All Game Crazys Are Closing

S

stonetoad

CAG Veteran
Found this on my local Craigslist.

Bend Game Crazy Closing: First and foremost, a heartfelt and whole hearted "Thank You" to Central Oregon for choosing us for the past 6 years. In approx. two weeks ALL Game Crazy and Hollywood Video stores will be entering liquidation. As the store manager, and employee since (almost) inception till the last day I wanted to thank all the many, many, many people who have been like our extended family. You have made a job a 2nd home. We will miss all of your faces and down to earth kindness. We have always striven to be your "neighborhood" game store and provide you with excellent customer service and I feel we have done a pretty good job. Your loyalty has inspired us to provide you with the best possible experiences when in our store (CoDMW2 Midnight Launch chest flasher, HALO 3 Megaline around the store, Super Smash Bros. Tourneys and many many more). You have made the long waits till midnight launches and the 4AM Black Fridays well worth it. I also thank the many employees who have been with us over the years, the part time seasonals to the full timers who have moved on. We wish to see your faces all one last time before we close that gate for the final time. So come on down, pick up that game you've been wanting or just come down and shoot the breeze with Dan, Cody, Chris or myself. We would love to see you and say thank you and goodbye.

Bend Game Crazy Store Director,
Glenn J.

Bend Game Crazy Shift Leads (and a better group of employees than I could wish for),
Cody J. & Dan H. & Chris M.


P.S. As I'm sure many of you have some questions I'll try to answer what I know here and save our phone (and sanity) from blowing up.

Q. I have deposits on preorders, credit on my account, a gift card to GC and Hollywood. What do I do?
A. All cash deposits can be refunded for cash or used towards a purchase. All credit deposits/trade credits must be used up, credit is not transferable to cash. I recommend using your gift cards as there wont be any other location to use it at.

Q. Are you still taking preorders?
A. No, we will no longer be taking preorders on future titles, nor offering the MVP membership, offering game guard or console service contracts.

Q. What if I purchased one of those things?
A. Preorders see answer to the first question, as for MVP's and game guard I assume those will be unrefundable. In the case of service contracts I am unsure at this time how the company will handle them. I will have more information after my conference call on Monday.

Q. Are you still taking trades?
A. Yep, most definitely, however, we are no longer doing cash for trades. We still guarantee the best trade price in town and if we come in lower we'll top our competitor by 5% as always. But, if it wasn't obvious, you'll want to use that credit same day.

Q. What/When are your liquidation sales?
A. The sales wont start until the liquidation firms finish bidding on the company's assets *apx. 2 weeks. As for what the sales will be I couldn't tell you at this time. However expect by the time they begin some of our stock may have been shipped out, and expect much of the "better stuff" to go fairly quickly, so don't expect the good/decent/rare(er) games to last past the first or second weeks. Moral of the story, best to just come buy it now rather than try to wait for it to hit bottom dollar pricing as it wont be in stock then.

Q. What do you guys have in stock?
A. Honestly, everything up to date including a few Splinter Cell Elite 360 and Bowsers Inside Story DSI bundles. We have a pretty awesome selection of used games right now (I raided one of the Eugene stores that absorbed a lot of product from another closing store a few weeks ago so we have a lot of hot stuff in). A bunch of refurbished Wii's for $150, a ton of refurbished 360's $160-250 and a bunch of new consoles/handhelds as well.

Q. So what now?
A. We are kicking around a few ideas about a Store Closing BBQ when all is said and done and we'd really love to have anyone who has been a regular or has a fond memory to come down and write it down or sign on the store banner. We might also practice moonwalking and juggling and putting a video on YouTube, we'll see. :)

THANK YOU CENTRAL OREGON, YOU'VE MADE IT AWESOME!
 
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[quote name='EvilIA']We are in a similar situation. 10K small town, only had the GC for games. It was always busy. Wal-Mart went to a small store and now only sells top 10 games and shovelware. Aside from Fred Meyer it is now a 10+ mile drive to another place to buy games. There is now no seller of used games in town either.

I'm seriously considering finding a VG selling franchise and see what I can do for myself.[/QUOTE]

Hah, at least you had a GC there - we just had a plain vanilla HWV.

