Discuss.
I know they just bought out EB Games...we should sadly be seeing lots of empty spots in malls and shopping centers where both stores operate.:mad:
I love GAmestop as it has used Dvds, it has some action figures.
They are cropping up in strip malls. Like recently one in Gilford in the Wal-mart Plaza opened and last year one opened in the Upper Valley Plaza in West Lebanon.
here is what a gamestop looks like. this one is in south portland maine in the maine crossings. I love the stores.
QuoteOriginally posted by MBZ321
I know they just bought out EB Games...we should sadly be seeing lots of empty spots in malls and shopping centers where both stores operate.:mad:
Both stores are in the Emerald Mall in North Attleboro Mass and are doing very well. Oddly enough, there is another Gamestop across the street which was FuncoLand.
Like the recent "fye" rebrand (phasing Strawberries, SunCoast, Record Town, Saturday Matinee, Media Play) along with the infamous and somewhat critcized Federated rebrand into Macy's & Bloomingdales, GameStop has joined that bandwagon.
They are slowly phasing out existing EBGames/Electronics Boutique and EBX (once sought to be EB's smaller stores located in malls like parent EB stores) stores as well as their own former affiliated stores Babbages (which is officially a goner now), Software Etc. It's getting ridiculous all these companies; now you can have as much as two or three GameStops and FYEs polluting your local malls with their overpriced junk. All these places are really just making malls so much more uniform and cookie cutter.
I'm a long time EB customer, always liked them better than Babbages/Software Etc before they themselves rebranded as GameStop. Their stores weren't that nice but now they pollute their own stores wiith overstocks of overpriced used games and other junk they can't move (like action figures, PC games without boxes, etc.).
GameStop is a specialty store found mainly inside shopping malls. They have a great selection of video games.
DISCUSS!!!
all eb games became game stop this is the one in the aburn mall used to be eb games
<a href="http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/websterma101/stores/?action=view¤t=gamestopabunmall.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa150/websterma101/stores/gamestopabunmall.jpg" border="0" alt="aburn mall"></a>
and before that it was Electronic Boutique!
yup im going the one in the aburn mall this comeing week and puting in a pre order for sims 3
I hate Gamestop. They killed Funcoland.
In the days of Electronics Boutique (before EB Games) I also liked the store Babbages, they were a similar chain in the 90's
Over time I bought the entire Doom series and Duke Nukems at Electronics Boutique.
QuoteOriginally posted by C. Fontaine
Over time I bought the entire Doom series and Duke Nukems at Electronics Boutique.
Me too. Classics.
We had two stores originally. One Software, etc... and an EB Games. Both became GameStop in 2006. Then we got a third Gamestop in 2008.
Further back in the day, I used to go to Babbages in Ohio. It also became GameStop the same year I believe.
I guess there is no other game store left.
QuoteOriginally posted by wwefan101
yup im going the one in the aburn mall this comeing week and puting in a pre order for sims 3
The Sims 3 is coming out soon huh? Have to look into that.
pre order on simes 3 comes out the 20th
now sims 3 will be out in june
QuoteOriginally posted by XDeSuEhTX
We had two stores originally. One Software, etc... and an EB Games. Both became GameStop in 2006. Then we got a third Gamestop in 2008.
Further back in the day, I used to go to Babbages in Ohio. It also became GameStop the same year I believe.
I guess there is no other game store left.
The only other store that is exclusively games is Gamecrazy but I don't count them since they are usually attached or are an actual part of Hollywood video.
^ There's also Game Trader, there is one in the 2 malls near me (Franklin Mills and Neshaminy Mall)
There is a really great, independently owned game store near me called ''Bandit Video Games'' in Turnersville, NJ. I don't think it's a chain store though.
By the way, there was already a GameStop thread back on the 6th or 7th page of this board, which was made in 2005. I guess this should be merged with it.
