My local mall has two Gamestops and then across the street there is another Gamestop. The thing that makes it worse is the mall is in NH and the one across the street is in Mass. So the one across the street has sales tax. I don't understand why anyone would go to the one with sales tax if there are two others across the street.
Yahoo.com: Gamestop to close 400-500 stores
Doesn't affect me as I have bought all my games on Steam for years now, but back when I didn't have my PC and had to go to the local EB Games I never had a problem. The staff was always nice and friendly. Can't speak for the place now, but they were fine when I went there years ago. Best of luck to those out of a job. Best Buy just closed a crap load of stores too so it's a bad time to be in the retail job market.
@rentfn said:
My local mall has two Gamestops and then across the street there is another Gamestop. The thing that makes it worse is the mall is in NH and the one across the street is in Mass. So the one across the street has sales tax. I don't understand why anyone would go to the one with sales tax if there are two others across the street.
I figure it's probably for the same reason people would buy something in person and pay $5 tax instead of going online and buying it without tax. Which is to say, I have absolutely no idea why they would do that.
@big_jon said:
@Sparky_Buzzsaw said:
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.
Just saying.
There are always exceptions, but I saw some genuinely shit stuff go on the few times I went into Gamestop back in the day (I've only been to them a few times and not in the better part of a decade). One time, I saw a girl sincerely trying to sell a customer on buying Def Jam Icon as "easily the best game of the year". Another, I saw an employee trying to convince a customer who came in for some console controllers (which were out of stock) that a shitty Madkatz controller was just as good and, in fact, better (because it's what they had left in stock). Then there was the guy who always wore a piece of green felt fabric clipped around his neck with a safety pin like a magic cape every time I went into the store.
Not that Gamestop is alone in that. Radio Shack had just as ridiculous employees. So does Best Buy. Basically, the people at all these places just want to (well, don't want to -- but are forced to) upsell you stupid shit, get your personal data... and don't know what the fuck they're talking about when you ask them questions about products. They just want you to hand over your money. If that means convincing you that the LED *backlit* display you're looking at for $4,000 is actually a fully LED display, then so be it. They'll gladly do so.
@Branthog said:
@rentfn said:
My local mall has two Gamestops and then across the street there is another Gamestop. The thing that makes it worse is the mall is in NH and the one across the street is in Mass. So the one across the street has sales tax. I don't understand why anyone would go to the one with sales tax if there are two others across the street.
I figure it's probably for the same reason people would buy something in person and pay $5 tax instead of going online and buying it without tax. Which is to say, I have absolutely no idea why they would do that.
@big_jon said:
@Sparky_Buzzsaw said:
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.
Just saying.
There are always exceptions, but I saw some genuinely shit stuff go on the few times I went into Gamestop back in the day (I've only been to them a few times and not in the better part of a decade). One time, I saw a girl sincerely trying to sell a customer on buying Def Jam Icon as "easily the best game of the year". Another, I saw an employee trying to convince a customer who came in for some console controllers (which were out of stock) that a shitty Madkatz controller was just as good and, in fact, better (because it's what they had left in stock). Then there was the guy who always wore a piece of green felt fabric clipped around his neck with a safety pin like a magic cape every time I went into the store.
Not that Gamestop is alone in that. Radio Shack had just as ridiculous employees. So does Best Buy. Basically, the people at all these places just want to (well, don't want to -- but are forced to) upsell you stupid shit, get your personal data... and don't know what the fuck they're talking about when you ask them questions about products. They just want you to hand over your money. If that means convincing you that the LED *backlit* display you're looking at for $4,000 is actually a fully LED display, then so be it. They'll gladly do so.
The green cape thing made me lol.
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
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
I have one of those around here, they're the same as Gamestop.
@Wampa1 said:
Isn't this essentially the same issue GAME had here in the UK? Insane over saturation always leads to this happening.
pretty much, Game grew quickly but they concentrated all their stores in the urban centers which meant you could get 2-3 stores in one town but none in the 3 surrounding towns, that and the decreased spending in stores during the economic downturn. Personally I find the service at my local game to be pretty good but ive had worse luck in other stores when i lived elsewhere with them losing preorders and stuff. Game remain open though and since the company changed hands they have made a lot of great changes to stay relevant like partnering with steam to sell content codes and steam wallet funds as well as expanding the PC section of the stores. hopefully this means similar changes for gamestop
Anyone who says fuck gamestop is an ignorant prick. I worked at a gamestop and everyone there including the manager and the district manager were saints. great people who loved games. I agree that the company sucks but the people whos backs it rests upon are good people true gamers.
@crusader8463 said:
Doesn't affect me as I have bought all my games on Steam for years now, but back when I didn't have my PC and had to go to the local EB Games I never had a problem. The staff was always nice and friendly. Can't speak for the place now, but they were fine when I went there years ago. Best of luck to those out of a job. Best Buy just closed a crap load of stores too so it's a bad time to be in the retail job market.
