GameStop Posts $270M Net Loss

jynxycat said:
ITT: Hyper-generalizations.



Sad thing is this will probably laid to layoffs, not that Gamestop ever gave out enough hours for stores anyway. Pay your employees peanuts, don't staff enough. Now it's about to get worse.
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And they treated employees like utter crap. I've never seen that amount of crap even in the corporate world.

Do they still use that shitty Maestro card payment system instead of, you know, a check?
 
expensive overhead, this and most importantly this.

(for non-clickers, first link mentions retail sales are down 20% in 2012 and second link underscores falling trend to $13 billion/year for retail sales last year vs $21 billion/year in 2008.)

It's gotta suck to be an inefficient video game retailer.
 
sir-gold said:
I actually looked up what "goodwill impairment" was, and it makes the story even more funny.

They didn't lose all that money because their income exceeded expenses (they actually made a $410 million profit), they "lost" money because the actual dollar value of their brand recognition (and other intangibles, called "goodwill") dropped by a whopping $680 million (impairment)

What this all means is that even the top executives think that the GameStop Brand is complete garbage right now.
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Full disclosure: I study accounting, and I do not own shares of GameStop.

When I read that there was a goodwill impairment, the first thing that popped in my head was, "Huh, I didn't know GameStop had some acquisitions." Goodwill is an intangible asset that usually arises when a firm acquires another firm and in the process pays more than the book value of the assets. The difference between the purchase price and the book value of the acquired assets is recorded as goodwill. This isn't the only way goodwill arises, but a company can't just say, "Hey, our brand name is great. Let's just add it to our assets on our balance sheet."

The last quarterly filing GameStop made with the SEC states, in the section "Goodwill and Intangible Assets," GameStop stated

that the fair values of its Australia, Canada and Europe reporting units were below their carrying values and, as a result, conducted step two of the interim goodwill impairment test to determine the implied fair value of goodwill for the Australia, Canada and Europe reporting units. The calculated fair value of the United States reporting unit significantly exceeded its carrying value. Therefore, step two of the interim goodwill impairment test was not required for the United States reporting unit (emphasis added).
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The tl;dr version of that is that GameStop overpaid for its acquisitions in Australia, Canada, and Europe.
 
Well, if you are a CEO or sit on a board of directors, major shareholders, etc ..., and your business model looks like it has the life expectancy of a snowball in hell because everything will certainly go cloud/downloaded media, and mobile, then perhaps as long as the company is doomed you might as well pay yourselves all you can get away with and line your pockets even if doing it will hasten the end.
 
alexyang said:
Full disclosure: I study accounting, and I do not own shares of GameStop.

When I read that there was a goodwill impairment, the first thing that popped in my head was, "Huh, I didn't know GameStop had some acquisitions." Goodwill is an intangible asset that usually arises when a firm acquires another firm and in the process pays more than the book value of the assets. The difference between the purchase price and the book value of the acquired assets is recorded as goodwill. This isn't the only way goodwill arises, but a company can't just say, "Hey, our brand name is great. Let's just add it to our assets on our balance sheet."

The last quarterly filing GameStop made with the SEC states, in the section "Goodwill and Intangible Assets," GameStop stated



The tl;dr version of that is that GameStop overpaid for its acquisitions in Australia, Canada, and Europe.
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Gamestop bought eb games in Canada a few years ago...they shouldn't be able to defer it for this long
 
Last time I went to gamestop was many years ago when I purchased Everquest 2 and when I got home opened it up someone had taken the serial # out of it so was worthless. Had to go back to store and argue with them idiots for about 30 mins because someone obviously at the store took the info from inside the game and re shrink wrapped it. Never been to a gamestop since.
 
SomeoneElse said:
You must own stock in GS then because pretty much everyone that used to buy games and suck from Game Stop (including family members) have stopped because in reality Gamestop as a store is struggling to remain relevant, their trade in values are ridiculous. They make 4 times the amount on the game that they just bought used. Not to mention there are certain games that require an online code to play the multiplayer that they will sell you, but you can't play online because you need the code that is already in use so basically you have to rebuy the game. Your whole rant about misplaced hate for an dishonest company is just kind of lame. Business used to be an honorable practice but now people like you enable the bigger businesses to pull the BS they are starting to pull now-a-days. Its sad really.
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When the first thing you write down is the tired deflection of "You must own stock, or you must work for them" It pretty much renders anything else you say moot.

