You won’t believe this, because they’re so subtle, but every so often EB Games has a sale.
Like the store in the image above. They’re having a sale believe it or not, the biggest sale ever apparently. But you’d never know unless you actually walked into the store.
7/10
Clearly it wasn’t the biggest sale ever though, surely this one is. It has to be. It has more red. The more red it has the bigger the sale. Obviously. By that reasoning this is the biggest sale ever.
9/10.
Via Alex Burgess
I mean seriously, this store has to step its game up. Not even close to enough banners in this one. Bonus point, however, for the frills. A nice touch.
6/10
This store isn’t even trying. Come on man? Clearly scrimping on its ‘SALE’ banner budget. I am, however, truly enjoying the relaxed way the banners are strewn around everywhere.
Via Dorkly
5/10
Via Reddit
This picture is just too damn yellow.
6/10
Blurry pic, but I’d this is a well crafted EB Games storefront. I am definitely aware that a sale is going on. There is a lot of red here.
9/10
This one has a face made out of sale signs.
9/10
Thanks Stephen Lambrechts!
Tastefully lit. Beautiful contrasts between the red of the banners and the store inside.
8/10
Uninspired. Flat. Featureless. These sales banners have too much white. This store front has dated terribly.
4/10
Actually, this one is quite tasteful. But how am I supposed to tell if there really is a sale in here? Honestly. No commitment here at all.
6/10
via Stealingyourpixels
“Amazeballs sale.”
“YOLO Swag Sale.”
You have to know the rules to break the rules. Pure genius.
10/10
I think I’ve found just about every EB Games sale image on the internet, but if I’ve missed any please let me know in the comments below!
Comments
86 responses to “All The Times EB Games Had A Sale”
The last one… it was fate that it just had to happen. LOL
Pretty brave. I worked casually at EB for a few years and our area manager would have castrated us if we did that.
You’d be surprised how organised they want the chaotic signage to be.
All these years later, it boils my blood to think of the customers that would come in as and ask: “are you having a sale”.
Especially like they think that they are the first person ever to think of that joke.
In those customer’s defence, when is EB ever NOT having a sale? A clearer questions would have been “Hi, is this a ‘sale’ like the usual one-off 24/7 sales, where the prices are still more than all the competition? Or is that a sale where most your stock is now on par with the competition?”
(I just bought 2 consoles and a bunch of games and equipment from EB during their “sale”, PURELY because they were closer and their “sale” price now matched JB Hi-Fi. (though I still picked up some of the games from Kmart and JB cheaper”
It’s true, we were almost always on sale, but that’s how most retail businesses work anyway.
EB only sells games, so we didn’t have other products – TVs, Hi-Fi systems, computers – to fall back on whilst selling games at a low margin. This is at the core of why EB is generally more expensive.
From a price perspective, you can always price match. We almost never rejected customers with price matching unless they were blatantly lying, or if they were a dick (I know not all stores are as flexible with this).
If you price match at EB, you get the benefits of the EB card (higher trade values if you’re that way inclined and the mighty 7-day refund period) whilst paying the same price as what’s on offer elsewhere.
It’s very easy, and -still- cool to rip on EB, but I remember a time in the 90s when my Browns Plains store opened (maybe 2000ish). They offered me everything gametraders offers today, since then they’ve specialised away from anime, movies and the like, but they were even more niche markets that weren’t sustaining the individual franchises, so it’s understandable they’ve reduced their range of products sold.
The only thing EB games needs to work more on is informing the public of it’s price matching. They’ve always stated it BUT it’s never a window display motto… McDonalds has learned the lesson, now everyone knows they can make their own, above and beyond ‘no pickles thanks’.
I know the franchises love the whale customers – mums with young kids who will pay the full ticket price that is 20-30 above all other retailers AND think they’re being smart by saving $5, not purchasing the disc ‘insurance’. I think they’ve alienated the core gamer audience however with their flagrantly high price sticker labels. Gamers are frugal for the most part, googling the cheapest store (anything besides EB) and heading their instead. They don’t want to have an awkward conversation about price matching and then wait for the retailer to check the other store’s price.
Generally if I have to “price match” I’ll just buy it at the place where it’s cheaper in the first place. I don’t see the need to reward the more expensive store with a sale just because it’s willing to reduce the price to the EXACT PRICE THAT SOMEBODY ELSE IS CHARGING.
I make an exception for this with EB because there is some slight value-add, and because the JB Hifi I’m comparing against is only about three doors down.
Price matching for me usually means “I have to cross the river to get to the CBD on my lunch break which is time consuming and EB Games is the first games shop I can get to I’ll price match because cheap game and still time to eat”.
