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Yahoo: forecast store closings for GameStop set around 500 to 600
- Thread starter MagicWithEarvin
- Start date
TheGreyHulk
Member
I have 4 gamestops I can choose from in a 5 mile radius. 1 is down the street. 3 are at the mall... THREE..
2 inside the mall and one literally across the street.
they really have too many stores
2 inside the mall and one literally across the street.
they really have too many stores
Midnight Bliss
Member
I know a mall where there's a gamestop near each main entrance. With all the stores closing where else are people supposed to find work in the video game industry? 
grimshawish
Banned
But goddamn them from stealing from devs by becoming a marketplace for consumers!!
Seriously its ridiculous how much publishers don't take into account the risk assocciated with retail or console production. Two things they massively rely on.
This years going to be even worse over Q1/Q2. Hopefullu 3DS games sell well enough to make up for some of those empty spaces. Can already see numerous console bombas.
Seriously its ridiculous how much publishers don't take into account the risk assocciated with retail or console production. Two things they massively rely on.
This years going to be even worse over Q1/Q2. Hopefullu 3DS games sell well enough to make up for some of those empty spaces. Can already see numerous console bombas.
As noted this is a huge problem for niche and to a lesser degree mid-tier games, and I do think it's a serious problem for myself along with variety on a whole. However I don't think they necessarily have to resort to digital distribution (or their own store fronts, which can go to shit so long as the likes of Digital River are running around), rather online stores like Amazon can possibly plug up that gap GameStop would leave behind, though I don't consider it ideal, and on a similar note...
I think to a degree the problem is that they don't offer much else. Walmart can undercut because they want you to get other stuff, and similar for Amazon. But GameStop's just games, and they have to pay for the many stores they run. They really might not have the freedom to compete and undercut like others do, which I think is a problem that plagued Blockbuster albeit that was more extreme.
ThatsMytrunks
Member
Back when I worked at a GameStop in San Antonio TX, I worked at the one in a mall, directly across the highway there was another one, and caddycorner to the mall there was another one. It took the store caddycorner from us getting robbed four times in three weeks and the assistant manager getting murdered before they finally shut it down.
GameStop's a terrible company and while I feel for the people who will be losing their jobs, hopefully it'll be a positive experience that drives them to do or try new things.
GameStop's a terrible company and while I feel for the people who will be losing their jobs, hopefully it'll be a positive experience that drives them to do or try new things.
InfiniteNine
Rolling Girl
I used to go there all the time when I was little. D:
Lactose_Intolerant
Member
I know a mall where there's a gamestop near each main entrance. With all the stores closing where else are people supposed to find work in the video game industry?
that's not the video game industry.
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
There are 3 Gamestops within a 2 miles of each other where I live.
Incendiary
Banned
Same here. Three in the same mall area. One used to be a FuncoLand, and one used to be an Electronics Boutique, but they all became Gamestop under one banner.
To be honest, this is really starting to sound less like GameStop is in trouble and more GameStop realized they have an absurd number of stores and would do better minimizing those. Which actually is probably better for consumers: you have one store within a X mile radius people will go to, you can more safely dump extra games there for people to buy, as someone within that larger radius will want it versus maybe just hitting on of those but not the others.
soundscream
Member
I hope they are always around. They are the last place you can go for obscure electronic parts, if you want it right now.
Bending_Unit_22
Member
The thing I never understood about the 2 or 3 in one mall situation is why didn't they specialize to any degree? When I lived in Columbus the Polaris Mall had a Gamestop on a corner on the second floor and another Gamestop on the corner of the first floor directly below. I thought one might focus on new games and the other used, or maybe one on older systems/Wii, and the other PS360. Nope, carbon copies except the used games were different (I know because I was looking for used games at the time). What was the point of that.
By my count the Cleveland metro area has 38 and the Akron-Canton area another 30. From where I live I can hit 12 Gamestops in a less than 15 min drive.
Heh, Polaris? I don't recall one being an EBGames though but it's been a while since I was there. Easton had 3 at one point, and Tuttle 2, though Gamestop's website is only showing 1 at each mall and 1 outside Tuttle so I don't know. It's been even longer since I've been to those ones.
