GAME used to be Electronics Boutique, and when I used to go as a kid it was awesome, with retro games here and there, demo kiosks for each console, aswell as a great atmosphere.
Nowadays though its is very 'corporate affair' and is very business orientated. Their prices are usually £5-£10 higher than other stores or online prices - sometimes even higher than the RRP.
Im not saying the Stockport store is worse or better than any of the other GAME stores - the staff seem friendly and the store is clean and tidy - but I do think GAME's business practices are out or order.
One of the most annoying things about GAME is their forced bundles, where if you want to buy a console that is in short supply they will only sell it to you with a bunch or rubbish games for a much higher price. This is actually against the law but GAME continue to do this.
GAME also continue to buy up any oppostion and have recently bought out GameStation aswell - this is why GameStation no longer sell retro games and why their prices are almost identical - in the past you could shop between the two for the best deal but thats no longer the case.
Also, their trade in prices are actually pretty poor. Conevenienece wise its nice to just be able to take your old games in and come out with a nice new one, but in reality they often give you a quarter of your games true value if you were to sell it on eBay or similar. I have seen trades in for £4.00 being sold for £19.99 'pre-owned' the next day!
Not specific to the Stockport store but recently it was reported that when Sainsburys were selling consoles for cheap, GAME sent their staff in to buy them bulk so that 1)their would be no stock left for the general public and 2) they could artificially create demand and charge higher prices for their consoles. They then sold these Sainsburys bought consoles in GAME stores. This is actually against the law as the consoles would technically be 'used' once bought from another store and so wouldnt be entitled to warranty, but GAME still sold them as new (Although they are physically new)
As you can tell im pretty fed up with GAMES practices - they dont seem to be in it for the customer anymore.:o( read more