This one is tougher than I thought. Each nominee has a lot of bad points, and most only have a few good points, so it was tough narrowing it down.
I got very little from Best Buy this year. They seem to only cater to the mainstream buyer and had very few niche titles, and those they did have were gone fairly quick. I didn't buy much there this year, even with the $10 coupons.
Circuit City has great clearance sales and the store-to-store selection varies quite a bit. Worst thing is still how hard it is to look for anything the way their shelves are set up. And could they PLEASE dust the place once in a while. I always leave CC with black hands!
EB Games & Game Stop employees usually know their stuff pretty well, but damn is it annoying to shop there. Corporate makes them shill magazine subscriptions, cards, pre-orders, and pre-owned games. I feel like I'm being assaulted by telemarketers. I'm not knocking the employees who are basically forced to do it though, so I understand what they have to do. Also the fact that the last copy of a game tends to look beaten doesn't help.
Game Rush/Blockbuster & Toys R Us tend to have the least knowledgeable employees and poor selection, but I did get many deals from both this year, so they almost won.
I ended up with Game Crazy, even though there are none in Florida. When I was in L.A. I went to a few and they had a wide selection, lots of niche titles, and some employees who knew their stuff and didn't try to endlessly shill stuff on me. This recent sale sealed the deal for me, as I was able to have someone get me all the RPGs I have been looking for at less than $20 each!