Things aren't Well at Gamestop

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Gamestop is the often mocked company for its business practices on trading in games and how its operated for years. The company has ran into numerous debacles the last decade from the pressure its put upon its workers to having them leave in frustration. Or letting them go over situations that really is absurd as some have detailed online.

The last year has been one debacle after another as the board over Gamestop has pretty much made the company a fucking joke in the business community and did it worse to us...consumers. Lets detail one comical deal.


[B][U]
The CIRCLE OF ...LIFE !
[/U][/B]

Never has a program that Gamestop forced on its workers became so widely mocked. Anyhow the company itself came under fire as it would pressure its workers to push used games to sell as part of its "circle of life" program. Constantly demanding certain sales numbers of this. The program became a huge deal online as news outlets mocked it and finally after so much terrible criticism Gamestop ended this.


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[B][U]THE ELITE ! [/U][/B]

In October of 2017 Gamestop decided a good way to try and juice sales and move its best profit moving business was to introduce the Elite Pro membership. This would be a great tool as you can see it gave way more discounts and points towards moving used games. Gamestop's best money maker. The Elite Membership began and for a good while things seemed good. I made some trade ins and signed up for The Elite when my card subscription came up.

Over the next few months I would use the Elite as would others. It was a great deal for the time and well like most too good to be true situations ...Gamestop suddenly in the summer of 2018 ...ENDED the Elite program. Gamestops stupid board made a decision that they needed way more profits to try and sell the company and losing pennies on used games was killing their bottom line. To make it even more absurd as hell ; even if you had signed up for Elite membership in say October or later....you were told you had 1 day to renew it in the summer of 2018 or you were out of luck.

It was like the company and board were begging you to not re-up Elite and hoping to save themselves those fucking pennies. The move made Gamestop a literal punchline for months as well. As people basically questioned on why Gamestop would launch something like this and let idiots in charge ruin it months later. As the Elite ends (mine ended in January) the company lost a lot of goodwill it seemed to be trying to gain back.


[B][U]COMICS at....GAMESTOP !
[/U][/B]

One industry not in trouble is the comic book market. The industry as a whole has done very well since the 2000's began and while sales will never echo the 1990's speculator market era ; overall things are doing well . Comics are now being carried in Wal-Mart in 6,000+ stores as well so one company that noticed this was Gamestop. In looking to add to their collectibles they sell at the store ; Gamestop came calling to DC & Marvel.

It was a tryout in 40 stores and I do remember last year discussing this with someone who was over some places. Anyhow the person mocked how comics was a dying industry and all. Never mind the business they were part of was looking to sell itself out and there was issues with them stopping a program they just introduced comically. Yet somehow comics was the dying industry....suuuureeee.

And this coming from a company that once tried to force its workers to sell as much used games as possible and demanded them hit these numbers.



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[B][U]The Kingdom Hearts 3 disaster : [/U][/B]

As the big heat for the release of the long awaited Kingdom Hearts III gathered up , Gamestop was selling an exclusive PS4 Pro 1TB system with the game. This special was limited and soon enough Gamestop did huge taking preorders for it. Anyhow as time approached they soon realized....THEY MADE TOO MANY PREORDERS and didn't have enough consoles.

The company then was forced to tell many angry customers who did this that they couldn't get the bundle they reserved and that they would get a gift card for this . To say people were pleased is an understatement. And this was the latest debacle ...til today.



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Today the company announced they would not be looking to sell the company and now the clock is ticking. This after selling their cellphone business as they look at ways to discuss to save the company.


[url]https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/gamestop-has-decided-to-end-its-process-to-sell-the-company.html[/url]

[QUOTE=SUPERECWFAN1;4168752][B][U]
The CIRCLE OF ...LIFE !
[/U][/B]

Never has a program that Gamestop forced on its workers became so widely mocked. Anyhow the company itself came under fire as it would pressure its workers to push used games to sell as part of its "circle of life" program. Constantly demanding certain sales numbers of this. The program became a huge deal online as news outlets mocked it and finally after so much terrible criticism Gamestop ended this. [/QUOTE]

For better or worse, "upselling" and other sales quotas required of employees is standard for boutique retailers. It's kind of weird that people act like they've never heard of this kind of thing before.

