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Massmart-owned Game has opened a non-branded store to serve as a clearance outlet for excess stock. The outlet, located directly adjacent to the Game in Fourways Mall, is branded ‘The Last Chance Store’. It is offering a rotating selection of products with reductions of up to 60 percent on all stock.

Clearance or ‘factory’ outlets are not uncommon, but most brands have these stores located at ‘value marts’ such as Woodmead in Johannesburg, Atterbury in Pretoria or Access Park in Cape Town.

What makes Game’s store different is the fact that it is situated alongside a main (perhaps even ‘flagship’) store.

There is no further branding in the store, save for pink and yellow “Everything reduced” and “Everything must go” banners hung from the ceiling. 

It is unclear whether this store is being used to get rid of non-moving stock from only the Game in Fourways or a number of outlets in Joburg.

On offer is an assortment of merchandise across virtually all departments.

A few clothing racks are scattered at the entrance, while big-ticket items such as Webers are also on display. On a recent visit to the store, Moneyweb observed items with steep markdowns in the DIY, toys, camping, gardening and party supplies departments.

Party supplies, in particular, seemed to be over-indexed. 

There was also a higher-than-expected number of DIY items, tools, carpets, lighting, and paint on offer. Whether these are items or lines that were incorrectly bought for Game, or entire categories of products that it would be slimming down, is unclear.

There are very few entertainment or electronics items on offer, with some, such as headphones and games, locked away in a cabinet. -Moneyweb

Certain nice-to-have appliances (think food processors and so on) are on sale, with the odd large appliance such as a washing machine available. One assumes these are demo or shop-soiled items. Typically, these have discounts of around 33 percent.

The store has captured some attention on social media, with some TikToks about it receiving hundreds of thousands of views.

The roughly 1 500m² store appears to share a stockroom and back office with the main Game shop.

What’s noticeable is the fairly large number of completely empty shelves, suggesting that while the clearance outlet has done its job, there’s not much more to sell–Moneyweb