Gamestop Slips Below Book Value

[Nihilan]

It must be super regional. All three of the malls near me have Gamestops. Although two of them have had those Gamestops for probably close to 20 years, the third mall is actually quite new. I'd say the Gamestop has been there two or three years, tops.

I don't think malls in general are super successful anymore so it doesn't surprise me if they weren't the choice locations to open up stores nowadays, but I definitely wouldn't call them very very rare, at least not in this area. They seem to be about as rare as malls, in any case!

(also, holy fuck, according to Google maps there are nine Gamestops within 15 miles of me. HOW ARE SO MANY STILL IN BUSINESS. Also apparently one of them is still called EB games for some reason. I don't even.)

I live in north San Diego and at one point there was a Gamestop literally across the street from another Gamestop. You could throw a rock from the parking lot of one and break a window on the other. One of them was an EB games that renamed to GS for a few years before finally closing and reopening as some shitty cellphone shop.

Even now, off the top of my head, i can think of at least five GS locations in the vicinity that are still open.

I stopped shopping at those stores ages ago as my experiences there were universally irritating.

[Jester Joe]

The reverse of this is some people like to see what they are buying, some don't like going full digital, and some have just as meany if not more complaints with sites like Amazon. I myself still prefer to shop at stores like Barns and Noble, Gamestop, and Sears for some of the reasons listed above.

Barnes and Noble is pretty nice still to go to, I'll admit. I do miss Borders.

But they also have the advantage over Gamestop that if you're curious in a book, you can go into Barnes and Noble, pick it up and read it a bit.

Can't really do that with Gamestop to a game, nor an online store like Amazon.

[Osmeric]

Barnes and Noble is pretty nice still to go to,

Not for much longer. They just fired a bunch of full time employees at their stores and invited them to reapply for part time jobs, minimum wage.

I expect they're going to flame out in very short order.

[Tziva]

When I worked at Barnes & Noble (years and years ago) it was corporate policy that you had to work there a year before you even qualified for full time hours. Most people who qualified never got them, as managers were discouraged from doing so lest they have to pay benefits. The pay was minimum wage.

In short, I am not sure that shows any kind of shift in policy. The end result is the same; all their employees working 34 hours a week for shit with no benefits and no hope of seeing any.

Anyway, a bit of a tangent but that's how retail largely is in the US I believe.

[Tech614]

Retail work is literal aids anywhere, unless you're broke college student and don't have many other options with flexible part time hours. Gamestop is really bad with their COL(or whatever dumb name they're calling it now) shit though, thankfully it wasn't pushed that much when I had to work for them.

[Unholyground]

It has been written on the walls for a while now, my wife used to work at EBGames and they started scaling back hours and moving people around about a year ago, and they are doing it again this year and they are now becoming extremely scrutinizing towards employees who they are now expected to make game guarantee sales and all that jazz or be reprimanded or fired if they don't meet numbers.

[prwraith]

If gamestop wouldn't push their goddamn powerup card so much I'd probably consider going in there. The guy asked me 6 times when I went to purchase star ocean the last hope a few years back. I ended up walking out and buying it from walmart.

I realize it's a corporate policy, but that's how you fix this, you don't support them until it's changed

[plagueshard801]

To be honest, I'm surprised they lasted this long. Outside of the ones in malls, I've had frequent conversations with the guys at the one I go to and he said there are several hour stretches every day where they get nobody at all, and that some days he can count the number of customers that actually buy stuff on both hands. And this store is located in a very busy shopping center.

The one in the mall near me is a different story, that place is always crowded as hell. Though how many are actually there to buy, I have no idea.

To add to this, the employees there are already in fierce competition with each other for time on the schedule. Every time I go in there and buy something I have to listen to a 5 minute pitch about rating their service, one guy even told me that's how the manager decides who gets to work.

Gamestop had it's place though. I had an excellent time as nearly every midnight release (GTA5 and TBC being the most memorable), and they used to let you return used games for any reason within 7 days if you were a rewards member. That kind of buyers remorse protection was priceless back then.

[Jtbrig7390]

they used to let you return used games for any reason within 7 days if you were a rewards member.

Just FYI you never had to be a rewards member to do this and you can still do it.

[Video Games]

When I worked at Barnes & Noble (years and years ago) it was corporate policy that you had to work there a year before you even qualified for full time hours. Most people who qualified never got them, as managers were discouraged from doing so lest they have to pay benefits. The pay was minimum wage.

In short, I am not sure that shows any kind of shift in policy. The end result is the same; all their employees working 34 hours a week for shit with no benefits and no hope of seeing any.

Anyway, a bit of a tangent but that's how retail largely is in the US I believe.

I don't like them because a girl was smiling at me and then looked at the cover of the manga I was buying which had 2 girls kissing and she immediately frowned.