Farewell to a store :(

BTP

I really have no idea if this is even the correct subforum to put something like this, so please forgive me if I've screwed up.

This goes out to all the "Support your local independents!" people. :^:

I've just learned that the Microplay that I've sometimes gone to, the one in Oshawa, is having an "Everything must go" sale and will be closing its doors for good afterward.

It's kinda sad for me because it seems like part of my childhood is going away. I think my first memory of the store was when I gave them my SNES Mouse for repair. The right button stopped working after the mouse flew out of my hand as I was moving away. Stupid short cord. Ever since then I went back to check out their used game selection, as they had easily the largest one I could find while growing up.

They've always had some pretty good stuff there. For example, rememeber the thread AlphaTwo made about trying to find Polarium Advance? This is the Microplay I was talking about.

Other than that, all I know is that their store hours are now Mon-Fri 12-5. I understand this probably means nothing to a majority of the posters here, but I know there are quite a few people from Toronto and its surrounding areas that might want to know about this, so that's why I'm posting this. For all you know, you just might find me there if you can recognize me from my Mii.

Other than that, has anyone else gone through a similiar situation that I find myself in now? Because, seriously, this sucks.

Vargas Prime

There used to be a Microplay a couple miles from me, but it was replaced by a Gamestop 2 years ago.

Such is the way of the world. Now I just order my games from Amazon, or sometimes get them from Best Buy. I just can't stand shopping at Gamestop/EB/Babbages/FuncoLand/Planet Comics/whatever other chains they own.

LavaKnight

We don't have an independent game store around here. Well, one that sells classic games, but the people that run it are god damn jerks.

It's sad, because I'd love buying from someplace other than gamestop or best buy, but there really aren't any other options.

etoychest

Any word on why they are closing. I was entertaining the idea of doing a story on gam,a interviewing indie stores to see if they had trouble keeping up in the video game market due to higher costs and lower margins.

cloudeagle

Vintage Stock (regional chain in Oklahoma/Missouri/Arkansas) has absolutely wonderful selection... it's all used video games/movies/music/toys/comics. And the video game section has everything from PlayStation 2 to Intellivision. Wonderful.

So it broke my heart when they went from offering decent trade-in values/prices for used games to a more EBStop-ish "give 'em $2, sell it for $30" mindset. Le sigh.

LavaKnight

etoychest wrote:

Any word on why they are closing. I was entertaining the idea of doing a story on gam,a interviewing indie stores to see if they had trouble keeping up in the video game market due to higher costs and lower margins.

That has to be it. Doesn't ebstop have a hard enough time with margins even with their terrible-to-the-consumer pricing policy?

Drez

I was looking for somewhere to post this as I didn't want to start a new thread, and this may seem somewhat tangential, but I received this as a MySpace bulletin from someone last night.

LOL I should have writtened something like this. What this guys says is true, I was the manager for this company for almost 2 years.
Enjoy and please repost ^_^.

---

EB Games EXPOSED!
by Madgamer.

Hello all. I'm cutting right to the chase this week. If you want to buy video games, buy them anywhere but Electronics Boutique. Just so you all know, The Mad Gamer was at one point in time an employee of EB. I've seen it all, done it all, and now I will repent for my past sins by dishing out all the dirt you never knew about EB. In the end you'll be glad that you've read what I have to say.


First, I would like to let everyone know that EB employees are not properly compensated for all the crap they have to go through. In short, they get paid slave-like wages. EB Corporate makes things no easier for these employees and definitely not for you, the customers. Thanks to EB Corporate, the employees have a list of bullshit they are supposed to tell you the second you walk in the door. Basically, EB Corporate Headquarters wants its employees to harass the hell out of you until you buy something. Believe me when I say that most EB employees don't want to bug you while you're shopping around. Me personally, I preferred that you buy whatever you want and ask if you need help. But according to the big wigs at Corporate, that isn't good enough. And to combat this way of thinking, the corporate scumbags actually pay people to spy on their employees. They call these spies "secret shoppers". If an employee is witnessed not completing the long list of crap to force a sell down someone's throat then they will face disciplinary action. Yeah EB Corporate, all of that harassing and lying to customers is really worth the minimum wage that most employees get. My soul felt so cleansed after a night of work at EB (rolls eyes).

