Electronics Boutique (Shop)

...something games-wise and ever since Electronics Boutique (here-on-in called EB) opened up in Grimsby they’ve always had a hand in my purchasing decisions.

* Who and what are they? *

Simply put they’re an American-owned computer games and DVD distributor in the UK, any town worth its name in salt will have its own branch and on many occasions 2 branches, all of which ready to serve your gaming needs. By Gaming needs alas ...
...gaming needs they can serve – sure they sell all the latest titles and plenty of the older ones too, plus you’ll get all the latest consoles here along with all the peripherals you could ever ask for – but, the one thing you won’t get here is a brand new PC, and I don’t blame EB for not selling them – as then you’re moving into geek-zone which luckily EB aren’t.

Now then not only do they have branches – theres also a funky little site ... more

I like my computer games I do, ever since many many moons ago I was given the old Commodore Plus 4 to tinker around on, I’ve always kept my eye out for the latest in gaming technology. Now sometimes that’s just been the latest game and others its been the latest console, but I’ve always been up to something games-wise and ever since Electronics Boutique (here-on-in called EB) opened up in Grimsby they’ve always had a hand in my purchasing decisions.

* Who and what are they? *

Simply put they’re an American-owned computer games and DVD distributor in the UK, any town worth its name in salt will have its own branch and on many occasions 2 branches, all of which ready to serve your gaming needs. By Gaming needs alas I’ll warn you now – it won’t be all your gaming needs they can serve – sure they sell all the latest titles and plenty of the older ones too, plus you’ll get all the latest consoles here along with all the peripherals you could ever ask for – but, the one thing you won’t get here is a brand new PC, and I don’t blame EB for not selling them – as then you’re moving into geek-zone which luckily EB aren’t.

Now then not only do they have branches – theres also a funky little site for you to visit and check out all the prices along with see if you want to be a lazy little so and so and order from the web.

Top all that off with a loyalty card scheme that’s second to none and you’ve got your outlay of the stores business, read on as each of these get broken down into detail – all for your reading pleasure.

* The Store *

On Visiting the offline stores you’ll find that the store designs are very basic, but basic in a good way, walk around and you’ll see above each shelf an idea of what to expect when you look at the shelf below – by that I mean that the format (which machine the games/peripherals will work on and the cheat books are for is printed on a black background in huge white letters – so no problems in finding your machine of choice.

Once you hit the machine of your choice you’ll find that there's a huge selection of Games and Products waiting for your browsing, on top of this there’ll be a chart of the top selling games for that machine as well – so say you want to get a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2 for the Playstation 2 and don’t want to waste your time looking for it amongst the other games – then head straight to the charts to get what you’re wanting and you’ll have no problems at all.

This however is where the store excels in its own – say there's an older game that you want – for example a few months ago I decided that I simply had to own a copy of Bishi Bashi Special for Playstation One, although they have one of the widest selections of games I’ve seen in a long time, they didn’t have it in stock and it wasn’t ‘in print’ but have no fear as my name was placed on the waiting list to get a copy – now normally I’d expect to be waiting weeks for a game like that – but no less than 2 weeks later I was rushing back in with £15 ready willing and able to buy myself a copy, with no extra charges. That story is just one example of their excellent facility of being able to order a game that they don’t have on the shelf when you visit – the thing is that this is a rare occasion – many a time has passed where I’ve gone into a store expecting to have to use the waiting list system only to be pointed straight to a copy sat on the shelves.

* Staff *

Ever wandered around a shop just wanting some advice on what to pick out? (Virgin I’m looking at you)? Well wander no more as it’s the rarest of the rare at EB – staff who aren’t too pushy but seem to know exactly when to ask if you need help and are always prepared to answer any kind of question you may have.

With staff as friendly as the people I’ve mentioned above like me you’d probably expect that they may not know exactly what they’re talking about – but again you’d be wrong, as they most certainly do! Ask them what sort of game they think you’d like and they’ll tell you, and whats more they don’t automatically opt for the dearest game either – once again have an example!

