£3.2bn Olympic opportunity for games retailers

HMV and GAME hope to get a slice of Olympic gold as they open new-look stores in Westfield’s 1.45bn Stratford shopping complex.

Westfield says the centre – which opened at the Olympic village this week – has a catchment area of 4.1m residents, with a potential spend of 3.24bn between them. Some 7m visitors are expected to pass through the centre during the Olympic Games next year.

HMV, GAME, John Lewis and Currys/PC World are amongst the 300 shops. HMV’s outlet will be one of its new fast-forward stores, which focuses on technology products. GAME’s shop is also a new concept store.

With the Olympics fast approaching, the buzz in Stratford is increasing and the opening of the new centre offers an opportunity for regeneration as well as for thousands of visitors in the coming years,” said GAME’s head of UK PR Neil Ashurst.

Our new concept store offers us a chance to trial new ideas and get feedback from customers.”

HMV’s head of games Tim Ellis added: It’s really exciting to be opening a store in the UK’s largest shopping centre.

So although we’ve been closing some units lately where we duplicate our offer, this shows that when appropriate opportunities come up, we’ll take them. Games and tech will play a key role in the new store.”