After Attempting To Declare Itself An "Essential Business," Gamestop Is Permanently Closing 300 Stores
GameStop, which recently came under fire for attempting to declare itself an essential business during Coronavirus-related business closures, has announced that it will be permanently closing over 300 of its stores.
The move is part of an ongoing strategy for the company to remain profitable despite dramatic sales decreases. Last year, Gamestop closed 320 of its stores.
On a conference call discussing fourth fiscal quarter earnings, CEO Jim Bell said, "In 2020, we will continue our work to de-densify our global store fleet and anticipate store closures to be equal to or more than 320 net closures we saw in fiscal 2019 on a global basis." This means that Gamestop stores that are in close proximity to are the most likely to be closed.
Despite seeing a 26% decrease in sales in the fourth quarter of 2019, Gamestop managed to be profitable, turning a $109 million profit. This is in part due to the large number of store closures which had lowered the company's operating costs.
March 2020 also saw a small bump in GameStop sales, a likely result of the releases of Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing. The company also hopes it will see a revenue bump in the fourth quarter of 2020, with the upcoming releases of the new Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X.
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DirkDiggums
Gamestop is bankrupt. They are only holding out for the next console release. They are a penny stock that's dropping and we are now in a recession. They prop themselves up doing tech trades (which is really bringing in used iphones for a really shitty price, thus creating a lot of people bringing stolen iphones there). This is the guy to go to for the Gamestop lore, who was a SA there for like 12 years:
Square Memester
Mudkip97
But…Reggie just started working there…
Pokejoseph64
Goddammit I really hope the Tysons Corner location doesn’t get shut down
It’s the closest and best way to get physical releases for me!
Weasselk
Me, who used Steam and GOG for last 10 years:
- Game Stop? now that is a name i havent heard in years, and I didnt want to even hear about it.
Tao_Swordsman
Hope it was worth it, Gamestop, to knowingly and willingly put people's lives on the line just to make your wallets just a bit fatter.
Kommando_Kaijin
Their body wasn't ready.
Sanakan_ht
Reggie really picked at the worst timing
RemChi
Probably something in motion before he was there, if not part of his decision.
Cut off a comparable few jobs to save more.
DirkDiggums
there's something else going on. They already know the company is done for so they are bringing him in either in some desperate tactic or just to prop up consumer confidence.