Another thing you never want to do is ask an EB Games' employee their personal opinion about whether a game is good or bad. Why? Because they really aren't allowed to tell you if they think a certain game sucks. If they ever told you that Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects sucked ass, they would face disciplinary action. At one point in time EB used to let employees sign a book to take games home for a play test and to build an opinion of the product. Well that damn sure has changed. The reason given for the stop on play testing games was that too many games were turning up missing. What a load of crap as far as what I personally remember. The store I worked in hadn't lost a single game for three years and we still were not allowed to sign anything out. Guess we were being too honest about not wanting to sell "Average Joe Gamer" a steaming pile pressed on a game disc! And the same rule that applies to not asking about games also goes for gaming accessories. Should an EB employee tell you that a game or accessory is awesome, do NOT believe them. It's probably associated with the "Vendor of the Month" program also known as V.O.M. I actually had to lie to customers and tell them that Mad Catz made great accessories. NO! Mad Catz makes worthless pieces of shit that will almost always break during usage! But hey, EB Games gets paid a load of money to sell those worthless accessories so I guess it was all good. Remember if you dare to ask about the quality of anything EB sells, you're likely to NOT get an honest opinion. If you don't know then do some research on the product via magazines (not EGM though) and the internet.


Up next is EB Games' dirtiest of the dirty, their trade-in policy. One of the major things EB games makes money off is you trading in stuff! Trust me when I say this is not the thing you want to be doing. When you trade-in a game you will get only about 30% or less of the retail value. More often than not, you will get less than $15 for trading in a game that is more than a few weeks old. Got a few sports games you want to trade-in? Forget about it! Anything sports related from the previous year and beyond will either not be accepted or you'll get like $2 (if you’re lucky). If you get more than that then you've been truly blessed. Now, just so you know, the game that EB Games gave you 30% or less for will sell for $39 to $44 used. Now that's what I call a serious anal reaming. Often it doesn't matter whether the game has a case or instruction manual because you're still going to be charged top dollar for a used product. If you are crazy enough to trade-in your stuff at EB Games, always check the receipt to make sure you got credit for everything! EB Corporate will crap a brick house when I tell you this, but I've believed for a long time that they have the POS system setup to get over on customers. All too often and conveniently, the scanner will not register a game trade-in or two. It will still beep though and you'll think you got credit for what was just scanned. Not! This little practice is called creating "positive inventory". "Positive inventory" is often used to offset any losses the store may incur over time. Please keep in mind that these employees are not taking your games, but the company is. If any employee took a "positive inventory" game for themselves they would be terminated for stealing from the store. And should an employee offer you more money out of their own pocket for something you wanted to trade-in? Well then they'd hear the old Donald Trump trademarked phrase, "You're fired!"

Never ever buy a pre-owned game system. 90% of the time they are broken, or will be in a few weeks. Still, EB will sell you a one-time use warranty for $10-$15 more at purchase of the pre-owned system. It'll be good for a replacement should anything go awry. But ask yourself if it's really worth what you may be getting for your money. I have seen systems with roaches crawling in them go right out of the store, headed for the home of an unsuspecting buyer. Not only could they have a busted system, but now they have a freaking roach problem. And then there's the issue of how sanitary are those systems, roaches aside. In my store we kept a lot of those pre-owned consoles in the restroom. Do you know how nasty it was to see some Gamecubes, PS2s and XBOXs sitting in a plastic bag near the toilet with dried piss on them? And guess what? Lots of those pissy Gamecubes, PS2s, and XBOXs got quickly wiped off and sold to customers...at X-mas time. Little Tommy wakes up on X-mas morning and plays with his PissBOX, PeeS2, or Toiletcube and everything is just great in the world.


Do you pre-order games at EB Games? You might want to reconsider doing so after this little piece of info I'm about to drop. If you don't pick up whatever you pre-ordered in a certain amount of time EB Games will take your deposit. Yes, I said "take your deposit". Let's say you deposited $50 on Madden NFL '06 back in June. You go active for the military, go to jail, or something occurs that will keep you from an EB Games store for a number of months and beyond. You will most likely get screwed. EB Games purges their system of pre-orders after a certain period of time. Why? EB Corporate Headquarters will say that the system is overloaded and needs to be refreshed. And maybe this is true, but it still boils down to the fact that they are basically taking your money. Or maybe a better word is "stealing" since there is only one way to get what you paid for after this purge. That way would be you having hard evidence of your pre-order which would require you to have held onto your pre-order receipt. If you can present a pre-order receipt then you may actually be able to get what you paid for. Without that receipt, your rear-end might end up feeling a bit looser from being reamed.