The only thing that sucks about Amazon is they seem to have stopped the crazy credits they used to give with purchases. If you pre-ordered a game, you were almost always sure to get $10-$20 store credit. That means that you basically got a free full priced game for every three or four games you bought. It was delightful.
@big_jon said:
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
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
I have one of those around here, they're the same as Gamestop.
not really, at least not the play n trade in my area,
they used to come let us bring our stuff and play games there and no one were really douches and no one really harassed anybody about preordering a game, bunch of people just straight up hanged out in that area,
thats just been my experience
I choose to shop at GameStop, but fuck the people who work there that are just doing their job. I hope they close forever because I can just go shop somewhere else even though I currently choose to shop at GameStop expecting the worst experience of my life ever single time I go there.
I live in Orange County, and there's pretty much a GameStop every square mile down here, it's kind of ridiculous. I've been in multiple malls where there was a GameStop on each level. It sucks for the employees affected by this, but it's not like they were hard to find as it is...
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
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
I have one of those around here, they're the same as Gamestop.
not really, at least not the play n trade in my area,
they used to come let us bring our stuff and play games there and no one were really douches and no one really harassed anybody about preordering a game, bunch of people just straight up hanged out in that area,
thats just been my experience
Perhaps I am a little too hard on them, but their manager really rubs me the wrong way, and the pre-order shit still bothers me. You know on Halo 4's launch at the midnight thing, they actually made the people who didn't pre order stay out side till midnight, those of us who did, we go in at 10:00 to play the game. Non pre-ordering peasants got the second hand treatment.
I did win some Halo "swag" which was cool, but still, that stuff makes me not want to support their store.
Wow, there's only one in the town that I live in, and everyone there is genuinely nice. They'll ask me if I'm interested in the prima guide to whatever new game I'm buying, but beyond that they're pretty mellow about that sort of stuff.
surely there has to be some sort of anti-trust litigation against amazon now?
i mean i don't think gamestop's all that great (though a friend of mine shops there a lot) but in a way amazon seems like a bigger, faceless, much more inhuman kind of "evil"...
(i have shopped with them lately [/hypocrite] )
@Branthog: They've converted enough of us to buying games from Amazon that perks are no longer necessary I guess.
The market for games is shifting from brick and mortar to online since they can be either downloaded or bought much cheaper through Ebay or Amazon. Gamestop and GAME will have to adapt to the change or face closure, don't know the state of EB Games but if Microsoft and Sony find a way to prevent pre-owns then it too will be in trouble.
@Branthog said:
@crusader8463 said:
Doesn't affect me as I have bought all my games on Steam for years now, but back when I didn't have my PC and had to go to the local EB Games I never had a problem. The staff was always nice and friendly. Can't speak for the place now, but they were fine when I went there years ago. Best of luck to those out of a job. Best Buy just closed a crap load of stores too so it's a bad time to be in the retail job market.
The only thing that sucks about Amazon is they seem to have stopped the crazy credits they used to give with purchases. If you pre-ordered a game, you were almost always sure to get $10-$20 store credit. That means that you basically got a free full priced game for every three or four games you bought. It was delightful.
They never had those here, plus the quickest you can get any game is like a week or two after it comes out no matter what shipping option you choose so amazon is never an option for new release games.
@ripelivejam said:
surely there has to be some sort of anti-trust litigation against amazon now?
i mean i don't think gamestop's all that great (though a friend of mine shops there a lot) but in a way amazon seems like a bigger, faceless, much more inhuman kind of "evil"...
(i have shopped with them lately [/hypocrite] )
Huh? What do you mean? Anti-trust for selling a lot of video games?
Regardless of all the negative feelings (and I've had them too in the past) towards gamestop, I still like that there's a dedicated gaming store around that I can go in and not be ashamed to be a nerd about games and the people working there will generally know what the fuck I'm talking about (I'm sure there are idiots too, but they are closing stores after all, maybe they'll be weeded out a little). What I really hope comes out of this is that the combined stocks of all these stores means if there's something weird I want, it'll definitately be at the one gamestop that will presumably be left near me, and I won't have to drive 20 miles to another store to find "Weird Game X".
@Branthog said:
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.
Low-skill jobs are not in as much abundance as you might think, the job board at my unemployment office gets smaller every day.
@AlecOfTheWest said:
Wow, there's only one in the town that I live in, and everyone there is genuinely nice. They'll ask me if I'm interested in the prima guide to whatever new game I'm buying, but beyond that they're pretty mellow about that sort of stuff.
I don't understand how Prima are still in business these days.
I do admit the guides are of very high quality in some cases however, I just don't know who still buys them.
