Tag Archives: chips

UK supermarket chain ASDA’s admitted to selling games below cost price in order to offer “value”.

The news comes after indie retailer Chips accused the larger UK chains of “bully boy pricing” tactics.

“It might surprise [Chips] and others, but we aren’t making any money on FIFA 10 because the price we have had to pay to the supplier is more than we are charging our customers,” an ASDA rep told GI.

“I am sure the other supermarkets are in a similar boat, so to criticise them as ‘bully boys’ doesn’t make sense to me – how can you be a bully if you are selling something for less than you buy it at?”

More through the link.

Oh dear. The MD of Chips, UK’s largest independent games chain, has told GI he expects the PSPgo to “fail miserably”.

Don McCabe said: “My own personal opinion is that it’s a no-go. I’ve been to a number of presentations to see if there’s anything there and I don’t feel it’ll go anywhere to be honest.

“I’m 99.9 per cent sure it’s going to fail miserably, in which case it’s going to put back other potential people coming into that digital space.”

More joy through there. The handheld released last week.

Independent UK retailers are hopping mad at supermarket stores like Tesco and Asda, which are running specials on FIFA 10 for half its recommended retail price.

So mad, that an outcry for legislation to prevent the below cost selling is being shouted.

“It’s bully boy pricing really,” Chips MD Don McCabe told GI.biz. “Other countries have laws against this selling at a loss for very good reason.

“Once they’ve got the whole market they’ll expand their profits, reduce the choice and screw the suppliers,” said McCabe. The only thing that can be done is what other countries have, which is to recognize the insidious march of the supermarkets model is detrimental to the consumer ultimately.”

There’s more of back and forth there through the link. You should go have a read.

Independent retailers Chips and Grainger Games have small expectations for the PSP Go release in UK shops.

Both have yet to receive pre-orders for the handheld, and while Grainger plans to offer small quantities of PSP Go, Chips doesn’t see a reason to stock it unless customers specifically ask for it.

“From my point of view I’ve got to think, ‘Do I want to stock this?’ Right now I can’t see any justification for stocking it,”managing director Don McCabe told Edge. “Certainly I’m not getting the response from consumers. Normally when a new piece of kit is launched or announced I’ll get a multitude of people saying ‘As soon as that comes out I want one of those.’

“[Potential] first adopters are on the phone within seconds of it being announced and you’ve got your pre-orders. I don’t have a single pre-order for PSP Go at the moment.”

Chips currently has 30 stores in the UK,  and McCabe said that if the chain “suddenly gets a wealth of pre-orders”, he’ll reconsider his position.

Until then, the store has no intentions of stocking the product.

As expected, UK retailers have reacted badly to news that Nintendo’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK, with one saying the proposed rise will leave no margin on the hardware at all.

“It’s very bad,” ShopTo.net’s Igor Cipolletta told GI, admitting: “If it’s true that they want to increase it by [at least] £18 then there is no margin for us at all.

“It’s very disappointing because we believed that after two years the Wii machine would get cheaper rather than more expensive – I’ve heard that this is the first time in history that the price has gone up for a machine after two years.”

Retailer Chips added that the rise is likely to have an adverse affect on sales, and that the increase will have to be passed onto consumers.

“It will have a negative effect on the sales,” said MD Don McCabe.

“I think we’ll still end up with shortages come Christmas again, but through the summer it’s going to have an effect.”

Nintendo said yesterday it’s to raise the trade price of Wii in the UK by as much as £20 thanks to a depreciated pound.