So I hope you found this read enlightening. I barely scratched the surface of how low EB Games really is. But hey, EB Games is about to go "poof" into thin air very soon. Gamestop taking them over may be a good thing. Then again, Gamestop may suck just as much. I've never worked there so I don't know their business practices from the inside. In any case, now you know what's been going on right under your noses at EB Games. I'm sure some corporate big wigs or Managers from EB Games will read this and try to shoot down everything I've said. I expect it actually. People are going to protect their incomes no matter how shady it may come to them. But to any of the real gamers out there who pay for games on the regular and think what you've read is just plain ass then you should voice your opinion on it. In fact, I'd like you all to call EB Corporate at (610) 430-8100 and let them know how you feel about this stuff. You just may wanna call them quickly before Gamestop turns off the phone and lights…

cloudeagle

Drez wrote:

I was looking for somewhere to post this as I didn't want to start a new thread, and this may seem somewhat tangential, but I received this as a MySpace bulletin from someone last night.

EB sucks, sun rises in the east.

Yeah yeah, we know. Most forumers who work there will agree with you. But this is kinda the wrong thread for this.

etoychest

cloudeagle wrote:

Vintage Stock (regional chain in Oklahoma/Missouri/Arkansas) has absolutely wonderful selection... it's all used video games/movies/music/toys/comics. And the video game section has everything from PlayStation 2 to Intellivision. Wonderful.

So it broke my heart when they went from offering decent trade-in values/prices for used games to a more EBStop-ish "give 'em $2, sell it for $30" mindset. Le sigh.

That place has really expanded since being one store across the street from Woodland Hills.

Rook

LavaKnight wrote:

etoychest wrote:

Any word on why they are closing. I was entertaining the idea of doing a story on gam,a interviewing indie stores to see if they had trouble keeping up in the video game market due to higher costs and lower margins.

That has to be it. Doesn't ebstop have a hard enough time with margins even with their terrible-to-the-consumer pricing policy?

There was some other place/chain that just stopped selling video games. I think the guy was pretty bullish about his answer. It was basically unless you're a big place like toys'r'us or walmart, or relying on your used sales there's just no business in selling games right now.

article

randombattle

cloudeagle wrote:

Drez wrote:

I was looking for somewhere to post this as I didn't want to start a new thread, and this may seem somewhat tangential, but I received this as a MySpace bulletin from someone last night.

EB sucks, sun rises in the east.

Yeah yeah, we know. Most forumers who work there will agree with you. But this is kinda the wrong thread for this.

I'm just shocked at how much this stuff varies from store to store. I've got this one EB games thats close to me and these guys are awesome. Not forcing shit everywhere and just letting you shop helping you out if you need it. No bullshit, no corporate crap, just shopping.

And then I go right down the street to Gamestop and have to listen to 800 sentences about how awesome _______ is and that i really should preorder it right now or i wont get one ever.

Wezoin

Drez wrote:

*snip*

I've had some horrible experiences at EBs before, as I'm sure most people have, but I'd have to say the worst involved them attempting to charge me 100% tax on a game.

I grabbed an Xbox game (NHL Hitz '03, not that it matters) priced at $49.99, went to the counter, the bill came to $99.99. I wasn't thinking clearly (as you do when you're young and stupid, I think I was like... 13 at that point in time) so I went to interac it. Luckily I'm a moron and hit a wrong button then was like "wait a minute, thats not right" Anyway, long story short, they started yelling at me in the store because I was trying to get "discount." Having a cell phone, I quickly pulled up the calculator and figured out EXACTLY what my bill should have been, and they're all "the computer doesn't make mistakes"

So fuck 'em.

Also, another eb near me charges well over what the site states...

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat...

Site price, $10 + extra bongos.
Store price, $65, no extra bongos

Battalion Wars...

Site price, $10
Store Price, $49.99

In short, I prefer BestBuy, Futureshop, and Walmart, because despite their flaws, they give half a shit about keeping their word.

evilmrhenry

So, what small game shops are left? All I can find around Seattle is "Al's Music", which is rather on the expensive and dirty side (I mean *dirty*. After I go there, I need to wash my hands...), and an extremely small shop in Milton running out of a cellphone store. (Plus Half-price Books.) So, bearing in mind that I don't like EBStop, where should I be going?

babyeatingjesus

I hated Microplay and when I found out they went out of business I was elated.

