Price Matching: An Undercover Exposé

NZGamer Investigates...

We take a look at the rumors about price matching refusals among Wellington's gaming stores.

Find out below if EB Games, the Gamesman, Dick Smith Electronics and the Warehouse walked the talk.

Well, it’s that time of year again.

Its Christmas season, that special time of the year when we all get to enjoy drunken aunties, terrible jingles in the supermarket, arguments over the family dinner about atheism, and games. Lots and lots of games.

Kiwi gamers know that the summer season is a goldmine for new releases, and they readily await what the gaming gods have to offer each year. However, the business pages are still reporting that consumers are facing the effects of the recession. There’s an assault from all sides, incomes are down, developers are trying to recoup costs, retailers are covering their overheads, and as a consequence games are getting more expensive. So gamers are inevitably having to be more discerning about what and where they buy.

There’s just so much competition these days for a gamers’ hard earned dollars. Online platforms like Valve’s Steam provide a handy download service. Numerous online stores will ship the latest releases straight to your door. But for those of us who have an irrational fear of couriers losing our precious title in the post (especially during the Christmas rush) or those of us who have spent so much time on gametrailers.com that downloading just isn’t an option, then there really is only one solution. Going to an actual gaming retail store. Outrageous, I know.

These stores are sneaky beasts. They know that they have a captive market and the tangibility of shiny new releases on store shelves makes even the most astute gaming consumer go a bit giddy. As a result retail stores are more ‘flexible’ with their pricing. New release titles are often over the $100 dollar mark and the physical location of stores combined with a lack of available time, means that consumers can’t always ‘shop around’ for the best place to go.

Furthermore, disgruntled gamers have routinely complained about poor service, lack of titles and most importantly the lack of price matching amongst New Zealand’s gaming stores. These are pretty serious allegations. Is the New Zealand gaming consumer being screwed by the major gaming retailers?

The answer had to be found. Christmas quickly approaches – our gaming stockings need to be filled. So, we here at NZGamer.com decided to do the hard work for you. Taking inspiration from Metal Gear Solid, Splinter Cell and Thief, we decided to conduct a secret operative stealthy sting of gaming retailers in the Wellington and Lower Hutt region – to try and find out which stores have the lowest price, and also if the rumours about retailer’s bad behaviour are true.

Two NZGamer.com operatives (codenamed ‘shinigami’, accompanied by his accomplice ‘Ryback’) decided to hit five major gaming chains: JB Hi Fi, EB Games, Dick Smith Electronics, the Gamesman, and the Warehouse. They were looking to see who had the lowest prices and also to find out if the franchises would all price match purely on ‘word of mouth’ alone. As this was an objective, dispassionate and scientific secret study, they chose Assassins Creed II as the title to test. One day after its release JB Hi Fi had priced it lowest at $97 dollars. Would the other stores match this price? Shinigami and Ryback grabbed their EFTPOS cards, got the car keys and turned on the secret cameras. What they found surprised us all.

First up were the stores in the Lower Hutt region; a sprawling suburban flatland with not much to do, it was the perfect place for retailers to exploit gamers’ wallets.

EB Games Westfield

First up was EB Games Westfield; a bustling mall store, full of teenage boys and exasperated parents, we were skeptical about what we might find. After spending a few minutes looking for a copy of Assassin Creed II (the display stand was conspicuously empty) our operatives went to check if they would price match. EB had priced Assassins Creed at $119.99, a full $22.99 more expensive than JB Hi.

To our surprise EB Westfield agreed to price match on word of mouth without our operatives presenting a print out or a brochure. However, they did have one condition – JB Hi Fi needed to have the same title in stock. Our clerk immediately rang JB Hi Fi, confirmed the price and availability and we were on our merry way – with a much cheaper than advertised game.

Gamesman Lower Hutt

Second up was the Gamesman Lower Hutt. Our operatives’ request for a word of mouth price match on Assassins Creed II (also priced here at $119.99) was first met with a requirement that a brochure be presented. After hurriedly protesting that they could go get one if they really had to, our operatives succeeded in getting Gamesman to agree to a word of mouth price match. Oddly the Gamesman agreed to price match without ringing JB Hi Fi to confirm availability or price. The clerk even went out back to grab a fresh copy of the game that hadn’t had grubby fingers all over it. That was a nice touch.

DSE Westfield

Third was Dick Smith Electronics Westfield. As DSE caters to the home electronics market as well as gamers we were expecting them to have a higher price. We were pleasantly surprised to see Assassins Creed priced at $99 dollars – only two dollars more than JB Hi Fi, and $20.99 less than both EB Games and the Gamesman. In all honesty, our operatives expected the request for our word of mouth $2 price match reduction to fail – but after consulting with her supervisor our sales clerk agreed. Unlike the Gamesman however, the DSE clerk did ring JB Hi Fi to confirm prices and stock.

The Warehouse Petone

Someone must have tipped the Warehouse off to NZGamer’s secret sting, for as our team finally made their way to the gaming section they discovered that Assassins Creed II had been dropped in price from $108 to $97 – a direct match with JB Hi Fi. Even though they were slightly annoyed that they didn’t get to haggle for a price match on secret camera our operatives did note that the Warehouse had moved quickly to drop their price. There were big, obviously recent, price stickers covering the old advertised price.


That brings us to an end of our undercover investigation in the Lower Hutt region. Next week our operatives are heading into central Wellington to see how the stores fare.

Check out Part 2# here.