Game & Gamestation: GAME credit woes

[Mayhem]

Given they have credit insurance issues, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the wholesalers are refusing to sell them stock without upfront payment.

To a degree, yeah. Few friends of mine went to the Vita launch last night, and some of the games were still in shrink with Sony Entertainment Corp stickers on the back, stating it was the company's property. I guess GAME had to work out something with Sony to stay on track, and that it might be paying Sony for the software only after it has managed to be sold, as opposed to in advance.

[BaronSqwelch]

I had those sony stickers on everything I bought....even the carry case!

[Fader209]

Sad times for Gameplay, made some great friends on that forum

[prinnysquad]

I was in looking for a present for somebody i was meeting in 5 minutes, the manager and another person were behind the counter messing about, i made my selection and went to the counter and stood while they finished their chat. I was confronted with YES! after waiting for 5 mins or so, i handed the box and said "just this please" the manager who had served me went to look for the game, he came back and i asked if they had Tekken 3DS in yet, as i would have swapped the ?15 game for the more pricey Tekken if they did. I was asked if i had pre ordered, to which i said no it was an impulse buy. I was then told that it was my own fault for not pre ordering the game and i was directed to the website to do so. I replied thought it was out Friday which i was told it was but it was being stocked on a pre order basis though the website. To which i said does not matter as i wanted it there and then and was told well what did you ask for in a very sarky tone.

I was not going to get into a full blown arguement in public so just took my game and left and had already explained twice i wanted it as an impulse buy.

You were served by NUFC fans. You should boycoutt the shop.

However a few weeks earlier i had been in Game Newcastle and the staff could not have been more helpful. Again i was buying a gift and could not decide between 2 and was given some great advice to buy the cheaper game which my mate loved.

In this case, the staff were exiled Mackems.

[Colin]

I went in to Game on the way to work today to use up the money on a gift card, my god, the prices are ridiculous. Girl behind the counter was nice enough and didn't give me any hard sell nonsense, but now the card is used I intend never to go in the place again. ?5-10 premium on the price just to buy in a shop instead of online? Never again.

[Atticus]

Yeah. I got a shock when they rang up Uncharted Golden Abyss @ ?45 this morning. Had I not traded some stuff for store credit I've have bought elsewhere for sure.

[Dazzyman]

Sad about Gameplay, used to use em back in the day before Game owned em when they were largest warehouse in Europe. Made some good friends on telesales till Game butchered the staff, moved and kept knacking me orders up.

[Rep]

35 GAME stores to close

[Mr M0by]

Given they have credit insurance issues, it wouldn't surprise me if most of the wholesalers are refusing to sell them stock without upfront payment.

If GAME have no credit insurance at all then inevitably the supplier insists on payment upfront, because other wise should GAME suddenly fold, they've got no chance of getting their money back. The companies that provide such credit insurance & the suppliers themselves all got very badly burnt with the Woolworths/EUK/Zavvi sudden collapse (more so Audio/Visual suppliers) so they've all tread much more carefully than they did 3 or 4 years ago. If GAME can't negotiate delayed payment or any sort of consignment deal, then naturally they've only got so much money to go round & certain lines will have to get dropped - hence the missing new releases each week, they absolutely cannot afford to have stock sit on shelves unsold in that scenario. They're probably just thankful right now that they didn't have this issue last November because that would of been a monstrous (crippling?) amount of money to hand over to Activision in one go.

As for the SONY 'property' stickers on stock, that is probably a clue to a consignment deal, where by SONY have agreed to only request payment from GAME for every unit as it sells. Obviously GAME can't afford to pay it all upfront & even the traditional model of payment after 90 days can be costly, if you have to pay up for a whole load of Everybodys Golf & Wipeout's, let alone Vita consoles that you still haven't sold. With the consignment approach, SONY own the stock at all times. They can insist it is returned to them at any point but also it puts them in a stronger position to dictate range stocking & product placement. For GAME the added benefit is that they don't get left sitting on any unsold stock as it's not theirs anyway. This is the model that HMV have successfully agreed with many of their Audio/Visual suppliers over the last 12 months.

[Mr M0by]

35 GAME stores to close

This isn't particularly new news.... which isn't meant as a dig at you. GAME announced last year that 60 or so stores would close by the end of 2013 but after the closing of some Gamestations & concession branches it's been surprisingly quiet since. Personally I'm surprised that the number of closures is as few as it is. Do they really need to be paying the rent, rates, maintenance and employment costs of so many stores per town?

[The Mole]

We have 3 Game in Newcastle and 1 Gamestation no need really.

[davek22]

We have 3 Game in Newcastle and 1 Gamestation no need really.

Stockport is my favourite. Gamestaion is litterally next door to game.
Gamestation address 65 Prince's Street Stockport, SK1 1RW
Game address 67-69 Princes Street Stockport SK1 1RW

[elaniel]

3 Game's and 1 Gamestation in Coventry. Two are pretty much back-to-back and Gamestation is a few 100 yards walk as well. Not necessary in my opinion.

[ETC]

You were served by NUFC fans. You should boycoutt the shop.



In this case, the staff were exiled Mackems.

So Gamestation = Nufc, Game = Filthy mackems that only makes my hatred of Game higher now I'm never going in one again

[Family Fry]

In Norwich at one point we had 3 GAME's and 1 gamestation, now it's 2 GAME's and 1 gamestation.
Reckon one GAME will go this year.