{"id":233918,"date":"2026-01-15T03:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233918\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T03:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:35:07","slug":"huge-queues-as-eb-games-closing-down-sale-sparks-rush-for-final-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/233918\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge queues as EB Games\u2019 closing down sale sparks rush for final deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shoppers in Albany Mall were spotted queueing outside, with about 50 people in line to browse the sale.<\/p>\n

News of a 50% off closing down sale also attracted bargain hunters to downtown Whang\u0101rei, where the queue to enter EB Games went from the store\u2019s front door around the corner to Rathbone St.<\/p>\n

The Northern Advocate understands people were being let inside in small groups.<\/p>\n

Similar scenes were spotted in Auckland\u2019s Newmarket, Cuba Street Mall in Wellington, and The Palms Mall in Christchurch.<\/p>\n

At the retailer\u2019s Gisborne store, Wairoa residents Sarah Hayden and her son Oliver, 15, travelled more than an hour to catch the sale.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah and Oliver Hayden travelled an hour to reach EB Games’ Gisborne store. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to catch the sale here and hopefully catch the sale in [Hawke\u2019s] Bay as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019d all be sold out by the time we get there. It\u2019s a shame it is closing down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden said she wasn\u2019t looking for anything in particular in the sale, but Oliver hoped to grab PlayStation 5 games before they disappeared.<\/p>\n

Two other shoppers, Ryan and Josh, said they had been waiting in line for about 20 minutes. They were halfway along when they spoke to the Gisborne Herald.<\/p>\n

However, the pair were already out of luck as a sign on the door said all consoles, controllers, headsets, keyboards and mice, mousepads, new games and joysticks had sold out.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe queue outside EB Games in Newmarket. Photo \/ Hugo Reade<\/p>\n

Ryan said he shopped at the store once every two weeks and was disappointed it was closing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel for the staff more than anything. As a gamer you kind of knew it was coming with all the digital sales and the move away from physical media. It is not surprising, but it is disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Hanson, who lives in Hastings, said she joined the line about 1pm on Thursday after hearing about the 50% off sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cEB Games is closing down in New Zealand forever, so I thought I\u2019d come and check out what stock they have left,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve shopped here quite a bit over the years. I\u2019ve bought various different games throughout my life at EB Games. It\u2019s kind of sad that they\u2019re going.\u201c<\/p>\n

Hanson said she was hoping to pick up trading cards but wasn\u2019t sure it would be worth the one-and-a-half-hour wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know, but I may as well try because I\u2019ve come this far,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Te Maari MacGregor started lining up at 12.20pm and left the store after 2.20pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit sad that they\u2019re closing down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have really cool stuff in there … I came to catch a bargain.\u201c<\/p>\n

MacGregor said she bought about 15 items, including games, card games, drink bottles, socks and T-shirts, for about $150.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 50% off, it makes a huge difference,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was worth the wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA long queue formed outside the Hastings store today. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

Customers were surprised by the turnout, with some questioning whether the store needed to close at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cEB Games will have an opening sale tomorrow at this point. Imagine closing down a store that can make bigger queues than an iPhone launch at an Apple Store,\u201d one online post said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless you reaaaaaally want a bargain, maybe avoid Queensgate this afternoon as EB Games has just announced 50% off at all their stores, and quite the line has formed!\u201d another comment said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EB Games thing, while not surprising, is such a bummer. Always kind of had that vision of having my own game on the shelves of the childhood games store. Wasn\u2019t quick enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the wait times in person fluctuate across the country, delays to accessing the store\u2019s online site have grown significantly since 1pm.<\/p>\n

The Herald joined the queue to enter the site at 1.10pm but is still yet to access it after nearly an hour, with the estimated wait time ballooning to more than three hours before gaining access.<\/p>\n

\"CustomersCustomers visiting EB Games’ online store also met queues, with some forced to wait about three hours before gaining access. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n

Kiwis online shared their frustration with queue times.<\/p>\n

\u201cEB Games NZ website is the first website I\u2019ve ever seen a queue time going up instead of down haha it said 9 minutes about 10 minutes ago\u2026 now it\u2019s 25 lmao,\u201d one online comment said.<\/p>\n

Other customers who gained access online said the wait time wasn\u2019t worth it, citing a lack of products available.<\/p>\n

The chain has been facing stress for some time, including closures of stores in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

In the earlier letter, Stockwell described the New Zealand business as no longer commercially viable, with a \u201cmultimillion-dollar loss during the 2024 fiscal year\u201d.<\/p>\n

The company said there may be opportunities for New Zealand employees to relocate and take up work in the Australian EB Games operations.<\/p>\n

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.<\/p>\n

Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoppers in Albany Mall were spotted queueing outside, with about 50 people in line to browse the sale.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2840,806,138,6789,17163,2841,4381,868,96124,6097,132389,8999,9881,5904,2082,6489,8482,807,3242,111,139,69,1642,14727,27563,6492,21532,1133,667,13660,8207,653,165,14005,58455,5273,102],"class_list":["post-233918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across","tag-as","tag-business","tag-closing","tag-closure","tag-country","tag-customers","tag-deals","tag-disappointment","tag-down","tag-eb","tag-extensive","tag-facing","tag-final","tag-for","tag-games","tag-huge","tag-kiwis","tag-large","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-outside","tag-queues","tag-retailers","tag-rush","tag-sale","tag-sales","tag-sharing","tag-sparks","tag-stores","tag-their","tag-times","tag-underway","tag-wait","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}