Kmart OFFICIALLY PHASING OUT GAMES SECTION. 20% Off Games Accessories! Clearance DEALS INSIDE! Post your finds here!

Caffeinefree

Caffeinefree

CAGiversary!
EDIT - If you see any deals in your local Kmart post it in this thread. Spread the love. This post is no longer being curated so check the last post for YMMV local deals. 

20% OFF SALE ON NOW UNTIL THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. (*Gwarr... Brains...*)

NOTICE

I am no longer affiliated with Kmart, so this isn't getting any future updates. Stay tuned to the latest post in the comment section. THANKS!

I looked into the plan for this fire-sale, and apparently they'll be rolling out clearance deals for the whole section. So 20% off, then 50%, or whatever comes to pass. Looks like different regions are getting different sales sooner than others, as well as higher volume stores getting different sales than lower ones. IF YOU HAVE INSIDE INFO, POST IN THIS THREAD SO CAGS IN YOUR AREA CAN GET A HEADS UP.

TIPS & TRICKS

  • All deals are YMMV.
  • Kmart bases it's clearance on how long an item has been in stock. It takes a few weeks, but even the most expensive items go on clearance.
  • ALWAYS ASK SOMEONE TO SCAN AN ITEM FOR YOU. Most older games are on clearance, but have not been labeled as such.
  • Lookout for "penny items", items that have been on shelf for so long they've been clearanced down to 0.01. They won't sell for that, but it's a great way to get GTA IV for $2.00, for example.
  • TAKE A PICTURE AND PRICE MATCH.  For Walmart and other retailers, this is all they need to price match. Make sure the label is clearly visible and don't forget to post it here and share the love. 
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Background Info
So I am an employee of Kmart and happened to see this memo pass through my local store. I can't repeat it verbatim, and I couldn't get a picture of the message due to being constantly on camera.

Basically the memo stated the "exit strategy" for the games section in retail stores. Stating that this was in essence brought on by having overstocked shelves (bwa hahaha) and not enough customers. However Kmart.com, Sears.com, and Shopyourwayrewards.com, would continue to sell games and consoles to meet peoples needs. So they're switching focus from retail to online.

The message continued to explain to sell down merch and fill the empty space with other merch. Eventually to clearance out the whole section if it didn't sell down.

So firstly, wait. Just wait and deals will come.

As a customer I have to say that Kmart has had nothing but crappy deals for the past few years. (On games) Focusing on SYWR points and mediocre sales to bring in customers rather than staying competitive with Amazon, Walmart, and pretty much any retailer that will actually give a deep discount. Therefore they have shot themselves in the foot and driven away most business. As a result of that they face what I call "the burger problem".

When Kmart doesn't get games in to sell, they can't sell them. But instead of getting more stock I guess they just say "X person doesn't want Y game". This is just like a survey of a small town saying no one in the town likes burgers, because no one eats burgers. Only to find out there is nowhere to eat burgers in the first place.

Why doesn't Kmart get games to sell? I don't know if Kmart as a whole does this, or just my store, but we don't get games on a truck. We get them in sporadically via UPS, and never before release date. We get limited quantities and then get restocks oddly. Over the holidays I got dozens of calls for titles we wouldn't get in for weeks. During Christmas we only got a handful of Xbox Ones and no PS4s, and since then only one Wii U and one 3DS XL, which may have been returns. In short they could be making money, but there is just some really bad policies in place that leave plenty of customers walking out the door. 

Then on top of that we barely make any money in markup. We buy games basically at cost, given only a few dollars. I've seen games we bought for 58.50 selling for $60. Same for all peripherals, a 20 charger may have costed 12 for us. I was really shocked about this when I first started looking into it. Whereas other sections of the store have a markup that's understandable. 

So now after all this poor management, they're getting rid of what has always been the best part of the electronics section - games. I remember there being something said about "better serving our customer's needs", the problem in the first place was that they didn't serve our needs. For the most part they were poorly stocked, AND THIS HAS KILLED THEM THE MOST.
 ________________________________________________________________________

YMMV DEALS -  Post below if you find a deal in your area! Post here if you find a deal in your area! 

