Electronics Boutique is a U.S.-based computer games retailer, established in 1977 by James Kim as a single, electronics-focused kiosk located in a suburban mall, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, mainly selling calculators and digital watches. The Home Office (Headquarters) was located in West Chester, PA. All operations are now handled by Gamestop Corp. The retailer is a subsidiary of GameStop Corp.

As of July 30, 2005, the company operated 2,280 stores in the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Puerto Rico, and Spain. -- primarily under the names EB Games and Electronics Boutique. The company operates an e-commerce website at http://www.ebgames.com.

Within the past few years, the corporation changed its DBA name to EB Games, but often the retailer is still called Electronics Boutique. One possible reason EB created other versions of its store may be to avoid a restriction in many malls that prevents them from having two stores of the same name. In addition, some EB Games stores are named EBGameworld or EBX or Stop-N-Save.

On April 18, 2005, Electronics Boutique and GameStop announced a proposal to merge into one company called GameStop Corp. The merger was approved by the shareholders of both corporations and completed in October, 2005, at the cost of several EB Games district and regional managers losing their jobs. Since January 29, 2006, the two companies have been officially merged. Despite the merger, many Electronics Boutique locations have yet to accept GameStop gift certificates and cards, and vice versa. This is slowly changing as stores convert to a unified computer system.

International

EB began its international expansion with the purchase of financially troubled British game retailer Rhino Group in 1995 and the name of the chain was changed to match the new owner. Store remodels, product mix changes and used video games combined to restore the chain's finances.

In early 2003, Electronics Boutique's UK entity merged with Game Group Plc and the "GAME" brand replaced the EB name at all former EB stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The new company was the biggest video game retailer in the United Kingdom. However, GameStop Corp. is once again operating in Ireland under the GameStop brand.

Although the EB-GAME merger created a company separate from the US parent, EB retained some ownership interest in the merged chain for a while and, under the merger agreement, collected substantial management fees from it until 2004, when the companies agreed to sever the remainder of their ties with a one time settlement.

EB commenced operations in Australia from scratch in 1997 and rapidly became the number 1 video game specialty retailer in the country and the only one with a nationwide footprint.

On May 23, 2005, Electronics Boutique announced a definitive agreement to acquire Jump, a retailer based in Valencia, Spain that sells PCs and other consumer electronics. Electronics Boutique plans to begin introducing video game hardware and software into Jump's 141 stores over the next several months. The acquisition provides Electronics Boutique entry into the Spanish marketplace and continues Electronics Boutique's aggressive international expansion.

EB had a former presence in South Korea.

Trades

EB Games offers cash or store credit in exchange for traded video games, DVDs, video game systems, and video game accessories. Upon first glance, this seems like a great deal for many a gamer. However, in many states, EB Games is regarded as a pawn shop trading and selling used items, meaning that only those over the age of 18 may trade games. Locations such as those in Phoenix, Arizona have recently cracked down on enforcing this policy, whereas before all ages were permitted to sell games. Small stores with policies as these have often undergone several management changes, many of which have continually lost stores much money. Smaller stores, much like the one in Phoenix, are predicted to continually slide downhill^{verification needed]} and eventually give way to bigger stores such as Best Buy, leaving gamers to sell used games the old fashioned way, on eBay. EB Games does offer cash in lieu of store credit, however, EB Games offers cash at 20% less than the amount it would be in store credit. This offer is not valid in Canada, where only store credit is offered. EB Games usually gives 40% of the pre-owned price and $0.75 for games and DVDs not listed in thier systems.

• On June 1, 2006, Electronics Boutique ceased the trading in (but still sells old merchandise) of PC Games, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Dreamcast games, systems, and accessories. (Nintendo 64, Playstation, and PC Games are still accepted for trade-in in Canada. Due to the issue of poor sales and cluttered shelf space, PC game trade-ins are only accepted if they are accompanied by the original retail box and manuals.)

See also

GMR Magazine

Game Informer Magazine

External links

• Electronics Boutique official website
• Electronics Boutique Germany official website