Looks like Toys 'R Us is starting to seriously purge their PS2 selection. I stopped in the one by Gurnee Mills today and spotted a large number that were recently marked down to $5.

Here's what they had:
-Jak and Dexter
-King of Fighters XI
-Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
-Final Fight Battle Archives 2
-Art of Fighting Anthology
-Swashbucklers
-Sly Cooper
-Sly 3
-Pinball Hall of Fame
-Summer Athletics
-Mountain Bike Adrenaline
-Volleyball (probably with some sub-title)
-Brunswick Bowling
-Riding Star

All their GBA games are 3 for $10 but they only have 2 titles (H.S. Musical 3 and Texas Hold 'em) so I don't know how that works.

I was trying to wrap up Christmas shopping yesterday at Gurnee Mills when I noticed something called "Blockbuster Outlet" going up. It's going into a space more or less across from Rink Side Sports. I peeked in the window and they were stocking DVDs and Xbox 360 games, they'll probably have all the current-gen systems. Seems like it would make sense to open before Christmas, not sure if they'll make it.

I'm curious if they plan to carry leftovers from stores that are closing or used online rentals or just overstock in general? Has anybody seen one of these before?

Went to the GameStop at Gurnee Mills yesterday and noticed that the Circuit City is now a Halloween store. I just had to go in. It was actually a bit humorous because they didn't take down any of the old signage. So underneath the giant "Car Audio" sign you'd see a rack of costumes and so on. Unfortunately I wasn't able to snag any pictures.

So, what's your local Circuit City now?

The J.C. Penney outlet store in Gurnee Mills just announced they're closing. They were in a bad location and didn't receive much traffic. Well, and the store just plain wasn't very good.

They did have a small video game section though. Being an outlet location I assume they received overstocks from other locations. They never had new titles but always had a few miscellaneous games. As I recall, they were the last store in the mall to sell Dreamcast games.

So I figured it was worth taking a trip to see what they had. I think a crappy camera phone picture says it all, here is their entire video game selection:



So in other words - don't bother.

The Toys 'R Us in Gurnee is clearing out their remaining selection of GBA games for $5 each or 3 for $10 (3 for $10 is not advertised but one of the employees mentioned it to anyone looking at the bin).

Most of the games were for kids but there were a few copies of TMNT mixed-in there.

I didn't plan to go to Circuit City today. After my last visit I had no desire to go back, even with everything 90% off. However, my wife needed to go to Kohl's which is right next door so I decided to take a peek.

I was only in the store for a minute before an announcement came over the PA that they were closing up. It was about two hours early but pretty obvious why, there was nothing left to buy.

I snagged a few photos on my phone, including the only products they had left:









...

So this is it folks, the last 10 days:



Everything is 40%-70% off, if you come back on the last weekend it should be 80%-90%. The only reason to visit are the 60% off DVDs, they still have a good selection. Everything else is pretty bare except for the stuff that's still a rip-off at 60% off.

The awful prices remind me of why the company failed. I'm not happy to see an ugly empty anchor store but not sad to see them go either. My heart goes out to the employees losing their job (especially the cashier who was kind enough to give me an additional discount). Retail jobs are scarce in February during a good year. I hope some use the closing as an opportunity to go back to school or enter a new profession. (I'm an ex-retail employee myself)

Anyway... for gamers there is little reason to go. There are some PC games left but virtually no console titles. The only good deal is behind...

I spent way too long at Gurnee Mills today but managed to at least duck into every store that sells games. Unfortunately, none of the New Years/After-Christmas sales are that great. Here's a recap to save the bother of going:

GameStop: Neither location had any great deals, the $9.99 and under bins were stuffed as usual but nothing interesting.

Sears Grand: They had a bin of $19.99 and under sale games but no major titles in it - the same shovelware you'd usually find there.

