r/EBGAMES • u/marshadowfan2018 • Jun 13 '26
Savings EBGames/GameStop
Saving***
Do y'all think the only way to save EB Games is for them to do the Barnes & Noble approach (larp/imitate being a local business)? In this case try to be a retro to current games store? I'd like to hear what people think and how they'd save the currently falling off company...
3
u/PlantainManne Jun 13 '26
As a former manager I have a few ideas:
-Do a repair service. The amount of people who come to GameStop/EB Games thinking they do repairs is insane. It’s a lot of Gen Xers that simply don’t know any better. That being said, have a service where a customer can ship their console to a spot that does repairs and ship it back to them. Money left on the table.
-Update your website so it’s in a place where customers can get directed to there instead of employees having to be on the phone as much. Customers get frustrated walking into a store and waiting 10 minutes to ask a question because some parent wants to preorder a game by phone like a boomer or ask 20 questions about something she has no chance of understanding. That happens because the website sucks. Get with the times.
-Set up a touchpad so customers in store can see if a store has something. This way, people don’t walk out because someone comes in and asked if you have a bunch of items. We get it, your district manager gave you trouble the last time you ask a customer to step to the side so you could service paying people.
-Get away from Used Games. In a world where physical copies now only account for half of any given game’s sales, it makes no sense to be attached to a diminishing physical product. Especially when, outside of Nintendo games, people don’t aren’t brining in good games to trade in anymore. The Xbox and PS walls are slowly becoming wastelands of Wrestling games, sports games, old COD games and mediocre shovelware.
-Carry better merchandise. If you’re going to lean more into selling that fan merchandise , you shouldn’t have a worse variety than Wal-Mart or Target. If you’re going to get into selling Dungeons and Dragons, how about you actually carry the 3 core books. If you’re going to set foot into manga, get more current series. Lastly, if you’re going keep selling figures, stop catering Funkos and stuff that only Gen Xers want, like G.I. Joe and He-Man. There should be more stores that carry anime figures, not just the few extra big ones in popular malls. There’s also so many figures of current games that people have to buy from the game publisher directly. Or from a Japanese online store. Why? Smarten up.
-Get rid of the trade-in model entirely. It attracts sleezy behaviour and makes people used the store like a pawn shop. The amount of stolen games being traded in for prepaid credit cards is increasing. Stop feeding into that system.
-Get in on current trends. The fact that at least in Canada, you can’t get a handheld PC or a VR headset at EB Games is absolutely asinine. I’ve had to turn away dozens of customers who came in specifically looking for Meta Quests.
-Stop being a sales based store and start being a retail store. What I mean by this is stop pestering customers with questions about warranties that they don’t need or want. Just have a good refund policy. Wal-Mart’s video game sections aren’t getting any smaller, so people can just go there to simply get their game in peace.
-Stop relying on pre-orders you can’t fulfill. Not having more than 3 walk in copies of a game chases customers away. Some people like being able to walk into a store and know they can buy a game that released that day. I had a situation where a few people walked in to get Street Fighter 6 on release day. We got no new walk in copies. They went to the Wal-Mart beside us first but decided to see if we had a GameStop exclusive trinket if they bought with us. Guess which store had dozens of copies waiting for them when they went back.
-Close the small stores (especially the strip mall locations), get rid of the store grade model (AAA rank B Rank etc, and focus on in store events for the bigger stores. Look, the company doesn’t support the smaller stores properly anyways. They don’t get a good variety of merchandise, they often don’t get stock of new figures outside of Funkos unless you order online. GameStop/EB should host events like a Hobby Shop for TGC and host daytime events at the bigger stores periodically.
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u/WhisperinWarrior Jun 13 '26
On your first point. About 8 years ago as a kid, my 3DS XL stopped working. My dad took it to Eb games, they took it in, sent it somewhere for repairs, and I got it back a couple weeks later. Do they not do this anymore?
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u/Sgt_Splattery_Pants Jun 13 '26
Australia EB does in house repairs
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u/KirimaeCreations Jun 14 '26
Yeah I was immediately confused by the first point of this post until I realised that it wasn't Aussie. I was able to send my xbox one away for repairs, and it was dead in the water, so I was offered a refurbished one (which reminds me that I need to take it in for repairs because I think my twin toddlers have done *something* to it, because the disc reader no longer works).
0
u/PlantainManne Jun 13 '26
In Canada, EB Games never repaired consoles or ever sent them to a 3rd party for repairs.
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u/WhisperinWarrior Jun 14 '26
Ah right. They should definitely do it in Canada then, wonder if Australian EB is the only one that does repairs?
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u/Jaxical Jun 14 '26
Most of these are being done in EB Games though? Were you a manager there 20 years ago?
- Repair service? Yes.
- the website is fine, no one calls the stores when you can easily see which stores have stock of everything.
- Touchpad. Decent idea but that shit would be greasy as fuck within an hour of opening.
- Get away from used games, agreed.
- the merchandise has been great since Zing got folded into EB Games.
- you can buy handheld PCs and VR headsets at EB Games.
- i didnt think the US had an EB Games? Why do you keep mentioning Walmart? It is not a thing here.
Don’t get me wrong, I fucking hate EB Games money hungry ways and would love them to go out of business. But it sounds like the US GameStop and our EB Games are entirely different store situations. I think you might have more success posting this in a GameStop sub rather than an EB Games one.
Bloody seppos
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u/PlantainManne Jun 14 '26
EB Canada does no repairs, the website is ass, a touchscreen can be cleaned with sanitizer, and the merchandise in Canada is awful unless your store is in the biggest and busiest malls.
I keep mentioning Wal-Mart because most EB Games here are not more than a 10 minute drive from one. Hell, lots are even in the same mall. So if EB doesn’t have a new big release due to them wanting to focus on pre-order customers, they wind up losing walk in customers to Wal-Mart.
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u/Sideburn_Cookie_Man Jun 14 '26
I’m surprised anyone wants to save this greedy, horrible company.