GameStop To Close Another 120 Stores

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
You have to wonder if the people losing their jobs like being part of the "GameStop 3.0 initiative."

GameStop intends to close 120 video game retail stores in the current fiscal year as part of its "GameStop 3.0" initiative, the company announced at its 2014 Investor Day event this week. Its plan to scale back gaming operations involves a bigger push into the mobile space, as it will open between 200 and 250 Spring Mobile stores, 20 to 25 Simply Mac locations and 100 to 150 Cricket stores, more than doubling all three retail efforts.
Click to expand...
 
Little less than 3 stores a state. I remember Phoenix had like 15 of them...
 
What you really have to wonder is if any mall, besides maybe Mall of America, needs more than one Gamestop. I'm not terribly worried about register monkeys losing their jobs, and one would think they could find something at one of the 320+ other stores the company says it's opening, many of which will probably take the spaces the closed Gamestops leave open.
 
Stores need to be more competitive in this tough market. Guess the register monkeys will have to work at supermarkets bagging groceries.
 
Great all the people bitching about trading in games for the xbox one lose their biggest market to trade in their games and the rest of us are stuck with non digital games....thanks whiners.
 
B&M needs to die (it is very 20th century) ... the game companies hate them and the market is shifting to digital overall ... physical media should become a collector's focused item with higher prices but lots more extras and the regular distribution should go digital but with lower pricing :cool:
 
elzeus said:
Great all the people bitching about trading in games for the xbox one lose their biggest market to trade in their games and the rest of us are stuck with non digital games....thanks whiners.
Click to expand...

Just because Gamestop is closing stores doesn't mean I can't trade with my brother for games, or sell my games on ebay/craigslist/wherever. Gamestop isn't the only used game store. There is also nothing stopping MS from offering their games completely digital, or at retail and digitally. Down with the trolls!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I personally just hate shopping at Gamestop more than I have an issue with the concept of physical media.
They're one of those companies that think their competitive advantage is "customer service"...which really means that you're forcing your staff to be pushy salesmen.
If it comes down to buying games, I'd rather get them at nearly any other retailer than Gamestop. When you go there, you know they're going to hard sell you on BS accessories, game guides, or worse - they'll force you to pre-order or miss out. No thanks.
 
Domingo said:
I personally just hate shopping at Gamestop more than I have an issue with the concept of physical media.
They're one of those companies that think their competitive advantage is "customer service"...which really means that you're forcing your staff to be pushy salesmen.
If it comes down to buying games, I'd rather get them at nearly any other retailer than Gamestop. When you go there, you know they're going to hard sell you on BS accessories, game guides, or worse - they'll force you to pre-order or miss out. No thanks.
Click to expand...

All stores do this. Ever go into a Radio Shack? Or Best Buy? Ever get asked if you want to "put that on your Sears card, would you like a Sears card"?

Its the nature of retail, don't put too much into it. It's not like it's a condition of you being able to purchase your original item.

The closing of Game Stop, or used CD stores is a big deal. But it's something most of society won't realize is a problem until about 10-15 years from now.
 
kbrickley said:
Lower cost, Check. Lower price? We can dream, but only dream.

With growing game sizes... I have returned to physical media. Where I live, internet speed cannot keep up with growing game sizes. It took me almost 3 days to download AC4: Black Flag. If I even dare stream netflix during which time, all internet connection slows down to a halt.

Then I bought Titanfall with physical disc, pop in the disc, install, download small update, and off I go.
Click to expand...
 
westrock2000 said:
All stores do this. Ever go into a Radio Shack? Or Best Buy? Ever get asked if you want to "put that on your Sears card, would you like a Sears card"?

Its the nature of retail, don't put too much into it. It's not like it's a condition of you being able to purchase your original item.

The closing of Game Stop, or used CD stores is a big deal. But it's something most of society won't realize is a problem until about 10-15 years from now.
Click to expand...

I agree with both of you to a certain extent. But I'd agree more on Game Stop. I don't even go in there to window shop when I'm at the mall, as I don't want to be bombarded by sales pitches and pre-order offers. They are WAY overboard.

And yes, B&M retail is destined to die. E-commerce as a percent of total retail sales rises a percent or 2 every year, and has been picking up speed the last couple of years. B&M shopping will eventually be drilled down to a few niches. Grocery stores and drug stores, very large/expensive items you don't feel comfortable ordering online, etc. Regional malls will continue to exist, but will need to be class A, "destination shopping" type places. A 20 year old run down mall with little foot traffic won't be able to hang in there much longer. Shopping Centers are primarily grocery anchored, so they'll continue to exist as well, albeit with a slightly different tenant mix than we see now.
 
Gamestop does not know how to inject itself into digital distribution and see any success. That means these guys do not have a future.
 
120 out of 6,600 stores big deal. Just trimming some locations too close together. Not really news worthy.
 
frelled said:
Just because Gamestop is closing stores doesn't mean I can't trade with my brother for games, or sell my games on ebay/craigslist/wherever. Gamestop isn't the only used game store. There is also nothing stopping MS from offering their games completely digital, or at retail and digitally. Down with the trolls!
Click to expand...

Reported for truth.
 
Good, GS took out both of my favorite mom and pop video game stores years ago.
 
Burn Gamestop, burn..

It's too bad they aren't going down instead of the local book stores.
 
One of the malls near here has 2 GameStops (one used to be an EB Games but changed over a decade ago).
 
my local GameStop stores are always empty...even the console kids have moved away from brick-and-mortar...
 
