All Game Crazys Are Closing

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!
 
So can anyone give me some real info on the liquidation of the stores. There is one 5 minutes from my house and there is no sign of a total blow out except for game crazy not taking trades anymore and Hollywood Video no longer getting new releases.
 
[quote name='RichMeisterMan']So can anyone give me some real info on the liquidation of the stores. There is one 5 minutes from my house and there is no sign of a total blow out except for game crazy not taking trades anymore and Hollywood Video no longer getting new releases.[/QUOTE]

Your lucky enough to have one 5 mins from your house and your asking us for info? Dude just walk over take a look at the prices and if you are not happy with them inquire about liquidation.
 
Anyone have any information about the store in Hamilton, NJ. I called the other day and the women on the phone didn't seem to happy to talk about it.
 
Called the Austintown, OH GC/HWV today and they said they won't start liquidating for at least another week.
 
[quote name='RichMeisterMan']So can anyone give me some real info on the liquidation of the stores. There is one 5 minutes from my house and there is no sign of a total blow out except for game crazy not taking trades anymore and Hollywood Video no longer getting new releases.[/QUOTE]

I'd say that probably indicates it will start soon, but no harm in calling.
 
I was in a gamecrazy earlier tonight. There were two girls "working". They were actually telling customers not to buy anything yet because they were going to start closing soon so everything would be on sale. lol.
 
[quote name='bgame2']I was in a gamecrazy earlier tonight. There were two girls "working". They were actually telling customers not to buy anything yet because they were going to start closing soon so everything would be on sale. lol.[/QUOTE]

Hey, at least they're still talking to customers. Do anything, what's the worst that happens, they fire you?
 
My local hv/gc has had their going out of business sale going for over a week now. Theres no good movies left and not many games I'm really interested. The only games Im slightly interested in dont have cases. >.< I did find a bin of random empty cases. 25 for $1 or 100 for $3. Hot damn I grabbed 25 of those. lol. I got an original art for Red Faction: Guerrilla (360) and Destroy All Humans! 2 (PS2). Then a bunch of rental arts in there as well. One had a Scooby doo instruction manual in it. xD Now I wont have to worry about buying games with cracked cases anymore for a while. :)
 
Tanesborne OR was at 50% off 10 days left. lots of games still. asked and they said Gift Cards still work.

BTW picked up...
:360:CoD 2 for $5 &
:wii:Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz for $7.50
also :dvd: Mr. Show Season 1 & 2 for $3.98
 
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Honestly, just hit up my gamecrazy in hagerstown, MD and there is no wonder it's going out of business. These prices are absolutely ridiculous. Even with the liquidation sales, the rep said they would knock about 50/60% off the original prices, which would still be higher than most of the other deals on CAG.

But just for anyone else in the hagerstown area... the sales should begin this coming week... about Thursday.
 
The Liquidation prices get better as they run out of the best shit. I got Skate 2 used at a closing GC in Bay Area for around $15 and it had just came out a few months before. There will be some deals to be had, but don't get offended if there isn't something for everybody.
 
No sign of liquidation at my Clarksville, TN location. I called and the guy told me he didn't know of course when it would start, but if I drove by it should represented by some "signage".
 
[quote name='Lord Darkstorn']Checking out the one in Santa Rosa, CA tomorrow. Oh right, I have finals...
anybody want to volunteer on that one?[/QUOTE]

Daaang son. I wrapped up school last Thursday, sucks for you!
 
[quote name='Joodas']Honestly, just hit up my gamecrazy in hagerstown, MD and there is no wonder it's going out of business. These prices are absolutely ridiculous. Even with the liquidation sales, the rep said they would knock about 50/60% off the original prices, which would still be higher than most of the other deals on CAG.

But just for anyone else in the hagerstown area... the sales should begin this coming week... about Thursday.[/QUOTE]

I also live in Hagerstown, and I asked them about the liquidation last week. Do you work there are did you just ask an employee for info? I plan to call them tomorrow morning to get some more info. The Blockbuster in Hagerstown was torn up when there liquidation happened!
 
