This console generation launched with a fairly narrow idea of what a game was, and both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 gradually expanded that through electronic stores that sold games of all different sizes.
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The site then stores an electronic version of the mutually signed contract for later review if necessary.
PayNearMe last year set up a service (story) with 6, 200 7-11 convenience stores that enabled people to make electronic payments with cash through 7-11 stores.
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But this obliges publishers to essentially run two businesses at once: a traditional publisher that sells bound books to stores and an electronic business that sells e-books online.
An outfit in Arizona, IQOrder.com, aims to extend this electronic warfare into real-world stores.
Many consumers, in the market for big-ticket electronic items, shop Best Buy stores and then use the information and advice received to make informed on-line purchases at lower prices from retailers with less overhead than Best Buy.
Other brighter points are that where HMV has refitted its stores so that they contain many more high-value technology items, such as tablets, and electronic stuff, the sales decline isn't as bad - sales in those stores are about four or five percentage points better (or not as ghastly) as in older-format stores.
So HMV's survival will depend to a great extent on the success of the conversion of its stores into centres for the purchase of electronic tablets and related kit, apps, and downloadable entertainment.
Best Buy has been growing bigger by opening up large stores where people would browse for new appliances and electronic gadgets but end up shopping elsewhere, on line.
Those that opt for the true-Black Friday experience by shopping in stores, do have a choice, but increasingly are using electronic payments.
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"In the past few years, we've been getting calls from people interested in opening their own stores, " says Carrie Dieterich, vice president of marketing and industry relations at the Electronic Merchants Association, the trade association for the home entertainment industry.
Electronic Arts plans to put a sample of The Need for Speed Underground videogame on fountain drinks sold at BP convenience stores.
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