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Take A Look Inside GameStop's New, Retro-Themed Experimental Store

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www.gamespot.com

Take A Look Inside GameStop's New, Retro-Themed Experimental Store

A GameStop store in Oklahoma is trying something very different; take a look here.
www.gamespot.com www.gamespot.com

Earlier this year, GameStop announced that it would experiment with new store layouts--focused around eSports, retro games, and more--at some of its locations in the United States. Now, video has emerged from one of these "pilot" stores that shows the new look--and it's quite dramatic.

The GameStop store in Pryor, Oklahoma posted a video to Facebook earlier this month that shows off what appears to be one of the "retro" pilot stores. The first thing you may notice is that the layout appears to be sleeker and more modern-looking, with the POS registers in the middle.

Also immediately noticeable is how the store appears to have been designed to encourage people to spend more time in there than normal. There is a couch with a big-screen TV at the front, and CRT TVs at the back with retro systems like GameCube, Nintendo 64, and Original Xbox connected for multiplayer sessions.
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This all appears to be part of GameStop's ambition to become the "local church" of gaming. GameStop chief customer officer Frank Hamlin told GameSpot that the new store designs are meant to "celebrate video game culture in real life."

"It is a really powerful thing to witness. My question around GameStop is, if you take the analogy of that Vatican, or Mecca, or the Wailing Wall, why isn't GameStop the local church, synagogue, or mosque?" he explained.
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i see nothing church like there. looks like one of those craft beer or artisinal shaving kit shops, "Neo Americana", swap out dried tea leaves in mason jars for video games.

looks more like a Chipotle than the Vatican
 
It might bring in the kids, but the adult gamers with the actual money are more than likely still not going to be interested. But hey, I hope it works out for them. Just get rid of your upsell policies, you idiots.
 
DZ_b_EZ said:
It might bring in the kids, but the adult gamers with the actual money are more than likely still not going to be interested. But hey, I hope it works out for them. Just get rid of your upsell policies, you idiots.
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If they sell retro games I will 100% start going to GameStop.

And then leave, disgusted at the inflated prices.
 
The Snake said:
If they sell retro games I will 100% start going to GameStop.

And then leave, disgusted at the inflated prices.
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The retro games aren't worth buying from there. The quality is so bad. I worked at the refurbish warehouse at HQ. The standards are not equivalent to your or my standards. So many cartridges make it out of the warehouse with wrong PCBs because they mostly hire immigrants who don't know or care about the technology. Take that what you will.
 
The Snake said:
If they sell retro games I will 100% start going to GameStop.

And then leave, disgusted at the inflated prices.
Click to expand...

I've actually looked at their pricing before on the site and it's not too bad. But you don't really know what you're getting as far as condition goes.

If they want this to work they can't go in all GameStop fashion and fuck up the pricing. Hopefully they understand this.
 
Retro at a chain store level cannot work as they will be unable to get the quantity and reliable supply of retro items needed for it to work at that level. Basically they will only have what their local customers will be able to bring in and trade and only the ignorant ones will sell anything good to Gamestop and not Amazon/Ebay/Craigslist for top dollar.
 
Major props for having actual CRT tvs. I kind of like the approach so hopefully this works out for them. They should start running weekly tourneys and stuff too. Make it like a local comic book store just without all the soul-crushing despair.
 
I mean, it's cool that they're trying something. But anyone who's really into retro games is getting their fix elsewhere, and has for more than a decade. And understanding that space well enough to be of any use is more than one can ask of minimum wage employees. Just seems like a mismatch for what Gamestop actually is.
 
Oh hey it's like Gorrilla Games now except not as good. The store chain that I think was also owned by Gamestop that had 4 or more stores in my location closed down.
 
I think having the baskets sit on the wall like that is kinda ugly and it isn't exactly retro. I think if they had custom shelves it would make it look better. I also want to see more forward facing retro game(s). Babbages of years past had their games all flat faced along the wall. They weren't all stacked like books at a library. I can see why they can't overstock their stores because there's too many game(s) out there and deciding which ones to put out is difficult. What looks cool versus what people actually want to buy. I don't exactly see them selling a whole lot of retro items.

What about those horror stories you hear about GameStop breaking retro games or dumping them in the trash? Now they are financially in trouble and want to salvage it by going back on their "1.5 gen store front". It still looks like one of those stores you see at malls. The kind where you mainly see people playing table top games at while they stock their shelves with DBZ and MTG booster packs. I wonder who designed this store. I'd put a register in the center of the room and fill the walls with games and posters. This looks like some anime type of store at first.

Did someone at their HQ decide to throw away all their classic EB/Babbages posters. They could definitely make it look more "retro" or at least try to care about the last couple of decades of gaming.
 
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interestingly enough, they don't really need to CRT TV's for the retro crowd anymore with all the mini classics out there now days... OG Xbox and Gamecube era just doesn't scream RETRO to me... Always tough going back to 3D gens of the past lacking pixel count.

Should've gone cyberpunk style. More NEON!!
 
Chacranajxy said:
I mean, it's cool that they're trying something. But anyone who's really into retro games is getting their fix elsewhere, and has for more than a decade. And understanding that space well enough to be of any use is more than one can ask of minimum wage employees. Just seems like a mismatch for what Gamestop actually is.
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Tell me about it. My retro game collection skyrocketed after I found this one used game and movie store in my area. Even the newest games have better used prices that are almost comparable or better than online ones.

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