The rest of your post however displays a woeful ignorance on how market dynamics and retail business works and frankly, I don't care to bother teaching you.

collegeboy69us said:
Silly theory? The information about it being a planned purchase was left out and was no where to be found when my perfectly valid at the time reply was posted.

My mention of my experience was not the only time I've been into a gamestop -- in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, they are like starbucks. You will have two gamestops within 5 miles of each other, both dishing out the exact style of sub par service. I've been in and out of their stores for years up until that point, and the unifying theme of every store (at least here in Texas) is that they suck. If EA had a physical store front -- I would imagine it would behave much like every GameStop I've ever been in.

I have no idea and nor will I judge your income level -- but I would be much more inclined to let $30 in value evaporate if I was making 250K a year. Sadly I'm not, and $30 represents a tank of gas for me so I (and many others these days) look to reclaim all the value possible out of their old video games/equipment.

Sure, you might get lucky and have a GameStop that's run by a person who understand and appreciates video games as well as customers, sadly more often than not you get someone who's fresh out of some community college management class who happens to work for a regional manager who only gives a shit about "The numbers". While it's good to care about the numbers you have to balance that with actually caring about the product you sell and the people you sell it to.

Much like in the world of dating -- often times you only get one chance to make an impression on a customer that will set the tone and expectations, I realize there will always be bad experiences in the eyes of some customers, but when a large majority of all customers have the same negative experience across the country, then the problem is with the company itself and who's at the time.

Will anything of value be lost from society when this place closes it's doors? Nope.
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You shouldn't of made the assumption in the first place, was really the point.

As i said, limited experience. You do realize that franchise operations like Gamestop tend to be run by the same people in certain regions? right? So yes, experiences in certain regions do tend to be similar. Also it is worth nothing that the employees hired by retail at this level, aren't exactly there because they care. You act like this is unique to GS, when this is pretty much par for retail in general.

Also I never said i personally do same week trades, or what my stance on it was. I personally think it is stupid, but others do not. Game stop exists because there is a large enough market of people who don't care. This doesn't make the company shady, or corrupt or anything else. It makes them a corporation catering to a certain demographic of people and nothing more. I support a free market where people can choose to be as stupid with their money as they want. If companies like gamestop profit because people are dumb, that is quite fine. If you don't like their business model..Don't shop there. I don't like the trade in value of new releases, thus I don't trade in new releases. The only games I trade are ones that have been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for years. To me, the fact that anyone is willing to give me anything for them at all is a bonus. I also enjoy having access to cheap kid games as that shovelware is never worth its new price. Additionally, if I am pre-ordering a game or a console, GS has the same prices as Everyone else and I don't have to put up with the bullshit that comes with a larger store like wal-mart or bestbuy. As for the statement of the large majority of their customers having a negative experience, you need to back that up with actual numbers. Otherwise it is just hyperbole and makes you look like someone just raging to hear themselves.

I have been in Good gamestops that had a staff of enthusiastic gamers who offered great service. I have been in Bad ones that were full of the typical highschool jerkoffs who just wanted enough money to buy weed. I treat them like any other retail establishment and I take my money to the ones that treat me well.

In short, stop with the misplaced hate. It just makes you look dumb. Especially if you are one of those people who buys all digital games. At least I can get something back for mine if I tire of them down the road.
 
Another example of a brick and mortar store not being able to survive with the convenience of internet sales. Adapt or perish.
 
theres like 60 stores per city. why not just have like 5 jesus christ.

also fuck you gamestop :)
 
I love how people whine about the prices Gamestop pays for used games. They'd give more money for them if people didn't sell them so cheap. That's the fault of their customers. Some of them sell that cheap because they know that it's the easiest way to get some money out of them to put towards a new game.