FYE: Probably the best of the lot.. as usual they had a ton of used games for every system at decent prices, no special sales on games at the moment though. They still have a couple Xbox and GameCube games for 50% off (I grabbed Lego Star Wars II for $4) and a section of $19.99 Wii games. Also, if you're looking for the last unsold Game Boy Micro on the planet they have it for $49.99.

KB Toys: The store is nearly empty by now. Everything is at least 50% off including...

I guess the title says it all... there were 3 copies there this afternoon in the video game clearance section. I assume they won't be there by the weekend.

Drove past Gurnee Mills today and saw someone on the street with a sign advertising that KB Toys was going out of business with everything 30% to 50% off. I was in the mall on Thursday and it was not going out of business then so this must be breaking news. According to this article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=32201 I apparently missed it by a day.

I didn't want to brave the mall on a Saturday so I'll report on what they have left later this week. Their game selection was just budget titles though, stuff that even at 30%-50% off is barely worth getting.

It's really a shame. That KB was there when the mall opened 17 years ago. I know it sounds corny but whenever one of these founding stores closes it's a little sad.

Update 12/16/2008 - I checked it out and there's little reason to go (for gamers at least). They had about a dozen DS titles but they were mostly puzzle games. There were about 4-5 Wii titles but they were all kids...

Here are some tips for surviving Black Friday in Gurnee based on my early morning experiences:

Don't bother with Best Buy unless you get there extremely early. I've driven by at 4:30 and the line was all the way to the Jewel-Osco at the end of the plaza.

Toys 'R Us usually has their act together. They open at 5:00 but the line is out of the parking lot by 4:30-4:45. Unlike most stores, they actually have employees keeping the line orderly. They also handout the tickets for big items (like game systems) to people waiting early. For example, in 2006 they gave out Wii tickets starting around 4:45. If you were not in line early you didn't get one when they opened at 5:00.

Target opens at 6:00 and isn't too bad because the really-early-mob is still waiting to checkout elsewhere. There is a chaotic surge when then doors open of course but they staff all the registers so you'll get in and out quickly. If you know exactly what you're looking for you'll be...

Stopped in at the fye at Gurnee Mills today and saw that they were clearing out all their Game Boy Advance, Xbox, and Gamecube games for 50% off the lowest price:



The GBA selection was pretty solid - I picked-up a new copy of Final Fantasy VI Advance for $11.24. The Gamecube games are kinda hidden below the Wii section but there's a decent selection left.

Stopped by the Gurnee Best Buy and GameStop that are in the plaza with Target. They're both doing the midnight opening thing for Madden '09 if anyone cares.

Here are some deals they have at the moment:

Best Buy

• The have a rack of games 30%-50%, mostly PS2 and 360, the PS2 selection is mostly last years sports titles and kids games, the 360 side seemed to have a wider selection
• If you really want Viewtiful Joe for Gamecube, it's $9.99 and they have 10-20 copies

GameStop

• They have a bin of 50% off preowned titles, it's about 1/2 PS2 with Xbox and 360 taking up the rest - the games are really cheap though, 2005 sports games end up at 50 cents, a ton of other titles are in the $5-$10 range
• While in line someone ahead of me asked about Wii Fit and they said they received and sold a shipment of 100 this week - another large shipment is due early next week

Stopped by the Toys 'R Us next to Gurnee Mills today. Here are the deals they have in stock:

• Buy one Wii game get $20 off another ($29.99) - they had an ample supply of games like Mario Kart and Wii Play
• $9.99 DS games - saw about 5-6 DS games with $9.99 sale signs, most of them weren't titles I was particularly interested in
• Clearance bin - they've had ~50 copies of of Texas Hold 'Em for GBA in there for months, it's now all the way down to $4 (20% off $5), otherwise nothing noteworthy on clearance right now

They also had Wii systems in stock, although I suppose that's now becoming the norm rather than exception.

Yeah, the arcade as we know it is basically dead. By "we" I mean "Gen-Xers who grew up surrounded by the thriving arcades of the 80s and early 90s". I suppose to many CAGs the current state of the arcade scene is all they've ever known and I can get that.