Yep, for me the 10 miles thing applies - but that is each way. So to get to GS, or Best Buy, or Target, or anything like that it is 20 miles round trip. What amazes me when people (usually in big cities) complain about having to go 2 or 3 miles to a "B&M" store to do stuff. Actually, the 2 closest used game stores to me were (and currently still are) Gamecrazy locations. I think that is why I get the impression BBV and HWV are doing better than they are - I think the rural stores DO continue to retain customers. Maybe the urban ones are dead, though when I ran around for the BBV B1G1 I didn't notice that.

But lets not forget the primary reason for the demise of this "Movie Gallery" thing was their acquisition of Hollywood Video. HWV was doing relatively OK on its own, but of course corporate-types have to go messing shit up by merging and acquiring all the time :roll:. It kind of pisses me off that this stupid southern company I've never heard of (this "Movie Gallery" - I've never seen a store with that name on it) had to come up here and ruin HWV and now cause all its employees to lose their jobs. Sure, they may have struggled on their own with the current economy and online competition, but it seems like the primary factor in all of Movie Gallery's struggles recently has been the debt from the acquisition.

I hope the former HWV CEO who built a huge mansion that can be seen on my drive to one of the closer GC stores is pleased with himself for cashing out and selling his company down the river ;).
 
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[quote name='Gertle627']lol, people in small towns are so funny. 10 miles? I drive 30 miles easily to BBVs & HWVs during B1G1s and the $5 sales. You can probably get to another town in 20 minutes, but some of us have to drive alot further than that to work or school every day.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='EvilIA']Everything is a 20 minute drive from me, and something I do weekly. BTW, Small town folks are used to driving distances for purchases on almost anything, it's the nature of living away from it all.

Also if I made 10 miles sound like it was some catastrophic distance, I didn't mean too. Just a reference for a "quick" trip.[/QUOTE]

I used to live up in grand forks, nd...where everything in town was within a 5 mile radius. Now living in Tampa...wow, i was one of those small town people that would complain about how far something was. Now I'll drive 20 minutes to get to where I need to go with no hesitation. So funny....just the difference between driving in the city compared to nowhere land.

[quote name='io']
But lets not forget the primary reason for the demise of this "Movie Gallery" thing was their acquisition of Hollywood Video. HWV was doing relatively OK on its own, but of course corporate-types have to go messing shit up by merging and acquiring all the time :roll:. It kind of pisses me off that this stupid southern company I've never heard of (this "Movie Gallery" - I've never seen a store with that name on it) had to come up here and ruin HWV and now cause all it's employees to lose their jobs. Sure, they may have struggled on their own with the current economy and online competition, but it seems like the primary factor in all of Movie Gallery's struggles recently has been the debt from the acquisition.

I hope the former HWV CEO who built a huge mansion that can be seen on my drive to one of the closer GC stores is pleased with himself for cashing out and selling his company down the river ;).[/QUOTE]

Haha...yea I bet he must be happy he cashed out awhile ago. .....uh I was soo mad back when MG bought HWV. Everyone knew it was a bad move.
 
[quote name='io']Hah, at least you had a GC there - we just had a plain vanilla HWV.

Yep, for me the 10 miles thing applies - but that is each way. So to get to GS, or Best Buy, or Target, or anything like that it is 20 miles round trip. What amazes me when people (usually in big cities) complain about having to go 2 or 3 miles to a "B&M" store to do stuff. Actually, the 2 closest used game stores to me were (and currently still are) Gamecrazy locations. I think that is why I get the impression BBV and HWV are doing better than they are - I think the rural stores DO continue to retain customers. Maybe the urban ones are dead, though when I ran around for the BBV B1G1 I didn't notice that.

But lets not forget the primary reason for the demise of this "Movie Gallery" thing was their acquisition of Hollywood Video. HWV was doing relatively OK on its own, but of course corporate-types have to go messing shit up by merging and acquiring all the time :roll:. It kind of pisses me off that this stupid southern company I've never heard of (this "Movie Gallery" - I've never seen a store with that name on it) had to come up here and ruin HWV and now cause all it's employees to lose their jobs. Sure, they may have struggled on their own with the current economy and online competition, but it seems like the primary factor in all of Movie Gallery's struggles recently has been the debt from the acquisition.

I hope the former HWV CEO who built a huge mansion that can be seen on my drive to one of the closer GC stores is pleased with himself for cashing out and selling his company down the river ;).[/QUOTE]

Strange thing was we had TWO HWV locations within 2 miles of each other. The second one had a small GC inside. All of those stores are 40 miles round trip for me. I do agree that the BB will now boost in business especially smaller towns.

