I haven't seen anything about this store yet so I figured I'd give a report on the
Topeka, Kansas store.
I go to school at Univ of Kansas in Lawrence and it's about the same distance to Topeka as it is to the west side of KC (Overland Park, Olathe) so I figured I'd call ahead and see if they had anything in stock after getting some reports on the KC ones masha (thx for the info!) had visited. It's just too far of a distance (30+ miles) to go without getting something in return. I called the Oak Park Mall one in OP and they had nothing I was looking for. The one down south at I-35 and US-69 wouldn't even pick up their phone so I called Topeka.
I called ahead and asked for the video game department and got a very helpful lady who looked to see if they had any of the top games on my list (the $10 Pac Man Vs/Pac Man World, XIII, and Super Monkey Ball for Gamecube). They had all three and she said she would try to hold them for me until the afternoon (I was calling at a break between classes and couldn't make it down there until later on in the day). She said that they would be behind the customer service desk once she left, if she could leave them there. I found out, however, once I got there that she couldn't have. Not a problem, however, as they had 2 of the 3 games in stock and I think the only reason she claimed they did have the PMV/PMW double pack is because I did a poor job of describing it on the phone.
They're one of those stores you guys kindof make fun of where they still have the old school pull tags but I don't care and, in fact, it made things easier
There was a guy in the front of the store setting up a green tag table and there were people all over the store tagging stuff and putting up signs. I asked him about some details and he was extremely willing to help and even showed me how to tell on the aisle scanner what is green tagged at their store. They actually showed up on the aisle scanner in the store. It has 3 displays of 2 lines each, I think (memory's a little foggy, I was on 2 hours of sleep): the first says the item, the second will tell you on the second line if it's "Green Tag 50%" and on the third it will have the regular price. If it's marked "Green Tag", take 50% off that regular price: it's that easy. A quick note on the pull tags there: they only have as many of the item as they have tags. I found this odd because when I worked at Office Max, we printed out tons of tags because people would just walk off with the pull tags but not buy the item. But there it seemed to work for them. Then again, I get the impression it's not a high volume store.
So, I spent about 15 minutes just checking tags of practically any game I wanted. Off the top of my head, I know these didn't work (all are either Gamecube or GBA)- most were unlikely but I wanted to try: Sonic Mega Collection (drat- I figured it had a shot), Mega Man Anniversary Collection, MGS: Twin Snakes, Mario Kart DD, Ultimate Card Games (as opposed to Brain Games which was on clearance), Advance Wars 2, Mario Golf: Advance Tour, and Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland.
The follwing games I was looking for but couldn't find: Arc the Lad Collection (aw), Dragon Warrior 7 (double aw), Disgaea (triple aw), .hack 3 (quadruple aw). So, I didn't get my PS1 RPGs and a friend of mine who wanted me to check for the latter two was also out of luck. They didn't have the Gamecube Resident Evil 2 or 3 ports (I figured there was a good shot those would be reduced and I'd like to collect the entire set), N64 Conkurs (a friend of mine bought his when it came out for $60 and I got it for $10 a year or two later and we kid each other about that so I wanted to get a $2.50 one as a gag gift), Phantasy Star Online for DC or GC, REZ (could someone explain to me the expensive obsession over that game?).
But here's what I did get (my ticket checking paid off as I found a game I haven't seen on any list yet):
*NEW* NBA Street Volume 2 GH $10
XIII $10 (I think I got the last copy)
Super Monkey Ball $10
Ultimate Brain Games $15 (last copy, too, I think)
Didn't find any guides for 0.01 but almost all the ones I grabbed rang up at 50% off when I check them on the aisle scanner so while you may not get a steal, you can pick them up for $7 each.
They had some odd system deals: the PSOne was not 50% off but the two LCD's were both half off with original prices of something like $100 and $130. There were no Zelda Gamecubes and while I didn't look too closely, they had the old school TRU video game displays where all the systems were on one aisle behind glass and those had already been green tagged (while the games hadn't been). They had no systems or mem cards on sale for the current big three. However, they did have the "buy the TRU exclusive black GBA and get one of the select games" promo and they had GBAs with e-readers in stock and I think those were green tagged, but don't quote me on that fact.
To add one more bit of oddity, the Dreamcast Sports 3-Pack was 22.98 (I think) marked 50% off so add ~$11 to the list of prices for that set. They had a small stack of Dreamcast stuff (a couple of copies of Chu Chu Rocket, the hideous looking Typing of the Dead, and a couple of other things but really nothing of note) that were 9.98 and green tagged.
Lastly, I snagged a couple of non-video game items from the store (sorry if this long winding narrative veers too much off topic). They had some old giant Pokemon plushes already marked down clearance to 7.98 and 9.98 for a Togepi and Meowth, respectively. They were green tagged so I got two giant plush Pokemon for under $10 total and they had at least 2 or 3 more of each. There was quite a bit of Lego stuff out on the table but they were really just getting started setting that up. This weekend, I bet they'll have their green tags out in full force as they were working feverishly to get this all done. They seemed excited just to be getting some business.
EDIT: Forgot that I had overheard, apparently they have green tagged some of their bikes so you can get a bike for $60 or $70 or so.
I was extremely thrilled. I didn't get every game I wanted but the service was great from the girl on the phone to the guy hauling all the green tag stuff around answering the questions about the sale (tons and tons of Bionicles most of the time I was there), to the guy in the video game department who answered some questions about the pull tags and what they had marked so far. Thanks for the sale notice, guys!
SI
er who bought up the last two copies of REZ at the CC sale and ebayed them. He's planning to return to the area to pick up games to sell online sometime tomorrow.