Mmm, exactly right. Those ‘value-adds’ are the biggest reason I shop there. If it was apples for apples, I would go wherever is closest.
My biggest problem with most store’s sale notification efforts is that there are places I can look inside the store that don’t tell me there is a sale on. Those are the moments you need to remind me otherwise I will absolutely forget there is a sale.
EXACTLY.
I like the 1st one for this exact fact. They got the corporate signage and went nuts. They then stood back, realised there was bulkhead space overhead and said “Hmmmm not BIG enough. Fuck it, it needs more! Get me a sheet and a can of black spray paint”.
YOLO!
Hey, I think I’m responsible for #7!
You took the photo?
Totally don’t worry about attribution, I was just surprised to see it! I’m pretty sure I did, yeah, but it’s fallen off the back of my locally stored phone shots, too hard to verify.
YOU’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT SALE?
YOU TERRIBLE HUMAN BEING.
Also I thought the store looked familiar. I wouldn’t recognise it without the sale signs everywhere.
OF course, if they wanted to be really honest, they’d just re-brand themselves as JB HI-FI for the sale period.
My favourite part is that their entire store becomes a disorganised sales bin so you can’t find anything you want without rummaging through everything.
And then that second hand copy of carnival games is STILL 12 bucks.
I put the case down between the other fourteen copies, and walk away sad, again.
Next time, that will be the sale I need. Yes…
Maybe when they say “Sale” they mean “FOR sale, not actually ON sale”.
Yeah mark , you missed the pics i took of the Craigieburn, VIC store over the weekend! now we need a rating!
http://imgur.com/a/zVTp9 (4 images in album)
@markserrels 🙂
Terrible – they’re giving you way too much redundant information. Seriously, showing the same thing on both screens? Please.
Screens, which I might add, give no indication of the ongoing sale that people need to be alerted to.
very red. Definitely know a sale is taking place.
Not enough red, I can still see display screens.
7/10
Lots of signs, but too much space used for displaying deals and not enough instances of the word “SALE”.
I think they’ve become self-aware, noticed one of the e-mails they sent out a little while back was titled “guys I think EB might be having a sale”.
As a tall person… Fuck their sales.
Smacking my head like a chump every five seconds.
I know! I once brought down three banners in a store by walking under them and hitting them with my head.
I turned to them and said “Oh, looks like the sale is over!”
ZING
…no actually I quietly brought the posters up to the counter and apologised for knocking them down with my head.
As a person of average height, I concur. Fuck their sales.
As a person of less than average height, I appreciate all the banners making me fee taller than usual.
haha. whenever there is this much crap over the store, I actually don’t even go inside. if I have to duck to get inside a store, i just pass.
Does eb games have a sale on?? about time
Hang on… So what your saying is EB games is having a sale?
How are we supposed to tell?
EB Games have sales? I’ve never noticed…
Yeah, they need the signs because you can’t really tell from the prices.
Zing!
I am not a tall man, but I have to duck to get under their signs to get in store when they are having a sale. It almost feels like I am trying to get into a makeshift tent to camp in the lounge room with a 3 year old.
They have had more “Sales” than I have had hot dinners.
Is there any time of the year when a “Sale” not is on???
Man, someone needs to make a RUGS RUGS RUGS ad taking the piss out of EB…
Given the pricing at the sale EB have I thought it was the other way around.
HA! Was thinking this when I read the article.
“EB-Games-A-Million Closing Down sale!” that just never seems to be the sale they close down on…
GAMES! GAMES! GAMES!
We’ve got INSANE prices on EVERYTHING!
See this game?! Was US$59, now A$110!
This special edition pre-order? US$99 in America, but here it’s A$250!
WE’RE INSANE! BUY OUR SHIT!
HHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!
You made my afternoon!
the one in doncaster has a castle inside made out of all this garbage, i remember there was a couple of months in the first time in years that they didnt have any of this stuff. it was amazing and there were still bargains to be had.
keep an eye out on the ones that have 1/2 marked price, they are the true bargains in there.
So are EB games staff trained cleaners as well. That is worse than some all night house parties to clean up.
I always found tearing down everything after those sales was the best fun… (this is pre-12 sales a year business that goes on now)
what wasn’t fun finding all those little surprises customers left under the tables -____- Used diapers were the absolute worst!!
EB always have ridiculous high prices. Even on sale their prices are a joke.
Yes poor EB that only sell video games and nothing else. Apparently there’s no money to be made from these and other shops, department stores specifically, can sell games cheaper than RRP because every time you buy a game you also buy a TV, or a fridge, or a BBQ. This is a loss leading tactic that they employ that poor EB can’t do. Of course lets not mention their highway robbery used game scheme where they offer a pittance for trades and then resell for almost the same price as a brand new copy. Oh yes these guys are the masters of bullshit.