If you're seeking an arcade fix in Gurnee here are a couple places to try:

Rink Side Sports (Inside Gurnee Mills): This is an ice rink / family arcade. This is about the best place in town for arcade games. Most of their games are DDR variants or sit-down machines. However, they have a couple classic games off to the corner.

Chuck 'e Cheese: Although aimed at kids, they have a few arcade games for the parents. All the machines are 25 cents so you can't complain about the price. I would not recommend going here on a weekend. Oh, did I mention they serve beer too?

Marcus Cinema (Semi-Attached to Gurnee Mills): Like many theaters they have some arcade games off the front...

If the stores in Gurnee aren't enough, here are a couple more within a 10 minute drive.

Round Lake

Take Grand Ave to Rollins road (left turn only). Follow Rollins for a couple miles to hit downtown Round Lake. Along Rollins there's a Wal-Mart, K-Mart, GameStop, and Big Lots (possibly in that order).

The GameStop in Round Lake is a good location, the few times I've been there I've found them to have a great used selection. The staff there was also excessively friendly.

The K-Mart and Wal-Mart are average stores of their kind. I haven't been to either more than once or twice so I can't say too much about them.

Big Lots is a gamble, from time to time they get a deal on some fairly new overstock titles.

Lakehurst

If you follow Route 120 east, just past the tollway, you'll see an exit for Lakehurst road. This area used to sport a shopping mall until Gurnee Mills put them out of business. It was bulldozed...

I-94 is undergoing a long overdue widening effort. One of the temporary hassles is the closure of the southbound Grand Ave exit ramp. This makes coming from Wisconsin a tad painful. With all the construction around the Grand Ave ramps you may want to avoid the interchange altogether.

Coming West on I-94 (from Chicago)

Take one of the Route 120 exits:

East: Get over to the left lane immediately to turn left on O'Plaine road. Taking a left on Washington will get you to Six Flags. Taking a left on Grand Ave will get you to both Six Flags and Gurnee Mills.

West: Not a good exit to get to Six Flags. However, if you follow 120 to Hunt Club road it's a good way to get to Gurnee Mills.

Coming East on I-94 (from Wisconsin)

You'll be stuck taking the Route 21 detour, sorry. There are no entrances to Route 120 this direction. The only other option is to take Route 41.

Route 41 (either direction)

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If you don't want to brave the mall there are still plenty of options for video game shopping in Gurnee.

Inside the Gurnee Mills circle

Toys 'R Us: They have a decent-sized game section. Sale items can be a bit scarce there though.

Grand Ave & Hunt Club
(Directly southwest of the mall)

This is a large shopping plaza with a few good stores right next to each other.

GameStop: This is located between the Target and OfficeMax. Like the other two GameStops in town this used to be a different store (Funcoland). This is large by GameStop standards and has a very broad selection of new and used games. It's arguably the best GameStop in town in terms of variety.

Target: My experience with this location is them always being out of advertised items. If there's a sale item you're after get there early. In the back of the electronics section, almost by the outdoor section, are their clearance games. A few good...

When it was built Gurnee Mills was one of the largest shopping malls in the country. It's now fallen out of the top 20 but is still enormous. For gamers there are plenty of stores worth checking out.

Video Game Stores

There are two GameStop stores in Gurnee Mills on completely different ends of the mall:

GameStop (next to Sports Authority): Up until 2007 this was an Electronics Boutique store. I feel weirdly sentimental towards it because I worked there in the early 90s. It was a nice EB store but is now an average GameStop. That's not a knock or anything, I'm just saying don't expect it to be vastly different from any other GameStop location. They have a good selection overall and typically have all the new releases in stock.

GameStop (next to Rainforest Cafe): This was originally a Software ETC that was rebranded when they merged with Babbages. Of the two locations, this one always seems to have a larger selection of used games....