Slackers CDs and Games
Encyclopedia
Slackers CDs and Games, often shortened to Slackers, is a small chain of entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...

 retailers located in the Midwestern United States. The store specializes in both new and used video games and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

. It was founded in 1993 in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...

 by Kurt Jellinek and Paul Zacharias, originally as a music store. The store is known for selling local independent music, its collection of classic games, and for giving a lot of credit for trade-ins. In 2007, the store raised some controversy for stockpiling Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

s. As of 2009, there are 10 locations in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

 and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

Jellinek has said that the name "Slackers" comes from being a slacker in college—playing video games and listening to music during their free time. A new store would be opened every few years, in various separate locations, so as not to lose business by placing two stores close together. Jellinek and Zacharias manage the chain of stores with a hands-on approach.

History

The original idea behind Slackers first occurred in 1990. Along with some friends, Kurt Jellinek and Paul Zacharias went to a Don Henley
Don Henley
Donald Hugh "Don" Henley is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up...

 concert, and began thinking about owning their own music store. At the time, the two were undergraduate students, and decided to focus their studies on business management and becoming entrepreneurs. Slackers CDs and Games was officially founded in 1993, by Jellinek and Zacharias, in Columbia, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...

. Jellinek and Zacharias opened the store after graduating from Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...

, using only their own collection of 1,500 music CDs. The name originated from their generation
Generation X
Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation born after the Western post–World War II baby boom ended. While there is no universally agreed upon time frame, the term generally includes people born from the early 1960's through the early 1980's, usually no later than 1981 or...

 being considered slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....

s before being given a chance to prove otherwise. Although business was slow at first, with the store sometimes only making US$30 in a day, business eventually increased. After 2 years they were able to open a second location in O'Fallon, Illinois
O'Fallon, Illinois
O'Fallon is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and one of the fastest-growing communities in the Metropolitan St. Louis area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 28,281. The city is the third largest city in the Metro-East and Southern Illinois...

. As of 2009, there are 10 locations in the states of Missouri and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, eight of which are in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, and two of which are in Mid-Missouri
Mid-Missouri
Mid-Missouri is a loosely defined region comprising the central area of United States state of Missouri. The region's largest city is Columbia . The Missouri state capital, Jefferson City, and the University of Missouri are also located here. The region also includes parts of the Lake of the...

.

Praise and criticism

Slackers CDs and Games won an award for best used CD store in 2006 from the Riverfront Times
Riverfront Times
The Riverfront Times is a weekly newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri that consists of local politics, music, arts and dining news in the print edition and daily updates to blogs and photo galleries on its website...

. The Times cited its collection of vinyl records and independent and rare music CDs as the basis for the award.

Since the store buys video games from all consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

, it is known for its collection of classic titles. However, they do not require the box or manual for catridge
ROM cartridge
A ROM cartridge, sometimes referred to as a cart, is a removable enclosure containing read-only memory devices designed to be connected to a computer or games console....

 based games.

The store is also known for giving more credit for trade-ins than its competitors. In 2005, Vox Magazine had the same four games (Halo
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...

, Metal Gear Solid 3, NHL 2004
NHL 2004
NHL 2004, developed by the EA Black Box studios, is an ice hockey video game. It is the successor to NHL 2003 and is widely considered to be a major turning point in the NHL series. The game adds 3 European Elite Leagues: Germany's Deutsche Eishockey Liga , Sweden's Elitserien , and Finland's...

, and Madden NFL 2005
Madden NFL 2005
Madden NFL 2005 is an American football video game that was released on August 9, 2004. It features Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis on the cover...

) priced at EB Games, Game Crazy, and Slackers CDs and Games, with the trade-in values being $16.50, $26.82, and $45 respectively.

Wii Controversy

On December 20, 2007, the store raised some controversy when Ars Technica
Ars Technica
Ars Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...

reported that the chain was stockpiling Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

 Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 systems to sell at a higher profit while telling retail customers that the chain did not have any systems in stock, and were not expecting any.

On December 21, 2007, Kurt Jellinek responded on the Slackers website by stating that the article was sensationalist and misleading. Jellinek said that, of the 44 units the chain had, five were sold on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 for $399.99, with a couple of units still in stock, and 35 were held for specific customers and sold at the MSRP
Suggested retail price
The manufacturer's suggested retail price , list price or recommended retail price of a product is the price which the manufacturer recommends that the retailer sell the product. The intention was to help to standardise prices among locations...

. The remainder were given away.

Some sites believe this may violate Nintendo's enforcement of the Wii's $249 retail price, and may prevent the store from receiving future products from Nintendo. Nintendo has refused to comment on the issue.

External links

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