There are probably too many, but that's sad to think about for the people who get let go.
Also, over two regions of living, three of my five local GameStops are pretty all right, and one is absolutely goddamned awesome. So it's worked out okay for me so far.
Damn yeah if there are that many where you guys are I guess this makes sense. I guess there was a boom but not sure why that kind of expansion was necessary.
In Massachusetts and it's not remotely that extreme. They are basically in malls, one to a mall, and there are a few solo ones around in your strip mall here or there.
@The_Laughing_Man said:
One of the local ones closed. They where great guys. The manager was a great guy. Never hassles me about pre orders and that stuff.
That's unheard of. I try to never go to a Gamestop but getting hassled is like clockwork. Hence why I try to never go.
If I'm buying full retail I try to support my local independent shop. No nonsense there.
They recently closed one of the two in my town's mall. I hope they don't close the one near my house though, it feels the least greasy, and the employee's are pretty cool.
well that sucks for them. sucks for the people that might lose their jobs. there's three in town next to me. one in their own store and then two at the mall. i think one isn't called gamestop though.
I always wondered how certain areas could support so many Gamestop stores. There are currently at least five just in San Francisco that I know of, and probably another 30 Gamestop stores within 20 minutes of here in different directions. Hell, I know of a mall south of here that has two stores inside the mall, one on the upper level and another on the ground floor. That is just insane for a company that owns all of their own stores, these aren't franchises.
There are 14 Gamestops within 10 miles of me, right now. They're as prevalent as McDonalds' -- well, not really, but there are almost 7,000 of them which is more than 140 per state in the lower 48. Since there's also Amazon.com, I don't really care. In fact, the fewer the better. The only time I stop at Gamestop is when I'm too impatient to wait 24-48hrs for delivery from Amazon . . . which hasn't happened in almost eight years.
@SmilingPig said:
If it’s true than it’s a shame for all those employees.
Probably not that much of a shame. It's a low-skill and high-turnover job and there are plenty of those to go around. All they have to do is step outside of their store and look up and down the mall they're in to find two hundred other shops they could apply at. I don't think losing your job at Gamestop is one of those "now I'm going to be unemployed for six months while I field other options and negotiate a contract somewhere" kind of things.
Fuck, I hope the one in my town doesn't close because its the only decent place to pick up any game within a half hour. Also not everyone who works for GameStop is a total douchebag, the store in my town actually has good employees who are pretty knowledgeable.
Not even that.It's about 7% of them. Closing a few of them isn't going to affect sales much as people will just drive an extra mile to get to one, if they absolutely can't use the internet like everyone else. There are at least 14 of them within ten miles of me. That is absolutely ridiculous for something like a game store.
"[They] analyzed the retailers’ store counts, recent financial data, online presences, prospects against direct competitors and precedents set by other large retailers that have downsized by shuttering locations. We then forecast how many stores each retailer will have to close this year to sharply increase its prospects financially, even if some of those location closings do not occur for several years. These forecasts were based on drops in same-store sales, drops in revenue, a review of direct competitors, Internet sales and the size of cuts at retailers in the same sector, if those were available."
I'm sure some will be closing this year. Hell they closed one in the mall near my house, but it's too soon to tell about other stores. If I were them I'd start looking for other work now though.
I hate to hear about so many people potentially losing jobs, but I have not been a fan of Gamestop for a long time now so I can't say that I am too dismayed.
Sucks for the employees, but I hear a lot of them a scumbags too so.
True but most of the time they come across as scummy because of Gamestop's policies. I know some people who work there and they wish they could find jobs elsewhere so they don't have to be forced to sell preorders and bullshit game guides. They have to ask all that shit for a reason.
Sucks for the employees, but I hear a lot of them a scumbags too so.
I'm sure there are some. I definitely don't like dealing with them.
I view them in a similar way to how I view cops: I feel like they have to be dicks sometimes because they're forced to by those above them, they have to meet certain quoatas and do certain things (DO YOU WANT TO PREORDER THE NEW CALL OF DUTY!?!?!) to keep their jobs.
But many go beyond that and are just assholes.
