Topic: One more reason not to shop at GAME.

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/859473-game-staff-bought-up...

Surprised that NL hasn't covered this story.I think its pretty shocking myself.Thankfully I never shop at GAME. Heres the story for those that don't like clicking on links -

"Game told employees to go to Tesco stores and buy discounted consoles when they went on sale last Thursday night, a leaked internal memo has revealed. They could then be re-sold as ‘pre-owned’.

Game sold the consoles as new for £219.99. Tesco offered the same console for £175, with the condition that customers also buy a full price game, bringing the price up to £209.90.

Staff at Game were told they could spend up to £1,049.50 on five of the console bundles in Tesco. The memo told staff that the Tesco offer gave ‘a great opportunity to gain 3DS consoles and games for your store’s pre-owned stock’. It also suggested priority games to buy, such as Lego Star Wars 3.

Staff were told not to sell their Tesco purchases until their own stock had run out.

The memo said the task was not mandatory. ‘It is only to be done when and if you have staff available and not to be done if you feel it may compromise personal safety. If you do this, you should consider the risks associated with this activity,’ it warned.

A Game spokesman said: ‘Some of our stores wanted to move quickly to build their pre-owned stocks of 3DS at the same time as their local competitors. We gave them a process to do that. It was not mandatory and happened in small volumes.' "

What do you guys think of this practice?

I really do not see the problem with this. This sort of practice goes on more often than you would think in retail, and if a major retailer like GAME sees an opportunity to make money on a new hardware launch it's going to do so.

Can you explain why it's so shocking?

so long as they're not selling those 'pre-owned' consoles at full price, who cares? Nintendo got theirs, so did Tesco, and the idea of a 'pre-owned' console has never been played is pretty appealing to me as a buyer, lol. :3

I dislike Tesco much (much) more than GAME. As long as the customers aren't denied their 3DS. Besides, you may have heard how Tesco was doing exactly the same thing to bookshops (albeit, savagely undercutting their prices).

What are the other reasons not to shop at GAME?

Personally I have never heard of either of those stores but yeah its not that shocking. To be honestly Gamestop is way worst when they sell you a game thats been a demo at the full price rather than at the used price.

Tesco is a massive chain of UK supermarkets and GAME is the leading game store (surprisingly enough) in the UK, basically our equivalent of Gamestop.

They've been known for some pretty shady stuff in the past, recently sending out pre-owned copies claiming they're "new" for example.. but Tesco haven't been much better. They often put very low prices on games up on their website to draw in interest, then cancel all the orders claiming the price was a mistake..

Other than GAME often being much more expensive than other places and over charging for exclusive limited edition's and the like.. I don't really have a problem with them either though.

Well think about why GAME might want to increase their second hand stock.What's in it for them? Think about it.
Not to mention a lot of people are now missing out on the great deal that Tesco were offering due to all their stock being bought by GAME staff. I guess maybe it is a common practice,I've never heard of it before though.

@Luigi78 I understand why they'd want to increase their pre-owned stock — pre-owned keeps GAME Group in business, after all — but I think the web has taken hold of this and turned a molehill into a mountain. It's not as if every GAME (and Gamestation) went down to Tesco and bought all the consoles. I'd wager that a tiny minority of stores actually went and did this, certainly not enough for it to make a difference to Joe Public. I didn't catch many stories of genuine punters turned away from Tesco while GAME employees cackled all the way back to the high street.

Well obviously, if they're buying up the discounted console stock and selling them for more (it wasn't specified how much they were being resold for), then that's no good for anyone except GAME. Even if they're not selling the consoles for more, they're still getting a benefit at Tesco's loss, it's just a little more subtle. Having more stock of a hot item is a very real advantage.

@Moosa But why is it Tesco's loss? They're still selling the consoles after all.

I couldn't really care if Tesco are losing out ,which as you say there not, its the customer that is.
Also I just find the whole buisness rather underhand. Maybe I'm biased because of my experiences in GAME. The way they try to push second hand games on you when you want new is not good for the industry which I love, how much profit is being lost to developers because of this? Oh and they ruined Gamestation which was a great little chain of shops till GAME got there grubby mitts on em! Anyway rant over.

Eh, same old corporate price wars as ever. I'd do the same thing if I owned a video game store.

The only issue I can see with this is whether or not they make a Tesco sell out of a cheaper priced 3DS which then makes the consumer have to go to GAME to buy a "pre-owned" 3DS with at a higher price. The consumer will therefore not get the best deal.

As long as the above scenario doesn't play out, and it doesn't seem GAME are encouraging this, thenI have no issue.

Second sourcing.

Normal.

A couple reasons I can think of off the top of my head:
1) A competitor is getting more stock
2) Those sales aren't actually going to their customers. This is a bit difficult to explain, but I'll just say that when customers go in looking for a 3DS, and find them in stock, that means the customers will leave happy, and happy customers are good for retail stores.
3) Related to #2, when consumers know that Tesco has 3DS' in stock, that gets them into the store, and when they get in the store they'll buy more than just the 3DS. Most especially with a game console, they'll at least pick up a game or two to go with it. Instead, GAME employees are buying up the console stock, leaving the games on the shelf, and reselling the consoles plus their own game stock (and game stock is always much more plentiful).

Actually, it's interesting how Tesco required that a game be purchased for full price along with the sale. These things seem pretty subtle, but there are reasons why, for instance, Amazon set a limit to one per household for 3DS consoles. Consider how common it is these days for people to buy up as much of a new console's stock as they can and resell them on eBay at marked-up prices. Retailers don't like this when they know that they could easily sell out all of their stock to more legitimate customers.

The only one losing is Nintendo. Instead of selling two new 3DS systems, Game buys one and then makes pure profit selling that one pre-owned.

But that's the beauty of the pre-owned market I guess.

Is this what i would call nice and clean business ? Nope!
Is this what i'd call solidarity between retailers ? Again no!
Am i shocked to see this happening ? In no way at all.

The main question i've got here would be concerning staff. Since it was not mandatory it would be interesting to know if the ones who did it got any advantages over those who didn't. I mean the text sais "If you do this, you should consider the risks associated with this activity". So why should i do it if i didn't get any advantage or if i wouldn't have to fear disadvantages compared to those who do ?

how are they making pure profit? they already paid out of pocket for it, and they're selling it as pre-owned, not new (new they're 196-ish there, so discounted for pre-owned status they'd probably be about the same price as they paid for it at the other store). they can only hope to sell something else along with the Tesco-bought 3DS (games, accessories, etc.) in order to turn any kind of real profit this way.

normally, you would be right about the pre-owned market, but this isn't really the same 'give the customer maybe half of what they paid for it and then sell it almost at the same price as new' deal, y'know?

I've haven't got much of a problem with this.
The REAL reasons I don't like GAME are the prices they charge, and the horrendously poor selection of games on offer in the first place. At least with my local branch.

@Doma "Probably" doing it isn't the same as actually doing it. The pre-owned till price will already be set up and there's no price override function on their tills so they couldn't overcharge even if they wanted to. Not sure how new games got sold out with save files, unless a pre-owned game was misfiled as new (it happens).

@LTD I think the "risks" it's referring to are most likely the risk of getting beaten up while carrying five Nintendo 3DS consoles around