Yea. Mergers and/or acquisition never do work out the way some plan. I worked for a company that bought another company that was close to being a sinking ship. for whatever reason the management decided that they would switch head offices out from our company, the good one, to the way the old one did business. Yep. 2 years later out of business and chapter 13. Like you said debt incurred from the acquisition.

The company I work for now. Just did another merger, and I don't care much for the product of the new company, but it is possible that they can take the IP and run with it.
 
[quote name='super_dawn']I used to live up in grand forks, nd...where everything in town was within a 5 mile radius. Now living in Tampa...wow, i was one of those small town people that would complain about how far something was. Now I'll drive 20 minutes to get to where I need to go with no hesitation. So funny....just the difference between driving in the city compared to nowhere land.



Haha...yea I bet he must be happy he cashed out awhile ago. .....uh I was soo mad back when MG bought HWV. Everyone knew it was a bad move.[/QUOTE]

I used to live in Brandon, Fla (well in the 70's). My father worked in Tampa off dale Mabry ave. It seemed to take forever to visit him at his office. I used to live in San Diego and would complain about having to go on long drives to get anything, mostly because traffic was horrible. congestion was my complaint.

Most cash out before it's bad, they know what is going on.
 
i was in a game crazy laast week, it was like a tomb it was so quiet. ive always thought they were way to expensive, i wont miss them.
 
I was in GameCrazy last week also i picked up AC Limited Sealed for the PS3. It was dead you could hear a pindrop just me and the worker. I should of put 2 and 2 together because the video store was putting out used game equip. to sell. I didnt look real close but it looked like old games and controllers and stuff it was wierd.
 
Just stopped by a nearby Game Crazy/HWV. The girl at the counter said they are expected to close in 6-8 weeks. They will start doing 20-40% deals in 2 weeks.
 
[quote name='EvilIA']I used to live in Brandon, Fla (well in the 70's). My father worked in Tampa off dale Mabry ave. It seemed to take forever to visit him at his office. I used to live in San Diego and would complain about having to go on long drives to get anything, mostly because traffic was horrible. congestion was my complaint.

Most cash out before it's bad, they know what is going on.[/QUOTE]

yea...thats a bit of a drive. tampa is just so spread out...after five yrs here, I'm getting better at avoiding high traffic areas.
 
man, i love my fucking store but hate corp. i hope the Movie Gallery suits rot in hell. I came in to work today, my boss had turned the Sony HD display TV that was on a Sony mount, unplugged the PS3 and put in SSF4 and a X360 and that's how we spent the day. And pizza! It was like the last day of a casual elective in high school.
 
Have something of an update here.
I went in and had one nice long convo with the manager of my local GameCrazy. First, you cant take any of this seriously as fact, they way she made it sound was _ tptb gave them the mushroom treatment*

Anyhow, The manager claimed that everything owned by GameCrazy/Hollywood video is owned by GameCrazy/Hollywood video. That is to say = Nothing would be liquidated , everything thats in stock right now will be going on sale.None of their stock will be "shipping back" to Creditors or Manufacturers. And at this point she didnt even know who their liquidators were.

She also said my local wouldn't be closing in a matter of weeks but rather a matter of months.

She said people with in store credit that didnt use it to buy sale items might be given some gift cards*(What kind ,she had no idea)

People who have Warranty's on console should be set = When you purchase a Warranty on a console from GC , they inturn place the warranty through the manufactuerer.

She actually seemed pretty dismayed by the whole thing and even though I talked smack about GC , I felt sorry for her.
 
Needless to say, I don't want to say the little manager you had a little “convo” knew nothing about what she was going to be up against.... but she doesn't have a clue.

First of all, “she claimed that everything owned by GC/HV video is owned by GC/HV and that nothing would be liquidated....blah blah blah... and she didn't even know who the liquidator was.” Weeelll, the liquidators (Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC- same people who liquidated Comp USA & Circuit City) come through, purchase everything from HV/MG/GC, then liquidated it off (fixtures included) a small % week by week.

Then she said your local GC “wouldn't be closing in a matter of weeks but rather a matter of months” I've got more bad news for her. Liquidations will start in a week or two. Then, if she is on the GC side and has a HV attached, after a week or two her store will drop to about 3000 to 5000 pieces, and she will have to transfer all of it to HV side..... and bye-bye to her. Why? They only need one manager to run one side and “it saves on labor” to get rid of a manager.

