RF Generation Message Board

In a 1.44 Billion Dollar Stock Deal, Gamestop has agreed to buy out its competitor, Electronics Boutique. Shares of both companies are up after the announcement. Leaders of the company say this will help position for the release of the next-gen systems later this year

Source: Reuters (http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/050418/retail_electronicsboutique_gamestop.html?.v=5)

From one standpoint the combined company will be able to better perfrom against the Wal-Mart, but on the other hand we lose yet another specialty retailer to the behemoth that is GameStop. I doubt though that all the EBs will change to Gamestops, as the placement between the two stores are generally extremely close. Hell, near my house there are three gamestops within a mile of each other, 2 of which are right across the street from each other.

Don't forget the EB that is in the same mall as one of those two GameStops.  This is bad news if you ask me.  Why should I care if they can compete better with Wal-Mart?  Consolidating will probably just hurt the consumers, since there will be less competition to drive prices down.  YUCK.

Since I dont really buy new games all that often it doesnt really matter to me.

This gamestop guy must have the greatest game collection in the world!

This is gonna fuck me over hard.

I stopped going to Gamestop after they stopped selling older games and I started going to EB.  Simply put, they had what I wanted now and Gamestop didn't.  Now, Gamestop is probably going to institue the same policies that they have and stop selling older games.

I would love to hear NES Junkies take on all of this.  I hope he comes by the site.

This sucks... Less places to shop >:(
I wonder how many people will lose jobs over this ?

Thats the same reason I stop going to Gamestop. What would be awesome if if Gamestop was the newer stuff and EB became a retro store.

Ah, we can only dream...

In the U.K

Game bought out Electronic Boutique a coupla years ago.

The two stores were yards apart in my town, so there was no grand closing down sale in E.B (which I preferred to Game) all the stock was moved across.

damn. I prefer EB over Gamestop myself. Most of the Gamestops around here are so small they don't even have a good selection of the newer stuff.

I agree. And lately, EB has had better trade-in deals, too. Hopefully the EB marketing group will replace the GameSpot group.

The mall I go to has both stores. Now, it will be reduced to 1...eventually.

Didn't this happen with FuncoLand and GameStop and some other company too?
They were all under the same owner ship but then got merged into 1 company under the GameStop name?

I don't know if they were all under the same ownber ship but i know they merged or something because i remember when the funcoland across from the mall where GameStop was became a GameStop and still is.
They are located no more than 1 1/2-2 miles from eachother including probably 1/2-3/4 mile of parkinglots.

Video game stores in my area are far and few between.  Within reasonable driving distance of my house there are two EBs and one Mcvan's (Mcvan's is a local video game store that, despite having high prices, has an unbelievable selection of retro and nextgen stuff.) and that's it.

There are 5 Mcvan's stores in Indiana: 3 in Fort Wayne, 1 in Evansville, and 1 in Fishers (Fishers is the one near my house.).  If you happen to be in the area of one of these, give them a shot.  Like I said before, although most of their prices are fairly high, their selection is the best I've seen in a long time.

Their web site is:
http://www.mcvans.com/

Anthony, the other store you are thinking of is Babbages.  GameStop owns them and Funcoland.  Many of the former stores have been converted to GameStops, but not all.  I saw Babbage's stores while in Michigan, and we still have Funcolands here in Cincy.

I would type more about this, but I can't see out of my right eye, and the left one is getting screwy too.  It's freaking me out.  More later.  Out.

Thats right!
Babbages changed in the mall about a year or 2 before Funcoland changed across from it.

What's funny about this is that I don't work at EB anymore. Quit about 6 weeks ago. Most of us saw something like this coming down the pipe, but not this soon, in about 4 or 5 years. I think it'll suck for current EB managers, and here's why:

Now that I dont work there anymore I can talk more details. EB Managers on average make 8-10k more a year then gamestop managers. Hence in an area where there is one of each the EB will get closed. Or if the gamestop gets closed, the gamestop manager will take over for the EB manager because he is cheaper.

I really find this quiet odd now that there is no competition. That was half the reason EB made polocies about anything, was to outsell gamestop. I can only believe that the majority stockholder, and the founder of EB, was offered roughly 700million for his shares and he said, hell I'll take it! I know I would.

I am glad I do not work there anymore so I don't have to worry about this crap. My store wouldnt' have gotten closed anyway, I dont have competition for 40 miles and my store made butt loads of profit. And yet, I never got bonuses. Hey maybe gamestop gives out bonuses.....ah hell I'm not going back.