I get my video games at fucking Wal-Mart and Best Buy now, and I couldn't be happier.

Lindsay Lohan

We have a small regional chain Bullmoose Music that does a respectible job carrying games. They are especially good at pricing, usually about $2-3 less than most other stores. They also are great about pricing their used stuff. If a game is new and still $50, they will charge around $35 for a used copy as opposed to EB selling it for $45.

Also, we have a small local store about 40 minutes drive away that I hit whenever I've got the time/money. I actually just bought some stuff there this weekend - about $200ish since I happened to be in town and ready to do a Wii spending spree. They had a used copy of Touch Detective which found its way home with me.

Truthfully though - I find that EB/GS isn't that bad, it's all dependant on the workers at the store. I have an EB that I love to go to and feel they are really given solid opinions/suggestions. While I'm sure corporate ties their hands on saying "don't buy that" they seem pretty good about making good suggestions on what to buy.

Atlus Parker

evilmrhenry wrote:

So, what small game shops are left? All I can find around Seattle is "Al's Music", which is rather on the expensive and dirty side (I mean *dirty*. After I go there, I need to wash my hands...), and an extremely small shop in Milton running out of a cellphone store. (Plus Half-price Books.) So, bearing in mind that I don't like EBStop, where should I be going?

I purchase 95% of my games online nowadays. Amazon's usually pretty decent. No tax and you can usually get free shipping out of the deal. Plus they don't jack their prices up by $5 like EBStop does and occasionally they'll be offering new release games with a couple bucks off.

corcorigan

Secret Shoppers are quite common. Back when I had a weekend job at a big retail chain they used to come round. And employees being 'forced' to try and sell stuff is hardly bad business practice.

Of course I worked on a Sunday so cunningly avoided everything.

TubularLuggage

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, since the local EB is one of the few good ones. No pressure, no hassleing customers. The only thing I've ever had an employee mention is that I could get a certain game cheaper used, and it was about $20 cheaper and still works, so it wasn't a bad thing.
Still, I miss Microplay. The local one (which was the only one in Nova Scotia) closed its doors when their lease expired and the lot owner jacked the price up obscenely.

apotheos

Retail locations are retarded for something like video games. It is definitely a product better suited to internet ordering.

SniperGuy

apotheos wrote:

Retail locations are retarded for something like video games. It is definitely a product better suited to internet ordering.

That's incredibly incorrect.

Think for a second. Quite a bit of videogame sales and sales of -anything in the history of ever- come from impulse buys. And hell, when you're in a store and you see something you didn't know was even out yet, you may buy it. Not to even mention the people that just won't buy online, especially like parents and whatnot refusing to put in their credit card because they don't understand how it works.

slurpeepoop

SniperGuy wrote:

apotheos wrote:

Retail locations are retarded for something like video games. It is definitely a product better suited to internet ordering.

That's incredibly incorrect.

Think for a second. Quite a bit of videogame sales and sales of -anything in the history of ever- come from impulse buys. And hell, when you're in a store and you see something you didn't know was even out yet, you may buy it. Not to even mention the people that just won't buy online, especially like parents and whatnot refusing to put in their credit card because they don't understand how it works.

And it also doesn't help that the whole video game industry is skewed toward using new video games and systems as "loss leaders" to push other products in the store.

If the only product you are selling are new games, you're not going to open for very long (unless you are the only store in town, everyone in town are rich, rabid gamers, nobody has internet, and there's a wall of fire cutting your town off from the rest of the world).

Mattie

Microplay was great. I used to get all my games because of them. I never bought anything from the store though. The cheap kids at school who wanted to sell their games to Microplay would come to me after MP offered $5 or less for their year old game. I'd give them a couple bucks more and BAM good condition games for nearly nothing.

The place was like a pawn shop for kids. I remember a kid came into Microplay with his Genesis and over 20 games. He traded them in for credit that bought him one pack of Pokemon cards. He got Clefairy Doll.

slurpeepoop

Mattie wrote:

The place was like a pawn shop for kids. I remember a kid came into Microplay with his Genesis and over 20 games. He traded them in for credit that bought him one pack of Pokemon cards. He got Clefairy Doll.

I hope that kid STILL wakes up in a cold puddle of sweat every night, with nightmares about what a poor, poor decision that was.

