A week ago, I posted Forever 21 is facing bankruptcy, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse. Today, the story is about GameStop, which Company Man profiled in June as a chain in trouble.* That trouble is starting to materialize, as WFMZ-TV reported yesterday GameStop closing hundreds of stores.
Brick and mortar stores have been under pressure for some time, and it's not letting up.I was wondering when the other shoe would drop since Company Man's video and the immediately subsequent drop in stock price. I can now see it falling.
GameStop, the biggest video game retailer in the world, announced Thursday that it will close up to 200 stores by the end of the year.
It is not great news for people like Robert Thomas.
"I like going to the store because I get to see all options and even when I go to the store I might see something I won't see online," Thomas said.
Currently there are 5,700 GameStop stores across the globe, but they're struggling because video games can now be purchased or even directly downloaded online.
Kenneth Davis, manager of The Video Game Store on Hamilton Street, thinks focusing mainly on new games is hurting GameStop.
"Pennsylvania in general, Allentown in general, has a huge retro gaming community," Davis said.
Erik of Retail Archaeology also uploaded a video on this story yesterday, asking GameStop: Is The End Near?
In this episode we take a look at GameStop. They've announced hundreds of store closures and a huge quarterly loss.Erik not only gave his viewers a review of the chain's history and an update on the corporation's stock price, which has dropped even more, but his trademark ground-level view of a retail story along some analysis that local news stations generally don't do for Retail Apocalypse stories.
I'll follow up on this story as it develops. Until then, remember that 12,000 stores are likely to close this year. GameStop's announcement makes reaching that dubious goal even more likely.
*I'm tempted to start a shopping Saturday series to go along with my Sunday entertainment features, but I don't want to restrict my coverage of the Retail Apocalypse to weekends.
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