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

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

I wish that they still sold retro games, but they don't have the space in any store that I've ever been in, even the one in Korea Town in Manhattan, which is two floors. It's not as profitable and they just don't have the space.

Game Attack in Highland Village TX has about a GameStop worth of current and previous gen systems, and shelves full of Dreamcast, Saturn, N64, PS1, SNES, Genesis, and NES games and accessories, and a section for DVD movies. One floor, in a small store, and they manage it with space left over. The entire GameXChange chain does the same thing. GameStop just uses their space inefficiently and isn't interested in used games they can't resell for $40.

GameStop is a giant corporation, when you have thousands of employees and thousands of stores you can't afford to keep certain departments and other programs active anymore.

For example, the nationwide tv and sound system replacement they did. That cost millions upon millions of dollars paid for by in store advertising and other small things non-employees usually don't see.

[flamepanther]

For example, the nationwide tv and sound system replacement they did. That cost millions upon millions of dollars paid for by in store advertising and other small things non-employees usually don't see.

...and have no reason to care about. I go to a game store to buy games, not for their in-store displays or sound system. So if they're cutting out products customers like for the sake of spending money on things that don't help us, I'm supposed to be supportive of that because: ???

If anything, it seems like a smaller chain such as GameXChange should have a harder time selling enough overpriced used current gen games to support the staff and space needed to keep selling NES and Atari games, yeah? And yet their business model appears to work. The key appears to be keeping overhead LOW on everything except buying and selling products. They're already all over Arkansas, and are slowly spreading to neighboring states. That's exactly how Wal-Mart started, if you recall.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

For example, the nationwide tv and sound system replacement they did. That cost millions upon millions of dollars paid for by in store advertising and other small things non-employees usually don't see.

...and have no reason to care about. I go to a game store to buy games, not for their in-store displays or sound system. So if they're cutting out products customers like for the sake of spending money on things that don't help us, I'm supposed to be supportive of that because: ???

If anything, it seems like a smaller chain such as GameXChange should have a harder time selling enough overpriced used current gen games to support the staff and space needed to keep selling NES and Atari games, yeah? And yet their business model appears to work. The key appears to be keeping overhead LOW on everything except buying and selling products. They're already all over Arkansas, and are slowly spreading to neighboring states. That's exactly how Wal-Mart started, if you recall.

I'm going to tell you this now and you need to understand that I don't mean it in a hostile way. It just gets tiring having to re-explain this to everyone who gets ticked off at GS.

You have literally no idea how large corporations work.

The bigger you get the more your expenses grow and the higher your liability gets. People will get more pissed off at you for random reasons, lawsuits that are pointless get filed daily, shit breaks, a LOT of shit breaks, paychecks, rent for thousands of storefronts, power bills, water bills, heating bills, light bulbs, stationary and office supplies, cleaning supplies, the 5-10 vacuums we go through in a year per store, computer maintenance replacement and repair, store maintenance and repair, shipping, warehousing, purchasing new product, paying certain companies to keep them happy with selling us product, paying for exclusives to remain competitive, etc..., etc... The list goes on and on.

Yeah companies like Game-X-Change can keep it simple because they specialize in a multitude of products other than just games. Game-X-Change is just a spin off of a much larger chain called The Exchange which feeds their money woes with padding, and since they also sell a multitude of other items from the onset they are known for it and people seek them out.

A store like GameStop is in the public view only known for one thing, games. They had to stop selling DVD's because they weren't profitable, they tried trading and selling CD's only to have that blow up in their face, and they stopped selling retro because there were mountains of PS2 coming in like you wouldn't believe back in the day.

If you have a little pace call the exchange that sells games but is publicly known as the place to get movies and music too then more people will frequent it than just gamers. But both public perception of GameStop as a game only store and their name limits their market considerably aside from gaming only stuff. Not to mention, GameStop is targeted at the mainstream, not at enthusiasts. they don't care about retro because 90% of their customers will just go "lol, retro" and pass it up.

It's simple facts and painfully obvious. Yeah we all like to blame big brother and take up the "down with evil corporations" fight, but sometimes it just gets annoying.

The company WAS growing at an insane rate and they WERE screwing people over with their "we don't give a fuck" attitude, but it bit them in the ass HARD. They reported massive losses for the last two quarters of 2010 and they lost so many employee abuse lawsuits that it's almost ridiculous.

Anyhow, take a minute to look at the big picture. They bought out a lot of companies with very different policies on almost everything and had to streamline everything under a single unified brand and ruleset. That is hard even for a much smaller corporation, but you have to acknowledge that concessions have to be made for a massive expansion in size like that.

Nobody's asking you to be supportive, I don't care whether you shop there or not. I'm just sick of all the bitching and whining about it from everyone.

