Topic: Gamestop closing 150-225 of its stores this year

For thoses that shop at Gamestop comes gamestop closing 150-225 of its stores this year. So what is your thoughts on this?

Guess that follows on the low income from Holiday 2016 report that was also immediately followed by stock dropping hard.

Maybe in near future hardware manufacturers will just sell physical media themselves.

I'm not a huge Gamestop shopper like I used to be for various reasons, but it's still nice to have a specialty gaming store at least somewhat nearby (15 minutes for one, 35-40 for the other). I don't mind ordering games online, but I prefer to buy actual consoles in brick and mortar stores since I don't always trust shipping.

Is there a list of which stores are closing?

Not surprised. I liken them to Blockbuster in my area. We didn't need a Blockbuster in every city. As it stands now I can drive to 7 GameStops in about half an hour. Use to be 10 because my local mall had 2 and across the street from there were 2 more.

I despise Gamestop, but I feel bad for the jobs being lost. Only store that sells opened games as new, destroys boxes of products if they don't fit in to their supply chain, and charges roughly the same price for used as new.

in 10 to 15 years local specialist shops wont exist. We will have to buy everything online with no human interaction. One step closer to machines ruling the world. "Viene la tormenta!"

I used to always shop at two locally owned shops in my area. One was owned by an old lady that has struggled to survive. She used to sell new and used and now all she handles is used because distribution deals with the big companies or distributors is too hard for a small store. Another was my buddy's shop. That closed at the PS2 launch because he couldn't get any consoles allocated to him and he needed those sales to tide him through. The money he made from Dreamcast launch wasn't enough to weather the PS2 drought until consoles were widely available again.

I do miss brick and mortar video game stores that were so prevalent back in the mid 80's and late 90's. Those were good days of collecting and gaming.

They apparently have 7000 stores in the US, so not that much of a change relatively speaking.
I'm still surprised any shops like this can keep going nowadays. Most people I know just buy this stuff online.

A slightly weirder thing about Gamestop is they apparently only have 20,000 employees. Which works out at less than 3 employees per store:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameStop

That's a bit weird.

It's clearly due to the Nintendo Switch.

I don't live in the US, but I do know of GameStop and their reputation.

Whatever happens, it is not going to be particularly good news for their employees, and I thoroughly hope they find themselves in a new job as swiftly as possible!

Trouble is, whether you like the sound of it or not, the world has become lazy and clicking on or touching a 'buy' button on a computer or a tablet - especially when they often cheaper too - is effortless and more convenience (for some).

I for one prefer to browse around in different shops, but it's the way the retail world is going these days.

It's much more about price than laziness. Gaming is almost universally cheaper to do online. The prices are generally lower and you don't have to pay to get yourself to the store and back.

Wonder if it's going to affect my country. They're the only company here that sells eShop, Origin and Steam cards, and my country's debit cards don't work on eShop.

Then again they asked $100 for SSBN3DS Double Pack.

I disagree with the lazy statement. Funnily enough you went to give one of the main reasons people shop online. It is generally cheaper.

If I can save significantly by shopping online then call me lazy all you want, I call it sensible. I am not on skid row but at the same time I still want to save.

I agree with you in browsing around shops but that is mainly for items like clothing etc., stuff I actually need to see and touch before I buy.

However my time is far too valuable to be walking around a gaming shop looking at stuff. To me that is pointless. Technology gives me option to allow all that can be done online. I choose to take that option.
I don't need to see a console or game before I buy it. Games are ALWAYS considerably cheaper online whether it be Amazon or secondhand on eBay.

but...but what about the fantastic circle of life program!?

I still buy physical games if possible, but typically even those are cheaper online. I do have a Gamestop gift card to burn though, so my next retail purchase will likely be at a store.

I did luck out with my local Kmart three or four years ago. This was back when they were trying to get rid of all of their physical video game stock and strictly limit their video game sales to online only (I don't know if they even sell games anymore). I picked up brand new copies of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn ($15), Professor Layton and the Unwound Future ($10), and after some thought came back and also bought New Super Mario Bros. U for $40 (still retailing for $60 at the time).

There was a secondhand specialty store in an old mall near me that also stocked Retron 5s, but I heard it closed because the owner got busted for drugs.

Extreme happly. The more stores they close the closer they are to going out of business completely.

@Tasuki Actually closing stores probably ensures they stick around a while longer. They are spreading themselves out far too thin to survive the way they currently are. Like I said in an earlier post I can hit 7 within 5 miles of my home. Unless I'm looking for a specific game and have to have it today that's a waste.

Im going to be sad about Gamestop closing. Ive got some great deals on games and have always been able to find what im looking for there. Trading in games has always been nice. With Digital downloads coming now as fast as they are I would imagine sometime in the next 5 years all gamestops will be closed. I seriously hope not. I like downloading games that are not on cartridge but when it comes to Retail or Cartridge im 100% Cartridge for a bit of collecting or even using as trade in later on. It will be a sad day. But in Las Vegas I think we have at least 25 stores. If they can keep 15 of them open I think Convenience will still be ok. I hate to think of the guys losing their jobs at Games top, I blame it on Donald Trump Since everybody blames him for everything these days! Thats a joke. Maybe they can become like a mom and pop type of setup and concentrate more on Classic games and systems in the future and hopefully keep those remaining stores open.

...Wow, if there are that many Gamestop stores that close to some people, then the closures make even more sense. I live in a primarily rural area, so my access vs. others' access is quite interesting. There was once a third store about 30 minutes in another direction, but it closed a few years ago.

I do feel sorry for the employees that will be losing jobs, though. Barring an obnoxious manager one time, I've never had a bad experience with the personnel at my local store. The refurbished DS systems, on the other hand...never again.

@Dezzy @Hotfusion I wish I made it clearer that I used the word 'lazy' for all forms of shopping, rather than the subject of GameStop and its stores closure.

A lot of people don't even go to their local supermarket or food store to buy their weekly food shopping, and do it all online instead. Not necessarily because it's cheaper, but because it is the easy way out of actually doing the activity itself. I'm seeing a dramatic increase of vans on the road that delivers everyday food to your doorstep.

Ten years ago, you wouldn't see any!

It's a worthwhile service for old(er) people or families with a hectic 'hustle and bustle' lifestyle though.

On another note, the High Street in my home town used to be a really friendly, lively and pleasant place to shop however, things have gone downhill since online shopping became a 'shopping experience' that you could have by zooming in and swiping around on the screen of an iPad.

Of course it isn't the only reason, but it's a big reason all the same.