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

[Fragems]

I can't wait until 20 years from now when rumor's start spreading about where all the copies of Guitar Hero went that game stop couldn't sell .



That is pretty much all our stores had when they suddenly vanished. They probably just got trashed like all their cases and manuals before them which is plain sad.

[isiolia]

Gamestop has failed in the past trying to cash in on older desired games of the season, notably with Wii games such as Metroid Trilogy, Xeonoblade, various other XSeed titles and more recently The Calling. Most stores I visit have an overpriced copy of Calling along with the other mentioned titles on the shelf now.

I think some of those efforts did pan out. Others might be a flaw in their system - Calling got reprinted, judging by the availability of new copies on Amazon. If the New SKU was phased out in Gamestop's system, they might be getting them in as "used", and prior to that the game legitimately was selling for more money.


Otherwise, the main annoyance with the case-less ones is that Gamestop doesn't adjust prices based on condition, and in turn, doesn't sort by that on their site.

[pepharytheworm]

I recently bought a stack of about 15-20 of those $1 PS2 disc games and stuck them in a CD binder with other loose games, burns, etc.

I am sad to learn that I made a poor purchase. I guess I will not be able to have any fun with them whatsoever.

Yes, the game is the most important part. No one is claiming a lack of fun to have with disc only but would you not enjoy to have all those games complete for the same price? The only part that makes it a "poor purchase" is that the more people that are willing to purchase disc only the more likely they are to throw away more cases and booklets.

[dsheinem]

I recently bought a stack of about 15-20 of those $1 PS2 disc games and stuck them in a CD binder with other loose games, burns, etc.

I am sad to learn that I made a poor purchase. I guess I will not be able to have any fun with them whatsoever.

Yes, the game is the most important part. No one is claiming a lack of fun to have with disc only but would you not enjoy to have all those games complete for the same price? The only part that makes it a "poor purchase" is that the more people that are willing to purchase disc only the more likely they are to throw away more cases and booklets.

The games I picked up were never $1 each when they were on the shelf with a case and manual nor, do i think, would they be $1 on the shelf now if they had those parts. It is just not worth the store shelf real estate space to keep PS2 games CIB anymore. It hasn't been fora long time now... Most of what I picked up were games I have medium-low curiosity in or games that I think my son might enjoy. Specifically, I got:

Medal of Honor: Frontline
Medal of Honor: Rising Sun
Hot Wheels Velocity X
Medal of Honor: European Assault
Medal of Honor: Vanguard
McFarlane's Evil Prophecy
NBA Jam
Oni
Kill Switch
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
Hulk
Monster Hunter
Nicktoons Battle for Volcano Island
Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
Spongebob Squarepants: Lights, Camera, Pants!
Sonic Unleashed
Sonic Riders
Sonic Riders: Zero gravity
Spawn Armageddon
Spongebob Squarepants Movie, The

Getting those games on eBay, complete with case and manual, would have easily cost me $100-$150+. With my PUR card, they cost me a whopping $18. It took me maybe 10 minutes or so to go through a rack. If it turns out I like some of the titles enough to want to have better copies, I can still hunt down a CIB copy or my missing case/manual, and will only have spent $1 on the risk that the game would have been better purchased CIB up front.

I am pleased as punch that some Gamestops still offer some of these games at all. At the $10 for 10 price, they are essentially impulse buys and the alternative - tossing them out - is certainly worse.

[pepharytheworm]

In the past Gamestop/EB/Babbages would have plenty of complete games for a $1-$5 of last gen systems. And if by luck you were in a Gamestop now that got away with keeping some ps2 cases it would be the same price. I mean plenty on this very forum speak of all the Wii games they get for under a dollar and complete. If they lack retail space it is due to all the extra space taken up with Ads not because they have too many games and lack of room. I mangaged 3 stores and we had lots of extra room for overstock even with the ads taking up so much space. Game wise my game room has more games than some of the smaller locations and you could easily look through my room for games.

Your not stupid for buying them but why defend that practice even mildly? Yes there are many reasons they did it but there were plenty of alternatives that would have taken less time and more cost effective then gutting all those games and reprinting prices on the sleeves.

[dsheinem]

Yes there are many reasons they did it but there were plenty of alternatives that would have taken less time and more cost effective then gutting all those games and reprinting prices on the sleeves.

If you managed stores you certainly must know that a store that looks jam-packed with stuff (especially old stuff) isn't always good for business. Generally a place like GS wants to encourage people to buy newer games and systems (especially pre-owned ones) and makes them look more attractive with displays and ads and such. While there might physically be space for older games (which isn't always the case in many GSs I have been in), filling it with PS2 titles would do more harm than good for the aesthetics of shopping.

The other problem has to do with trading in stuff. It still behooves GS to have Wii games out so that people are always reminded that they can trade their Wii and Wii games in towards a new system. Lots of folks that might trade things in still have Wii stuff, but not many people that have Xbox, PS2, or GCN stuff anymore are likely looking to trade.

Wii games will be next, of course, to get gutted. It will probably come at a time when they see the number of Wii games and Wii systems that are being traded in start to fall off, when they see trade-in-values on those things hit stagnation, or they stop making good money on used Wii game sales.

Gamestop just isn't a store that caters to the collector mentality. They've done pretty well for themselves by running things as they have...I think they'd catch just as much flak for how they go about pricing and restocking older games as they do for not really doing these things now.

[pepharytheworm]

Not to be rude but the fact that you think having ps2 games in cases would make your store jam-packed shows you lack knowledge on running retail. There are tons of methods and believe me I know putting too much out hurts sales and hampers urgency buys but having too little prevents people from finding what they want. Rotating stock, having stores with larger space and higher rates of sales carrying the product. Also phasing out buybacks, you don't have to buy said product just because you sell the same product and only buy what's proven to sell and lacking in inventory. Another great ideal would be to pull ps2 product, store and bring outside the store during the summer weekends. You could sell more ps2 games in those 24 days than the average Gamestop does all year and the plus side is it will bring more customers into your store.