PC #1
Corsair 900D//COrsair Pro Series w//i7 4770k @ 46ghz
Corsair DOminator GT 16GB
2 nVidia GTX 780's in SLU
2x Seagate 240gb drives, 2 WD Black4tb, 1 WD Green 2tb and 1 WD Green 1tb.
Dell U3011 A02, Dell U2412m, Dell U2711
FiiO E09k AMP/DAC also, Sennheiser HD 650s & Sennheiser PC 360s
PC #2
ALienware m18 i7 m3790k @ 3.4ghz, Dual nVidia 775s in SLI, 16gb RAM
Intel 530 SSD 500gb WD Black 1tb. Also, A 1920x1080 screen @ 18"
 
I know someone who's a manager at GS. They're looking for other employment opportunities. Like video rental stores a few years ago, B&M game stores will have less of a presence in the future.
 
I find that unless the price is right, I prefer the convenience of digital downloads on my 360. ($5 games without having the shove a disc in is very convenient.) Also, peripherals are more expensive than even at Best Buy let alone online almost all the time. I like to look around but, I am not going to spend like I used to just because.

No surprise that stores are closing. EB Games and Babbages were better anyways.
 
brentsg said:
Burn Gamestop, burn..

It's too bad they aren't going down instead of the local book stores.
Click to expand...
Book stores are far less necessary than game stores. At least with a physical copy of a video game, I might be saving myself upwards of 20 GB of download. Downloaded books are so tiny that even downloading a hundred books wouldn't put a dent in a monthly mobile data cap.

There will probably always be a place for used book stores and public libraries but places like Barnes & Noble are hardly worthwhile these days.
 
Oh look..a thread with "Gamestop" in the title and already 2 pages of Assumptions based on that alone.

Pity hardly anyone actually RTFA and realized in reality their retail footprint is getting "Bigger" they are only closing a small handful of games only locations. But go ahead and keep up the blind hate. :D
 
Babbster said:
Book stores are far less necessary than game stores. At least with a physical copy of a video game, I might be saving myself upwards of 20 GB of download. Downloaded books are so tiny that even downloading a hundred books wouldn't put a dent in a monthly mobile data cap.

There will probably always be a place for used book stores and public libraries but places like Barnes & Noble are hardly worthwhile these days.
Click to expand...

The amount of data that it takes to download a book is not the point. The problems arise when all books are distributed digitally and people no longer have the option of physical media. I personally prefer real books, though I typically will buy my books in a combination format, as there are times when I would rather be reading the eBook version, like when I'm bored at work - no one notices if you're an IT guy staring at a monitor, but take out a real book... :) . I just worry about what happens when the increasing surveillance and censorship rampant in modern societies combines with a literal lack of paper books being distributed. The potential for monitoring and control is too great, I fear.

As far as Gamestop is concerned, I think there are too many of them already. They grew through mergers and acquisitions because that has been the big deal of the last decade, but they have not trimmed the excess that they accumulated during that time. Having two video game stores in a mall or in close proximity to each other in an urban area may work when they are competing with each other, but if they are the same company, then it is just a waste of resources as you are only taking sales from yourself. There is a limit to how much commercial real estate provides a tax break and when you go over that limit, you're just unnecessarily spending money.
 
What's SLU? :D
Of course if gamestop ever needs to buy more stores, they can offer 5-10% of the asking price, buy it and then sell it for the original price. They could make a fortune! Bwahahaha
 
jflail2 said:
I agree with both of you to a certain extent. But I'd agree more on Game Stop. I don't even go in there to window shop when I'm at the mall, as I don't want to be bombarded by sales pitches and pre-order offers. They are WAY overboard.

And yes, B&M retail is destined to die. E-commerce as a percent of total retail sales rises a percent or 2 every year, and has been picking up speed the last couple of years. B&M shopping will eventually be drilled down to a few niches. Grocery stores and drug stores, very large/expensive items you don't feel comfortable ordering online, etc. Regional malls will continue to exist, but will need to be class A, "destination shopping" type places. A 20 year old run down mall with little foot traffic won't be able to hang in there much longer. Shopping Centers are primarily grocery anchored, so they'll continue to exist as well, albeit with a slightly different tenant mix than we see now.
Click to expand...


+1 They push more then other places. Probably because they are smaller shops and their boss is standing right next to them.

The GS store by my house is horrible... The last time I got a game there they asked why I didn't pre-order it. I told them I didn't like the practice of the pre-order. They then informed me that I was going to miss out on some weapon or skin. I told them a different skin or weapon does not improve/change my experience enough and was not worth supporting a practice I do not agree with.

They proceeded to try and tell me how wrong I was... It was a Lego game and my girlfriend plays hours of it... I suppose if I would have gotten her the skin or weapon should would forget to make diner each night cause the game would be sooooo much better.
 
The deal is this, The guy is trying to guilt trip you into doing more preorders.

They are required to do pre-orders and get written up if they don't do enough. Gamestops internal practices are harsh and outright unfriendly to their employees. I wish hate onto them because they are a poorly managed company and I don't expect them to last much longer.
 
kbrickley said:
B&M needs to die (it is very 20th century) ... the game companies hate them and the market is shifting to digital overall ... physical media should become a collector's focused item with higher prices but lots more extras and the regular distribution should go digital but with lower pricing :cool:
Click to expand...

And once we're all hooked/dependant on digital only distribution, and with the Comcast deal in the works... they'll lower the monthly caps, raise overage rates and jack up standard prices so we can keep downloading our stuff...

In the end we're all going to pay far more for the "convenience" than its going to be worth imho.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top