GAME Admits to Grabbing 3DS Stock From Supermarkets

[rwege]

So I smoke a fair amount of...."tabacco" lets call it to avoid being banned. The people I buy off of ...the tabacco...I hold to a certain degree of responsibility to provide me the best price to retain my business. If for example I discover that I'm being charged the same price for product he's paying different prices for, he loses my business.

This is the same situation. I would never shop at this store again.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

That was hilarious. XD Thank you so much for posting that. That said, I can't help but feel that it might be a bit of a parody of the notion that Tesco is evil.

On topic, this is quite interesting, although I am not sure if it will turn out to be worthwhile for GAME to do so. While the 3DS has turned out to be a suprising succees in Britain (suprising, since I never imagined Britain to be a handheld-focused market), I am not sure it will be so popular that it would justify buying stock from elsewhere. If this phenomenon is just temporary, GAME could end up shooting themselves in the foot. But I guess that remains to be seen.

 

[Hungry Donner]

It's not classy but I don't see anything wrong with it - if a major retailer wants to sell things at a loss to attract customers why shouldn't smaller chains take advantage of it? If it was an independent store I'd even applaud them.

I do have problems with the massive emphasis these stores put on pre-owned stock but that's a debate for another thread - at least for me.

 

[Realitycrash]

Here's some inside info, related to the article.

Erhm. When I worked at GAME, we did a similar thing. Nearby Gamestop had a campaign which offered a new game, value of 60E, for 1E if you at the same time traded in three preowned games (from a special list, not all games were accepted, but most were).
So, every day, every employee put on their regular clothing, took three shitty-shitty preowned games that we were never ever going to get sold (Old Tigerwoods-games, crappy two year old shooters, etc), ran over to Gamestop, and traded them for a brand new game.
Said employee went back to Game, and priced that new game for 40E as preowned. Wham, profit.

Every employee did this atleast once a day, I myself included.
Was this illegal? Hell if I know. But I did what my boss told me.

 

[Charli]

That's true but as a big name store it's a little... odd and Skeevy for us to be doing that.

We do have bundles and special promotions for people who pre-ordered/Own a GAME card etc. But as I find, that can only go so far, people seem to go out of their way to comprehend as little as possible unless big shiny lettering is glittering in their faces. (Understandable but trying at the end of a day)

But hey, as stated, it's not illegal, it's just business. Eensy bit underhanded business but there you go.

 

[michael87cn]

How is this news? I mean, it seems more like advertising to me. "Go to GAME to get your 3DS! They have a bunch in stock!".

So a company saw an opportunity to make profit and jumped at it. HOW is that news? Companies world wide practice this; it's actually how you make money.. you buy something for a dollar and sell it for 2, or in the case of supply and demand buy something highly sought after cheap and sell it at market value..

Are you going to report to us everytime Walmart gets a deal on apples?

/shrug

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to seem rude, but the title is strange.

"Admits" is usually used as a term for doing something that's deemed wrong. I don't see how it's wrong is all.

Supermarket is just that, a market where things are bought, it doesn't mean you can't re-sell what you buy.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Part of me is annoyed that GAME would pull something like this. I'm almost certain this does go against some trading regulation, or anti-competition laws, if it isn't, it certainly is an unenthical business practice notheless though I don't GAME is going to lost any sleep over that. On the otherhand hand I'm happy that GAME pulled one over on the big supermarket chains in this country, but I am curious as to whether this has had any real negative effects on them as I imagine they haven't lost any money in selling the 3DSs.

Yay Capitalism.

 

[CVLawes]

Supermarkets are killing specialist retailers by selling below cost. They do it to pull customers into their stores, not because they have some special relationship with the manufacturers. Game's just fighting back.

You know your backside can be used for deficating as well as talking. If ANYTHING is harmign 'specialist' retailers it'd be online stores. I honestly can't beleive someone would be ANNOYED that stores are lowering prices and making things more competitive. GAME arn't some poor one store indie shop owned by a family. THAT is the kinda stores which are f'd over by supermarkets AND f'd over by chains like GAME.

You know you're mouth can be used for talking as well as deficating. I infer from your comment that you do not work in retail as you have no idea how tough it is, even for major retailers. As I said, Tesco are selling them below cost as they make up the difference out of the "basket" value, Game can't do that.

And I can guarantee you all the indies did exactly the same thing, if they got there first ; )

 

[VulakAerr]

Yeah, I don't see anything wrong with it either. I don't even think it was to deny stock to Tesco but most likely to make sure Game didn't run out of stock on their midnight launch.

Off topic: I actually prefer Game to Gamestation in my city of Southampton. The thing about these specialist shops is that so much of the experience is down to the staff. In Southampton, Game seem to have gotten the genuinely geeky and Gamestation seems to have taken the elitist snobs with the personal hygiene issues. I imagine it could well be different in other cities.

 

[gigastar]

While it is unusual, i see nothing wrong with it.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

That can't possibly be legal... Can it?

Perfectly legal and very often practiced in the workplace. I know of someone who does similar for us, and both sides of the deal are happy with how it works.

However, given Tesco is, allegedly, more corrupt than Game, you do have to wonder what will happen.

My only question about all this is the "reprimanding" they went through was. They cannot force their people to take part in this and reprimand them if they don't (after saying ti's not mandatory), but then again it's all a matter of proving that you reprimanded them for that.

Still curious as to what GAME did to them as "Punishment"

 

[Jaranja]

"It was not mandatory, and happened in small volumes."

As in: "Yeah we murdered him. but only a little."

Uhm, no. More like: "No, we didn't murder him. We only cut him a bit."

 

[Proverbial Jon]

However, given Tesco is, allegedly, more corrupt than Game, you do have to wonder what will happen.

Tesco: Great Britain's Umbrella Corporation

I maintain this as well. I only found out the other day, though this very forum, that they were the same company. I deinitly prefer gamestation.

Though the women who work in game are, in my experience, fitter.

+1 to cheavanism.

Hmm well it looks like you win. Gamestation where I live only ever seems to have guys working there. Looks like GAME trumps Gamesation by the mere fact that a girl does indeed work there... seems like we can't be too picky down our end of the woods.

 

[Senaro]

i don't see the problem here, there just restocking from supermarkets which are cheaper than the person they would have been getting it from before.

mabie just my stupidity kicking in again.

I see this sort of thing happen all the time when specials go out in stores in my town, though not with expensive electronic equipment. There must be some kind of thing that makes it wrong once you go over a certain price. It does seem a little shady, taking away the changes for customers to get their discounted goods, but I'm not sure how it'd be illegal.

 

[Ravek]

I applaud GAME for doing smart business.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Free market forces at work. Undermines any credibility that GAME has over supermarkets though.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Game ripping off Tesco? It's like Alien Vs. Predator; whoever wins, we lose.

 

[VulakAerr]

Don't forget that Game didn't resell these 3DSs as "new". They were clearly labelled as "pre-owned" but in mint condition. There's no con here for the customer.

On the other hand, independent book stores went to Tesco to buy Harry Potter books at 1/3 of RRP and then sell them as new for full price. I don't have a problem with that either but let's face it, that's definitely more deceitful. Doesn't even look like Game are worried about having been "caught" doing this, which is fair enough.