Everything about Eb Games totally explained
EB Games (formerly known as
Electronics Boutique) is an international
computer and video games retailer, established as an
American company in
1977 by James Kim with a single, electronics-focused kiosk, located in a suburban Philadelphia mall in
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The operation mainly sold calculators and digital watches. Between
1977 and the mid-
1990s, the company expanded to (and later stopped) selling computers and other related items. In the mid-
1990s, the company's focus switched to TV-based video games and consoles, though many stores still maintain PC game sections. Prior to an
October 2005 merger, when the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of
GameStop Corp., the international headquarters were located in
West Chester, Pennsylvania. After the merger however, EB Games moved its international headquarters to
Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania shortly before the overhaul and reorganization of Southeastern Pennsylvania by
Gamestop Corp. Gamestop sold off EB Games' headquarters in Sadsburyville shortly after the new
2006 year. Electronic Boutique's former headquarters in
Sadsburyville, Pennsylvania is currently owned and operated by the company
C.T.D.I. which also has a facility in
West Chester, Pennsylvania.
As of
July 30,
2005, the company operated 2,280 stores in the
United States,
Australia,
Canada,
Denmark,
Finland,
Germany,
Italy,
New Zealand,
Norway,
Puerto Rico,
Sweden,
Austria and
Spain, primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce and international website at http://www.ebgames.com . There is also an Australian EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.com.au and a New Zealand EB Games website at http://www.ebgames.co.nz, while neither support full online shopping like the international website does, they both have many games available for purchase and download at
EB Games Australia - Digital Downloads
for
Australia and
EB Games New Zealand - Digital Downloads for
New Zealand. The company changed its corporate name to
EB Games within the past few years, but the retailer is often still referred to as
Electronics Boutique. The company still has stores named Electronics Boutique, EB Games, EBGameworld, EBX, Stop-N-Save, and EB Kids. The reasoning behind the multiple names isn't known, but it's speculated that it's to get around a restriction in many malls that there can't be two stores with the same name. It was believed that this was the same reason that GameStop hadn't commenced renaming EB Games stores, however this has been disproven since Gamestop has indeed rebranded all stores to GameStop beginning mid-spring
2007, after the acquisition of Rhino Video Games.
International
EB began its international expansion with the opening of three stores in the
Toronto,
Canada area in
1993. The
Canadian division is the largest of the international divisions with 300+ stores as of
May 2008.
In
1995 the company expanded to the UK with the purchase of financially troubled British game retailer
Rhino Group The name of the chain was changed from Future Zone to "EB Games" to match the new owner. Store remodels, product mix changes and used video games combined to restore the chain's finances.
In
April 1999 Electronics Boutique's UK entity bought out its main rival,
GAME PLC following GAME's near failure after a dreadful Christmas period. Electronics Boutique UK folded Game, Plc into its own structure, keeping Game stores open under their Game branding, and all new stores following the release of
Playstation 2 in
2000 used the Game branding, as EB UK wanted to sever its ties with its American parent.
Although the EB-GAME "merger" created a company separate from the US parent, EB retained a 24% ownership stake in the merged chain for a period of time and, under the merger agreement, collected substantial management fees from it until
2004, when the companies agreed to sever the remainder of their ties with a one time settlement. The GAME brand replaced the EB name at all former EB stores in the
UK and
Republic of Ireland. The new company was the biggest video game retailer in the United Kingdom. However, GameStop Corp. is once again operating in the UK and Ireland under the GameStop brand.
Electronics Boutique commenced operations in
Australia in
1997 and rapidly became the number one video game specialty retailer in the country and the only one with a nationwide footprint.
On
May 23,
2005, EB Games announced a definitive agreement to acquire Jump, a retailer based in
Valencia,
Spain that sells PCs and other consumer electronics. EB Games plans to begin introducing video game hardware and software into Jump's 141 stores over the next several months. The acquisition provides EB Games entry into the Spanish marketplace and continues EB Games's aggressive international expansion.
EB Games once had a retail presence in
South Korea.
Controversial Labour Practices
EB Games routinely fulfils its asserted pledge to accomodate its customers by violating the rights of its workers. In Canada, it regularly contravenes Provincial labour laws which deals with employee safety and protection.
Regular mishandling of people with special needs is also a chronic problem, both in terms of their callous disregard for meeting required employment environment accommodations and underhanded methods of inducing employees with special needs to terminate employment under coercion. [citationsneeded]
EB Games' accusatory approach to the problem of "stop-loss" (theft and unaccounted inventory) leaves managers liable for actual monetary reimbursement back to EB Games for merchandise which is allegedly missing from their retail outlets. Often, when a stop-loss issue is inherited by a new manager, after the termination or departure of a manager under audit, the new manager will be made liable for monetary reimbursement back to EB Games. EB Games rarely follows the proper course of alerting the proper authorities and awaiting the results of a legal investigation. [citationsneeded]
Often employees will take advantage of a company discount, and pre-pay for newly released games and video game consoles. However, it regularly happens that if their employment is terminated before they receive their pre-paid items, EB Games will revoke their company discount, and either demand full payment for the pre-paid item, or refuse to deliver the item when it's released.
The most common violation of workers' rights committed by EB Games is in its termination policies, which generally amount to subjective and arbitrary reasons which are often regulated by law, especially in Canada. EB Games usually reverts to its claim that it's satisfying its customers' demands, which has consistently drawn negative attention from labour groups for being both a convenient, although illegal umbrella to explain away their irresponsible labour practices, and insult to consumers who are, in effect, being blamed for EB Games' inability to exercies a legal, professional labour policy. [citationsneeded]
Further Information
Get more info on 'Eb Games'.
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