What I fucking hate most about Gamestop is their policy of opening new games and putting the empty boses on the shelf. I don't know how many times I've had to tell them that opened games weren't acceptable and I needed a fresh copy which wasn't molested. If they don't give that to me I tell them to pound sand and take my business elsewhere.

Honestly though I almost never purchase anything PC related from them. I usually go to Amazon or Steam for that. I tend to buy console games from Gamestop but that's pretty rare as I don't play console games that often.
 
How? By not having anything worth buying.

The last one I was in (about three weeks ago) was full of crap like "beats" headphones and no-name shit tablets along with a pile of over priced games. I was searching for a wheel for Forza and of course they did not have any. That was discovered after waiting to talk to the stoners that worked there behind the mouth breather trading in ten billion crusty games which apparently required the attention of the entire staff. Becuase ... you know...data entry is teh hardest!

So, the swifter they die the better.
 
GameStop is in the same category as BestBuy in my book. The gaming world is better off without them.
 
I did go to a Movie Trading Company a couple months ago and overheard someone selling some DVD's & Bluerays there and the store gave them about $1 per movie. He traded in about 10 movies. The guy didn't seem happy but he took it anyways.

So this is not a Game Stop thing. This is how all these types of stores work. They cannot possibly stay in business if they buy it from you for $35 and turn around and sell it for $40. Just not going to happen unless you are sellling 10's of thousands a month. Which no local store is going to be doing.
 
i occasionally circle the local gamestops for random niche ds games because since the 3ds the prices have dropped on them drastically. that is about all i use them for.

worked for them for a good number of years...they shit on their employees hardcore and encourage then to do so to the customer. the old mentality i remember was they would rather screw the customer out of as much money as possible in a single visit even if it pisses them off over getting them as a repeat customer. i can't agree with that.
 
sir-gold said:
They didn't lose all that money because their income exceeded expenses (they actually made a $410 million profit), they "lost" money because the actual dollar value of their brand recognition (and other intangibles, called "goodwill") dropped by a whopping $680 million (impairment)
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Exactly, it's not even a real loss, they just wrote-down the value of certain things. This is entirely different from Blockbuster which had real losses in the billions for years on end before declaring bankruptcy.

This is not to say that I'm a fan of Gamestop, but if they disappear who replaces them?

In case we forget, they've already absorbed EB Games and Game Crazy went away years ago. Every other dedicated game retailer I can think of is either regional or local and if Gamestop goes down losing a ton of money in the process, I don't exactly see people jumping for the chance to do the same.

I'm not exactly eagerly anticipating the end of dedicated game retailers, there is something to be said for used games and being able to examine them BEFORE buying.
 
Stopped selling games to them not long after ps3 came out. The world will literally be a better place once that place goes under. Fuck you GameStop can't wait to see you die
 
Runningflame570 said:
Exactly, it's not even a real loss, they just wrote-down the value of certain things. This is entirely different from Blockbuster which had real losses in the billions for years on end before declaring bankruptcy.

This is not to say that I'm a fan of Gamestop, but if they disappear who replaces them?

In case we forget, they've already absorbed EB Games and Game Crazy went away years ago. Every other dedicated game retailer I can think of is either regional or local and if Gamestop goes down losing a ton of money in the process, I don't exactly see people jumping for the chance to do the same.

I'm not exactly eagerly anticipating the end of dedicated game retailers, there is something to be said for used games and being able to examine them BEFORE buying.
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Blockbuster was garbage and they finally paid for it. I have never seen a place that gave so little a shit about their customers.

I need to use that GameStop gift card soon :)
 
Do what I did, use ur GameStop gift card to buy a Steam gift card :D
 
Meh, sad that the people working there have more of an ability to lose their jobs. I don't know. I have some mixed feelings about Gamestop. Last year when I got married, I was able to get a wired Xbox 360 controller when no other local game store had one. It was in perfect shape and didn't cost much at all. But then there's the Gamestop at the mall. I swear, they've had a PS Vita on display since launch, and they still won't plug the damn thing in. Seriously - it just sits there. I've never seen it actually on or playing any games. The jokers behind the counter? Couldn't give two fucks about service.

As sad as it sounds, I couldn't care less if Gamestop went under.
 
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