Let's play Monopoly!

Today I was hit by the devastating news that GameStop was merging with Electronics Boutique. While I haven't ever shopped anywhere but the West Coast, what I've seen of Texas and other states doesn't give me any hope that the situation there will be any different.

Where I'm from and at college, there used to be Babbages, Funcoland, GameStop, and Electronics Boutique(EBX). More recently, it was down to GameStop and EBX. With this final blow, the only beacon of light will be CD Warehouse. Still, even CD Warehouse is but a pale candle, due to their not specializing in video games. I can't expect to chat up about the latest and greatest video game news with them, and I certainly won't find old NES games there.

I'm not a common mall shopper, but barring Christmas and the occaisional birthday (and even on those occaisions) my mall visits are always for one thing. If you can't guess what it is you need to seriously reevaluate your capabilities of deduction. Like most shoppers, I love to browse. I am one of those patient people that will sift through every game in racks upon racks of old playstation games looking for one, only to go onto the next store and do the same thing when I don't find the gem I seek. I love to go back and forth between stores and see which I'll get better prices for individual games, or even to just find a better copy when one store is lacking in supply.

With this merger, there will be only one store left to go to. When once I could walk between a myriad of stores, spend hours just browsing, and end up buying the games I was looking from several different locations I now will have only one option.

GameStop has always had excellent service, and I'm not complaining because I suspect them of harboring the wishes of a monopoly despite what the title of this post says. What I am lamenting is that now I lack options. I guess I could try Sears, Sam Goody, or several other stores. Yet, these stores are not there for my sake, or the sake of video gamers everywhere. They carry whatever games are new and "interesting", or that they weren't able to sell some odd years ago. When I'm looking for a classic game that is years old, I won't find it there.

I say farewell to EBX, and hope that only good things happen to GameStop because of it.