:360: Xbox 360 DEALS  :360:

Select titles 20+% off

:xb1: Xbox One Deals  :xb1:

Select titles 20+% off

________________________________________________________________________

 
:ps3: PS3 DEALS  :ps3:

Select titles 20+% off

:ps4: PS4 DEALS  :ps4:

Select titles 20+% off

:vita: VITA DEALS  :vita:

Select titles 20+% off

________________________________________________________________________

 
:wiiu: Wii U / Wii DEALS  :wii:

20%off

:3ds: 3DS / DS DEALS  :ds:

3DS XL - @190 @ 20%off

________________________________________________________________________

 
[+..••] Accessories DEALS [+..••]

Afterglow Universal Headset - $30

:xb1: Xbox One Charge Kit - $20

Giotek EX-05 Universal Headset - $20

Thanks again. Remember to post your deals in the comment section.  :)

EDIT - KMART CLEARANCE 2.1 thread, added consoles, added tips, condensed backstory down into spoiler, erected a sofa, planted seeds for world domination. Just check the last post for local deals.  

 
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Goodnight, sweet prince...

 
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Sarang01 said:
Also, what idiots sell games that close to cost?! I mean $58.90? Don't they go directly to wholesalers? I mean wtf?!
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When I used to work for Circuit City(LOL), the POS system would shoot out crazy numbers like that all the time. PS2's with a $249.99 msrp "cost" Circuit City $249.96. Games had a $5-8 mark up. I'm guessing the POS system had staffing, shelving, and other related costs baked into the price of items. Oddly enough, tv's actually had the highest mark ups...like 100% with some top of the line models from Panasonic and Sony. It was nucking futs.
 
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You know, I dropped into KMart the other day to see if they had Ocarina of Time 3D and their games case was just GONE completely. There was a grand total of maybe 30 games in there. I figured something like this was up.
 
Thanks, Caffeinefree. 

I think the writing has been on the wall regarding Kmart for the last two months. My nearest store has pretty much nothing but shovelware at this point anyways. I don't think that it'll stop at just games either, and I hope that you're seeking employment elsewhere. 

 
Too bad the Kmarts around here haven't had anything of note in months.


dohdough said:
When I used to work for Circuit City(LOL), the POS system would shoot out crazy numbers like that all the time. PS2's with a $249.99 msrp "cost" Circuit City $249.96. Games had a $5-8 mark up. I'm guessing the POS system had staffing, shelving, and other related costs baked into the price of items. Oddly enough, tv's actually had the highest mark ups...like 100% with some top of the line models from Panasonic and Sony. It was nucking futs.
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Why do you think that BBY pushes home theater so hard? Whole thing is massive mark up.

 
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Agent Orange said:
Why bother phasing out "departments" at this point? Just phase out the stores.
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That's coming next. But, they have contracts with some of them, that don't expire until summer 2016 or later. They've winding them down and cutting shit out before they close them.
 
dohdough said:
When I used to work for Circuit City(LOL), the POS system would shoot out crazy numbers like that all the time. PS2's with a $249.99 msrp "cost" Circuit City $249.96. Games had a $5-8 mark up. I'm guessing the POS system had staffing, shelving, and other related costs baked into the price of items. Oddly enough, tv's actually had the highest mark ups...like 100% with some top of the line models from Panasonic and Sony. It was nucking futs.
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This.

 
This past month (January) my local Kmart has been devoid of any video games. I was shocked when I didn't see a single item where the dept. used to be.

 
Almost everything is already gone at mine with the pre-Christmas "sales".  It was funny because back then CLEARLY they were phasing out game stuff but when I would ask they'd deny it.  

I think the only XB1 game even left at mine is Wolfenstein which will be worth a purchase at a good price.  The deals before Christmas were pretty amazing though...  I'll have to go check see if there's any Wii U or maybe 360 games for my kids though.

 
My local Kmart is right next to Target and there are never more than 10 or so cars in Kmart parking lot compared to Target who still has a half full parking lot after 10 PM. I might have to go in there to see if they have anything worthwhile and keep an eye on this thread for clearance deals.

 
All the games at my Kmart are already gone... there's like, tons of shovelware and overpriced old sports games, that's about it. 

 
KingofOldSchool said:
Well, makes sense, the employees neglect that area 98% of the time anyways.
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Interestingly, last year for a while electronics in sears was outsourced. It lasted about three months then sears bought the contracts and fired them.

And the writing was on the wall for this when they got rid of Josh.
 
If stores are paying $58+ for new games guess they should have gotten GCU, LOL. Seriously though, that speaks volumes to me. 

