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CeX hack puts as many as 2 million accounts at risk
Second-hand gaming retailer CeX has been left red-faced after being forced to admit that an "online security breach" may have put as many as two million customer accounts at risk. In an email to customers, the company said that personal information -- including first names, surnames, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers -- were stolen. Financial information was also pilfered "in a small number of instances", but CeX confirmed that the encrypted data included only expired credit and debit cards up to 2009.
Target's internet video service you didn't use is shutting down
Following in the tracks of other retailers like Walmart (Vudu) and Best Buy (CinemaNow), Target launched its own video on-demand service in late 2013, but now it's the first of those three to shut things down. Like Redbox Instant and Samsung's Video Hub, Target Ticket didn't quite catch on, as compatibility with Ultraviolet digital copies (that can be viewed using different services, no matter where they were originally purchased) and links to its customer loyalty program weren't enough to hook users. As for movies or TV shows not covered by Ultraviolet, Target says that it's linked up with CinemaNow. When the lights go out on March 7th, customers can either transfer their purchases there, or if the content isn't available, get a credit from the service as detailed here. Of course, that's all theoretical since you probably never bought movies there anyway. [Thanks, Dave Zatz]
Amazon now has a dedicated wearables store
Looking for something to replace that faltering Fuelband? Amazon wants you to know it has your back: the online retailer just opened a dedicated wearables portal, filtering all of its smartwatches, fitness trackers and human-mounted camera rigs to one place. It looks like little more than a featured-product splash page, but there's a more going on under the surface. The Amazon Wearables Technology store has an editor's corner (with commentary from Gizmodo), brand and product specific description pages, but we found landing page's "learning center" its most interesting feature. This section is essentially a crash-course in wearable devices, featuring half a dozen videos and several buyers guide's -- all designed to give Amazon's less gadget-obsessed buyers a reason to shop for wearables. It's hardly an in-depth study on smartwatches, but if you're absolutely mystified by the category, it's a start.
RadioShack closing 1,100 stores nationwide
Electronics and video game retailer RadioShack is closing 1,100 of its stores in the United States after a disappointing holiday sales performance, Reuters reports. RadioShack's stock dropped by 23 percent after the company announced a quarterly loss this week. Its planned store closures comprise 20 percent of the company's total retail locations. Over 4,000 RadioShack stores will remain following the upcoming round of closures. Though it's best known for selling electronic components, RadioShack expanded its retail offerings in 2007 to include video games, consoles, and trade-ins. [Image: RadioShack]
Amazon rival Newegg heading to the UK in March
One of the busiest online electronics stores in the US is about to open for business in Europe, including the UK. Newegg expects to start trading at the end of March, although we're told it'll be a relatively soft launch until the company feels more confident about its shipping and supply lines. The retailer, which is especially well known for its PC and component sales, claims to have 25 million registered users and 8.5 million subscribers to its regular email bulletin -- numbers that look set to grow if the company can find a way to stand amidst competition like Amazon, eBuyer and the British PC-specialist Scan.
GameStop offering Halo 4 and AC3 for $40, +50% credit on in-store trade-ins
The stockings have come down and the gifts have been unwrapped, but GameStop hasn't stopped kicking off deals for the season. The retailer's latest deals, which run now through Saturday, have Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 for $39.99 each, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on sale for $49.99.Far Cry 3 is also on sale for $49.99, and you can pick up Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier for $29.99, in addition to all of the other deals on recent and popular games. Finally, the company's offering a buy two, get one free sale on all used Wii and Nintendo DS games, and there's an ongoing promotion that will give you an extra 50 percent credit back whenever you trade any used games in. Just in case you didn't spend all your money on this year's previous sales, GameStop will be happy to help take the rest of it.
UK retailer Game promises free in-store WiFi, asks only that you visit
Ever put a game back on the shelf because Metacritic took too long to load? Fortunately, the UK's largest (and wobbliest) games retailer is aware of the impediment and has decided to offer free Wi-Fi in all 341 of its premises before Christmas. The service will be part of BT WiFi's network of hotspots and aim to give gamers access to "all the information they need to buy there and then."
Another used games retailer in Florida is selling their business on eBay
Remember a couple weeks ago, when Shane Butcher tried to sell his entire material life on eBay, including the chain of games resale shops he owns? Well, it turns out no one took him up on his $3.5 million "American dream," but that hasn't stopped the owner of a competing chain of Florida resale shops from deciding to do the same thing.Rather than selling an entire life's worth of cars and property along with the stores, "Buddy and Dave" will only be selling the three existing Gamers HQ locations in Belleview, Inverness and Gainesville, Florida for a cool $2.6 million. All three locations are profitable and have been since day one, according to the eBay listing.Both Buddy and Dave will stay on as consultants for three months after purchase, with an option to help open a fourth location that is already in the planning stages. Additionally, 10 percent of the listing's final sale price will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "This business succeeds thanks to children and giving back to them will be our first step if sold," reads the listing.The chain of stores reportedly makes over $400,000 a year and prospective new owners can expect to earn a monthly take-home income of around $4,000, but if you can afford to spend $2.6 million on something, you're probably earning more than 50 grand a year anyway.