Looking at those stores, the casual observer might come to the conclusion that this business actually sells red signs, not video games.
The question that needs to be asked is do they price match if I see a sign cheaper in another store?
Yeah, but they make it hard for you by getting exclusive limited edition red signs which nobody else has, so they don’t have to price match them.
Amazeballs post.
That last one. Fantastic stuff Mark. Now its time for a retrospective article about EB sales over the years.
The store near me has made an iron throne out of sales posters and cardboard.
You know…. I’ve never noticed.
They have a sale so much that I stopped caring when they have a sale on. Their sales are nothing extra ordinary and the things that are on sale are the same things that where on sale the previous time….. Sale.
SALE!And generally if they have a genuine price reduction, it’s thanks to the publisher and JB will have it a couple of dollars cheaper again.
Yeah, the signage makes it SEEM exciting, but the prices don’t so much.
25% off the only games worth having, 50-75% off the shit no-one wants; percentage based on just how unpopular it is.
Steam has jaded me to what is possibly a good sale? I don’t know. I don’t care. Maybe they should choose green colours instead, for their sale stickers. Something uncannily similar to Steam ones. Maybe then they’ll get purchases out of pavlovian response.
What colour do EB settle on when they’re having their “Today we’re going to charge [hyper over-inflated, heavily marked-up] recommended retail price”?
Thank God price match is a thing.
I need to show some of these to the slackers at the Noosa EB… not once have they covered the store windows in signs, much less hung banners all around.
You bought a Jeep!?!
I mean, There’s a sale!?!
I can get you a better picture of the blurry one Serrels, that’s my local store.
That second one looks a bit like the Chullora store, I hated doing stocktakes there.
Only 4/10 for the third last image? They made the central table into a dragon/gator. Creativity like that deserves a higher score. Swanston Street City store has a Bat-mobile built out of cardboard too.
Once we were told that EB was implementing some environmentally friendly policies and to try and reduce our consumption of plastic bags.
A month later… sale.
My sister is a store manager for EB… their standard is “You don’t have enough sales banners up until the complex management complains”… allegedly they have unofficial competitions on who can get the most complaints.
This screams cross promotion.
Ok, i have an idea: why not do a comparitive post about how many times there are steam & eb games sales in terms of how they are well marketed and do a tally on how much money they earned in the aftermath (because kotaku is meant to inform the game consumers about how much they earned after all)
Haha, the 7th picture is my local store. My other local store made a tank out of the advertisements 😛
As a former front line grunt who had to set up countless numbers of those plastic abominations, please cut your local EB staff some slack. They hate it as much as you do, and you’re not the first person to ask if there’s a sale on. =P
Fun fact, a lot of those tables around the edges of the store are just boxes taped together. They made for really good mats to land on when doing elbow drops from the counter during the takedown process. =D
I wonder what would happen if it was all green! Red is the color of danger! Warning! Aahh!
Where as green is the color of.. YES, good, approved, calm, un-creative and GO!
They’ve only ever had one sale; from 2006 to present.
I once saw an EB Games store *without* the SALE signs up. I’m fairly sure my friends didn’t believe me until I sent a photo as proof.
As usual they are still too expensive, their “sale”prices are always underwhelming.
Did anyone see the checkout the other day where they had games that were $29.95 now “only $47”
Escalators lead straight up towards the Kingaroy Store. My depth perception isn’t good and all I could see was RED. I thought the store was closed until I got closer. It actually looked more like cave entrance. Don’t know if that’s what they intended but the effect was clever.
EB Sale = We’ve just price matched all our sale items with JB
Maybe their sale signs should be yellow?
EB SALE = %25 OFF! = EVERYONE ELSES PRICES!
Seriously wish I was color blind when it comes to this. No sense of taste, just in your face Americanisim.
To be fair, the 4th one is my local Tassie store, and it’s not even the Hobart one – so they probably only got the leftover banners from all the other stores.
I love how in some of them the signage is so all consuming it’s actually difficult to get into the store to buy the items that are on sale!
This is a shocking company. They gauge success by the number of complaints to shopping centre management. Just ignore them. They also treat employees very badly. They let a friend “go” after assuring him the restructure left his position safe… Just hours before he wasn’t needed any more after many years there. No scruples.
Hey there Kotaku,
I’d appreciate it if you could credit the people who took the photos, some of them have proper credit but quite a few do not.
I originally posted the 5th image on this list.
/u/MarkusAPersson/ is my reddit name, and I posted it to /r/melbourne.
I’m pretty sure the EB Games here has been having a sale for at least a month now, maybe more.