[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

I'm in central Texas, lived in the Pacific Northwest five years prior, and just got back from a year in the Bay Area, and I've rarely seen shrinkwrapped games in any of those locales. I've also spent a couple of weeks in Boston and Seattle recently, and again, plastic is in the minority.

Usually, only GM Screens or boxed sets are in plastic - most of the time, individual games aren't shrinkwrapped, and I've seen the distributorship for most of Texas and the books aren't in plastic on the shelves there, either. I'm more likely to see plastic wrap on used games in some stores than on new stock.

I suspect it's a regional thing, maybe?

Certainly possible, though I've heard the same complaint from non-locals.