Facebook and Walmart to 'deepen' involvement, won't rollback FarmVille prices just yet
The involvement between Facebook and Walmart is about to get a lot cozier than gift cards in aisle three. Facebook says it wants to "deepen" its connection to Walmart and hopes to learn from the big-box retailer's skill in building a long-term business; that's rather important when the social network is still young enough for the ink to be wet on shares from its initial public offering. To that end, Facebook's entire executive team will meet with Walmart at its Arkansas headquarters on July 20th in the hopes the two companies will be singing kumbaya when all is said and done. Knowing that both companies have taken a bruising in their public images from time to time, we can understand why some might be apprehensive about the idea of any tighter collaboration -- not until they can buy FarmVille harvests for 88 cents, at least.
PayPal lines up 15 retailers for mobile payments, will let you buy Jamba Juice smoothies with a smartphone
Although PayPal's mobile payment system started out small with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash, like savages.
Samsung Galaxy S III tops UK pre-order records, shows that British love their quad-core
The British clearly didn't waste any time once pre-orders opened up for the Galaxy S III, which just broke through pre-order records for at least one carrier and one retailer in the country. Carphone Warehouse's chief commercial officer Graham Stapleton says that the quad-core, 4.8-inch flagship is the quickest-moving pre-order of the year "so far," while Vodafone UK adds that the new Galaxy is its most pre-ordered Android device to date. Without hard numbers, though, it's difficult not to couch the successes in relative terms: both are using conditional language that makes clear neither record is absolute and that they might be eclipsed by companies with a knack for building early demand. Even so, that pride in early results suggests the third time is indeed the charm and that Samsung won't have much trouble filling its own pop-up stores with customers at the end of the month.
UK department store John Lewis launches broadband service, get in on the ground floor
If you live in the UK, and were thinking "If only I could get my broadband from the same place I get my crystal tumbler set" then maybe now you can. Department store John Lewis, a favorite for wedding lists, furniture and homeware is branching out into the British ISP game. The standard package will be £11 a month (not including line rental,) offering "up to" 16Mb speeds and a 20GB data cap. More eager users can pay an extra £7 to remove that download limit. Both bundles benefit from a free phone support, no activation fee and, of course, wireless router. Sound like your kind of deal? Head down to the source link, or past the haberdashery section to find out more.
Best Buy details its 50 big box store shutdowns in the US, most will close by May 12th
We knew Best Buy planned to close 50 of its big box retail locations by the end of its 2013 fiscal year, and now (just days after Mike Mikan took the CEO-reigns from Brian Dunn) it's detailed all of the stores that'll be getting the boot. As it stands, two locations have already been shut down, with six others set to close before the year is out -- and the company hopes to clear out the remaining 42 before May 12th. Employees at most of the stores were informed of the news this weekend, and despite the impending closures, the company says it'll try to re-position them within the company or offer up severance packages. Past that, Best Buy is also reaching out to the customers of these stores, noting that they'll still have other nearby locations to choose from -- try-before-you-buy online shoppers rejoice. There's still no specific word about the 100 Best Buy Mobile stores it hopes to setup, but more information will be forthcoming later in the year. Hit up the press release after the break if you'd like to parse the full list of affected locations or find out more details about the planned closures.
Investment company buys Game, halting closures, firings, bankruptcy
This has been a quick time coming -- Game, the UK games retailer, slipped into a downward spiral early this year, and since the first public announcement of its money troubles in February, Game has closed almost 300 stores, stopped stocking major titles, cut 40 percent of its workforce and entered "administration," the equivalent of filing for bankruptcy.The best outcome of these events would be for someone to step in and buy Game outright -- which is exactly what happened. Private investment company OpCapita's Baker Acquisitions Unlimited has purchased Game, bringing it out of administration and saving 3,200 jobs across a remaining 333 stores and administrative positions, Eurogamer reports.Baker will provide Game with "the capital it needs to trade on a normalised basis" and will re-hire a small number of people fired from the Game head office last week. There are no plans to close more stores in the future, Baker said.Game may have been bought for £1, after paying off an £85 million debt to Game's lenders, Eurogamer said.
