Yeah, but Best Buy and Circuit City manage to keep both games and cds out.

Not to mention Wal-mart and Target keep out DVD boxed sets which are often as much or more than games.

I haven't noticed a difference at any other store. Best Buy is the same, imo.

Best Buy also checks your bag and receipt when you leave.

Not around here, they only check with big items.

Circuit City does check though.

At any rate that is MUCH more convenient than having to find someone to open the case, or waiting in a long line when there actually is someone at the electronics register.

No, I think it's much geekier at the game stores. I don't get employees spouting off misinformation about games, consoles etc. at Best Buy when I check out.

Clientèle is probably about equally annoying, but in Best Buy you're not wedged in a store the size of a closet with them.

most (if not all) the best buys around here have the XBOX360/PS3 games in locked cages.

That sucks. I've never seen a best buy that didn't have them out in the open and just in security cases the cashiers have to remove the games from.

Oh I HATE games being locked behind glass. The practice doesn't bother me, but trying to find someone to open the cage for you can be such a hassle sometimes. Especially if you shop near opening or closing.

My local Target never has someone working in the electronics section. The Wal-marts are slightly better about this, but not by much.

They have to protect their stuff. I don't find that objectionable. Compared to the molestation I go through to travel by air, I don't mind being required to talk to a sales guy for twenty seconds to get a video game.

I prefer it to effectively subsidizing people who steal, by having the cost of theft added onto the price paid by honest purchasers. It can be annoying at Target, because they often leave their whole electronics department unstaffed. But at Gamespot where the guy is standing at the register and the case is right behind him, I don't see what there is to object to.

That's the best part. My Best Buy has relatively narrow aisles though.. Actually, they're pretty wide, it's just they're usually filled with kids. In fact, I haven't found a place (except online) that there aren't a bunch of kids in my way.

The mall EB Games are closet-small, but the stand-alones are much bigger... for instance the one at Universal City Walk is a nice size. There's also a nice sized one I used to go to at the Howard Hughes Promenade.

See... I think the worst place is Toys R Us (pull the tag and bring it to the cashier, then wait for the guy to go find it). They've done that since I was a kid buying NES games.

They changed all the ones I've been two in the past 5 years or so in MD and WV.

Now the game section is off buy itself in a little self contained area and the games are just out on the shelves for you to grab, but you have to take them to the register in that area.

Actually pretty nice as there's usually not a line at that register, unlike the ones at the front.

That's the problem, you can't find a guy, and when there is a guy in the section there's usually only one and he's got a line at the register etc.

I'd have no problem with it either, if the company didn't require the guy standing at the register to nag me to death about preorders, extended warranties (for games!?!) the magazine subscription, asking if I have in trade ins etc.

I've honestly gotten to the point of just buying most games online. I don't care about having games at launch (wait for most games to drop to $20-30 anyway) and avoid all hassle.

I actually prefer that way... as someone else said, TRU has since changed to have a separate game section, some games in glass cases and some behind the counter, but I find the game section to be such a mess that it's hard to find anything... in addition, for most new games you have to look behind the counter to see if they have it, and they have these insipid displays for games that they don't yet have that look exactly like real game cases, so even then you can't tell.

I liked the old way, where they had a wall of printouts of each game cover and back, so you could browse through it, and you just had to pull a ticket to get it from the register... behind the counter, the stock was usually well organized and it wasn't that difficult to check out... you'd run into some stock issues if someone stole a ticket or misplaced it, but otherwise you'd know that if they still had tickets, they still had the game.

Most of these places where the games are out (best buy, but circuit city is the worst at this) have just a horrendous time displaying the titles they have. If they're not horribly misplaced, they're horribly mispriced or there's no pricetag at all (no idea why these stores don't have self scanners). I can kinda understand for bargain bin stuff, but please. In Gamestops, they seem to keep stuff in alphabetical order for the stuff that faces out, but they then just seemingly throw the rest of the games spine out in whatever order on the bottom of the shelf. And then there's the hassle of not knowing if the last game in stock is the one they opened to display.

Worst of the worst is circuit city, though. In addition to having what sometimes amounts to a pile of randomly placed video games, they have what may be the dumbest checkout routine ever... why do I have to go to the customer service center, where there are no defined lines, to check out?

I've purchased from Best Buy hundreds of times, and never had them do this.

I wonder, do video games really have a big problem with shrink? Or do executives just assume "These are for KIDS so they're going to get stolen unless we lock them up!"

I haven't bought a game at TRU in years, but the one closest to me still has the slips you pull. As I kid, I just remember it taking forever. Of course, times goes by much more slowly at 10 than it does at 30.

See i kind of like the chaos of CC for bargain hunting. They will have games stickered 49.99 when in reality they are on sale for 9.99. Last generation i probably bought 10 games that were really 4.99 or 9.99 yet were still stickered at full price.

I'm always amused when I go to Target and there are two aisles of glass cases, and half the doors are intentionally left open while the others are locked. It's like they're saying, "It's ok to steal these games, but please don't steal these over here; we really like them."

They also have hefty security systems in place along with plain clothes security along with either an employee or security at the exit. They spend quite a bit more than a little game store on security.

Typically it's the demographic. People in suits think young kids are more likely to swipe that new copy of Zelda than the newest Sex & the City season. And they are probably right.

My point was that this security at Wal-mart and Target should be enough for them to also keep the games out, along with the expensive DVD box sets.

Just put them in security casing for the cashier to remove like at Best Buy etc.

The game stores I understand, but they always have someone at the register to get the game for you, while Wal-mart and especially Target do not.

This is only anecdotal, but working part time retail overnights at a big box store, there are always games being stolen. It is kind of amazing how people actually manage to steal these things.

The most insane is black friday though. Because of the confusion, people manage to steal 360's, DS's, even Guitar Hero. How in the hell?

I could steal guitar hero. I'd just put the controller in my pants, and nobody would know the difference.

Are you kidding? It wasn't at all like this days or wine and roses scenario you've described. What would be the case very often was that they'd have the ticket, but not the game. There were a few times that I had to go back and get a refund after making the purchase, but they wouldn't have the game in stock.

Or the inverse (which would happen to games they just got in stock), where they wouldn't have tickets for games that actually have on hand. These were the main reasons they got rid of this lame system.

There's a guy in a yellow shirt at the door who looks in your bag and marks your receipt with a marker. You haven't seen this?

I think that the games need more protection than the DVDs because it is easier to sell stolen games. Like to Gamestop.

Not at my store. They do that at the Costco across the street, though.

Yeah, Sam's do this, but not Best Buy or any other retailer around here. We're just a bunch of good ol' boys that trust each other and sleep with our front doors unlocked.