Now, about “people getting gift cards for in store credit that they didn't use”. For what? The entire company will be gone in a month & a half. That's like having a Circuit City gift card right now.

I have no idea what they are going to do with the warranties.... since the company will be entirely gone I hope some third party company will come through and honor these.... I just don't know.

I don't want to seem heartless against her, I feel sorry for her actually... myself and a lot of other friends from other GCs went through the same thing. I just want to say it like it is. The sooner she realizes it now, the less shocked she will be later. GC/HV/MG employees & managers got the shaft out of this whole situation. You need to tell her not trust anything the liquidators tell her....it's their job to lie so they can make their money.
 
I used to go to this Gamecrazy all the time. Anymore it's better to get things online most of the time. Nothing wrong with Gamecrazy but also no great reasons to shop there.

I'm amazed news is coming out of Bend. Nothing ever happens here.
 
[quote name='Britshady']I used to go to this Gamecrazy all the time. Anymore it's better to get things online most of the time. Nothing wrong with Gamecrazy but also no great reasons to shop there.

I'm amazed news is coming out of Bend. Nothing ever happens here.[/QUOTE]

The news actually surprised me. The 3 near me in Tanasbourne and Beaverton all closed, so I called the one out in Tigard. Guy told me that all the GCs in Oregon were going to close except for the one in Oregon City, which I thought was really weird.

That was about 2 weeks ago before the news finally broke, but yeah.
 
[quote name='EdRyder']Anyhow, The manager claimed that everything owned by GameCrazy/Hollywood video is owned by GameCrazy/Hollywood video. That is to say = Nothing would be liquidated , everything thats in stock right now will be going on sale.None of their stock will be "shipping back" to Creditors or Manufacturers. And at this point she didnt even know who their liquidators were.[/quote]

As far as I know, this is true. There's nowhere to ship back to. The liquidation team is still up in the air right now. There are several companies competing. I haven't heard a definite yes or no on whether or not stock will be sent back to the manufacturer for "credit".

She also said my local wouldn't be closing in a matter of weeks but rather a matter of months.
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Every GC is on the same path - liquidations will start in about 2 weeks, and everything will be closed in 8-10 weeks.. I'm expecting everything to go out at the end of June but it may last until the end of July.

She said people with in store credit that didnt use it to buy sale items might be given some gift cards*(What kind ,she had no idea)
Click to expand...

This is not true. Store credit will be lost if it is not used. There is no way to buy giftcards unless some employee goes out and physically buys a giftcard for whatever amount that person has in store credit then the employee uses the credit for himself or something. That would have to be a private deal made between the employee and the customer.

People who have Warranty's on console should be set = When you purchase a Warranty on a console from GC , they inturn place the warranty through the manufactuerer.
Click to expand...

This is not true. If you need a replacement, you will need to call 1-8Speak-To-Us. After the company completely closes down, I'm not sure what the process is. If you bought your console refurbished, your warranty is valid for 120 days through V3rge, a third party company that Game Crazy contracted to do repairs on systems. I have no contact information for them at this time but I will try to get it.

She actually seemed pretty dismayed by the whole thing and even though I talked smack about GC , I felt sorry for her.
Click to expand...

It caught a lot of us by surprise. Everyone knew there'd be another round of closures, but the entire company was a bit of a shock.

First of all, “she claimed that everything owned by GC/HV video is owned by GC/HV and that nothing would be liquidated....blah blah blah... and she didn't even know who the liquidator was.” Weeelll, the liquidators (Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC- same people who liquidated Comp USA & Circuit City) come through, purchase everything from HV/MG/GC, then liquidated it off (fixtures included) a small % week by week.
Click to expand...

Again, the liquidation team for this final closure isn't finalized yet. Gordon Brothers did indeed handle the last two rounds of closures, but at the 11th hour, another liquidation team made a bid for Movie Gallery's entire stock. The liquidation team hasn't been settled upon yet - that's why stores haven't started liquidating.

Then she said your local GC “wouldn't be closing in a matter of weeks but rather a matter of months” I've got more bad news for her. Liquidations will start in a week or two. Then, if she is on the GC side and has a HV attached, after a week or two her store will drop to about 3000 to 5000 pieces, and she will have to transfer all of it to HV side..... and bye-bye to her. Why? They only need one manager to run one side and “it saves on labor” to get rid of a manager.
Click to expand...

this is correct. Once GC reaches the 50% mark or so, they will shut down GC's entire side and transfer inventory over to Hollywood Video. Employees at GC then USUALLY (not always) have two options - be done, or go over and work some shifts at Hollywood.