Best Buy to close 50 big box US retail stores, open 100 Mobile stand-alone outlets in 2013
Still driving to your local Best Buy to fondle all the latest gadgets before swiping your card, or hopping to the web to pull the trigger? That tradition could be short-lived, if you happen to live near one of 50 big box retail stores that the company plans to shutter in 2013. The move was announced alongside Best Buy's Q4 earnings report, which includes action items aimed to trim $800 million in costs by 2015. The closings will no-doubt come along with staffer reductions, some of whom could be transferred to one of 100 Best Buy Mobile "small format stand-alone stores" set to launch next year. While an unfortunate move for some customers and employees, it does show some foresight on behalf of BBY management, who likely recognize a continuing shift to online purchasing, and a greater emphasis on mobile devices, which require significantly smaller showrooms, cost less to ship and could offer greater margins to boot.
MacMall opens Chicago retail store, giving away $14K in products
Since 1991, MacMall has been selling just about every product Apple makes as well as an assortment of quality accessories. The retailer has been an online presence for most of that time, although it has three brick-and-mortar stores in Southern California. Now MacMall has spread its wings and opened a new store in Chicago. To celebrate the new store at 329 W. Grand Avenue in Chicago, MacMall is having an official grand opening on Saturday, March 31. There's a ribbon cutting at 10 AM, and MacMall is going to have raffle drawings for over US$7,000 in technological toys. The store will open on Saturday at 9 AM, and the first 500 people to visit will be entered into a drawing to win one of more than 20 Apple-related products. At 10 AM, a new MacBook Air will make it into the hands of a lucky winner, and additional drawings will be held during the day for a Wacom Intuos5 tablet, two iPod touches, a trio of iPod nanos, an HP Officejet printer and other goodies. As if that's not enough, the first hundred folks in line get a free limited edition T-shirt, and the first two hundred people who purchase something get a free gift bag. But wait, there's more: the first thousand customers get a limited edition MacMall 2-in-1 stylus. MacMall is also giving away another $7,000 worth of business-related technology items this week, starting today. Many congratulations to MacMall for providing Apple fans in the Windy City a new place (other than an Apple Store) to browse and buy products.
Official announcement: new iPad to go on sale in 10 countries on Friday at 8 am
Apple announced today that the new iPad will go sale this Friday starting at 8:00 am local time. It will debut in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the UK; along with Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. With a long pre-order and several retailers offering the iPad at launch, it will be interesting to see if there will be lines. If you plan on grabbing an iPad on Friday, please send us pictures from the lines and opening. Use the hashtag #NewiPadLaunch and we will post them up on Friday. Happy iPad shopping everyone!
Game not stocking Ninja Gaiden 3, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Game won't stock Tecmo Koei titles Ninja Gaiden 3 and Warriors Orochi 3, Tecmo announced today, asking players who have pre-ordered through Game to to try again at another, more stable retailer, such as Blockbuster (ouch). Capcom announced that Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City will also not hit Game shelves, following in Asura's Wrath and Street Fighter X Tekken's foot-stomps.Game is on the brink of collapse, recently taking new titles from EA, Ubisoft, Capcom, Namco Bandai and Tecmo Koei off its shelves, and is looking to sell itself and everything it has -- which, at this point, isn't much.
Xperia U, HTC One X and One S coming to Orange UK
Orange, the only cellular network that's also one of your five-a-day has announced that it'll be releasing Sony's Xperia U, HTC One X and One S to smartphone demanding Britons in the second quarter of the year. Depending on your point of view, it's either fantastic or terrible that the network bagged the white edition of Sony's handset as an exclusive, but it's going to tempt some of you to the citrus-side of the force. There's no word on pricing, but we'd expect them to cost something we've heard called "money." While you wait for them to arrive, why not decide on which handset you'd rather purchase by reading our splendid hands-ons with each of the handsets? Xperia U / One X / One S.
PayPal to open NYC pop-up store next month, showcase new mobile payment services
The idea of a physical PayPal store may seem somewhat counterintuitive, but that's exactly what the company is planning to open next month, in Manhattan. As TechCrunch recently revealed, the forthcoming pop-up store is slated to open its doors on November 1st, as part of a campaign designed to promote PayPal's new slate of in-store technologies. Located at 174 Hudson Street in Tribeca, the outlet will also sport a large QR code on its exterior, which passers-by can scan with their smartphones to find more information on the company's new mobile payment services. Inside, merchants will be able to better familiarize themselves with PayPal's commercial offerings, which include location-based promotions, cross-device payment services and real-time inventory checks, among others. The store will be open for about three and a half months, and PayPal's new features should be making their way to physical retailers in the near future. No word yet on specific partnerships, though the company is expected to announce them soon.
