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Can Gamestop be saved? Post suggestions!

GS needs to get into streaming. Clear the windows (a big ask, I know) and put in 2 streaming stations. Hire 2 people, pilot and copilot to host a stream. They can play topical or random games in their 8 hour shift. They can interact with chat and people who walk in and do giveaways. Here's a kicker, do this for every state (so hire 2 people per state) and call the stream gstvca, gstvny, etc. Teach people how to get a start in streaming even if you have 5 viewers. When you have your steamers in every state, then every week move them to a new store and have a sale for that store only. If people start to like the streamers in their state then they'll want to head to their local store to hang out for a bit. This can work well if GS wants to transition to a hangout spot. Oh, this can bolster their GSTV brand they already have playing in stores.
 
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Sell PC components for gaming, close a few stores that are within less than a mile of each other. Offer free shipping on their games, have the elite member or whatever it's called get 10% off of pre-orders.
 
Great suggestions from a lot of you, I can feel the disdain most of you have for the place but I think the store or some store like GS is necessary, particularly if we want a mostly hardware based gaming future. I certainly do but I know many here don't care... but I believe you will down the line. After the limitations and manipulation of digital to max profits becomes evident.
 
Whitesnake said:
  • As has been said in this thread, less stores but bigger stores. WAY too many stores right now. I live in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and there are about 7 or 8 gamestops within comfortable driving distance. And none of them have the retro games I want, either. Bigger stores could make use of a much bigger selection because that selection won't be strewn across 5 different stores anymore. Especially if you focus more on the selection of games than the seelction of random Fortnite and FNaF toys.
  • Either lower the prices of used games further, or give more credit for trade-ins. No more giving people credit that's worth a sixth of what you're selling the pre-owned game for. At that point people could sell the used game to a pawn shop and get about that much money in cash, no reason to go to a GameStop.
  • Treat employees better.
Unlike others in this thread, I really do want GameStop to clean up their act and succeed. The existence of a second-hand market is important, as is keeping physical games alive. But their greed will kill them at this rate.
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If they closed stores and moved them into something bigger then they could probably retain those employees too
Bryank75 said:
Great suggestions from a lot of you, I can feel the disdain most of you have for the place but I think the store or some store like GS is necessary, particularly if we want a mostly hardware based gaming future. I certainly do but I know many here don't care... but I believe you will down the line. After the limitations and manipulation of digital to max profits becomes evident.
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I've actually been getting more into GS lately because best buy stopped with gcu. Couple weeks ago I wondered in to one and ended up getting some used names I never would have cared enough to look to buy cheap on ebay. Coffee, video games, cards, board games and nerd talk is enough for me to hang out in a GS for an hour.
 
JoeyWestSide said:
If they closed stores and moved them into something bigger then they could probably retain those employees too

I've actually been getting more into GS lately because best buy stopped with gcu. Couple weeks ago I wondered in to one and ended up getting some used names I never would have cared enough to look to buy cheap on ebay. Coffee, video games, cards, board games and nerd talk is enough for me to hang out in a GS for an hour.
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Yeah, in France they do hot chocolate and coffee in a lot of comic book stores. You would like that?
 
I dunno about you guys but I always got a lot of trade in value when I trade stuff in. You have to aim for when they got promotion. People got tons of credit last 2 weeks for the extra $5 credit bonus And where else can I get a used copy of Asura's wrath for 360 for 7 buck and Ninja Gaiden Black for 8 ish?
 
No. There is no saving Gamestop. Where they are now is the new normal and it will only contract further as physical media turns into a luxury as opposed to the standard.

The avenue I'd direct Gamestop is into high-priced, high margin accessories (PC Gaming chairs, peripherals, etc.) and memorabilia. I'd also try to create a more user-driven market where artists who are tied into videogame and nerd culture could showcase their wares on consignment or for a flat revenue-sharing arrangement.
 
Gamestop has a few key benefits other retailers have tanked do not:

1. Trade ins for games and hardware

2. Unless everyone buy new consoles off the net with no trade in credit, Gamestop is still a good place to get it

However, the problem is #1 more people going digital and not caring about trading in games, and #2 even if Gamestop retains tons of hardware sales, consoles are a breakeven kind of business new. Used systems make them money, but even then you got a decent chunk of business at crap margins

Considering GS is slowing down, it shows all those high margin tshirts, Funko toys and boardgames aren't making back the same sales and profits from lost game sales.