There are 4 Game Stops in Watebury, CT - 2 in The Brass Mill Mall. One on Route 69 in Shoprite Plaza and one across the street in Walmart Plaza.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Electronics_Boutique_-_Store_4565_%2810-13-09%29.jpg)
Still unremodeled from 1990's as of October 2009, taken in Ann Arbor, Michigan
From Wikipedia
Quote from: XDeSuEhTX on February 04, 2009, 03:12:21 AM
We had two stores originally. One Software, etc... and an EB Games. Both became GameStop in 2006. Then we got a third Gamestop in 2008.
Further back in the day, I used to go to Babbages in Ohio. It also became GameStop the same year I believe.
I guess there is no other game store left.
We have 2 Gamestops in Bristol. One in The Annex Plaza next to Blockbuster. The other in The Stop & Shop Plaza (formerly EB Games). The nearest Software Etc is in the Meriden Square Mall 2nd Floor near Sears.
Nice pic of the eb thats still open.
I definably liked that EB logo than the one they would use for EB Games.
Quote from: EddieJ1984 on February 06, 2010, 06:17:31 PM
Nice pic of the eb thats still open.
I definably liked that EB logo than the one they would use for EB Games.
Me too, I seem to remember the one by me (Holyoke Mass) was blue text and all one line...those were the days of SNES Saturn and Playstation
Haha yes. I remember buying my first non-shareware copy of Doom at Electronics Boutique in the Auburn Mall!
I remember that EB logo, I think the one in the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, NJ had it.
I've seen a Gamestop still called EB at Westfield Montgomery Shopping Mall in Bethesda, MD.
I visited a mall in New Jersey a couple months ago that had both a Gamestop and an EB still open and operating in the same building, which seemed a bit odd. Here in Bangor, we've got a EB-turned-Gamestop in the Bangor Mall as well as a standalone Gamestop in a power center on the other side of Stillwater Avenue. Both situations seem a bit redundant to me...
Quote from: kendra on February 09, 2010, 06:05:21 PM
I visited a mall in New Jersey a couple months ago that had both a Gamestop and an EB still open and operating in the same building, which seemed a bit odd. Here in Bangor, we've got a EB-turned-Gamestop in the Bangor Mall as well as a standalone Gamestop in a power center on the other side of Stillwater Avenue. Both situations seem a bit redundant to me...
3 GameStops operating in the same mall, on the same level here. Crystal Mall, Waterford, CT. lol.
Yesterday I was at Pheasant Lane mall in Nashua, NH... also has two GameStop's in the same mall. I imagine many cities and towns have two GameStop's, the original location, then the converted EB/Funcoland. I know my town is like that.
Was digging through my wallet and pulled this out! Cant believe it was still in there! I got this back in 2004 and that was the last year I used it....EB lasted a few years longer
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/CorporateA/more/EBEdge001.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/CorporateA/more/EBEdge002.jpg)
awesome!!! It's amazing the things people find in their purses or wallets. Great photos as well.
Quote from: C. Fontaine on February 03, 2009, 03:58:47 PM
and before that it was Electronic Boutique!
Here's my old simcity box from the Electronic Boutique store.
Sim City 3000. An okay game. Though I prefer the old school Sim City 2000. I guess I don't have enough memory on my system because Sim City 4 always crashes.
Quote from: Marc B on April 05, 2010, 08:12:53 PM
Sim City 3000. An okay game. Though I prefer the old school Sim City 2000. I guess I don't have enough memory on my system because Sim City 4 always crashes.
Liked the simcity 3000 graphics. Couldn't run sim4 either, never loaded correctly.
Gamestop is opening in Walmart Plaza in Southington, CT.
I had saved many images from the defunct SiteRide.com that captured what was to me, the golden age of videogame stores, the late 1990's
Gamestop originally started in 1984 as Babbage's. Back in the day I had no idea they were the same company.
There were definitely Babbage's in New England. The one I frequented most was the Holyoke Mall in Massachusetts.