[quote name='RichMeisterMan']No sign of liquidation at my Clarksville, TN location. I called and the guy told me he didn't know of course when it would start, but if I drove by it should represented by some "signage".[/QUOTE]
I was told by one of my friends that work at the GameStop over at Fort Campbell that both Gamecrazies were closing down because managers from them came looking for openings at GameStop.
 
[quote name='CaptainJoel']I was told by one of my friends that work at the GameStop over at Fort Campbell that both Gamecrazies were closing down because managers from them came looking for openings at GameStop.[/QUOTE]


Well there's only one here in town now. There was a 2nd one, but it closed during the 2st wave of closings. And all Game Crazies, Hollywood Videos, and Movie Galleries are closing down; their parent company is all done.
 
[quote name='SanjiX']I also live in Hagerstown, and I asked them about the liquidation last week. Do you work there are did you just ask an employee for info? I plan to call them tomorrow morning to get some more info. The Blockbuster in Hagerstown was torn up when there liquidation happened![/QUOTE]

Just got off the phone with an employee. She said they are currently at court with a liquidator and that the liquidation may not happen in the Hagerstown store for possibly another week and a half.

Sounds like serious business.
 
I told you guys that when I hear of a date, I would let you know. Otherwise, anything you hear is just a rumor.

Also, employees would appreciate it if you would stop calling in every day asking about the liquidation like you're a herd of fucking vultures. It's annoying. Any store that's currently in liquidation is not part of the entire company folding liqudation. There were three waves of liquidation, and those stores on wave three will be ending their liquidation and closing within the next week or two. They'll probably start the next round after that. It's expected to start by Memorial Day, but like I said, when I have an exact date, I will let you guys know.

If you're driving by a store, they'll have a huge banner out front if they're doing the liquidation sale. It'll look something like this: http://columbiaclosings.com/pix/10/03/hollywood04.jpg if there's no banner or signs, there's no sale yet.
 
[quote name='SanjiX']Just got off the phone with an employee. She said they are currently at court with a liquidator and that the liquidation may not happen in the Hagerstown store for possibly another week and a half.

Sounds like serious business.[/QUOTE]

Ya, I don't work there, but the employee said he was thinking sometime at the end of this week the sales should start.
 
The hazel dell (vancouver, wa) game crazy and movie gallery dont seem to show any signs of closing. (at least as of last week.)
 
[quote name='eldergamer']The hazel dell (vancouver, wa) game crazy and movie gallery dont seem to show any signs of closing. (at least as of last week.)[/QUOTE]

I was talking with the manager of that store on Friday, told me to hold off on a buying anything as he believed the liquidation sales could be starting up as early as this week.
 
You know I was reading through the thread and it's amazing how many morons wrote off an entire nation wide franchise as being shitty because of an experience at one store with one or two employees. I mean seriously?

These are the same 'tards that give products they bought off amazon (or any website) a low rating because it took forever to arrive.
 
[quote name='RichMeisterMan']You know I was reading through the thread and it's amazing how many morons wrote off an entire nation wide franchise as being shitty because of an experience at one store with one or two employees. I mean seriously?

These are the same 'tards that give products they bought off amazon (or any website) a low rating because it took forever to arrive.[/QUOTE]

But don't you think that if enough people had their own bad experences seperately, that the sum total of bad experences might add up to employees not being trained to give enough good customer service?
Or maybe that sum total of bad experences show poor managment & even more poor hiring choices?

In 20 years of retail experence I have never witnessed a store/franchise go under that didn't have a bad track record of poor customer service & bad managment.
 
[quote name='RichMeisterMan']You know I was reading through the thread and it's amazing how many morons wrote off an entire nation wide franchise as being shitty because of an experience at one store with one or two employees. I mean seriously?

These are the same 'tards that give products they bought off amazon (or any website) a low rating because it took forever to arrive.[/QUOTE]

I find it funny that you insult people for making generalizations......And then you make an even broader one.
 