They'll survive, but be scaled down.

In terms of survival, not sure. They got a shit load of stores, so the logical step one is get rid of lousy stores. And get rid of any oversaturation. I remember some malls having TWO Gamestops. What the hell?

The stores are often a mishmash. It's "kind of organized" where there's distinct Nintendo, Sony, MS sections, but even then they'll then have used game sales in bargain bins, unorganized shelves and often time only the key games showing on shelf. The back room can have all kind of games, but they forgot or are not organized enough to get all distinct games on the shelf.

I've bought a few games where I had to ask a clerk, and they had it............. in the back room. I could have just walked and ordered it on Amazon.

They also have a knack of flooding shelves with empty pre-order/coming soon games. I don't think a store needs to dedicate a shelf with 24 Call of Duty Coming Soon cases. Could probably use that for products that generate incremental sales. Gamers aren't stupid and they'll be ordering Call of Duty anyway.
 
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Trying to save GameStop is like trying to save pay phones or dial up internet. It's a relic of the past that doesn't have a massive need by consumers. For me as a consumer, why do I want to drive to Gamestop to have someone pull a disc out of a sleeve, tell me it's a new game, and then try to upsell me on garbage and pre orders when I can just press a button, wait 15 minutes, and have a game I'll never scratch, break, lose or worry about my disc drive not working anymore,

Let that place die.
 
DigitalScrap said:
Gamestop will be gone soon. They have just stopped paying a dividend to shareholders, and are shutting down ThinkGeek July 2nd. Well, they aren't saying it is shutting down, only that the website is shutting down and they are "moving in" to Gamestop stores. What year is it? Shutting down the ecom presence is basically saying it is shutting it down - who closes websites to go brick and mortar now? But that is how they are trying to spin it.

Stopping the dividend is a classic "we are about to shut this shit down" move, as that will mean more cash that can be split up as they all exit and deploy their parachutes. I personally expect them to be completely gone by Q1 next year. The only hope is that someone comes in and buys it and shares get converted, but their business model is so bad and outdated, that I can't see why anyone would buy them at this point. Even brand recognition isn't a good reason to acquire them, as GS has done a great job of damaging their brand. When most people hear "Gamestop" they don't get positive images in their head (quite the opposite).

I think it's just about over.

BTW, if anyone wants any ThinkGeek crap, it will all be 50% off until July 2nd.

I'm honestly tempted to take a small position just to see if someone does swoop in and the shares get converted. But I doubt that I will as the fundamentals are just TERRIBLE.
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I went looking on thinkgeek for items to pillage and it looks pretty picked over as is with anything saying "out of stock" having no notification there will be more supply.

Come July 2nd if thinkgeek plays their cards right I'll have the honor of getting drunk and breaking that targaryen stein but only feeling half bad about it!
 
I was one of the few people who liked the idea of special editions coming with digital copies of the game. There are a few I would have bought from a GameStop if they offered those.
 
Sometimes my work gives out free Amazon gift cards. So, I'll use one to buy a GameStop gift card. Then go to GameStop and buy a steam gift card.

That's like the only reason I go there.
 
If I had to save the sinking ship, I'd look at how the vacuum gets filled in Gamestop's absence, and the be then attempt to be the one that fills it: others have mentioned that what makes Gamestop unique is that it is a place for dedicated gamers to come together. The problem is, this has only been the case because they obliterated the indepent stores that facilitate that culture better.

Gamestop needs to emulate Starbucks here - truly attempt to replace the experience and culture of what they conquered, and more importantly what will be the replacement when the empire falls.

Honestly, good riddance, and I'm looking forward to the return of the independent game store.

JohnnyFootball said:
Gamestop's prices are mostly on par with everyone else. New games cost $59.99 and they do have sales like everyone else.

Their used prices aren't great, though. Although, whenever other retailers have dipped their hands in the used market their prices are often higher than Gamestops!
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Now, sure, but they got a lot of market and mind share carved out by Best Buy, K-Mart and Amazon's discount programs over the years - enough to change buying habits.
 
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zenspider said:
Now, sure, but they got a lot of market and mind share carved out by Best Buy, K-Mart and Amazon's discount programs over the years - enough to change buying habits.
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Again, I'm not sure I agree with that. There prices were on par and they had weekly ads with games on sale like everyone else and always have. They often had very competitive black friday ads as well.
Now, if you bring up Amazon prime and Best Buy and their recently ended 20% off new discount then you're right Gamestop had absolutely nothing that could compete with that. But original post was about Gamestop had much higher prices than everybody else and I would argue that is simply not true.

