Came across a very ugly sight at a Best Buy in NJ recently. Nearly all of the games in the racks had been replaced by poorly printed copies of the font and back covers. These off-color, faded prints were oddly displayed in the plastic security cases normally reserved for the games themselves(I suppose so no one steals them!?!?). The games in the bottom left corner of the picture are just some pre-order nonsense and not actual games.

The entire stock of games from this Best Buy were moved up to the front of the store in to a padlocked metal cage passed the registers. I’m guessing this is the store’s attempt at a theft deterrent system, but in my case it acted like a purchase deterrent as my browsing experience was reduced to nil.

Who in their right mind thought this would be a good idea? This little stunt turned what is normally an enjoyable shopping experience into a complete WTF moment. Sure all the pertinent information from the game’s box is displayed on these two slips of paper, but so is it on-line, so what is the point of actually going to the store anymore!?!

I understand stores like Best Buy need to do what they can to prevent things being stolen but there has got to be a way where it doesn’t come at the expense of the shopping experience. Gamestop has long since been keeping their games behind the register, but at least they leave a box (in most cases) out on display for you to fondle.*

*I have quite a bit to complain about in regards to shopping at Gamestop, but I’ll get to that some other time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.