The walls and racks at that location were exactly the same as this picture, I'll never forget those staggered walls.
I also seem to recall those same style monitors against the glass, watching the footage from the mall hallway.
Back in the 90's up until 2004 that mall was a monthly visit for my father and I. I can remember quite well the first time we went in and Babbage's was gone. The year was definitely either 1996 or 1997. Unbeknownst to me, that must have been when they converted to Gamestop.
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/254034_218896004808692_1925120_n.jpg)
To my knowledge there were never any Gamestop's in New England until about 2000.
Here is the East Brunswick, NJ location in 1997. I never visited a store with this logo.
By 2000 they had gobbled up every major chain but Electronics Boutique.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/264857_218895101475449_1243611_n.jpg)
My other favorite store as a child was Software Etc. Here are the Wayne & Woodbridge, New Jersey locations.
They were also in New England and had a location at the Holyoke Mall. I believe they were bought up by Gamestop in 1999.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/260466_218895371475422_1693668_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/251388_218895561475403_5077297_n.jpg)
Though they were mostly all in mall locations, some were standalone stores like these ones in New York.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/262155_227839177247708_897858_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/263090_227839610580998_6978809_n.jpg)
My favorite all time was Funcoland. They specialized in non-current videogames, and the prices were CHEAP.
I was devastated when Gamestop bought them out in 1999/2000. The chain once littered the northeast in malls and standalone locations.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/262790_227832513915041_232936_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/269042_227829973915295_2274115_n.jpg)
The head honcho of the 1990's was definitely Electronics Boutique. By the time Gamestop bought them out in 2005 as ebGames they just weren't even the same.
Here are the Brooklyn and Staten Island locations in 1997.
(http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/261524_218895771475382_7576069_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/263678_218896144808678_4851519_n.jpg)
The dates on siteride are way off in many cases (for example the Gamestop in East Brunswick opened in early 2000, right before the Funcoland merger). Here's the actual timeline:
1977: The first Electronics Boutique opens.
1983: The first Babbages opens.
1986: The first Software Etc. opens as part of the bookstore chain B. Dalton, just carrying software and books on software. B. Dalton & Software Etc. are later acquired by Barnes & Noble.
1990: The first Funcoland opens.
1994: B. Dalton/ B&N sells Software Etc. to Babbages, which is merged into a new company called NeoStar (no stores were ever called that, the Babbages and Software Etc. chains were continued to be run separately).
1996: NeoStar almost goes out of business, with EB almost buying the company, until Barnes & Noble buys the company back, renames it Babbages Etc., and turns it around.
1999: Babbages Etc. starts opening strip stores called Gamestop, with the lower case rainbow logo.
2000: EB tries to buy Funcoland, but gets outbid by Babbages Etc., which later changes it's company name to Gamestop. (Some stores around this time are actually called "Gamestop.com").
2004: Gamestop is spun off by B&N into it's own company.
2005: Gamestop acquires EB.
Those are the main four chains, but almost all of them had other sub-chains at different times:
EB had Games & Gadgets, EBX, Stop & Save Software, BC Sports, and EB Kids, and also acquired Waldenbooks' Waldensoftware chain in the late 90s, renaming them EB or EBX.
Babbages had a more collectible-oriented store called Planet X.
Software Etc. had a few stores in the early 90s called "The Game Stop", which was reused in the late 90s.
During the few years after Barnes & Noble had spun off Software Etc. and before they re-acquired them, they had stores called SupR Software, which were mostly next to B&Ns.
I just noticed today that the GameStop in the Prospect/ShopRite Plaza in West Hartford has permanently closed. It was in a weird location in a seperate building in front of the plaza that also has a Dr. Dental. I suppose this was one of the 500 locations GameStop will be closing. I'm sure something will take its place. The rest of the plaza is occupied and booming.
Probably the worst national retail store still existing today. They are the rip off artists of this millennium so far...