But the thing that Gamestop had going for them was the ability to be done with new games and trade them. Many people complain about how much they offered and I get it, but being able to put the trade ins toward new games was a pretty big deal.

There are legit reasons to hate Gamestop, but I grew to like them post 2008-ish. During the Xbox/PS2/Cube days they were outright tyrants about pre-ordering and I hated going in there. They never offered great money for your old games, but you as a consumer always had Craigslist/Ebay option.
 
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I hope they go out of business. Their prices on old/retro games are ridiculous compared to eBay , and most of their staff flat out sucks. There are a few good stores left here and there, but not many.
 
Their biggest problem, IMO, is they went so corporate that they stuck a huge knife in their own foot. The stores just don't have the same feel about them as specialty gaming stores did in the 90's and early 2000's. And they just couldn't help themselves from squeezing every possible penny from pre-owned sales, to the point where pre-owned sales became an afterthought to me and I assume many others. When pre-owned was $10 cheaper it was a very compelling option. But over time the pre-owned vs. new prices became so similar and then they got hit with untouchable competition on prices for new games.

I really hope they survive, but in the face of retail rents and greed I just don't expect it.
 
A lot of people are saying to scale back on the figurines and other merch. We'd need to see data on that though. I imagine that's some of their biggest profit makers. They wouldn't keep expanding shelf/floor space to that stuff if it wasn't making them the money to justify it.

I imagine it's a combo of that stuff making money and retro game sales becoming more and more niche after the Wii/WiiU/3DS virtual consoles, retro mini consoles, lots of retro game collections and the ease of playing pirated ROMs on TVs with Retropies or gaming PCs hooked up to TVs.

Really it's just that their whole business model is more niche and they need to dramatically slash the number of locations and just have a few per big city and only one or two in smaller cities.
 
JohnnyFootball said:
Again, I'm not sure I agree with that. There prices were on par and they had weekly ads with games on sale like everyone else and always have. They often had very competitive black friday ads as well.
Now, if you bring up Amazon prime and Best Buy and their recently ended 20% off new discount then you're right Gamestop had absolutely nothing that could compete with that. But original post was about Gamestop had much higher prices than everybody else and I would argue that is simply not true.

But the thing that Gamestop had going for them was the ability to be done with new games and trade them. Many people complain about how much they offered and I get it, but being able to put the trade ins toward new games was a pretty big deal.

There are legit reasons to hate Gamestop, but I grew to like them post 2008-ish. During the Xbox/PS2/Cube days they were outright tyrants about pre-ordering and I hated going in there. They never offered great money for your old games, but you as a consumer always had Craigslist/Ebay option.
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We'd have to really dig into maths and demographics, to know for sure, but looking anecdotally from just here over the past few years, I think many dedicated gamers saved a lot of money bringing their business elsewhere: new games were more expensive there to the demo that they didn't believe mattered.

Less anectdotally, I know from my experience in game wholesale and diatribution that Gamestop took credits on price drops without actually executing them at retail until enough used product moved at the adjusted price (i.e. New 49.99 Used: 24.99). This became more difficult in the digital storefront age, but an example of them being more expensive than anyone else across the board.

Sales and ads and coupons are all well and good for a kind of consumer, but straight up 20% off new releases is clearly way better for those that want something particular. They failed to move gamers habits where they wanted, so gamers moved.

They are to beholden to thier contempt for new games in both sales and promotions, always trying to feedback into the used racket. I think even gutting new games had the subtle effect, if not intention, of devaluing 'new' games. Why pay more for ostensibly the same thing - an unsealed, manhandled game with ugly stickers on the box?
 
Honestly they need to cut half the locations and merge Gamestop and ThinkGeek. The 3 ThinkGeek stores in my area are CONSTANTLY packed, and they sell a shitload of stuff. If they were to move the game business into a section of ThinkGeek while keeping the majority of the store space dedicated to pop culture stuff and other collectibles, they could kill two birds with one stone. Dedicate a certain section of the store to retro gaming while shifting towards an old school Toys R Us style of buying for new games and systems with the majority of the inventory being locked up in the back and only display copies or tickets for the merchandise on the wall. Focus less on pushing memberships and warranties and just provide a decent in-store experience for customers. Stop riding your employees about numbers and employ people who are passionate about the nerd shit you're selling. Take a page out of the numerous mom & pop/local franchises that are doing gaming/collectibles better than you are.
 