[QUOTE=Tuck;4170070]For better or worse, "upselling" and other sales quotas required of employees is standard for boutique retailers. It's kind of weird that people act like they've never heard of this kind of thing before.[/QUOTE]

Well with this many know Gamestop pushes the Power Up card membership and all. But the whole pushing used games and getting irked at employees who don't sell that many became an issue that exploded online. The whole Circle of Life program blew up in Gamestops face in a way.

Yeah Gamestop was ridiculous with their pushing used stuff on ppl. I think you would be in the minority saying the comic industry is doing well, a lot stores have closed.

[QUOTE=CliffHanger2;4171251]Yeah Gamestop was ridiculous with their pushing used stuff on ppl. I think you would be in the minority saying the comic industry is doing well, a lot stores have closed.[/QUOTE]

Actually I'd be in the majority who have voiced that the industry isn't in the absolute freefall it was after Speculator Market whenever folks proclaim the industry dead etc at times. In fact if you go to ICV2 and research their index you will see years where comic and graphic novel sales have been more up since that 1990's era. This is one example of comic sales...

[url]https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42283/direct-market-comics-graphic-novel-sales-down-1-2018[/url]

[QUOTE][I]
Diamond Comic Distributors' sales of comics and graphic novels to comic stores were down 1.08% in 2018, according to numbers released by the distributor today. The company had previously reported a small increase in overall sales; those numbers were corrected after ICv2 (and perhaps others) pointed out that the December decline in overall sales on top of the decline reported in year-to-date sales through November last month could not collectively produce an increase.

The decline was all in graphic novel sales, which were down 8.22% for the year in comic stores. Periodical sales were actually up 2.04% for 2018.

December was a bad finish for 2018 in graphic novels, which were down 26.35% vs. December 2017. Comic sales were up 9.29% year-over-year in December.
[/I][/QUOTE]

The only thing dying about the comics industry is that comic shops are going out of business. Otherwise you can still find comics at your local bookstore (singles and or trades), order floppies, or indeed order your comics through digital means.

[QUOTE=SuperiorIronman;4177520]The only thing dying about the comics industry is that comic shops are going out of business. Otherwise you can still find comics at your local bookstore (singles and or trades), order floppies, or indeed order your comics through digital means.[/QUOTE]

The Wal-Mart deal for both companies (you can find Marvel and DC Comics there) was a big plus as we know. The fact DC has started pushing that with characters 1st appearances etc to sell those 80 page giants is a good move. Both companies being in 6,000+ stores across the country is a good win.

The fact someone who worked for a Gamestop in a high position would mock an industry while the company they worked for was going through shit is absurd. I mean they were looking to sell the company last year and there is someone who was trying to put down an industry in a better situation than the one they worked for is beyond comedy.

[QUOTE=Tuck;4170070]For better or worse, "upselling" and other sales quotas required of employees is standard for boutique retailers. It's kind of weird that people act like they've never heard of this kind of thing before.[/QUOTE]

Everyone's heard of it. Gamestop is just extremely obnoxious with how they go about it.

They're basically the next Blockbuster at this point.

[QUOTE=SUPERECWFAN1;4177426]Actually I'd be in the majority who have voiced that the industry isn't in the absolute freefall it was after Speculator Market whenever folks proclaim the industry dead etc at times. In fact if you go to ICV2 and research their index you will see years where comic and graphic novel sales have been more up since that 1990's era. This is one example of comic sales...

[url]https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42283/direct-market-comics-graphic-novel-sales-down-1-2018[/url][/QUOTE]

I guess it's arguable. I mean those figures are shipping figures to stores not actual sales to costumers which I guess would be pretty hard to gauge. But comic shops closing at a high rate even mile high would suggest sales to costumers are down imo.

Went 100% digital this generation. Hate Gamestop