GameStop has laid off over 100 people; 14% of their associate base cut to "optimize business"

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GameStop has been on shaky ground for the past few years, with a lack of innovations and failure to gauge the market slowly leading the company towards the same fate as Blockbuster and Toys 'R Us. Back in July, we saw that GameStop would be renovating a handful of its remaining stores in an attempt to get more people invested in shopping at GameStop regularly. As the company continues to try to stay relevant, more changes have been happening in the background, leading to the laying off of over 100 workers at the retail chain. On Tuesday, GameStop announced that 14% of its associate base, along with half of Game Informer's staff, had been laid off without warning. Earlier this month, GameStop also laid off many of its regional managers, HR dept, and district leaders.

While these changes are difficult, they were necessary to reduce costs and better align the organization with our efforts to optimize the business to meet our future objectives and success factors. We recognize that this is a difficult day for our company and particularly for those associates impacted. We appreciate their dedication and service to GameStop and are committed to supporting them during this time of transition.

:arrow: Source
 

Godofcheese

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Shame.
I don't like Gamestop but seeing them go would be really bad for gamers who buy physical and a lot of second hand stuff

Devs generally hate gamestop because of their second hand stuff and wouldn't mind them going away

Hopefully they will fix their shit and remain, because we are still not ready to go all digital with no way to resell our games or buy used ones.
 

H1B1Esquire

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Got a 401k? That comes to 104 (used copies of Madden '17 on PS3) in credit and a Wawa ham sandwich equivalent to Zimbabwe cash.
Would you like to pre-order a 1099?


Seriously, kind of sucks they had no warning about the "vacation".....like they were....short-changed....ripped-off....sold-a-copy-of-Xenoblade-for-retail-bought-it-off-you-for-70%-less-then-sold-it-for-nearly-200%-retail-feeling kind-of-cheat.
 

DJPlace

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if only they would see a PS classic for 20 dollars would i buy from there bastards... yeah but it sucks to be there BTW
 
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how is gamestop not dead yet?
digital distribution hates them
local brick and mortar store exposes shocking secret
 
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osaka35

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We need physical distribution if we hope to continue owning games. Digital distribution is nice, but the trade-off is too high a price to completely get rid of physical.

I doubt gamestop will go completely out of business, especially in countries it's doing fine, but I don't see a resurgence happening in the states. Most likely will "file for bankruptcy" at some point, be bought out a few months later, and redone in a way that may or may not succeed.

But hey, those going out of business sales will be to die for.
 

Xzi

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We need physical distribution if we hope to continue owning games. Digital distribution is nice, but the trade-off is too high a price to completely get rid of physical.
Amazon and other online outlets probably generate more physical sales than GameStop these days, though. Not to mention there's still Target, Wal-Mart, and other non-specialized retail stores selling games.
 

brickmii82

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Bye GameStop. Too many more cost effective, available options to their business model. Their business practices and employee expectations are largely described as scrupulous at best. I won’t miss them nor do I see this as bad news. I’d honestly prefer the impersonal experience of an Amazon purchase over dealing with the personalized shadiness of GameStop.
 

Hanafuda

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Gamestop (just like the car business) probably profited a lot more on per-unit sales of USED games than they ever did selling new. I bought tons of used GBA carts, N64 carts, Gamecube games over the years from them. I don't know if digital downloads have overtaken physical yet (I would guess yes, but I don't follow that kind of news), but regardless I imagine the used hard copy biz is dying off.

I know how Gamestop has always gouged and taken advantage of their customers, yada yada ... but I did have one very positive experience with them once. About 16 years ago, I bought an N64 in pretty haggard looking condition at Gamestop, along with a few carts to go with it. It was the only one they had. $20 for the console w/ one controller. I can't remember what it was but I was looking for a specific game, but they didn't have it. The employee who was ringing me up agreed it was a cool game, and he asked for my phone number and he'd call me if someone came in to sell their copy. Yeah, sure, I thought, but I did give him my number. About 3 days later he calls me ... "Dude, somebody just came in here and sold their purple N64 with a like-new controller! It's all like, brand new looking stuff. If you can get here guick, you can trade it for that one you bought the other day." And so I got a seriously like-new purple Funtastic N64 with a matching, still tight-sticked controller, for $20.
 
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HarveyHouston

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GameStop is one of the very few stores where I can buy used games, so seeing the stores close would be a tragedy. If they want to stay a physical store, they need to rethink their strategies. How can a store appeal to a digital market? It's a difficult challenge, but one that is not impossible to manage.

Think about it. If we were to become a digital-only world, where everything relies on the internet - and then the power grid shuts down. Any number of reasons can cause that to happen, from a cyber-attack to something as simple as a solar flare. We'd not only be set back a hundred years or more, but it could actually cost the lives of millions! So many computers in hospitals, schools, and homes...

While this article is about GameStop, it's not just GameStop that's laying off workers. Sam's Club, Costco, Walmart, Kroger/Fred Meyer, Barnes & Noble, Target, Kmart/Sears - these and many more stores are being threatened by internet services like Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, and several other online shopping services. These online services are convenient, but perhaps too convenient. In fact, one indie movie called Craigslist Joe is about a guy who tries to buy absolutely everything off of Craigslist!

We don't want to leave home, so we rely on stuff from Amazon - but at what cost? Digital services like PayPal are actually less secure than having the paper bills locked away in your safe at home! So many times, internet banking services have been hacked. The net has never been 100% secure, not even via a VPN. Want to be 100% secure on the net? Don't use it, then. So we send the checks, but we already know that mail can be mishandled. What then?

I'm not saying that we shouldn't use internet shopping services, nor am I saying that they aren't reliable. I'm just stating that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, being too convenient. By making everything easy and convenient, you actually set yourself up for a potential threat! Better to have the "inconvenient" stores than to not be able to buy anything at all. However, being able to buy from stores is not always easy, since some countries like Venezuela make it very difficult to shop, period. In that case, either stand up against the dictatorship or leave the country.

There needs to be a balance between digital and physical. They can coexist, but one does not need to dominate the other. Relying only on the physical has been done for centuries, but continuing to do so might hinder progress. On the flip side, a digital-only "utopia" presents a security and privacy risk, and can easily be hacked, attacked, and destroyed, since data is mostly fluid anyway (by fluid, I mean that it's consistently changing). Only the smartest of businessmen can learn to use both well. In GameStop's case, I'm afraid that management doesn't know how to make this possible. At least, not yet. Only time will tell.
 
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Shubshub

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Can they just shut down already, Its not like they actually have good deals, Most stores that dont focus solely on games have better deals on games because they dont rely on the games and Game Related merchendise to fuel 100% of their business model
 

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