I will post updates on the situation as I get them.
 
Scorch - any knowledge if the discounts are set to start on a specific date on a company wide basis? Or is it up to individual managers/district managers to start clearancing everything out?
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Scorch - any knowledge if the discounts are set to start on a specific date on a company wide basis? Or is it up to individual managers/district managers to start clearancing everything out?[/QUOTE]

The dates usually varied by location (since locations varied on closing dates and reasons, whether it was lost revenue, lease disagreements, whatever else) but it appears they're going to roll everyone out on the same schedule this time around.

There's been no further communication since the company wide conference call. Literally everything on the WSJ press release that you read is everything that employees know. I wish they'd tell us something.. a start date, at the very least, but I guess they can't until they work out a deal with the liquidators.
 
My Hollywood video/gamecrazy store closed like 2 years ago, I was pissed cause they said they were just ganna transfer all the videogame stuff to another gamecrazy:bomb::bomb:
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']The news actually surprised me. The 3 near me in Tanasbourne and Beaverton all closed, so I called the one out in Tigard. Guy told me that all the GCs in Oregon were going to close except for the one in Oregon City, which I thought was really weird.

That was about 2 weeks ago before the news finally broke, but yeah.[/QUOTE]

Not so weird about the Oregon City one. The guys in Wilsonville told me that would be the last one to close as it has always had huge sales. Those were my two "local" stores, FWIW... I'll miss them, especially the Wilsonville location. After the Gamerush shut down there that was my main place for a while. Now, I guess, it's Gamestop. Or Amazon ;).

I have an extended warranty on my 360 that is now active since it got bumped up to year 3 when MS extended the RRoD warranty. They made me buy it when the Elite came out and I wanted to get one the first day with my GC credit. See, that's why I always refuse extended warranties as a matter of personal policy. You go buy one and the company just up and disappears!
 
I hated to see all the Game Crazys in greater Cincinnati closed/closing. The Eastgatr one was just gone one day when I went to it. The Milford one is either now closed or about to close. Those guys were cool dudes. I stopped in a few weeks ago and got a big bunch of RPGs st great prices. Been playing my 10 dollars Phantasy Star Zero DS for weeks now. Said goodbye to those guys and felt really sad. I wish them all the best. I fear the days of cool video game stores are about over.
 
Make the effort to ask for a lower price from different employees. When FYE was closing I was able to hustle some GREAT deals. The few times this works really pays dividends.
 
So I'm confused... When should I head to my store for discounted items. The way I read it, they haven't officially started clearing out yet
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']The news actually surprised me. The 3 near me in Tanasbourne and Beaverton all closed, so I called the one out in Tigard. Guy told me that all the GCs in Oregon were going to close except for the one in Oregon City, which I thought was really weird.

That was about 2 weeks ago before the news finally broke, but yeah.[/QUOTE]

TV Hwy is down to 40% off most stuff, but I didn't see anything I'd be waiting on. The one in Tualatin (or wherever it is, off 99W) doesn't even have a sign up, and Game Crazy is still operating independently.
 
[quote name='radioactivez0r']TV Hwy is down to 40% off most stuff, but I didn't see anything I'd be waiting on. The one in Tualatin (or wherever it is, off 99W) doesn't even have a sign up, and Game Crazy is still operating independently.[/QUOTE]

Do you happen to know if they've begun just giving shit away? By shit, I mean game guides.

I work right off of TV HWY.
 
If you drive by your local MG/HWV/GC and there's not a huge banner saying "STORE CLOSING!" and those annoying guys by the road holding signs saying "Savings storewide!", the sale hasn't started yet.

I will let you guys know when I hear about a start date.
 
[quote name='jousley']I hated to see all the Game Crazys in greater Cincinnati closed/closing. The Eastgatr one was just gone one day when I went to it. The Milford one is either now closed or about to close. Those guys were cool dudes. I stopped in a few weeks ago and got a big bunch of RPGs st great prices. Been playing my 10 dollars Phantasy Star Zero DS for weeks now. Said goodbye to those guys and felt really sad. I wish them all the best. I fear the days of cool video game stores are about over.[/QUOTE]

The one in Milford is still open, but one of my friends said its closing really soon. He just bought like 24 DVDs for $60. He said everything in the place was 70% off, but its almost completely bare now. I was planning on going there today to see if there is anything worthwhile left.
 
