CEX Bromley = bunch of arseholes

[Pochacco]

that was the "flagship retro store" on rathbone place. They're pretty cool.

I put it in "" because ALL their stuffs second hand anyway, mostly B)

I agree - hell they even gave me an S-Video cable for my DC for free when they were getting shot of lots of unwanted cabling!

I find the staff nice @ Rathbone Place. As for the Bromley Branch I went there many moons ago and it indeed is a shithole of the highest order.

[Jack]

Fucking hate newcastle next level

Don't get me fucking started!

[roadkill]

I agree - hell they even gave me an S-Video cable for my DC for free when they were getting shot of lots of unwanted cabling!

I find the staff nice @ Rathbone Place.

They've now got serious stock issues.

It was all overpriced, and they don't actually seem to be getting any stock in, cos a seller could get a better price on eBay. It's now just a glorified second hand PS2 and DVD shop. Ebay has knocked retro shops almost out of existence.

I'm not actually aware of any semi-reasonably priced retro/import game shops at all. I'm not convinced any ever existed either!

[zxcvbnm]

...

[Pochacco]

Rathbone Place actually gave me a raher good prices for stuff I'd picked up cheap. IIRC I had a DC (Jpn) D2 (which I had bought in Tokyo for £3.50), Tomb Raider Chronicles (DC) (bought for 99p from Dixons) and Sega Extreme Sports (DC) for a similar price and a Neo Geo Pocket (B&W which I got free with an order but had no games for it) - I ended up with £30 - £40 credit I think.

A RLLMUK SE London meet would be cool. I live in Bexley

[sandman]

The more I think about that shithole, the more amazed I am that I ever put up with it.

The staff are all complete c*nts and you have to wait fucking ages to be served. It is a store for thieves and gypsies who want to get rid of their stolen bits. They would fit right in!

It took 3 members of staff to serve my wife yesterday, and she had to go back downstairs. The girl serving my wife "had the lowest cut top you have ever seen" according to my mrs and was a "complete blond bimbo" - why the fuck wasn't she working in a Hairdressers?

Just how do they stay in business?

[Mercury]

I went into the Rathbone Place store about two months ago. I will never return. Firstly, the only import titles I can play are GC which they don't stock. Secondly, I felt their retro prices were high and there wasn't anything particularly rare. PAL XBOX prices were okay.

The attitude of the staff was a disgrace. They were too busy playing games and taking the piss out of customers to actually bother serving. The place stank and the staff looked like they needed a good scrub. Made me realise why I buy everything on the internet. It even made me think nice thoughts about my local Game store.

[hub2]

Do ALL CEX stores smell then? My girlfriend refuses to go into the Rathbone place branch 'cause of the stink.

[roberthazelby]

Years ago the CEX in Rathbone place was great. I used to get all my Jap Saturn games from there, and the range of titles was stunning.

The CEX then got split in two, with the retro shop being (if I remember rightly) a tube stop away. This place was fantastic. It was full of retro stuff, and quiet too, so you could spend ages browsing around in there without other customers bothering you. The staff were also really friendly and a real joy to talk to.

The Retro shop then merged back in with the Rathbone Place store, and things started to go down hill. The retro section was confined to a small area behind glass downstairs, the shelves got more and more empty, the place also started to smell quite bad too.

I'll probably pop in there when I'm in the area next, but haven't bought anything from there for a while now.

Rob

[sandman]

Do ALL CEX stores smell then? My girlfriend refuses to go into the Rathbone place branch 'cause of the stink.

Yes - ALL the stores stink like a charity shop, only worse. ( well, bromley, london and kingston anyway - I haven't been to the others - are there others ? )

Quite why this is I do not know.

[ianwuk]

There's no CEX in Nottingham

[zxcvbnm]

..

[SF-02]

Aint been to Bromley CEX in about a year but back then it was still probably the best game shop I've been in (excluding gamestation down the road) in the SE London/ Kent region.

Bexley for instance used to have a tiny little shop near the bowling place that had the smallest slection of items in any game store ever.

[Toast]

Yeah they've really gone downhill, I remember 10 years ago I would always buy something every time I went in there, but I've hardly bought anything in the last 2 years.

Its more like a ropey dvd store than a games mecca now. btw staff are appaling and its a shame they didn't respect what they had years ago.

[X_2_0]

Years ago the CEX in Rathbone place was great. I used to get all my Jap Saturn games from there, and the range of titles was stunning.

The CEX then got split in two, with the retro shop being (if I remember rightly) a tube stop away. This place was fantastic. It was full of retro stuff, and quiet too, so you could spend ages browsing around in there without other customers bothering you. The staff were also really friendly and a real joy to talk to.

The Retro shop then merged back in with the Rathbone Place store, and things started to go down hill. The retro section was confined to a small area behind glass downstairs, the shelves got more and more empty, the place also started to smell quite bad too.

I'll probably pop in there when I'm in the area next, but haven't bought anything from there for a while now.

