18 MCV 16/07/10 STORE COUNT ANALYSIS The rise and fall at retail
Specialist game retailers may be in decline, but the number of supermarkets are rising. Dominic Sacco takes a look at what’s happened to the store count of 14 key retailers over the past year…
THE GAMES retail market is going through a shift.
Over the past 12 months, specialist retailers have been declining – with 115 game or entertainment shops closing its doors. In contrast, supermarkets have opened 343 outlets over the same period. The information comes part of MCV’s research into the 14 biggest UK High Street stores selling video games. Last year the leading 14 retailers had a cumulative store count of 7,335 – this year it is 7,542 – a rise of almost three per cent. Supermarkets make up the bulk of this with 4,148 stores. However, not every supermarket stocks games.
The amount of new stores Tesco has opened in the past year. In 2009 it had 2,282 outlets – now it has 2,479.
197
17.7% 55
The share of the games market that supermarkets had in value in 2009 (according to TNS).
The number of GAME and
Gamestation stores on the High Street that have closed in the last 12 months
Comparatively, there are currently 2,340 specialist games retailers. Entertainment Retailers Association director general Kim Bayley says the rise in general retailers selling games is all part of a maturing market. “It is significant that there are still more games outlets than for either video or music,” she says. “What is true is as a market matures, more mass market and generalist retailers tend to enter the fray.” Blockbuster UK has had a difficult
year. Financial concerns for its US parent means the UK arm is up for sale, and over the past 12 months the retailer has closed 84 of its UK stores. GAME and Gamestation have also been reacting to tough market conditions, dropping 55 outlets – mostly concessions
from clothing retailer Debenhams and defunct book specialist Borders. However, it’s not all bad news. Entertainment chain HMV had a good year and has opened ten new stores, as has catalogue retailer Argos.
Another success story comes from UK independent chain Grainger Games, which has opened nine new stores over the last 12 months, bringing its total number of outlets up from 20 to 29. However, the biggest growers have been the supermarkets. Tesco increased its store count drastically – with 197 new shops compared to this time last year. Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda followed with 76, 51 and 19 new outlets respectively.
SPECIALIST RETAILERS GAME and Gamestation HMV
Blockbuster Argos CHIPS
Grainger Games TOTAL
SUPERMARKETS Asda
Sainsbury's Tesco
Morrisons TOTAL
OTHER DSGi
Toys R US Comet
John Lewis TOTAL
According to TNS data, supermarkets are rapidly growing their share in games. In terms of the number of titles sold, the
“
696 270 703 735 31
20 2,455 2009 store count
356 792
2,282 375
3,805 2009 store count
725 73
250 27
1,075
Specialist UK games stores are down in numbers this year with Blockbuster seeing a total of 84 closures
WWW.MCVUK.COM
It is expected the decline in the number of specialists will continue for the next year, with further closures
There are still more games outlets than for video or music, and as the market matures more generalist retailers enter the fray.
Kim Bayley, ERA
grocers’ market share rose from 9.4 per cent in 2008 to 16.3 per cent last year, while their share in value increased from 10.1 per cent to 17.7 per cent. Furthermore, Gfk Chart-Track data states that more supermarkets sold games in 2009 than in 2008.
2009 store count
planned for GAME, Gamestation and Blockbuster. Meanwhile, supermarkets are planning to open more stores, spend more money on entertainment, and even move into pre-owned and digital. So there impact on the games industry is set to increase.
” 2010 store count 641
280 619 745 26 29
2,340 2010 store count
375 868
2,479 426
4,148 2010 store count
700 75
250 29
1,054 Change
-55 +10 -84 +10 -5
+9 -115 Change
+19 +76
+197 +51
+343 Change
-25 +2 -
+2 -21
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