Anyone been by the Game Crazy stores in Austin/Pflugerville?

They've dropped off the Store Locator, so I guess they're already clearing out, I'll have to check it out today or tomorrow.

I have a coworker that also works for HV (in Pflugerville) that says his last day is a week and a half from now.

I guess this may cause a resurgence of Mom and Pop video stores in Texas. All those little towns between the bigger cities seem to have only a Movie Gallery as their sole renting store.
 
I remember going into a GC (now closed) buying a DQ Slime controller and getting some snide comment about a "weird controller". The guy was also rude to his female co-worker.

I live in a small town where a movie gallery just closed and even we have redbox there. I'm used to driving 20 minutes to do anything.

I probably won't check out the sale in Blaine, MN because there's nothing I'm interested in.
 
[quote name='jousley']I hated to see all the Game Crazys in greater Cincinnati closed/closing. The Eastgatr one was just gone one day when I went to it. The Milford one is either now closed or about to close. Those guys were cool dudes. I stopped in a few weeks ago and got a big bunch of RPGs st great prices. Been playing my 10 dollars Phantasy Star Zero DS for weeks now. Said goodbye to those guys and felt really sad. I wish them all the best. I fear the days of cool video game stores are about over.[/QUOTE]

Support your local Play N Trade, then!

http://pntcincy.com/

I can't understand why so many CAGs don't know about or like PnT. I love all the PnTs in my area.
 
Thanks for clearing much of that up Scorch. As for this piece :

[quote name='Scorch']


It caught a lot of us by surprise. Everyone knew there'd be another round of closures, but the entire company was a bit of a shock.

[/QUOTE]

I have to ask, what the hell happened? I'm sure you dont 'know' but if you had to speculate would you say its "trends in the markets" (RedBox)
The recession, bad corporate decisions , or just the plain fact that people dont want to rent anymore they want to own?
 
At the hollywood video by my house I have bought around 8 ps3 and 15 360 games and I have spent around $150 total. Most of these are older titles but I have found a few new games. If you have one close to you it's at least worth checking out.
 
From the 3 Gcrazys around me the sale started at 20% then like 1-2 weeks later went to 30% then they transfered everything to the video store (shut down the GC) and when the did that it all went to 40% then to 50%. I would suggest to get there when it starts at 20% because the games will go.
 
Got a bunch of game guides at my local ones for $1 each. Super Mario Galaxy, NFS Undercover, Zelda Phantom Hourglass, Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 6, GTAIV, Ill post a pic up later
 
[quote name='EdRyder']Thanks for clearing much of that up Scorch. As for this piece :



I have to ask, what the hell happened? I'm sure you dont 'know' but if you had to speculate would you say its "trends in the markets" (RedBox)
The recession, bad corporate decisions , or just the plain fact that people dont want to rent anymore they want to own?[/QUOTE]

I dont know if scorch knows anymore then I do but when Movie Gallery bought out Hollywood Video they went from like 700 stores to like 4500 or something like that over night. Their cost for that was somewhere around 1.2 Billion in 2005 and with the way the economy took a tank and that most of the stores charged several dollars more then local stores in the area they never really stood a chance. Most stores individually were making some money but not enough to repay that debt and not enough to compensate for the stores that weren't pulling their weight. Then when redbox came out and netflix really started to pick up steam it caused their downward spiral to speed up in a hurry.
 
[quote name='A Happy Panda']Do you happen to know if they've begun just giving shit away? By shit, I mean game guides.

I work right off of TV HWY.[/QUOTE]

I didn't ask, but all the guides are still on the "40% off accessories" racks...for some bizarre reason.
 
[quote name='mrright4you4now']I dont know if scorch knows anymore then I do but when Movie Gallery bought out Hollywood Video they went from like 700 stores to like 4500 or something like that over night. Their cost for that was somewhere around 1.2 Billion in 2005 and with the way the economy took a tank and that most of the stores charged several dollars more then local stores in the area they never really stood a chance. Most stores individually were making some money but not enough to repay that debt and not enough to compensate for the stores that weren't pulling their weight. Then when redbox came out and netflix really started to pick up steam it caused their downward spiral to speed up in a hurry.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's especially funny when Hollywood Video here is competing solely with a little Red-Box across the street, and losing.

