Huge high street retailer launches 20% off closing down sale ahead of shutting store for good
A HUGE high street retailer has launched a major closing down sale ahead of pulling the shutters down in another town centre.
Game has more than 200 stores across the country, including in cities such as Brighton, Glasgow and London.
It sells everything from big-name games consoles like Playstation and XBox to popular board games.
But shoppers in Aberdeen will soon need to find an alternative retailer as Game is set to shut its store in The Bon Accord shopping centre complex.
Shoppers have flocked to social media to share their sadness over the decision to close the site.
One person said on Facebook: “Sports Direct (owners of Game) are screwing Game over by amalgamating it into their Sports Direct stores.”
Another said: “Don’t usually comment but that’s a real shame.
“I’m usually in there for Christmas and birthday presents and the staff are always very knowledgeable and helpful.”
A third shopper said: “Absolutely gutted for all the amazing members of staff.”
The closure will leave the future of the unit in the Bon Accord Centre in doubt.
Neighbouring units 35, 36 and 39 also lie vacant, according to The Press and Journal.
We’ve reached out to Frasers Group, owner of Game, and asked when the store will close for good.
The latest GAME closure comes after the retailer, operated by the Frasers Group, shut a number of other branches across the UK.
Since October 2023, nearly a dozen GAME stores have closed their doors in England and Wales.
In November 2023, the Nuneaton branch in Warwickshire ceased trading, followed by the Witney store in Oxfordshire, which closed in January 2024, and the Plymouth branch in Devon, which shut the following month.
Most recently, the chain’s store in The Broadway shopping centre in Bradford closed in November 2024.
DOWNFALL OF GAME
Game was acquired by billionaire businessman Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group in 2019 as part of a £52million deal.
However, by January 2020, the retailer announced plans to close 40 of its more than 300 stores across the UK.
Today, there are approximately 240 Game stores operating nationwide.
This 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% of all video games sold in the UK were digital downloads.
Why are retailers closing shops?
EMPTY shops have become an eyesore on many British high streets and are often symbolic of a town centre’s decline.
The Sun’s business editor Ashley Armstrong explains why so many retailers are shutting their doors.
In many cases, retailers are shutting stores because they are no longer the money-makers they once were because of the rise of online shopping.
Falling store sales and rising staff costs have made it even more expensive for shops to stay open.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs from April 2025, 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.
In some cases, retailers are shutting a store and reopening a new shop at the other end of a high street to reflect how a town has changed.
The problem is that when a big shop closes, footfall falls across the local high street, which puts more shops at risk of closing.
Retail parks are increasingly popular with shoppers, who want to be able to get easy, free parking at a time when local councils have hiked parking charges in towns.
Many retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer have been shutting stores on the high street and taking bigger stores in better-performing retail parks instead.
In some cases, stores have been shut when a retailer goes bust, as in the case of Carpetright, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Paperchase, Ted Baker, The Body Shop, Topshop and Wilko to name a few.
What’s increasingly common is when a chain goes bust a rival retailer or private equity firm snaps up the intellectual property rights so they can own the brand and sell it online.
They may go on to open a handful of stores if there is customer demand, but there are rarely ever as many stores or in the same places.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
Other shops leaving the high street
Beales, one of Britain’s oldest department stores, has launched a closing down sale before it shuts its last remaining shop after more than 140 years.
The company will shut its branch in Poole’s Dolphin Centre on May 31.
The sale includes fashion, furniture, gifts and cosmetics, being sold for up to 70% off.
Beales chief executive Tony Brown blamed the “devastating impact” of the rise in national insurance contributions and the higher minimum wage for the store closure.
Meanwhile, high street fashion chain New Look has begun to close stores as it scales back its UK footprint.
It is understood to be shutting nearly 100 stores – equivalent to around a quarter of its 364 shops.
Stores in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, St Austell, Cornwall and Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf have launched closing down sales.
Reports suggest that the company has been forced to accelerate the pace of store closures due to tax changes in the Autumn Budget.
Meanwhile, Huttons in London will shut its store in the Putney Exchange due to excessive energy costs.
The gift shop became a local icon after it opened in the 1990s.