call the general ambiance as airy or friendly as it is in GAME.
The big difference sits with the staff though. They seem, in general, to be drawn from the same demographics as the chain’s target market. Ideally, this is what you expect in any store. If you shop in a music store you want staff who are music fans, if you’re buying clothes you want someone who knows at least a little about fashion serving you. Why should it be any different for a game store?
Of course, my perception of the two retailers is based pretty much on my own experience, although a quick poll on Twitter seemed to back up my opinion in the general case. To be fair, my clear preference towards GameStation may be influenced by the fact my brother works there. However, I’ve been in a few stores scattered throughout the country and my experience has been fairly consistent.
There is, obviously, the fact that this whole discussion may be becoming redundant. With the significant growth of online retail and downloadable titles it seems probable that the GAME Group may further scale back their stores or even merge the two chains. Perhaps you’ll only be able to pick up games in supermarkets and HMV soon. Who knows?
Is your experience of retail game stores consistent with mine? Do you have a preference for where you shop? Do you even buy games in a store any more, or do they all come in the post? Of course, I’ve barely touched on the supermarket issue, so I’d be interested to see if you have any thoughts on that.
Gaztee
Rarely buy from shops now, unless I spot a bargin. Most of my buying is done from play, amazon or shopto. I find the Game shops to be sterile & the thing I hate the most is the trade in value of games. They take the piss usually with what they’ll give you & what they then sell your game for! Think the last game I traded in was Madden 06 for the NDS & I got $1 for it in EB games in Canada!! :oD
quinkill
I mostly use game because of points system, but really depends on price. CEX is the other for older games but I end up renting nearly everything. I can get through around 3-4 games a month for £15 per month from Lovefilm, on top of that I get the free films on PS3 too. Any chance of an article or opinion piece on Lovefilm anyone?
djsunna
i’m a Playstation man and have been since 1996 but last week i bit the fanboyism bullet so to speak and bought a brand new X BOX 360 (250 gb hdd) with FIFA 11 from GAME and i cannot help but feel as though ive been ripped off 1 paid £215 cash and used £20 worth of points aswell. Usually when i go to GAME the staff ram other things down my throat aswell but this time they didn’t. i am thinking about taking it back getting my money back and going to buy another X BOX 360 from Tesco’s cos they have 20% of X BOX stuff at the minute. If you have any advice for me post a reply please, cheers.
tactical20
Also, the high street tends to be hell on earth, so I avoid it as much as possible!
The Mysterious Phantom Bear
I find both push pre-owned too much. A £3 saving does not make it appetising.
A girl wouldn’t point downstairs and tell you it’s pre-owned so she is a little less high maintenance.
grimm
I buy all my games online nowadays. Pretty much all of them are from Amazon or Play.com, occasionally if there’s an exclusive collector’s edition from HMV or game’s website then I’ll order from there. I used to buy ALL my stuff from Game up until around 8 years ago though (including the actual consoles).
R4U Eldave0
I must admit, I do most of my game buying from GAME these days, largely because I like to trade in a game or two before buying a new one. Whether we are just lucky in Cambridge or not, but the GAME staff here are really friendly and actually know a lot about games so I regularly pop in and have a chat when they aren’t too busy.
That said, if I’m buying a game outright, Play.com (or ironically Game.co.uk) always get my custom as their prices are hard to beat (free delivery too of course)
stueeeee
I do shop online a lot nowadays, the like of play seem to beat store prices. Although having said that the supermarkets are often the same or a few pence dearer, and I haven’t been getting day 1 games on day one in the post so I have resorted to tesco a few times. If I’m ou shopping anyway I always take a look on game and gamestation, and sometimes they have a pre owned bargin (mirrors edge £3.50) that I pick up. K agree with your vies on the differences of game and gamestaion though!