 
KingofOldSchool said:
Well, makes sense, the employees neglect that area 98% of the time anyways.
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No. It's not neglect, at least not on the part of the employees. It's the way that Kmart has done things for the last 25 to 30 years. They have all part-time employees, (aside from the leftover full-time people from the 80's and earlier), and they expect one person to run multiple departments at once. You can thank the "race to the bottom" economics for this particular practice. I guarantee you that everyone who is someone in this company already has their golden parachutes prepared when they nosedive it into bankruptcy or close it down for good.
 
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Went in to kmart to use what was left of my expiring SYW points. They had almost nothing, it was a graveyard of random old games at msrp. I was extremely lucky and was able to snag the last Hyrule warriors(which was also the last wii u game). It rang up full price but with points i got it for 30.

RIP Kmart/SEARS, hope their website continues to offer extreme discounts. Was able to pricematch 4 wii remotes and nunchucks for a grand total of 25 dollars.

 
This isn't surprising at all but it is disappointing. About a month ago I went to two Kmarts about 30 minutes from my house because the two most local stores closed in December and there was barely anything there in the games section.

I got lucky at a Kmart closing in 2012 where I got like four or five games below the MSRP. The most recent closing sales haven't garnered as good of results and the only thing I bought was an Xbox One probably a week or two before they started giving them away last holiday season.
 
EldritchOnRye said:
Too bad the Kmarts around here haven't had anything of note in months.



Why do you think that BBY pushes home theater so hard? Whole thing is massive mark up.
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and the added insurance /warranty on video games. like seriously, i went to pick up my dying light preorder, and the cashier asked me, whether i want to purchase warranty on the game.

 
Darby27 said:
Interestingly, last year for a while electronics in sears was outsourced. It lasted about three months then sears bought the contracts and fired them.

And the writing was on the wall for this when they got rid of Josh.
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That reminds me, what super-fabulous item did he have us waiting all night to reveal?!?

 
All my Kmart has left is endless copies of DriveClub, AC Unity, MW3, Ghosts, and NBA 2K15, so in other words, pure shovelware....
 
Damn it's sad to see another brick and mortar store go the way of the dodo, but we knew it was coming with their crappy stock and horrible website.
they were once good though. I still remember waking up at 5am to get a GameBoy on black Friday from Kmart.
the Kmart by me had all crap except Toy Story 3. been eyeing it for weeks.hope it goes on sale :)
 
The last time I dealt with kmart I spent two months and a half dozen emails trying to get a game I pre-ordered months in advance...to only not get it in the end. THEN I was finally sent an apologetic email about my situation and was told I'd be emailed a $20 gift cert for my troubles.

Yep I never got that either. Just saying...but it's not like I'm bitter about it lulz. /sarCasm
 
Sky Ray, I know you're out there bro. Is this making you sad due to the end of an era, or excited for the deals to come?

You must be experiencing a whirlwind of emotions right now.

 
Kinda sucks, Dying Light was in-stock for awhile but it didn't last too long. I was hoping for it to finally hit the shelves and maybe they'd have a bonus points offer at that time.

Oh well...still might be some good deals here and there, like right now:

AC:Unity for X1 is $24.99

 
Kinda saw this was at my local Kmart a fewer weeks ago picking cleaning supplys and video game was practically emtpy. No video game consile and like 10 games.
 
YoshiFan1 said:
I'm really going to miss getting games at KMart. That was the only reason I ever shopped there since for other items they were overpriced. One of my best KMart deal memories was around 10 years ago when they had a lot of unmarked games for $2, $3 and $5 and the employee was nice enough to let me go through the games locked in the case and I ended up getting around 15 games for under $50 total.
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That was pretty much the golden era for cheap clearance games. With Circuit City in business still and selling great games at $4.99 and $1.99 eventually, then Best Buy following suit with a big $1.99 sale, and regular additional sales at $4.99 and $9.99. Sears was just starting to clearance video games super cheap and of course there was the TRU green tag clearance with lots of stuff at 90% off. Ahhhh, those were the good old days!

Back on topic, all the KMarts near me have become barren in the gaming area so I can't imagine there being very many great clearance deals. Also, the KMart and Sears websites are severely lacking in the variety department too so I don't see that branch of the business picking up either. It's only a matter of time for them to shut down.

 
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Hmmm my wife works at kmart. While I'm not interested in the games, I'm trying to score some display cases and maybe some signs and/or displays. She has a glass Nintendo display held for me.
 