By my count the Cleveland metro area has 38 and the Akron-Canton area another 30. From where I live I can hit 12 Gamestops in a less than 15 min drive.
Heh, Polaris? I don't recall one being an EBGames though but it's been a while since I was there. Easton had 3 at one point, and Tuttle 2, though Gamestop's website is only showing 1 at each mall and 1 outside Tuttle so I don't know. It's been even longer since I've been to those ones.
I figured this would happen sooner or later. There are at least four or five gamestop's within a ten minute drive of my house. One of those is inside a mall, with another located across the street, and another down the street a bit. There's no way it was going to be sustainable forever.
I wonder if one used to be EB games and the other used to be Gamestop (or Babbages/EB games, or some other combo). I think that's what happened in a local mall here.
I wonder if one used to be EB games and the other used to be Gamestop (or Babbages/EB games, or some other combo). I think that's what happened in a local mall here.
It's why they'd probably be better off having larger stores rather than more stores. Better selection, less redundancy. Like that mall store, figure out which neighboring store is willing to move/sell their place, take it, and close the now redundant GameStop once the other's done expanding.
Bending_Unit_22
Member
ABOVE THE RESPONSE EDIT:
On further reflection, a reason for multiple carbon copy Gamestops in one mall with different used games would be,
Want Wii games, have to go by the PS360 games
Want used games, have to go past the new games
Want the full selection, go to both stores and get worked over twice
Also don't have to specialize workers.
Eh, still didn't like it and having more than 1 store doesn't make much sense outside of the small increase in eye shoppers.
Yeah, one was definitely something else (pretty sure that's the case with most malls with more than 1 Gamestop). I don't get why they never at least specialized them. Even more annoying was that the used games were different so I had to go to both to see all of them, why not have them all in one of the stores?
I agree, but I can understand why when they bought EBGames they just kept the same stores in the malls (though may have made more sense to move to a larger mall store, I don't know the financials of the decision, but then again more eye traffic with more stores). Just seems to me they didn't really try to more efficiently use the multiple stores in one mall. As for the stores across the street from each other, yeah, I have little doubt that made no sense.
On further reflection, a reason for multiple carbon copy Gamestops in one mall with different used games would be,
Want Wii games, have to go by the PS360 games
Want used games, have to go past the new games
Want the full selection, go to both stores and get worked over twice
Also don't have to specialize workers.
Eh, still didn't like it and having more than 1 store doesn't make much sense outside of the small increase in eye shoppers.
Yeah, one was definitely something else (pretty sure that's the case with most malls with more than 1 Gamestop). I don't get why they never at least specialized them. Even more annoying was that the used games were different so I had to go to both to see all of them, why not have them all in one of the stores?
I agree, but I can understand why when they bought EBGames they just kept the same stores in the malls (though may have made more sense to move to a larger mall store, I don't know the financials of the decision, but then again more eye traffic with more stores). Just seems to me they didn't really try to more efficiently use the multiple stores in one mall. As for the stores across the street from each other, yeah, I have little doubt that made no sense.
This sounds more like GameStop addressing redundancies as opposed to them going out of business like Blockbuster. There are three GameStops in my town, two of which are on opposite ends of the city and one inside a mall. In addition to having a Best Buy across the street, I also have a local used video game and tabletop game store which I go to on occasion to pick up the stuff that GameStop doesn't got.
Ah Funcoland. Memories.
Such a shame kids these days don't know what it's like to have that many different game stores.Yah, one of those. It may have been branded something else. They were both Gamestop on the inside, but one was different on the outside.
ChosenPredator
Banned
Their like pigeons their every where
Razgriz-Specter
Member
There are 3 in my local mall and 3 more right outside not even two minutes away.
CambriaRising
Member
They opened on in my garage last week. I'm really not understanding the strategy here.
It's the GameStop Triangle right near my place. Time stops if you reach the exact center.
It's only really the proximity of #2 and #3 that seems unusual. With that giant highway splitting your neighborhood in two, asking people without cars to walk across it just to buy video games is unrealistic. Keeping #2 and #5, or #3 and #5, would make some sense.
soundscream
Member
Just checked and there are 40 gamestops within a 10mile radius of my home.
