It has the look and feel of an independent store, with its small sizes, knowledgable staff that all look that grungy/hip geek look, array of used games and hardware, and simple security method of displaying only the empty game boxes to be filled at the counter - but in actuality it’s a huge national chain, and essentially a monopoly! What I thought was their main competitor, GameStop, is actually its owner, and together, they’ve destroyed all the FuncoLands, Babbage’s, and Software Etcs in the country.
I love the store, but I don’t like the idea of a monopoly, especially since I suspect that’s why the entire city of DC is virtually game-free. Recently, a Best Buy opened at the edge of town, but it’s terrible for videogames in terms of availiability (and I just hate that particular store in general), and I think there’s a GameStop tucked incoveniently away on some street far from a Metro stop, but otherwise, all my gaming purchases must be made in the suburbs. People don’t play videogames in this town?
I didn’t know that GameStop owned EB Games either until about a month ago when I went to gamestop.com looking for locations and got EB Games locations along with GameStop. I did know that GameStop is owned by Barnes and Noble as my friend who worked at BN got a discount there, but oddly enough not at EB. You’d think the discount would trickle down.
They didn’t destroy them so much as ate them. Babbages, at least, was bought out or became Gamestop.
I despise Gamestop, however, because they stuff PC games into a tiny corner and let them rot. I hate Best Buy, but at least they still devote some space to PC stuff.
If you don’t want to give your video game business to a company under the GameStop umbrella, there’s always Toys R Us and department stores like Target. There’s a Toys R Us at 10901 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring, which is within walking distance of Wheaton Metro, and a Target in Prince George’s Plaza.
For computer games (Windows and Mac), there’s Micro Center–the local store is in Pan-Am Shopping Center at the corner of Nutley Street and Lee Highway and is within walking distance of Vienna Metro.
Hold on – there’s a Best Buy one block away from the Pentagon City metro stop, which also has a Circuit City Express and a toy store (forgot its name) that sells console games. There’s another Best Buy up by American University. There’s that Target mentioned before, right across the street from a metro stop (can’t recall its name).
That’s quite a few places to buy games. And I’ve heard of sports towns and non-sports towns, but non-video game towns??
All of those places mentioned, except the AU Best Buy which is the new, edge-of-town Best Buy that I noted in the OP, are in the suburbs, not DC proper. I’m fine EB Games, and if I were to go all the way out to Pentagon City, I’d go there, not to its Best Buy. I’d just rather there be one right in the middle of Metro Center.
A few weeks after games are released, they start going on rotating discounts on Amazon.com. Then, at some point, Best Buy and EBGames both move the game to their discount bin and sell used versions for cheaper. Right around that time, PC games have their expansion pack come out. Wait another two or three months and you can get the “complete” game (and its patches) for the original price, which predictably drops off a few months later.
Give it a good long wait, and then choose between the retail monopoly and the online stores.
Good lord, Pentagon City is like a quarter of a mile outside of the city limits. The PG County Target is like, maybe a mile. It’s not even like you have to get in a car to get there. It costs the same on the Metro to go from Dupont or Tenley or Eastern Market to get to Pentagon City as it does to get to Metro Center.
We’re not talking about Rockville or Tyson’s Corner, fercryinoutloud.
BTW I just went to our local EB Games to pick up a game I ordered on line, and found it had turned into a GameStop. (They were supposed to call when the game arrived. Never did of course, but at least they had plenty in stock.)