[flamepanther]

The company WAS growing at an insane rate and they WERE screwing people over with their "we don't give a fuck" attitude, but it bit them in the ass HARD. They reported massive losses for the last two quarters of 2010 and they lost so many employee abuse lawsuits that it's almost ridiculous.

How do the consequences of screwing people over in the very recent past suddenly make everything OK now? Poor GameStop for getting what they asked for? Things were so bad that it's going to take time for popular opinion to turn around, and it's going to need a compelling reason to do so.

Anyhow, take a minute to look at the big picture. They bought out a lot of companies with very different policies on almost everything and had to streamline everything under a single unified brand and ruleset. That is hard even for a much smaller corporation, but you have to acknowledge that concessions have to be made for a massive expansion in size like that.

And the diversity of game stores available to consumers still hasn't recovered from it. What have they done to earn our trust and respect since then?

Nobody's asking you to be supportive, I don't care whether you shop there or not. I'm just sick of all the bitching and whining about it from everyone.

I don't particularly recall doing much bitching and whining. I commented that another store can do something better for us than what GameStop is doing, and that it's not because of space limitations. I said they don't care about a particular segment of the market, and they clearly don't. Considering this is the "Gamestop is Evil" thread, I think that's exceedingly mild. I doubt it was worth jumping on my case.

It's nice that you can explain why these things are so, but it still doesn't change that someone is able to do it better and GameStop doesn't care.

[GSZX1337]

Holy shit, some dude tunneled into a GameStop to steal games.
http://yro.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op= ... 17/1514240

He's from Tennessee, too.

[gtmtnbiker]

I personally hate Gamestop. I went there when Star Wars Obi Wan came out and bought the game "new". i brought the empty case to the counter and the employee carelessly pulled my disc out of a drawer, pulled it out of a paper sleeve, and slammed it into my case. I brought it home and seen that my "new" game had smudges and scratches on it. Part of the experience of buying a new game is being the first to open it, an experience you do not get with gamestop. I never went back to Gamestop ever again after that. The only way games here are new is that you are the first to play it, but a new game should not be damaged.

I agree but you should have told the clerk that you no longer want that game for these reasons. There's no reason why you should have taken a used game home. I applaud you for sticking with your convictions and not going back there again.

Anyway, I have no issues whatsoever with Gamestop. Like any companies, they have pluses and minuses. I just stick with the positive things such as good deals on used stuff or clearance. (e.g, PS2 network adapter for $15, GB Player for $10). It works well for me

[Gunstar Green]

It's incredibly unrealistic to expect a chain as large as Gamestop has become to stock games as old as the SNES. There's just not enough of these games to go around. Where would they get their supply? It makes no practical sense form a logistics standpoint. Niche stuff like retrogaming is much better left to smaller stores rather than a national chain.

If they did try to stock old games again you'd be able to get all the old sports games you could buy and little else.

[BurningDoom]

It's incredibly unrealistic to expect a chain as large as Gamestop has become to stock games as old as the SNES. There's just not enough of these games to go around. Where would they get their supply? It makes no practical sense form a logistics standpoint. Niche stuff like retrogaming is much better left to smaller stores rather than a national chain.

If they did try to stock old games again you'd be able to get all the old sports games you could buy and little else.

If it's so hard to do it, then why did they used to do it themselves?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

It's incredibly unrealistic to expect a chain as large as Gamestop has become to stock games as old as the SNES. There's just not enough of these games to go around. Where would they get their supply? It makes no practical sense form a logistics standpoint. Niche stuff like retrogaming is much better left to smaller stores rather than a national chain.

If they did try to stock old games again you'd be able to get all the old sports games you could buy and little else.

If it's so hard to do it, then why did they used to do it themselves?

Case and point, USED to. They stopped when inventory became almost impossible to find for a store of their size and scale over the course of their expansion.

After all, it's not like they can just call Nintendo and Sega to order up as million Genny's and SNES's for them.

Also, unless you want corporate spotters to start methodically crawling every single craigslist ad, classified ad, goodwill, flea market and yard sale with more money than you do at every turn to out deal you be glad it is how it is. Otherwise $20-$50 for retro games would become the norm. Not to mention $50-$90 on consoles and larger stuff like that.

Yeah they could stock console clones, but just ask the now dead GameCrazy and Hollywood Video how that worked out. There are too many logistics involved with stocking an inferior product. We as enthusiasts expect minor headaches from time to time, but Joe Everyman wants it to work all the time every time, and look like a million bucks on his shiny new piece-o-shit generic brand HDTV he bought at walmart for $200.

There are too many concessions and too many annoying aggravations involved with stocking older and discontinued product on a large scale and it is best left to the smaller stores.

[sevin0seven]

i went to Thrift Town yesterday for their 30% sale and i happen to see the girl cashier from Game Stop. what bothers me the most is she and her friends took all the N64 Strategy guides from the book shelfs and some retro games from the jewerly.. it's only evil because she and her friends beat me to it!