Ben-DutkaWith Wal-Mart diving into the billion-dollar pre-owned video game market, GameStop may have difficulty keeping pace.
Initially, GameStop CEO Paul Raines said he wasn't worried about Wal-Mart's endeavor. However, a new initiative launched by the major game retailer tells a slightly different story.
It's called "Never Walk a Trade" and the pilot operation will run through the course of the coming week. GameStop stores located near Wal-Mart will be participating in the program; quite simply, they're offering an extra 20 percent trade-in credit to consumers. They confirmed this program to GameSpot :
"We did just launch a program called 'Never Walk a Trade.' The program includes many features, one of which includes empowering our store managers and associates to offer customers– when they believe it is needed–the best value for their pre-owned video game and consumer electronic products. This program is focused on helping ensure we continue to provide the most valuable trade-in offers against all competitors and not lose an opportunity to meet our customer’s needs based on trade-in value.
The reason we introduced this program is because we want to continue to elevate customer awareness of the unique proposition of the GameStop buy-sell-trade model."
Translation: "Blah blah blah, we've been ripping off consumers for years and we got away with it due to a lack of competition." See, I remember working at an EB back in the day, when they would routinely offer 50 percent of what the game was worth; now you're lucky if you get 1/3 of what it's worth. The trade-in values have gone down while the actual price (typically only $5 or $10 less than new) has stayed the same.
So, as much as I despise Crap-Mart, I have no sympathy whatsoever.
Competition is good.
Always
100 percent correct.
No
both stores that i dont really care for. walmart happens to be one of the only stores in my town. its a small town and to go anywhere else is a drive. there are other stores in my town but walmart usually has some of the lowest prices. i dont really buy used games often, and when i do its usually randomly. i dont trade my games in at all.
one of the guys at work asked if i wanted to sell south park. i told him i dont sell my games and later showed him my game collection. im up to 69 blu ray games. my kid has a couple. but my plus collection is huge.
getting an extra 20% on top of the like 10-15% they were offering is not worth it.
i feel like this new generation would live in a digital house if they could.
They should REALLY share some of that billion dollars with the developers who made the game.
Just saying.
They refused, which was their right. But now the game makers are starting to cut them out with digital sales, which is THEIR right. The blade cuts both ways, as they say.
Tell that to the distribution companies that make a hefty markup on the artists work, same with music and video too…
As for games, once you buy a product, it's yours, not the game developer's, so you have total say on what you do with it, you own the data, the disc and the artwork, you can't copy and try to sell copies but you can definitely sell the original to whomever and for what ever you want.
You know it's really funny when something like Wal-Mart is the competition that forces Gamestop to do this. I bet they didn't see that one coming, even though Wal-Mart is one of the only companies to give them a run for their money due to their sheer size and reach.
It's always fun to see two giants fight, takes their time away from screwing with everyone else.
I used to work for a company that supplied a product/service to Wal-mart, and they would nickle and dime you on everything, but I also got to see how they worked, and I'm pretty sure they will do what they can to not only compete with gamestop, but bury them…
Could be some interesting things happening in the games market with these guys jumping in the ring…
Wal Mart is a product of the consumer. The consumer wants goods cheap… and Wal Mart provides that service.
I get that. People want cheap products. But they have also shut down businesses in North America and forced many out of the continent in search of cheaper labour in order to meet wal-marts demand.
I get the cheap price thing, but at what cost? Walmart has no loyalty for it's employees or it's suppliers. Everyone is just a number that balances the books…
I read an article in a buisness magazine about Wal Mart and a pickle company. Was a good read.
Gist of the article was the pickle farmer was an independant who sold to various local stores, then Wal Mart came and the pickle farmer started selling to Wal Mart as well. Because Wal Mart was buying so many pickles from the farmer he stopped selling to the other local stores. Well eventually Wal Mart came and said that the pickle farmer needed to drop his price on pickles or Wal Mart wouldnt buy any more from him.
The pickle farmer expanded his business to meet Wal Marts need, and the other local stores had found other pickle suppliers, so the pickle farmer had no recourse but to drop his price and either take less profit or lay off workers.
As for their buisness practices, they are what they are. And the consumer drives that practice by demanding lower prices. Either way.
As for the game buisness,the only games I ever trade in are the annual releases, I would never argue against the ability to trade in games. And more competition in the used game buisness is always good for the consumer.
Last edited by wackazoa on 3/28/2014 12:44:52 PM
yup your right on the money there ben ripping us off no competition milking us dry end of story
happy gaming =)
"the unique proposition of the GameStop buy-sell-trade model"
LMAO nothing unique about running a pawn shop, even if it's geared entirely towards gamers.
All i have to say is thank god Wal-Mart jumped in to the used game business. Now i have no reason to shop at gamestop or bestbuy. i always hated my local gamestop & BestBuy store hours. Why the heck do these type of stores open at 10am everyday is for the lazy people who refuse to get up early in the morning. i enjoy getting my games at 7 or 8am bright & early in the morning.
If you dislike one corporation, I highly doubt that Walmart is the more honorable of runners up. :p
As for gamestop and bestbuy, they open later because it's not profitable to open earlier. Walmart opens earlier because they are not a specialty store and they have a clientele that gets up nice and early. (Lots of retirees would shop at Walmart and never BestBuy nor Gamestop, for example)
As for me, I would never be shopping at 8am. I gotta be at my own work. Most of the working population would not be doing their shopping on a weekday until late afternoon or evening. And on weekends, 7-8am for me is filled with diaper changing, making breakfast for others, and sometimes a couple of baths. After that? I'm playing with the little tykes.
"when they believe it is needed"
That is an argument just waiting to happen. Leaving things at a managers discretion will produce uneven results. One person may get a better deal than another in many cases and god forbid that the manager simply does not like the customer. People can and will get screwed.
Id rather a set amount than having to haggle. This doesn't sound like streamlining the GameStop experience to me. Sounds like I may have to do battle to get the best price or discount. Good thing I never come out of pocket to GameStop. I've seen some crazy goings on in some of their stores.