And I hope he gets severely beaten every day by bigger kids.

Drez

SniperGuy wrote:

apotheos wrote:

Retail locations are retarded for something like video games. It is definitely a product better suited to internet ordering.

That's incredibly incorrect.

Think for a second. Quite a bit of videogame sales and sales of -anything in the history of ever- come from impulse buys. And hell, when you're in a store and you see something you didn't know was even out yet, you may buy it. Not to even mention the people that just won't buy online, especially like parents and whatnot refusing to put in their credit card because they don't understand how it works.

But that's actually why it is better suited to internet sales, at least from a consumer perspective.

Video games are much better purchases for the informed consumer than the impulse buyer. I defend the right to impulse-buy, personally, but video games are better sold to individuals who know what they are looking for, or rather consumers are better off knowing what to look for first.

Plus, if you throw away this retail market nonsense, you'll have stuff like actual interest driving stock. Stores like EB Games, which push preordering, aren't even retail locations, really. They are boulders that (a) affect shelf life, and (b) act as warehouses. There is no reason for a chain like EB to exist.

Plus, you can still "impulse buy" online. Amazon suggests things to people when they browse or make purchases. It's really the same thing.

Captain Vash

Drez I hope you know that 90% of whats in that "report" is either out of date (pre gamestop merger) or just plain inaccurate.

Drez

Vash, I, too, worked at an EB Games and I know plenty of people that still do. I'd say it is somewhere between 90% and 100% accurate.

Cariblue

etoychest wrote:

Any word on why they are closing. I was entertaining the idea of doing a story on gam,a interviewing indie stores to see if they had trouble keeping up in the video game market due to higher costs and lower margins.

I work for an indie video game store, we used to be a Microplay long ago, but now we are privately owned by my boss. We have two locations.

If you want to ever do that article I can pass along his contact information.

IShallRiseAgain

unfortunatly EB games is the only gamestore in my area. It was actually pretty cool, before gamestop purchased it. They had this awesomely large collection of PC and console games, and it was cheaper than best buy, my previous store of choice. oh and I could get games dirt cheap after christmas . Now, it has hardly any PC games.

Variable

we used to haev a place nearby in lyndhurst, new jersey (in case anyone has been there)... they had a huge Mario cardboard thing outside, and it was just an awesome place.

I was very very young when it closed but I remember it just being walls and walls of games. and the people were very very nice, they told me about the flutes in Mario 3 without me even asking, they just liked to help out.

ronzo

Drez wrote:

Vash, I, too, worked at an EB Games and I know plenty of people that still do. I'd say it is somewhere between 90% and 100% accurate.

I personally like the part about the money stealing. Considering that I preorder Zelda: TP in March of 2004, due to the april fools EGM things with the wind waker. Now, the store changed managers a few times, computer at least once, and went through the gamestop merger. Preorder was still there when i went to pick it up in Demeber 06. Also, the old No money preorders (you used to be able to reserve things without paying $5) are still there if the game hasn't been picked up

actually, I'm going to break it down paragraph by paragraph

1. Still True, although I personally will never harass you or flat out lie.

2. We still have the game check-out policy, and I know everyone at my store (sans manager) will tell you if game/accessory X blows, and will recommend something better.

3. PART A: You should expect at most 50% percent for a used game trade. You're not going to get your money back. If you drove a brand new car for a month and then tried to trade it in, the value will good down signifgantly.

PART B: If the scanner didnt scan something its because the employee is going to fast and is a retard for not checking the screen. The computer ran/run on Win98/Win2k and cannot always proccess the inputs fast enough. There is also a screen detailing which game trades for how much. If the employee fucks up, thats hardly the register stealing game for the corprate motherland.

4. trade in for systems is look them over for any noticable defects/problems, and make sure the warrenty seals are in place. Then, you hook it up and pop in a game and play for about 10-15 minutes. During this time most problems with a system will present themselves. Any that dont will most likely require a longer playtest the store cannot reasonablely perform in a workday. After the playtest and the trade being completed, we clean them with antiseptic spray and compressed air. Most of are systems are NOT returned and work fine. I'm also sorry this guys store was one of the small one and had to use the bathroom, but it sounds like they werent coming the damn system with the plastic bag anyway.

5. See top of post

6. At the point of the Gamestop/EB merger, most EB's were considerablely better than gamestops, at least in my local area. Still are actually.