GameStop wants to be the "Local Church" of gaming. Okay.

"We had a massive diversification strategy [previously], but the new management team, under George Sherman, our new CEO, is myopically and maniacally focused on gaming," he says. "We need to…focus on becoming a cultural center for gaming….If [E3] is the Vatican [of gaming], why aren't we the local church?"
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:messenger_expressionless:

A few things of interest from the article:

Shares are down roughly 60% year to date, amid continuing bad news and growing competition. And some analysts are warning investors to stay away, with Mike Hickey of The Benchmark Company, saying he was reducing his price target to $5 "as [the] business burns to the ground."
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I'm with Mike Hickey on this one.

Hickey takes a more dire approach, saying in a note the management team "lacked any coherent articulation of a tangible vision on how to transform the business."
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And of course, in the same article, Michael Pachter says that he thinks GameStop management is on the right path, so you know that means they are doomed.

Article: http://fortune.com/2019/06/19/gamestop-gamer-strategy-compete-video-streaming/
 
GameStop as a publicly-traded company is dead. Private enterprise will take its place.

The issue has everything to do with value proposition. For years, it was to get the games you wanted at a discount, that's what drove people into the stores. GameStop had better deals than every mom & pop shop out there.

Now? They rarely compete on price because they're trying so hard to gouge consumers and make maximum profits for shareholders. They pushed shitty policies on employees and made it a toxic environment for both employees and (knowledgeable) customers, once again for the shareholders.

I welcome their death spiral. Fuck GameStop.
 
They need to shift focus on gaming merch, perhaps add more anime merch to the mix and perhaps set up some pipelines for imported gaming merch and imported games. There is no future in the used game market.
 
Mike Asshley buys the company for $1 and begins the Zero Hour Contract system for new employees /s

Sell your games at reasonable prices and perhaps eliminate digital codes if they make little profit?
 
I still use gamestop to preorder games months in advance. I put a few dollars here and there and it all adds up. Is there a store that does the same? Psychologically its alot easier purchasing a game overtime that way.
 
Ol'Scratch said:
They need to shift focus on gaming merch, perhaps add more anime merch to the mix and perhaps set up some pipelines for imported gaming merch and imported games. There is no future in the used game market.
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There's no future in gaming related merch and anime merch, either. They've been hawking video game merch for years and they're still dying. There aren't enough people who collect that clutter to support a company the size of Gamestop. Imported video game merch is even more niche.

Gamestop is being replaced by the companies whose products they sell. Amazon drops physical prices faster and can have games in your mailbox on release day. Console makers have their own marketplaces.

About all I can think that could help them is to give people more money for trades and focus hard on creating a fair secondhand games business. But that's going to end because eventually more people will be digital than physical. If they want to fill a niche then go with retro gaming. Sell raspberry pi boards and arcade machine parts to focus on DIY arcade machines. Create a market for old hardware and games. Stuff like that.
 
I can put my order into Amazon and my pre-orders are set for about a year. That use to take me countless trips to GameStop, not to mention the gas, and the loss of games due to having to sell. I walk into GameStop and I see controllers, cases for consoles, games I don't need, and a bunch of nick knacks that I don't need. I'm not buying that expensive figurine because I'm well aware of outlets online that have way better quality. It would be a cold day in hell before I buy a phone or a tablet from GameStop. I remember walking into GameStop looking for a keyboard. I'm well aware of their selection. I worked there when Company of Heroes was coming out. I also remember when you could buy Final Fantasy VIII on PC brand new. They advised me to go somewhere else. The store feels useless if you don't want to sell your games.

The article in the OP states that they were oblivious to the digital market. Well, that's a lot of ignorance and they're the biggest game store in North America. The Think Geek brand is interesting and serves its purpose. Now its merging and its forcing users to go to their main site. It makes sense as I never looked at games when I bought from Think Geek.

