Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[gtmtnbiker]

All those multi-store towns are the result of GS's repeated corporate buyouts which have come to bite them in the ass as they've begun to report losses thanks to oversaturation of the market.

Agreed. I asked one of the clerks at the store in the mall. He said that his store was EB Games and the other one was Babbages.

Gamestop can still make it profitable for themselves if they do some consolidation. It would stink for us as a consumer. It's possible that they have some long term leases that they can't easily get out of.

According to this article they made $215M on revenues of $3.5B. Not too shabby. There may be individual stores reporting losses but overall they're still doing well. New games & hardware make up 63% of their sales. Used games & hardware total 22% of sales.

[gtmtnbiker]

One of the things I really hate about most gamestops, aside from the many complaints addressed in this thread, is how utterly tiny and cramped they all seem to be. Try entering the place at a busy hour, I dare you.

Your comment is definitely valid for a mall location. Since I'm in suburbia, most of the stores that I go to are pretty spacious. Some more so than others.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

The cramped quarters are on purpose. GameStop replaced all of the games/retro and DVD's they had on the gondolas (those racks on wheels) with lots and lots of advertising and are paid per case/poster so the more they cram in there the more they make.

It's annoying as hell and just pisses me off how much available space they waste to shove all that marketing in people's faces.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

All those multi-store towns are the result of GS's repeated corporate buyouts which have come to bite them in the ass as they've begun to report losses thanks to oversaturation of the market.

Agreed. I asked one of the clerks at the store in the mall. He said that his store was EB Games and the other one was Babbages.

Gamestop can still make it profitable for themselves if they do some consolidation. It would stink for us as a consumer. It's possible that they have some long term leases that they can't easily get out of.

According to this article they made $215M on revenues of $3.5B. Not too shabby. There may be individual stores reporting losses but overall they're still doing well. New games & hardware make up 63% of their sales. Used games & hardware total 22% of sales.

True, but late last year they were turning a few months of losses in a row and it scared the shit out of corporate for a while.

Let me put it this way, things up top at GS corporate HQ are in a panicked frenzy. We were all told via email and a phone call last week that mentioning that we work for GameStop online, on any social networking sites or to anyone in person will be punished with extreme prejudice. (Violation of my rights anybody?)

They may be saying they're "doing fine" for now, but numbers across the board for all stores are way down from where they were two years ago when I started with the company.

[AppleQueso]

One of the things I really hate about most gamestops, aside from the many complaints addressed in this thread, is how utterly tiny and cramped they all seem to be. Try entering the place at a busy hour, I dare you.

Your comment is definitely valid for a mall location. Since I'm in suburbia, most of the stores that I go to are pretty spacious. Some more so than others.

Except we have 3 stores in town, and two of them aren't even in malls. In fact, the mall location is the most spacious we have.

Let me put it this way, things up top at GS corporate HQ are in a panicked frenzy. We were all told via email and a phone call last week that mentioning that we work for GameStop online, on any social networking sites or to anyone in person will be punished with extreme prejudice. (Violation of my rights anybody?)

What purpose would that serve?

Anyhow, if I really want new games, I usually just hit the local play n trade. I know quality varies from store to store because of the way its set up, but mine at least is pretty decent, even if the selection is somewhat thin.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Let me put it this way, things up top at GS corporate HQ are in a panicked frenzy. We were all told via email and a phone call last week that mentioning that we work for GameStop online, on any social networking sites or to anyone in person will be punished with extreme prejudice. (Violation of my rights anybody?)

What purpose would that serve?

To prevent anyone from exposing the inner workings of the company and their current non-public situation.

[vlame]

lol slavedrivers.

also ppl that work for blizzard cant do this bc there have been deaththreats... :O

[Octopod]

The town I go to when ever I go to GS also has three GS stores. It is a small town too. Pretty crazy.

[Ack]

There are three in my local area, one is a Gamestop, one used to be an EB, and one used to be a Rhino Games. The Rhino is the best one out of the three, has always had the best staff and selection, and has the most diversity in its collection. Of the three, I tend to favor it the most. The former EB is tiny, but that's because EB moved to a smaller location a year before being bought out to save money. I preferred it as an EB back in the day, but as a Gamestop...well, I dislike the manager, but he hasn't done anything too terrible. Just comes off as a bit of a prick. Then at the original Gamestop(it's actually the newest of the three, was put in a giant strip-mall complex) nobody talks to you. It's huge, but the staff don't seem to notice people in their store exist.

[CRTGAMER]

The cramped quarters are on purpose. GameStop replaced all of the games/retro and DVD's they had on the gondolas (those racks on wheels) with lots and lots of advertising and are paid per case/poster so the more they cram in there the more they make.

It's annoying as hell and just pisses me off how much available space they waste to shove all that marketing in people's faces.

God I hate the new used racks. Have to flip thru cases like the old LP records. Old way stacked like bookends exposed easier to find a title. Must stink for employees during an inventory update. GAMESTOP, GET RID OF THOSE STUPID NEW RETRO RACKS!