[quote name='eau']It will be interesting to see how much of a discount they will have on the guides.[/QUOTE]

Austin, Tx seems to be just about done but the one in central Austin was 4 for $10 on guides. I picked up 8, mainly for the ones I will be playing through soon. Did get a LE Phantom Hourglass one though.
 
[quote name='agentcoop007']But don't you think that if enough people had their own bad experiences separately, that the sum total of bad experiences might add up to employees not being trained to give enough good customer service?
Or maybe that sum total of bad experiences show poor management & even more poor hiring choices?

In 20 years of retail experience I have never witnessed a store/franchise go under that didn't have a bad track record of poor customer service & bad management.[/QUOTE]

You say it like these people got together, shared their experiences and then came to the conclusion that game crazy is a poor company. They just showed up and said the whole franchise sucked because an employee was inept.

Persoanlly, I have only ever had good experiences at Game Crazy with employees and the services they provided. The customer service is subject to a store by store basis though. However, the franchise seemed way more humble than Game Stop which always acts like it's the only game in town, and unfortunately is now.

And I guess you can mark this down as your first store/franchise that went under without having a bad customer service record or notoriously bad management. Because Move Gallery/Hollywood Video is simply going out of business because there's no longer a market for what they offer and Game Crazy seems to be nothing more than collateral damage.

[quote name='thehoweller']I find it funny that you insult people for making generalizations......And then you make an even broader one.[/QUOTE]

If only we could all be as righteous as you!
 
The one nearest me hasn't started the liquidation sale but I drove to one about 15 minutes away. I picked up

Call of Juarez
Condemned 2
Fear 2
Ultimate Alliance
Wolfenstein
Folklore (ps3)
all at 70% off
Total was just under $35 bucks
 
This may be a stupid question, but to was the 70% off sale clearly advertised, or did you find out only after going inside the store?
 
Also, for stores that have started their liqudating. Did it start at 70% or did it start off lower at first then go up?
 
It was advertised all around the store. large signs saying 70-80% off the listed price of movies and games. they were even selling off computers, tv's, and shelves. I asked the guy and he said they started at 10% off, but a lot of the merchandise didn't move until it got to 50% off which he said was about 2 weeks ago. im assuming they will keep changing the percent off on a weekly basis. Im waiting to see when the hollywood video closest to me will start their liquidation sales
 
I went to one of my local stores last Saturday and they said it would be starting next Monday the 24th. It was a HWV only store though (no Gamecrazy attached)
 
[quote name='skateraXVIII']Haha, nah I meant maybe Scorch knows since it was either the 21st or the 24th (I think he said that at least). I went to one of my local stores last Saturday and they said it would be starting next Monday the 24th. It was a HWV only store though (no Gamecrazy attached)[/QUOTE]

I know. I was just making a joke. :p
 
My store finally jumped from the 60% to 80% for video games yesterday. I went in today and the only games left were outdated sports and wrestling games.

Ah well, I ended up getting 6 new games for under $10 each back when it was at 50% so I'm happy.

RIP Hollywood Video/Game Crazy
 
Just call a closing store up, and ask what their percentages are. I've been stalking all of the closing MG's and HWV's in my area, and usually call them once every day or two to see what the percentages are. Once the games hit 70-80%, I swoop in and see what I can find.

I've hit a few stores that had very few or no games at all, but I've also come across some that had so much stuff at 80% off you wouldn't believe it. 2 days ago I hit a store at 80%; I walked out with about 45 games, 3 blu rays, and 4 dvd's for $190.

I've picked up a few hundred games and a few hundred movies from these stores; the hauls I've had have to be seen to believed.

Anyway, my whole point is, if you're curious about the discount, just give them a call before you waste time/money driving over. Most of the clerks have been more than happy to give out the sale info over the phone.

As far as calling stores that aren't even listed as closing, or don't have the liquidation signage up, that is in pretty bad taste. You can just check on the website, and it will tell you what stores have already begun; from there, you can just call and see what their discount is. A lot of nice people are losing their jobs, and another option for movies and games is disappearing, so have a little class, in that regard.
 
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