Game is shutting down MORE stores in just weeks with 20% off ‘everything must go' sale
The retailer's long-standing Chatham store, inside the Pentagon Centre, will shut in September.
1
The video game retailer has undergone significant restructuring and downsizinG
Credit: Google maps
The GAME shop in Victoria Centre, Nottingham, is also set to close its doors next month.
Stock in all stores must go, with most items being flogged at 20 per cent off.
GAME
sells a variety of video games, consoles and pop culture merchandise.
Shoppers in the Chatham store can get 20 per cent off all full price toys, board games, LEGO, video games, plushies and gaming accessories like headphones.
READ MORE ON TECH CLOSURES
The Chatham branch narrowly avoided closure in 2020 when 40 locations across the UK were axed.
The retailer has shut a number of its locations across the UK in recent months.
The
Frasers Group
, which acquired GAME in 2019 as part of a £52million deal
, has been
converting stores into concessions within
Sports Direct
and other stores owned by the group.
The video game retailer has undergone significant restructuring and downsizing.
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While plans don't indicate that the stores will disappear from the British high street completely many locations are expected to close.
GAME, in Festival Place, Basingstoke, will also be holding a 20 per cent off everything closing down sale before shutting up shop for good on August 10.
The retailer has given no reason for the abrupt departures from shopping centres in the UK.
However, the decline comes amid a significant drop in sales of physical video games, compared to Game's heyday in the early 2000s.
The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) revealed that in 2022, nearly 90 per cent of all video games sold in the UK were digital downloads.
Why are retailers closing stores?
RETAILERS have been feeling the squeeze since the pandemic, while shoppers are cutting back on spending due to the soaring cost of living crisis.
High energy costs and a move to shopping online after the pandemic are also taking a toll, and many high street shops have struggled to keep going.
However, additional costs have added further pain to an already struggling sector.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs from April will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
At the same time, the minimum wage will rise to £12.21 an hour from April, and the minimum wage for people aged 18-20 will rise to £10 an hour, an increase of £1.40.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
It comes after almost 170,000 retail workers lost their jobs in 2024.
End-of-year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research showed the number of job losses spiked amid the collapse of major chains such as Homebase and Ted Baker.
It said its latest analysis showed that a total of 169,395 retail jobs were lost in the 2024 calendar year to date.
This was up 49,990 – an increase of 41.9% – compared with 2023.
It is the highest annual reading since more than 200,000 jobs were lost in 2020 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced retailers to shut their stores during lockdowns.
The centre said 38 major retailers went into administration in 2024, including household names such as Lloyds Pharmacy, Homebase, The Body Shop, Carpetright and Ted Baker.
Around a third of all retail job losses in 2024, 33% or 55,914 in total, resulted from administrations.
Experts have said small high street shops could face a particularly challenging 2025 because of Budget tax and wage changes.
Professor Bamfield has warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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