Lol our mall used to have two. My Gf worked at the one they closed. It was right around the corner from the other one. They closed hers because the other was across from the movie theater so I guess they thought it would get more traffic.
BishopLamont
Banned
That RadioShack is article is hilarious. The CEO is a lucky guy, doesn't even have to do shit and the company is still fine. He couldn't even improve it even if he tried.
Naked Prime
Member
the problem with the multiple Gamestops in a relativity close area is that they somehow all still make money. I've been there over a decade and still haven't figured that shit out. Also...anyone wanna preorder Madden 25?
Night_Trekker
Member
They already closed the one at our nearby mall. I hope the other one nearby doesn't close :\
samus4ever
Banned
The highway goes over the roads with bridges. You could easily walk to all three of them.
zerokoolpsx
Member
There's 2 Gamestop within 3 miles of each other where I live.
They likely have looked into it and taken action. They aren't going to tell you what that action is. That's generally not how companies work.
wonderboyjones
Member
I don't completely understand the placement either. However, the one I go to has an awesome staff. I like the fact that there is still a retail store I can go in and talk to people that know what they're talking about. Here's hoping they stay open :/
I have 8 in a 5.4 mile radius of my location. One's 0.4 mile away from me and will most likely be closed in this.
Fucking sucks.
You should chart the McDonalds next to you for comparison.
Dude...... I actually wanted to make that correlation but McDonald's.com doesn't work like that. I checked last night since Orlando has the most fast food joints in the world and in a 5 mile radius however, there is 14 of those alone.
x Power Pad Death Stomp x
Member
At least when I used to work there, when Gamestop bought EB Games, they kept all those stores open, and then as the leases expired on them (some were very long leases) they've been slowly closing them. There was no way in hell they were going to pay the penalties to break the leases. One mall around here had THREE Gamestops in it for a while. Three.
They also started opening stores in ANY shopping center they could for a while. They were insistent that this did not hurt each others business (it did). Looks like they are finally realizing the error of having 3 stores all selling the same thing within 5 miles of each other.
The huge push to sell DLC was starting just when I left, but they were psycho about us pushing points cards and DLC codes. I guess that's where they see it going in about 10 years. From a big store full of stuff to maybe a kiosk or much smaller space with people there to hand hold you through buying dlc.
They also started opening stores in ANY shopping center they could for a while. They were insistent that this did not hurt each others business (it did). Looks like they are finally realizing the error of having 3 stores all selling the same thing within 5 miles of each other.
The huge push to sell DLC was starting just when I left, but they were psycho about us pushing points cards and DLC codes. I guess that's where they see it going in about 10 years. From a big store full of stuff to maybe a kiosk or much smaller space with people there to hand hold you through buying dlc.
Petrae
Member
Ah Funcoland. Memories.
FuncoLand was leaps and bounds better for consumers. Demo stations, ability to try games before buying (including new ones), and a pretty wide selection of inventory. Demo (opened) new games that were opened automatically got a 10% discount if customers wanted them.
As a manager, FuncoLand was similar to GameStop in that we still had our "extraneous" targets: Cleaning kits & magazine subs were important parts of our job performance, and we got read the riot act if our numbers weren't good. Still-- numbers were secondary if your sales were good, your inventory was good, and you earned a strong rapport with customers.
I miss it.
Bumblebeetuna
Banned
Like everyone else said, there are too fucking many Gamestop's as it is. At one point in my city we had a mall with a Gamestop, another Gamestop literally right outside the mall in the shopping center, a Gamestop literally at most 3/4 of a mile away in a shopping center near a Walmart, and if you left the mall and got on the highway, less than 5 minutes later you could arrive at another large shopping center with a Gamestop in the shopping center next to another Walmart.
Now it's just the two stores in the Walmart shopping centers, and another all the way across town.
Now it's just the two stores in the Walmart shopping centers, and another all the way across town.
At one point, Roosevelt Field (LI's largest mall) had 4 Gamestops in it... now it's down to 2. Around that same time, Smith Haven (a medium-sized mall and the one nearest to me) had 2 Gamestops and a store called Planet Comics which, was a comic book store that effectively became a Gamestop. In a shopping center adjacent to the mall, there was a Funcoland that became a Gamestop.