WHSmiths' last act of video games retail is a feeble trickle of dribble from it's gaping slack-jawed mouth, as it begins crawling into the fetal position, ready to drift into a coma
In years gone by, WHSmiths has been a place people chose to go and buy entertainment software from. They had shelves bursting with cassettes, cartridges and discs.
Today, it’s best attempt at clearing out all their games to clear up shelf space for Ben 10 lunchboxes and Celebrity autobiographies is this:
Not a bad offer you might think. Fairly reasonable even compared to some other highstreet retailers, although MadWorld is routinely available for sub £5 from online retailers (£4.89 delivered).
However, that is not the full picture. Some investigative peeling is required.
You see, I have been to WHSmiths a couple of times in the last few months. I went there before Christmas (and got a cheap copy of Mercs2 actually), and then they had a similar selection of games that were “Half Marked Price”.
What they had done, is get the entire “overpriced at full price, but kind of reasonable at half price” section and stuck “buy one get one free” stickers over them all, in an attempt to shift more units.
Keep an eye on your local over the next couple of weeks, eventually they will probably drop prices even further.
Of course, their online presence is just another rebranding of The Hut, like basically every other dead/at deaths door highstreet retailer.
My local Whsmiths game section is brimmed to the full of old pc budget titles, the worst thing is they sell them at full RRP, I’ve seen them at £29.99 sometimes, however I did see SupCom 1 for £2.50 there so.
Dude, I don’t mean to be rude – but posts like this make you sound really pretentious. WHSmith has never been known for its bargain prices, even in the cassette days – it’s always been more of a bookshop plus expensive Woolworths.
You can call me pretentious too, because WH Smiths aint no bookshop. Waterstones is a bookshop, WH Smiths is a magazine rack.
I meant due to the writing style, guess I didn’t make that clear.
Hut. Hut. Kill hut! D:
What other sites use The Hut as a “frontend”? I’ve never bothered to go on too many sites (and mainly read this feed) unless I’m searching out a game that’s not been here.
It’d save me some time though to know that site’s stock and prices is copied elsewhere.
You can see them all here:
http://www.thehutgroup.com/about/
Although prices aren’t the same across the board. They are similar, but with a often prices different by a matter of pennies, and then some stuff might be radically cheaper in one of them, to give the illusion of competition.
That saves me some time, I’ll “blacklist” some of those sites, and glad I don’t have accounts at anything other then The Hut itself.
How bizarre, and sorry, should have thought to check the About page! At least they’re honest about it
Poor WH Smiths. They’ve been going downhill for years. Bit of a Woolworths situation, in everything they sell except for tat they face heavy competition.
My favourite thing WH Smiths do is position Retro Gamer on the shelf right next to the gay interest section. I mean, I’ve nothing against the gay interest section, but I’m glad I subscribe to RG so don’t have to navigate that whole gay interest minefield since WHS is literally the only place in a 20 mile radius that stocks it.