I am not going to claim to be the best manager ever but the 5 companies I worked for and 8 stores I ran every single one posted more profits when I ran them. If I can pull more revenue working for FYE in videogames alone than the Gamestop in the same mall and not throwing away a single case and only having a space of 100 sqft and an additional 4sqft of usable retail space for ads. gamestop could have figured out a way.

Gamestop did just fine not throwing away xbox, dc, gcn, and ps1 cases of which I picked up quite a few for a $1 each when they still carried them.

By the way I also added vinyl (old stuff) and increased my stores profit by 25% with vinyl alone, even with an average price of $2.99 and did not eat into cd sales. The market for as you put "old stuff" is strong and yes it should not be the focus or front and center but it's not that hard to sell and is quite easy to make a compilmentary purchase with that new game or new album they also bought.

[dsheinem]

Not to be rude but the fact that you think having ps2 games in cases would make your store jam-packed shows you lack knowledge on running retail. There are tons of methods and believe me I know putting too much out hurts sales and hampers urgency buys but having too little prevents people from finding what they want. Rotating stock, having stores with larger space and higher rates of sales carrying the product. Also phasing out buybacks, you don't have to buy said product just because you sell the same product and only buy what's proven to sell and lacking in inventory. Another great ideal would be to pull ps2 product, store and bring outside the store during the summer weekends. You could sell more ps2 games in those 24 days than the average Gamestop does all year and the plus side is it will bring more customers into your store.

I am not going to claim to be the best manager ever but the 5 companies I worked for and 8 stores I ran every single one posted more profits when I ran them. If I can pull more revenue working for FYE in videogames alone than the Gamestop in the same mall and not throwing away a single case and only having a space of 100 sqft and an additional 4sqft of usable retail space for ads. gamestop could have figured out a way.

Gamestop did just fine not throwing away xbox, dc, gcn, and ps1 cases of which I picked up quite a few for a $1 each when they still carried them.

By the way I also added vinyl (old stuff) and increased my stores profit by 25% with vinyl alone, even with an average price of $2.99 and did not eat into cd sales. The market for as you put "old stuff" is strong and yes it should not be the focus or front and center but it's not that hard to sell and is quite easy to make a compilmentary purchase with that new game or new album they also bought.

Wait...I thought you managed a Gamestop?

I have no doubt that you may have been a good manager and wasn't trying to suggest otherwise. But, the other stores you mentioned aren't video game stores, and I don't see the analogy to stuff like vinyl matching up neatly.

I think your ideas about bins of PS2 games out front and so forth are good ones - but I also know that Gamestop DID this for MANY years and likely only stopped because they found a more profitable use for the space. Those bins became VERY picked over after several years.

The Gamestop I picked up those 20 disc based games in said that there were probably close to 1000 games in that bin. Well over 2/3 of them were annual sports titles or kids games, and most of the rest were either super-common games (e.g. God of War) or otherwise not highly likely to sell. If they were to pop even 500 boxes on the shelf, that would create a much bigger section of games than they give to pretty much any other system right now. Based on the layout of that store (which was a fairly large GS), I don't know how they could have done this in a way that didn't make everything that they were actually trying to sell for more than $1 look like it had all been crammed together.

[pepharytheworm]

I worked for Gamestop too, I mentioned I worked for 5 different companies. I used my time with FYE as an example because they didn't tie my hands behind my back as much as Gamestop did.

By the way I don't mean at the windows, I mean outside of the store. You would set it up like a tent event. In the store you would keep a choice selction of games always out that will turn a profit and a small fixture that would hold maybe 50 items of the random cheap variety such as the sports games, you fill it up every morning. On the weekends you bring a table with a couple of cut case boxes of the extra stock from the back. Have ballons and streamers and also have an assortment of more mordern games and accessories that are discounted $5 or under. Seriously though I could easily put out 2000 ps2 games even if all I had was 2 sqft of floor space and it would be shoppable. Even if gamestop didn't throw away their cases there would be at least 25% without a case already and take away generic cases even more, so space really isn't that much of a concern.

But anyways I guess it's to late for me to gripe about it anymore, but with the thought that Wii, 360, PS3 might be on the chopping block it just makes me so frustrated. Gamestop prices seem to keep a lot of other retailers prices down but once they start thrashing the cases the prices at other places start to go up for complete copies. Right now there is no place cheaper to get complete wii games, but once those cases start to go mark my word the prices overall will steaply rise even if still relatively cheap.

[Luke]

...space really isn't that much of a concern.

But anyways I guess it's to late for me to gripe about it anymore, but with the thought that Wii, 360, PS3 might be on the chopping block it just makes me so frustrated. .

Space will always be a concern.

In my eyes, it's a no-brainer to put Wii/360/PS3 games on the chopping block when I think about it in terms of a cost to benefit ratio. Gamestop is looking a profit margins which makes them sustainable in a volatile market. Fifty copies of Madden 2010 won't provide the profit that one copy of Madden '16 can. Out with the old.

In my opinion, the problem with stores who sell old/retro/vintage/last gen games and systems is that they are small businesses that tend to price gouge. You can't find everything you want, games are easy to emulate, and you have a limited (albeit loyal) customer base. I bet if someone would open a Game Warehouse (think about a huge comic shop that has almost every back issue ever) they could pull in some serious clams. With a good inventory database, you wouldn't even have to display inventory, but have the option to showcase some hard to find gems.