@Branthog said:
@SmilingPig said:
If it’s true than it’s a shame for all those employees.
Probably not that much of a shame. It's a low-skill and high-turnover job and there are plenty of those to go around. All they have to do is step outside of their store and look up and down the mall they're in to find two hundred other shops they could apply at. I don't think losing your job at Gamestop is one of those "now I'm going to be unemployed for six months while I field other options and negotiate a contract somewhere" kind of things.
Tough enough times some places that there aren't just plenty of those jobs to go around.
The mall by me actually has two GameStops in it, which never made any sense to me. There's also at least 7 or 8 of them within a 15 minute drive from my house.
Everyone is saying sucks for the employees, but Gamestop pays like shit anyway so after pounding the pavement for a couple days most of them are going to be better off. And as far as Gamestop itself goes I only ever go there when I'm buying something with a pre-order that I want to make sure I have release day otherwise I just buy online.
I know this is terrible generalizing, but I don't feel terrible about this at all. I've never had a decent salesperson at Gamestop. I just want to get in, get my games, and get out. I don't want to have a conversation about how Call of Duty is so much worse than Halo if I'm buying either of them. I don't want you to recommend five or six other obscure Japanese RPGs. I don't want to hear you treat some mom like she's an idiot for buying her son X or Y game. Just keep your head down, sell your games, and be quiet and polite. That's it.
Ugh. Rant over. I am genuinely sorry for those Gamestop employees who are decent, hard working folks.
My town doesn't have any of those mythical Gamestops that doesn't hassle you about trade-in deals and preorders. I am not surprised that they're declining though. Amazon has been doing a great job of giving competitive, if not better prices on used games. Also the majority of people who want a console probably have the ones they want now. It'll be interesting to see if their stock picks up when the next generation of consoles hits.
As a former employee of gamestop, death to GameStop. This company does not give a single fuck about its employees. Most get minimum wage and an extremely limited number of hours per week, depending on how many subscriptions and pre-orders they sell. I wouldn't wish GameStop employment on my worst enemies.
I get everything from Amazon now anyway so I really don't care that much.
The one thing that would suck is that my friend Joe is a manager at one of our stores here, so I guess he would be out of a job if any of the stores here closed down.
It depresses me, because I feel like these places should be the type of place where people who love games enjoy going to, instead they are just the opposite.
@The_Laughing_Man: Sadly, that's probably one of the reasons why they were closed. I used to work at Gamestop, they obsess over preorders and magazine subscriptions. Used to be they'd give commission. Then they just said "Do it or you're fired".
@The_Laughing_Man: Sadly, that's probably one of the reasons why they were closed. I used to work at Gamestop, they obsess over preorders and magazine subscriptions. Used to be they'd give commission. Then they just said "Do it or you're fired".
I meant as in he would say" Anything else you wanna pre order" And I would say nah. He would suggest something and I would say no an that would be the end ofi t.
I know this is terrible generalizing, but I don't feel terrible about this at all. I've never had a decent salesperson at Gamestop. I just want to get in, get my games, and get out. I don't want to have a conversation about how Call of Duty is so much worse than Halo if I'm buying either of them. I don't want you to recommend five or six other obscure Japanese RPGs. I don't want to hear you treat some mom like she's an idiot for buying her son X or Y game. Just keep your head down, sell your games, and be quiet and polite. That's it.
Ugh. Rant over. I am genuinely sorry for those Gamestop employees who are decent, hard working folks.
These sound like made up scenarios, as far as I know they are generally happy if you buy any game. Like I can't even imagine a scenario where a sales person would try to talk down a game you are buying or why they would start talking about their favourite obscure RPG if you were no in a conversation with them that would naturally lead to that being brought up.
The worst I have seen or heard is lying to people to make a sale, trying to appease to your taste to try and make a sale, trying to get you to preorder stuff without you asking about it, trying to push the new Call of Duty onto you.
It depresses me, because I feel like these places should be the type of place where people who love games enjoy going to, instead they are just the opposite.
play n trade sort of fits your description, i have no idea if they are still around though
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