Only one of the 14 Belgian stores remains Game Mania. The last, located in Saint-Nicolas, will permanently close its doors at the beginning of January at the latest.
Lost fight for margin
After 32 years, the curtain has fallen on Game Mania. The search for a buyer at the beginning of the year was unsuccessful and the game store chain had to file for bankruptcy. A relaunch also failed. Company-owned stores have been closed since the beginning of September, after which franchise stores also ceased operations one after another. There is only one last store left, that of operator Frank Bomon in Saint-Nicolas, reports HLN.
Bomon attributes the chain’s demise to digitalization, pressure on margins and a lack of focus. “On Playstations, Nintendo and Xbox, we barely earn 2 to 3%,” explains the entrepreneur, who underlines the impact of the fact that more and more games are purchased in digital form. To boost sales, the chain launched into pop and geek culture products, such as board games, trading cards and Funko Pops. As a result, “the store no longer looked like a games store,” notes the store owner.
Depending on the progress of liquidation sales, the store will close its doors on December 31st or January 4th. Continuing his activity alone does not seem possible to him, explains Bomon, because suppliers cannot offer sufficiently competitive purchasing conditions to the self-employed.
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Only one of the 14 Belgian Game Mania stores remains. The last, located in Saint-Nicolas, will permanently close its doors at the beginning of January at the latest.