Rob

Yep this is spot on. I used to work about 2 minutes down the road from rathbourne and so was in there regularlyt, although I never bothered talking to the staff as they were almost all ass-monkeys.

If CEX was run properly and didnt insist on employing gits with poor music taste it could be the leading independant chain in the country, as it is they just seem to have stagnated, I don't think they've opened a new branch in years.

[JoeK]

Another thing about the store which bothered me was that their Retro section never would have anything of any decent quality.

Always had the shitty DC titles. Always the poorer N64 and SNES games.

Why? Because anything decent which was sold to the store was pocketted by the staff.

I'm all for staff perks - hell, there's got to be some sort of incentive - but I gaurentee you'll never see a Panzer Dragoon Saga, or Conkers Bad Fur Day in sale there. Or at least not without the price being extortionately high.

Wankers, the lot of 'em.

[Yobo Ahoy]

CEX Watford has gone downhill lately too. They have a ridiculous amount of DVDs for a games shop, the prices on some 'retro' games have become stupidly high of late (Mario 64 for £32 and Pokemon Stadium 2 for £48, anyone?), and all the decent staff now work for Gamestation up the road or have left altogether.

I still go in there now and again, but very rarely buy anything. The music IS stupidly loud, yes- but at least it doesn't smell. Much.

[roadkill]

Why? Because anything decent which was sold to the store was pocketted by the staff.

Which the staff then sell on personally for surprisingly reasonable prices!

[JoeK]

Which the staff then sell on personally for surprisingly reasonable prices!

Hmm.

You're not some sort of smelly commie are you?

Hairs on the back of your palms perchance?

Hmm?

HMM?

Y'see...you're to blame for all of this.

YOU.

[roadkill]

Actually I've never benefitted from/taken part in this practise. But I'm very aware of it.

And there's nothing wrong with hairy hands!

[Pob]

CEX Watford has gone downhill lately too. They have a ridiculous amount of DVDs for a games shop, the prices on some 'retro' games have become stupidly high of late (Mario 64 for £32 and Pokemon Stadium 2 for £48, anyone?), and all the decent staff now work for Gamestation up the road or have left altogether.

There's a Gamestation in Watford? Coolio. I'll have to take a look.

[Mogget]

CEX = Computer Express ? Experience ? Expert ? Exponentially increasing BO ?

[Badger]

All video game shops suck.

Gamestation have taken out all their retro stuff and replaced it with a bigger counter.

Game is full of ignorance.

And why is it, when I've chosen and almost paid for my purchase, the Game Goombah has to spend 20 minutes trying to convince me to buy a half-price copy of a shite game that I've already refused about 10 times, and then look at me weirdly, as if I don't understand. As i stand right next to a chuffing great cardboard notice also offering me the game, and a pile of 30 of the sodding things.

Saying that it was shit and I'd take it for a quid eventually got me some peace....

[SeanR]

CEX = Computer Express ? Experience ? Expert ? Exponentially increasing BO ?

Computer EXchange.

I just remembered. I went for a job there when it first opened on Tottenham Court road (up by the bed place)

[DJ Sack]

Another thing about the store which bothered me was that their Retro section never would have anything of any decent quality.

Always had the shitty DC titles. Always the poorer N64 and SNES games.

Why? Because anything decent which was sold to the store was pocketted by the staff.

I'm all for staff perks - hell, there's got to be some sort of incentive - but I gaurentee you'll never see a Panzer Dragoon Saga, or Conkers Bad Fur Day in sale there. Or at least not without the price being extortionately high.

Wankers, the lot of 'em.

ive seen PDS a number of times in the london store for around 60 pounds. The only thing i dont like is the staff members, you are standing there waiting to be served and they are in the corner playing street fighter 3 ignoring you. Ive on more than one occassion left stuff on the till i was gona buy and left, staff are there to do a job, not play games all day.

[Pochacco]

Bexley for instance used to have a tiny little shop near the bowling place that had the smallest slection of items in any game store ever.

That'd be Bexleyheath

Bexley is only an ickle village!

I've not actually visited the shop you mention but have driven past it a few times. I've heard some stories about that place...

My friend used to run a toy shop just a few doors down dealing in Star Wars stuff - the other half of the shop being Kit Krazy. He used to do a few PS1 games there of which I got relatively cheap/ free at the time.

[dizogg]

Game once gave me UFC on dreamcast with 2 discs in. Even though its only a 1 disc game! 2 copies of the game in one. Sweet.

[Pochacco]

I got a pre-owned Crazy Taxi 2 from GAME - which also had a copy of Fighting Force 2 I found a cover on the net for it, printed it out and stuck it in a spare case I found and later flogged it to CEX

[gavin the shifty]

Shut up, the lot of you. Without CEX I never even would have heard of xenogears, let alone played it.

No,wait... that git in the Harrow branch still has that copy of Castlevania he "borrowed" off me three years ago. I hate them too then. Carry on.

[dizogg]

The first forum I ever used was the CEX one. Then heard about the Edge forum from that. Then about 3 months later after that closed found this.

I might write a book about it one day.