@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.
And that's why it was the one to get closed. The other local stores probably got better preorder numbers, edge card sales and guide book sales so they stayed open.
Shame. Unlike a lot of people, I have no issue with Gamestop. Mine is great. All the people that work at the one in my town are chill and fairly knowledgeable about stuff, and never hassle too much about anything. I can't help but feel the chain gets a bad name just from certain stores with less desirable employees.
I don't really get the hatred they have against them. Is it because of how little they offer for trades and then how high they mark them up? eBay can solve that, you'll get more for games you sell and you pay less for games you buy.
But I'm not surprised they are closing quite a few down. In a couple towns over, which is really a 5 minute drive down the highway, there are 4 Gamestops within a 3 mile radius. Even worse, two of those four, ARE IN THE SAME MALL! That's right. Two Gamestops, in one mall, at complete opposite ends... One used to be an EB Games but I don't know the story there. Regardless, completely ridiculous to have two of the same store in the same mall. That's probably why they're closing a bunch down.
@big_jon said:
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
@mrfluke said:
@big_jon said:
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
I have one of those around here, they're the same as Gamestop.
not really, at least not the play n trade in my area,
they used to come let us bring our stuff and play games there and no one were really douches and no one really harassed anybody about preordering a game, bunch of people just straight up hanged out in that area,
thats just been my experience
Perhaps I am a little too hard on them, but their manager really rubs me the wrong way, and the pre-order shit still bothers me. You know on Halo 4's launch at the midnight thing, they actually made the people who didn't pre order stay out side till midnight, those of us who did, we go in at 10:00 to play the game. Non pre-ordering peasants got the second hand treatment.
I did win some Halo "swag" which was cool, but still, that stuff makes me not want to support their store.
yea that does sound harsh, but i cant speak to having that sort of experience in the store in my area. so i dunno
GameStop is living on borrowed time, once the industry goes full digital distribution then GameStop won't exist anymore. Which is fine with me because I hate their policies, they don't give developers any money at all from the second hand purchase, a problem they could easily fix by giving say $10 of every used game purchase back to the developer. Also I hate buying their games, those stupid stickers are so hard to get off, it's not worth it. Just wait for the games to drop in price a bit and buy them new, if you can wait you can easily save a lot of money.
I feel bad for the employees though. Wish them the best of luck out there.
@Branthog said:
@ripelivejam said:
surely there has to be some sort of anti-trust litigation against amazon now?
i mean i don't think gamestop's all that great (though a friend of mine shops there a lot) but in a way amazon seems like a bigger, faceless, much more inhuman kind of "evil"...
(i have shopped with them lately [/hypocrite] )
Huh? What do you mean? Anti-trust for selling a lot of video games?
no just their general dominance of retail. they seem to be actively trying to ruin all retail businesses out there small and large, like with how they went for so long with no tax on purchases in california. i mean they're not actively threatening businesses i suppose but they do seem aggressive in their prevalence as a retailer. i suppose you can argue survival of the fittest and it's the fault of smaller companies for not getting with the times, but it seems more and more like amazon is a force that no one can compete against, or even try to compete against. also my job's tied to another retail company that's already struggling a little and i'm fearful for its future in the long run, so i'm also affected pretty directly by it. i'm not a lawyer obviously so feel free to shoot me down for the ignorance of my comments.
@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.
Perhaps that's why they got closed down? No preorders = no money. Follow the money.
They did the most business of the three. I heard a make up franchise bought the store.@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.Perhaps that's why they got closed down? No preorders = no money. Follow the money.
@Slunks said:
Hope the employees can find jobs without too much trouble. Regardless, down with that cancer of a company and their practices.
Make up your mind.
Got two here in a single mall. And three along the same stretch of road within a single mile. Not surprising that they're going to close a few stores. Should help with their selection online and in store too, which is a great thing. Hope the employees manage though.
I see multiple Gamestops in the same mall. Now I will no longer see multiple Gamestops in the same mall.
O.k.
Digital distribution and on-line shopping is the future. I can now get a game shipped directly to my house on the day of release, or just purchase it from PSN or XBox live. There's no need to deal with retail stores anymore.
Gamestop is going to go the way of Blockbuster Video. They've become irrelevant.
I wonder if this is worldwide. I remember being pretty surprised, when I visited my hometown over here in Finland last year and noticed that Gamestop had popped up. But I wasn't surprised that it closed down maybe after 5-6 months or so. I don't think it could've survived in a small town like that even when digital distribution wasn't this big of a deal, naturally even less so with how it is now. Got one in ze city I currently live in and I guess it would be bit of a bummer for it to close down. Though on the bright side my gaming shelf wouldn't just be ten games in a line anymore without the ability to sell used games (that easily)...
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