Can't say I'm feeling too sorry for KMart. I'm not saying I don't feel bad for the people who work in their stores, although if you aren't aware of them being in a death spiral for the last 5+ years, you're either blind or gravitate toward wanting to fail. Get out while you can would be my advice.

Anyhow, KMart had ample opportunity to change things for themselves. I remember working there in 2007 through 2010, while I was in college. I didn't plan on being there forever. It was really just a job to pay my bills on top of my other job at a paid internship doing IT for the local school district. I made suggestions on how our store could revamp the games in the electronics section, by simply moving the display cases and swapping out the Gameboy Advance demo box, (yes they still had a Gameboy Advance demo box in 2007), for a modern gaming system, hooked to a big screen. My suggestions were largely ignored. I watched the sales dwindle, and the quality overall go down. Today, that store has no games, and barely any customers.

My thought is that KMart is to retail what Nintendo is to gaming consoles: they are content living in a way of doing things that worked well 20+ years ago, but never really kept up with the competition in the 21st century. Their hubris is now coming home to roost.
 
I have two Kmarts by me and neither has restocked since right before Christmas. Next to nothing on the store shelves. Even stuff that they sold out of like Skylanders figures.
 
Ponoko Senpai said:
kmart aurora, co... a lot of games were priced at $14.99 but they were all shovelwares (imo). the games that are popular are priced at full value or close to it.
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Howdy neighbor. I was there two or three weeks ago and they still had copies of Lego City Undercover for $39.99. Hope those get discounted soon.

 
2010 and 2011 were the best years of K-Mart in regards of gaming.

If anyone remembered Josh aka SHC-Gamer, he was busting out deals left and right

However, bad customer service at most locations and some people abused the coupon system which made K-Mart meh again.

 
What I was told by a few employees at least six months ago was Kmart's supplier of video games refused to continue selling to them.  It had to do with Kmart paying them after the games sold and/or bad negotiations or something along those lines.  The supplier didn't have much confidence in Kmart, and felt they would lose money doing business with them.  Kmart's finances have been garbage as of late.

Kmart stores have received almost nothing in the past nine months or so.  And they had a few signifigant sales recently.  They had about 50% off almost all non-shovelware games in the middle of December.  And almost all their shovelware games were $5 around the new year.

Most stores are almost completely empty already.  Most of you looking to get something out of this phase-out (which was already happening) are going to be disappointed.

 
KMart used to be a cool store to visit every so often because you found items in stock that you would no longer find elsewhere, but everything was overpriced... I do have to be thankful to still have them around, though, since I've recently picked up all of my Disney infinity figures through them.
 
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rats. No Kmarts near me. I think theres one in Manteca where my grandmother lives but not really worth driving out there several times to try to snag stuff

 
Versafied said:
2010 and 2011 were the best years of K-Mart in regards of gaming.

If anyone remembered Josh aka SHC-Gamer, he was busting out deals left and right

However, bad customer service at most locations and some people abused the coupon system which made K-Mart meh again.
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Yep I remember going there every couple weeks to get a new game to keep the coupon train rolling. Wasn't until GCU that I had that same urge to pickup new releases.

 
im surprised kmart lasted this long. time to make a quick trip to kmart. that place always a ghost town. last time i was a kmart was before xmas .the lights went out of walmart plaza and target plaza as well, everyone went to kmart.  

 
I litterly have bought 75 percent of the gaming department at my kmart. I have picked up the following over the last month.

Disney Inifinty 1.0 3DS - $10

Tekken Wii U Ediiton - $2

Batman Arkham Wii U - $2

WonderFull 101 Wii U - $6

There is still a good selection of games I am keeping my eye on.

 
I remember buying NES games from Kmart as a kid. This was way long before any Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, EB games, or Gamestop were even heard of in eastern NC.
 
The Kmart here in town closed down a year or two ago.  Next closest one is 40 miles away. 

Last time I was in that one, the games section was pretty pathetic. 

Still, I'd love to snag Wonderful 101 for cheap (physical copy).  I'll have to swing by.

 
At least I'll have fond memories of free games and the coupon train from the Josh/SHCgamer glory days.
I wonder if Best Buy's GCU would have even gotten off the ground or had anything worthwhile at the beginning if it hadn't been for Kmart killing every other store on game deals for those few years...
 
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