Walmart is one of the biggest retailers in the U.S., certainly one that is most frequented by millions of customers everyday. The retailer is now expanding into a new territory while offering its customers more bang for their buck. Walmart has confirmed that it is now going to accept video game trade-ins from March 26th. This means that it will take in a customer’s used video game and offer them a gift card. The gift card would be good to purchase anything at Walmart or Sam’s Club.
This spells trouble for traditional used video games retailer GameStop. It has being doing this for a long, long time, but customers can only trade-in games for other games. Walmart might not be doling out cash for each used game that it takes in, but its gift cards can be used to buy anything in the store. So if customers want to sell used games to shave dollars off their grocery bill, they can certainly do that.
Walmart will accept used games for popular consoles such as Xbox 360 and the PS4. Once a customer brings their used game in, an employee which check its condition and offer a trade-in value. If the customer accepts, they will be given a gift card of that value. The retailer plans to sell the used games it takes in under a “certified pre-owned” label in the future.
This may not steal much market share from GameStop, but it may give rise to a price war when it comes down to buying as well as selling as many used game as possible. Other major retailers such as Target and Best Buy also offer similar programs.