My Local Play N Trade shut down suddenly

[Jamisonia]

My local Play N Trade in Alexandria, VA was apparently shut down yesterday. I had only gone to this place a few times, because frankly the people there were unfriendly, appeared to make fun of you behind your back (you'd walk towards the door and hear boisterous laughter soon after you made a purchase), and the employees were just in general sketchy.

I'm not sure when it happened, but I know it was sudden because I was at the vacuum cleaner store next door last week, and they were open. No deep discounts, or sign stating a going of business sale. The only sign I had of this was the guy at EStarland told me the other day he thought they were going out of business soon.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings on this. As I've described the people there were unfriendly at best, and their prices were often ridiculous. One time I saw several games that had picked up at a thrift store I frequent about 0.5 mile down the road. How do I know this? They didn't take the $2.00 price tag off the games before they marked them up. One was Super Mario Bros 3 marked up to $35. Its a little disgusting when you know they paid $2.00 and they don't even have the decency to take off the old price. On the other hand they let you test the games, they had lots of random gaming accessories, such as power cords, and AV cables cheap. I would have like it more if the people were better. And I'm sad to see any retro store go under, as usually the rare hard to find games like Earthbound, are being sold at the same prices everyone else sells it for, so at least you know where to find it when you're ready to drop the cash.

So what are you experiences with Play N Trade? Is it this location that was bad, or is the company like this in general?

[Stark]

The one next to where I work in Washington state isn't too bad, they just have a crappy selection of older stuff. And it doesn't seem like they get inventory very often. The people seem friendly and willing to help so I wouldn't say it's every location on that front.

[GamerMON]

I think Play N Trade is a franchise store. There is one on the way to a gamestop I frequent. I only go this gamestop when using the store locator online to find games. They wanted more than gamestop for gamecube and ps2 games I saw there. And had almost no retro.

[t0yrobo]

One near me did something similar. I was just gone one day, then it reopened with a different owner a few months later. In my experience it's an ok store. Old game prices are ok as long as they aren't big titles like Mario, Zelda, etc. New games are almost always a few dollars more than they are at Gamestop though.

[Zerodash]

I frequent the Jackson, NJ store and really like the owner/staff. Their prices for retro stuff is all over the place, but I have found a number of gems that presumably went under their radar. I can't see how anyone can compete with GameStop, Amazon, or Best Buy these days- and retro game sales sure as hell aren't going to take up the slack.

[AppleQueso]

Play N Trade is a franchise store, which means the inventory, prices, etc can all vary wildly from location to location.

We got one here, so-so retro selection but it's got friendly staff (and $1 disc cleans, yeah!)

[cookie monster]

My local play n trade in lancaster pa has one of the best employees in the world this guy is awesome he is knowledgeable on everything from retro up to the newest games he also does repairs and always helps everybody no matter what type a gamer you are
as for prices the franchise sets the prices on older games but i am always finding great stuff there this one guy makes the whole store shine if you get the chance check it out

[Czernobog]

Play N Trade is indeed a franchise and the one by me has some really bad employees. Lazily ignore questions/concerns if they are playing the in-store games which is all they do, talk down to you, act intimidating and hostile to customers rather than act friendly to deter theft, and overprice everything like crazy.

This is the third set of new management the store has gone through so I don't understand why they're still hiring employees who have their head up their ass. However I have also been to another Play N Trade in the area which provided very friendly service, reasonable prices, and a great atmosphere every time I've gone. Since it's a franchise, the stores seem very hit and miss but I can't imagine the bad ones doing business for very long.

[Jamisonia]

I'm hoping this is the case. That store was very unprofessional. Maybe a new owner could fix things.

[TopherMan]

I frequent the Jackson, NJ store and really like the owner/staff. Their prices for retro stuff is all over the place, but I have found a number of gems that presumably went under their radar. I can't see how anyone can compete with GameStop, Amazon, or Best Buy these days- and retro game sales sure as hell aren't going to take up the slack.

I thought the jackson NJ store closed down like last year?