Several GameStop employees have stated that the company is becoming increasingly desperate and that they are facing extreme pressure from their bosses. The company has faltered in the last several years, and it’s stocks have begun to plummet. GameStop has recently been making several attempts to boost sales and remain relevant.
In order to save money, GameStop closed down 200 stores last September. These stores were all under-performing and therefore the company felt it needed to make cuts, while more stores are planned to close down over the next several years.. Additionally, a leaked video last year showed a GameStop redesign that seemed like a last ditch effort to get customers in stores. The redesign featured a sectioned off sales floor with areas devoted to specific things. One section would be the area where players could shop for video games, another would be devoted to merchandise, and a third would be a retro gaming area with CRT televisions and game systems.
According to several interviews that Polygon has done with GameStop employees, the company has become increasingly desperate to find ways to make money. Most of GameStop’s issues boil down to the fact that many gamers aren’t purchasing and trading used games anymore. This was at one time the company’s main source of income, but digital games are much more convenient than buying a physical copy. The company has been aggressively pushing for more trades to the point that one employee has stated, “Our district manager is pushing tech trades, like iPhones and tablets, as well as [pre-order] reservations. No one cares about the games, or the customers, anymore. It’s obnoxious.”
This desperation has become increasingly apparent to employees, as many have noticed serious consequences. Polygon stated, “Another employee said that in their district, failure to hit targets was punished with a warning, with three warnings leading to employment termination.” One of the largest problems that employees have noticed is the focus on pushy sales tactics. Several of them noted that they could tell customers were annoyed by being asked about pre-orders, loyalty programs, and trade-ins repeatedly, but that employees were forced to continue asking anyway. At this point now most of the company has realized that the new generation of consoles are the last hope to stay in business.
GameStop has been an incredibly important part of the gaming industry for almost two decades. Most gamers have nostalgia laced memories of browsing the shelves of hundreds of video games, while chatting with like-minded individuals. Increased internet speeds have pushed those days far into the past, but that hasn’t stopped GameStop from clinging to them with an iron grip. Nostalgia is no way to run a business though, so GameStop is going to have to figure something out if it wants to remain relevant.
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Source: Polygon