I would say 80% of it is pure bullshit, his store not following the few good policies, and general suckage and incompentance on his and his coworkers part.

DevoutlyApathetic

Drez wrote:

Plus, you can still "impulse buy" online. Amazon suggests things to people when they browse or make purchases. It's really the same thing.

An online "Impulse buy" requires days before satisfaction is achieved. If I find out some friends are coming in to town tomorrow I can't go and pick up a cheap X-Men:Legends off of Amazon to play with them.

RainbowDespair

Which is why just directly downloading games ala XBox Live Arcade and Wii Virtual Console is the ultimate in catering to impulse buys. Feel like playing something that you don't own? Just turn on your system and a few minutes later (and with your bank account a few dollars lighter), a new game is on your console's hard drive ready for the playing!

FyreWulff

It's too bad the only independant game store around here is run by crooks and has shitty customer service and hasn't updated their reciept printing system since 1992


I actually feel wrong when I give them money. I'd much rather shop at EBStopGamesBoutique.

Interestingly though, they do have a somewhat massive 3D0 collection for god knows what reason. I never see people actually buy any of it. The same games have been there, on the shelves, as long as I can remember going into the store.

DarkPrimus

I saw a copy of Polarium Advance at a TRU a couple days ago.

Should I get it?


Also, the independant stores around me rule.

bruin

I'm sure there's mom and pop game stores in the Boston area, but I have never, ever seen one. I'd like to check them out though, anyone in the area know of any?

King Kong

Fyre,

I know of this company of which you speak. Why do you feel that way about them?

MegaMan001

Am I the only one who doesn't pre-order shit? I mean, it's absurd. With the exception of the Wii or PS3 and 360 - all those new consoles, there is *always* shit in stock.

I've never quite got the reasoning behind giving $50.00 to someone on the promise they will have a game for you. You see the shit that people talk about these forums, games gone missing.

I suppose if they had better bonuses I'd pre-order more often. I'll admit I'm kicking myself for not pre-ordering Max Payne 2 and getting that t-shirt.

Woodroez

cloudeagle wrote:

Vintage Stock (regional chain in Oklahoma/Missouri/Arkansas) has absolutely wonderful selection... it's all used video games/movies/music/toys/comics. And the video game section has everything from PlayStation 2 to Intellivision. Wonderful.

So it broke my heart when they went from offering decent trade-in values/prices for used games to a more EBStop-ish "give 'em $2, sell it for $30" mindset. Le sigh.

Did they use to be called CaveMan? There's a VS in Springfield that went through what you were talking about, and I was there to see the terror first-hand. I think. It's been a couple of years since I was last there.

BTP

etoychest wrote:

Any word on why they are closing. I was entertaining the idea of doing a story on gam,a interviewing indie stores to see if they had trouble keeping up in the video game market due to higher costs and lower margins.

I'm going to guess it has something to do with this.

Wow.

Target Practice

There are only two independent game stores around here that I know of. One is run by an old woman who can't speak above a raspy whisper and who seems to know almost nothing about her merchandise. They do sell imports, though; that's where I got Ouendan. Generally speaking, though, they're overpriced.

The other I don't think sells new games at all, and is extremely shady besides. (When I went there a while back, there were a number of things that led me to this perception, but the big two were these: (1) When I asked if they had a copy of Symphony of the Night, I was told by the owner that they did, but that it was at his house at the moment because he hadn't gotten around to copying it. (2) When I asked about a copy of Guardian Heroes that they had, he informed me that it was the Japanese version, and that he could get me the device necessary to play Japanese games on my Saturn for $50. The Action Replay is something like $25 on Play-Asia. Later I talked to a GameCrazy employee who's apparently been there; he told me that when he was there the guy basically just typed in eBay searches as he asked about things, and then picked the auction with the highest bid, and told him that's how much he'd sell the items for.)

The only other locally-owned place there is to buy games from is Bookman's, which as you can discern from the name is not strictly a game store. They only have used games, but they tend to have a lot of good stuff, and they're not too expensive.

Furu

No local game store around here, but we do have a Gamestop where, at least the two times I went in there, seemed very cool and helpful without being annoying. However they got robbed a couple of weeks ago and I'm sort of wary of going back.

There's also a place called Slacker's that deals primarily in used games, CDs, and DVDs as well as some new stuff, but their impressive anime selection aside, it felt like a very unfriendly store.