Quote Originally Posted by Harrison View Post
I don't think I could have coped without any software stores near me. Locally to me in Southampton in the 80's we had a lot of video game stores, and larger department stores with gaming sections. Was great.
During the 80s there were not any dedicated game stores in my home town, just some general electric stores that also sold some games, but the capital of the province did have a few as well as department stores with gaming sections and I just loved those places. Racks full of games for the PC, Amiga, consoles. It all tickled my imagination.

Sadly most of those stores have disappeared by the time I came to live in the capital city. One store I used to come a lot kept reducing its assortment of games and eventually a few years ago closed won after having been around for more than fifteen years I think.
And the last big department store whose gaming section was also decreasing in size (a few years ago they merged with some electronic store that had their own gaming section) shut down earlier this year after having existed for more than a century.

There is now only a franchise store left called Game Mania, some toy stores with gaming sections, a second hand gaming section, and some large home electronics store outside the center of the city.
A few video/dvd rental stores also try to sell second hand games but I think these will eventually disappear as well, one store already had to re invent itself as some sort of electronic pawn store. (and I think this store was around for fifteen years as well)

There is not really any competing against the massive online stores here. Eventually I think all we will see here is specialized stores and a lot empty shops with 'for rent' sign on the windows.