Hmm...A night rental for $1........Or 5-Nights for $5.........I think I'll spend the dollar and skip having to look at moldy dill pickles on the shelf.


To the poster above who gave a reason for the decline in movie rentals as "People want to own movies", I disagree. I honestly think it's the opposite trend; instead of paying $20 retail for a film and owning it...People would rather A. Rent it for $1 ala RedBox...Or B. Just watch it online (Netflix P2W (Pay-to-Watch), or watch it online for free, and illegally.

Personally, I think Netflix and RedBox killed HWV. Blockbuster might think they'll be fine now, but unless they get their online rental system working perfectly and cheaply, they're next.
 
[quote name='skateraXVIII']Does this mean Hollywood Video is closing to? Sorry if it's already been asked.[/QUOTE]

Yes, goodbye HWV, hello increased Redbox prices.
 
[quote name='thehoweller']
Personally, I think Netflix and RedBox killed HWV. Blockbuster might think they'll be fine now, but unless they get their online rental system working perfectly and cheaply, they're next.[/QUOTE]

Didnt I hear Blockbuster was aiming at doing their own version of 'RedBox'?
This is also what I assume HV/GC means when they claim they'll return in a different form.

As for my own comment on people wanting to own rather than rent, let me explain : I believe redbox /netflix/ on-demand and torrents did indeed contribute to the decline of renting however, earlier this year I read a report online of Best Buys growth with Movie sales , Music and gizmos etc. The amount of units they pushed in 2009 compared to 2008 - it honestly stunned me. Specifically the fact that those sales were taking place during the recession.
 
I've only been to a GameCrazy twice (since they're more rare where I am in CT than say, a Blockbuster or Tommy K's back in the day), but it was cool since they were definitely more gamer-centric (they are called GameCrazy after all) than Blockbuster.

I dug the tourneys they had there for various games and have tried getting my local Blockbuster to have a gamer's night/lock-in/tourney to no avail.

What I'm trying to say is that I wish I had gone to GC more often to get together with more like-minded individuals to talk video games.
 
[quote name='Lutter']Anyone been by the Game Crazy stores in Austin/Pflugerville?

They've dropped off the Store Locator, so I guess they're already clearing out, I'll have to check it out today or tomorrow.

I have a coworker that also works for HV (in Pflugerville) that says his last day is a week and a half from now.

I guess this may cause a resurgence of Mom and Pop video stores in Texas. All those little towns between the bigger cities seem to have only a Movie Gallery as their sole renting store.[/QUOTE]
all the austin stores are pretty much done. The only store thats going to have anything at all is red river. They started liquidating a couple weeks after the other stores
 
[quote name='EdRyder']I have to ask, what the hell happened? I'm sure you dont 'know' but if you had to speculate would you say its "trends in the markets" (RedBox)
The recession, bad corporate decisions , or just the plain fact that people dont want to rent anymore they want to own?[/QUOTE]

The short answer is there were a lot of bad corporate decisions. I could elaborate quite a bit more, but I'd rather just leave it at that.
 
15724_397284767995_641397995_3940298_1817814_n.jpg

All $1.00 each
 
You got some really nice and cheap game guides! I'll be sure to check out my local game crazy when their closing sale starts.

[quote name='EdRyder']Didnt I hear Blockbuster was aiming at doing their own version of 'RedBox'? [/QUOTE]

I've seen a Blockbuster Kiosk in the wild they look quite nice. If they're able to get some good locations, I think it should be successful.
 
The GameCrazy in Arlington, WA had a bunch of guides last Friday, though they were only 50% off at the time. Hopefully there's still plenty left when they start practically giving them away. :S
 
[quote name='orcishlad']The GameCrazy in Arlington, WA had a bunch of guides last Friday, though they were only 50% off at the time. Hopefully there's still plenty left when they start practically giving them away. :S[/QUOTE]

I wish the one in marysville would start discounting. they have two copies of the metroid prime trilogy just sitting there.
 
The one I frequent showed no signs of closing last I visited. I better do something about that 3D Dot Game Heroes preorder if so...
 
[quote name='theclaw']The one I frequent showed no signs of closing last I visited.[/QUOTE]

The entire company's going under so.. yeah, better get your money back.
 
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