RIP Game?

Or at least game as we know it now?

I've never really liked game, over the time they've employed enough dodgy practises and sales techniques that I dislike to push them into 'only if I have too' territory. E.g. going to supermarkets and buying their special offers to then sell on in their own store, apparently to give the customers 'choice', I'm pretty sure the customers would rather pay the lower price to be honest...

Buying competitors instead of competing with them, in essence they turned gamestation into a game with a different colour scheme. But left the occasionally questionable for public music.

They're also great users of the sell you extra stuff at checkout and send staff to ambush you in the aisles to offer 'assistance', both piss me off. One visit to the Merthyr Tydfil Retail Park Game resulted in every member of staff bar one in the store approaching me, not a big store. When the last one asked, 'anything in particular you're looking for?' I just shook my head and left.

They can't compete with larger stores (supermarkets, argos etc) on prices and that's not shocking due to the buying power they have. But then mostly miss the chance to offer a specialist service that the supermarket couldn't. Game staff are a split between people who generally think they know all there is to know, and some of them get ratty when you contradict them, e.g. one of them was blabbing about Gears of War and how it was an 360 exclusive, a pointless sale attempt as I had it already! But playing along I pointed out it's not, there's also a windows version at which point I  was told in a nicer worded manner, don't be so daft, I work in game so I know. So I wandered over to the PC section, picked it up and showed him...

While some are clueless and they've taken the job as 'shop assistant' and didn't mind where it was. Which is fine, but I do find it quite amusing when they go into pre rehearsed slightly awkward sales patter about games they'll never play.

I've heard them sell over age games to parents of kids as 'all his friends will have it', I've heard them loudly bad mouth other stores, games companies etc loudly in store (Unsurprisingly EA was the latest I heard last weekend where the checkout staff proclaimed, 'No EA are just greedy'. Nothing to do with you're credit rating then and maybe EA realising they may not get paid here? Dick. What's the line now 'EA, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, yeah they're all just greedy'?)

They've given me crap deals on trade ins to then resell them at (one extreme) ten times the value. Blockbuster, HMV or CEX are the place to trade.

But they're not all bad, they did have reasonable special offers on times, and I must admit to visiting their 'let's pay the rent' fire sale that's currently going on and when they have an admin stock clearance I'll visit again. Some of the staff are ok, annoying, but that's following orders, plus I'd never wish anyone to lose their job regardless of skill level at it, but administration is looking inevitable.

But going forward, it may become a better shop as a result, Walmart apparently fancy it, with ASDA buying power, it may well be able to complete with the other supermarkets and give itself a chance, even though the ASDA preowned section is rubbish!

I'll miss Game in a way, it was a good place to look at what was out before going to Tesco to get it a fiver cheaper!

A jolly holiday in Pontins!

I just been on a weekend break in Pontins Brean Sands just outside of burnam-on-sea, and to be honest it was quite enjoyable. The mini human we take places with us very much enjoyed herself both with the characters the park puts on and in Brean Leisure Park where she could happily have stayed for about a week.

The staff were helpful and friendly, especially at times such as check in, which with so many people arriving at once could potentially be chaos! The place had good facilities, sports courts, selection of food, pubs, playgrounds, bike hire etc. The staff put on a decent show, the dancing on the 'This is it' show on the Sunday was spot on, the singing... a good effort. The touring comedian was among the worst things I've ever seen though.

Even the entertainments manager was a good old valleys boy... tidy!

Prices were OK, food could be picked up cheap, the onsite shop was average and bar prices, by holiday camp standards mostly weren't thekick in the balls they could have been (£3 for fosters, 4 pts for £9.60 is a plus, £3.60 for Bow and £4.20 for desperado a minus)

Yes, the grabber machine things did make it too obvious they were cheating

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzE7TWzoaYw

But that's part of the fun... isn't it?

However the camp itself was... tired. Pontins has had it's money problems in the past (ewww I just linked to the Daily Mail, I feel quite dirty) which implies funds may not have been forthcoming to provide state of the art all singing all dancing stuff, but the quality of the accommodation was patchy at best. A selection of snap shots is below.

  

 

 

Generally the chalets themselves could have done with a little bit of money spent on them, new wallpaper to replace the rips, making sure every thing's in good condition, there was a string suggestion in the bedroom of damp, bothering the high proportion of asthmatics present. Other things as well just as the swimming pool(which once again was very good) changing rooms weren't the cleanest, or there was a swing missing in the main park. It's unlikely to be ware and tare as we're the first ones in that year (so who left the £1.38 electric credit... no idea) unless its last years ware and tear, in which case, you've had plenty of chance to fix it.

At the end of the day (it gets dark..) the chalet was just a place to go and the other stuff was tolerable, but thy seems small touches, which fair enough would have to be carried out on a large and cost producing scale, that could help restore the companies image a little better and maybe make sure there would be a full house more often.

Overall it was a cracking weekend and fun was had by all, just makes you think how popular places like Pontins could become if the maintenance matched the attitude of the staff.

Oh yeah, why I remember, why can you never get a decent 3G signal in these places? Do mobile masts not reach the coast?? And don't get me started on yet another free wi-fi which is as much use as a sponge hammer.