A little while ago I decided that I wanted a Playstation2 on arriving at the store I picked up a pack that was offering the console, Tekken Tag Tournament and Metal Gear Solid 2 at a reasonable price (£200 to be precise – this price later turned out to be a ‘stupid cashier discount’ but still), and on approaching one of their members of staff and asking them what other game I should get I fully expected one of the full price games to be recommended but oh no – his exact words were ‘Gran Turismo mate and its only 15 quid extra with that offer’, not exactly a dear option was it?

* Payment *

A Quickie here (cos there isn’t that much that could be said), basically they take anything as long as its legal tender, except the Euro – but whos got those right now (last comment applicable to UK residents only).

* Refunds *

Almost all of the time you’ll find that they’ll automatically offer you a brand new product to replace your old one or possibly even give you a refund depending on your reason for returning your original copy.

Of course however with PC games that may some times not be the case as once you’ve registered the copy on your own machine many a time you’ll find that it can’t be used on any other machine – so accepting these back just wouldn’t be good business sense would it?

* I’m Loyal I am *

Of course you are and because you are you want to be rewarded don’t you? Well go for one of their loyalty cards then! Basically they’re exactly what the title says they are – a card where every time you spend with the store you get points, and what do points make………….. (no not prizes *tsk*) vouchers!!!!!!!!

When I say points and vouchers it may be easier if you use the following offers:

£1 = 10 points
1000 points = £2.50 voucher

Simple eh?, add on to this that you don’t even have to claim your voucher because as soon as you hit your limit for a voucher they’ll send one out and that from time to time loyalty card holders can get a discount on products in store and you’ll find that this is a good deal and a worthy addition to your card-wallet especially when you’re only paying £2 for your card (or if you’ve been shopping with them for as long as I have you won’t have paid for your card as they were originally free!!!).

* But I’m lazy I am *

You mean you want to buy from the website? Fine! No problem! I can cover that! – at the moment as some people know for the next few days at the least I’m house-bound (torn ligaments in my foot don’t you know?), and I wanted to get my grubby little hands on a copy of WWF Smackdown for my Playstation2, on visiting the website I found it straight away with no hassles at all.

Once I got down to the ordering process of my online shopping experience it was time to see if the site was as helpful as its staff, and sure enough it was – entering my credit card details on site was as painless as signing up for ciao and after choosing the cheaper delivery option of using Royal Mail (£1.25 per order compared with £4.95 per order for next-day delivery) and this very morning I’ve been involved in slobber-knockers, hardcore matches and plenty of other brutal affairs all from the comfort of my armchair!

* But games only have a limited life-span *

Don’t worry, EB’s got your back – once you get bored of your game pop back into store and pick out a new one, then take both games to the counter and watch as EB take your old game off your hands and knock a bit off the price of your new one.

Plus if you’re a cheap-skate then you could always consider buying one of these second-hand games as they’ll be on sale in all stores and usually between 10 and 15 pounds cheaper than the brand new version, once again you’ll have no hassle and no fuss.

* The Game I want isn’t out yet *

Then Pre-Order it with EB! Not only do they give you a courtesy call on the day of its release for you to come and collect it – but on many occasions you’ll find that people who’ve pre-ordered their game will get a nifty free gift or 2 and on every occasion they’ll get double loyalty card points – all because they told EB that they wanted the game.

* Comparison to other stores *

So its obvious now isn’t it – I like EB a lot, and when you look at their competition its not hard to tell why – Game, is just a subsidiary of EB now, Woolworths are…… well…….. Woolworths so expect to pay through the nose, Virgin and HMV well every now and again both of these stores do offers to rival what EB are doing but the selection is always so limited compared to EB and WHSmith whilst often having the range of games don’t usually have the prices to match.

In fact the only rivals I’ve ever found is when your usual high street electrical store (aka Comet, Dixons or Currys) who quite often will put games out at ridiculously low prices but you’ll find that even then EB will match the price.

* Overall *

There it is, the reasons I love shopping at EB – if I could find something wrong with the place believe me I would, but I honestly can’t hence it getting the 5 star rating – no doubt people out there will disagree with me, but hey that’s what an opinions all about isn’t it?

** 24th July 2002 **

Quick note to say - yay! diamond! and this opinion probably should be in the category for 'Game' now as most EB branches are now called Game.
 

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