I think they need something like Amazon has. Final Fantasy VII Remake for $41? You want me to spend gas money going to the store, then sell a bunch of my current games for way less, and then repeat the process to pick it up? I'll just give Amazon $41. Could GameStop do zero money down for pre-orders? They should have spent less on merging with other companies to try and reduce game costs. I also feel like GameStop doesn't do anything like Amazon. Half the time I don't swing by GameStop is because I already know I'm looking at game covers of games I already own or games I don't want to own. They claim to sell retro games online, but there isn't a single thing at their stores.

I drive pass a GameStop and I just look at the marketing photos on their glass. I don't have to walk inside. I own MK11 Premium Edition already at home and all I see is a sign on their glass doors. I see the Star Wars bumper sticks on their employees cars. It feels like a pawn shop. GameStop isn't "Power for the players". Its one big way to make money at the expense of someone's ignorance about video games. I hate feeling so ignorant when I walk inside. I'd rather stay online and make all my purchases at home. Maybe GameStop can turn it around, but I don't think I'll ever spend as much money at GameStop than I did 10 years ago.
 
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I will always shop at GameStop. I just got $39 for Days Gone. C'mon.

Those hoping for its death are just shortsighted and mostly confused. More options for the consumer is always a good thing. Even if you don't shop there. Sad.
 
ConnorDuffy1977 said:
I will always shop at GameStop. I just got $39 for Days Gone. C'mon.

Those hoping for its death are just shortsighted and mostly confused. More options for the consumer is always a good thing. Even if you don't shop there. Sad.
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And how much did you pay for what you bought?
 
I don't really have any horror stories about the place, but I rarely shop there anymore.

Nowadays I go in there once in a blue moon if I'm bored or maybe just want to take my kids to a quasi-toy store to look at stuff. The entire experience there feels like a physical manifestation of having to call a large corporation's customer service center. Just robotic scripts and questions from the employees meant to feed into further scripts and questions all to just sell you something lame.
 
angelic said:
And how much did you pay for what you bought?
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It was $60 brand new. So for $21, I got to play a brand new game for almost 70 days. That's a great fucking deal. Way better than any other store would give me for trade.

If you play it smart, you can make out very well with GS' trade-in deals. Why would you want that option to disappear?
 
Offer more for trade ins, and sell used for far less money. It's really not a wise move to continue being greedy when digital distribution keeps growing.
 
ConnorDuffy1977 said:
It was $60 brand new. So for $21, I got to play a brand new game for almost 70 days. That's a great fucking deal. Way better than any other store would give me for trade.

If you play it smart, you can make out very well with GS' trade-in deals. Why would you want that option to disappear?
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What game? Because its likely available for nearer 40 online, so you effectively just gave them a 20 dollar copy of days gone, at the cost of your time, parking, petrol, and i bet their game wasn't in cellophane.

See why they're dying?
 
angelic said:
Because its likely available for nearer 40 online, so you effectively just gave them a 20 dollar copy of days gone, at the cost of your time, parking, petrol, and i bet their game wasn't in cellophane.
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:🤦:

It wasn't $40 when it came out, genius. That's when I got it. I paid $60 for it at THAT TIME.
 
People don't understand that Gamestop is the only store of its kind in many areas. There's a lot they could be doing to cater to local tastes, emphasizing products not available digitally like consoles and accessories, better service...

But no. They're content with letting the company collapse under the weight of problems largely of their own making
 
zenspider said:
If I had to save the sinking ship, I'd look at how the vacuum gets filled in Gamestop's absence, and the be then attempt to be the one that fills it: others have mentioned that what makes Gamestop unique is that it is a place for dedicated gamers to come together.
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Yeah I don't really think a vacuum will be left. With digital gaming making up a larger percentage of sales each year, more and more casuals only/mostly playing F2P stuff like Fortnite, the coming streaming services and so on the market for used games is going to keep shrinking. And even for used games for years people like myself have been selling games ourselves on Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist etc. instead of getting ripped off on their low trade in payouts and high markups.

To the other point, I don't think most dedicated gamers want to come together in the era of online gaming. At least not in numbers to support a big corporation with thousands of locations, given how arcades dropped off and internet cafe MMO gaming never caught on here like in Asia. There are some game (or game and comic) themed bars around my city that do ok, but it's not really a gaming crowd. They're mostly just chill places with decent food and good selections of craft beer. There's usually not many people playing the arcade or pinball machines.

Dedicated game stores, arcades, etc. are just relics of the past that have nothing left but a small niche in the era of digital games, online gaming and mobile gaming.
 
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