One of the cases even had food crumbs inside the plastic sleeve. EB, Babbages, Software ETC, and Gamestop are all the same company now. New Zealand shoe retailer Ziera (formerly Kumfs) folded in September last year, blaming falling bricks and mortar sales and rising rents and staff costs. I do not see GameStop going out of business in the near future, but further down the line maybe like within ten years then yeah that could be a big possibility. CEX seem to doing ok, they don't specialize in just games, they also have all sorts of hardware thats been traded in, some retro games, DVD's/Blu Rays and CD's. I used to work there, trust me- this place is a money fountain. In the end I paid $21 for it when I went in there expecting to pay under $15. Which is fine, they’re not a charity. Time zones are still an issue, but they were with physical media too. Politicians are stoking a perceived rural-urban divide, while under-pressure farmers struggle with their mental health. By soon you mean in the next 5 years? Retail in general is facing more and more issues. But now with online stores offering better deals and selection and EB Games stores being flooded with non-game related items, I rarely have a reason to shop with them.”. Start your day with our best stories in your inbox, high-profile Australian stores have gone under this month. Nikki Mandow is Newsroom's business editor @NikkiMandow. Retail is tough these days. I can see your point, and it makes perfect sense. Oddly enough the Zing stores arent being affected… maybe the company is trying to pivot to swag now instead of games? I said, no problem, willing to pay the normal fee for preowned game cause it was preowned. My closest store is Victoria Point but either way they will match JB anyway. Haven't ordered from them since. Always price match, but always am made to feel like a criminal for doing so. I use the same EBs for all gaming purchases. At least a small discount would be logical, even if I am paying more than the preowned copy in the end. Wage costs are increasing, as are production costs, lease costs and insurance costs.”. Unfortunately, it looks like the days of having a profitable brick and mortar games store are on the way out. Retail agglomeration (clustering of similar stores in the same area, think bushwalking shops, or even just having KMart and BigW in the same shopping centre) is well established to increase overall sales in many instances. It’s all about keeping friends in and not well performing staff. I always went there over the one in the mall, partly because I figured they could use the business, and partly because I just prefer that store over the much busier atmosphere at the other one. It’s amazing how well JB does in making you feel like you’re getting a bargain, even though JB is now amongst the most expensive retailers in the market. International retailers took a third of the total online spend. Thought the same thing as well. but then some times there are like 6 staff members in there just standing around. I was under the impression that EB Games was now mostly separate to the US stores.