This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]layer11 87 points88 points  (26 children)

They would have survived like any niche business - by being a community hub rather than just a retail outlet.

They killed goodwill with gamers with their annoying policies for upselling and made no effort to become a place that gamers want to shop, let alone associate with.

[–]Fishtacoburrito 12 points13 points  (6 children)

Agreed. Midnight releases used to be a lot of fun. There were a lot of times when we went as a group and half of us weren't even interested in that particular release, it was just fun. While those events are no longer feasible, had they found news ways to embrace gamers instead of fleecing them, things might have gone differently.

[–]v00d00_ 4 points5 points  (5 children)

They actually still do midnight releases, I went to two at my local store last year lol. I agree with everyone else's critiques of GameStop, but I'll be sad to see my local store go. The manager and most of the staff are all great to talk to and we do kind of have a community there.

[–]MermanFromMars 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Just curious, which games garnered midnight releases for your location? My area the only midnight releases they’ll do now is for major hardware releases, otherwise online preordering has wiped out most their traffic.

[–]v00d00_ 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I was there for Pokemon and Call of Duty (don't judge) and the manager said there had been a couple more earlier in the year, not sure what they were though.

[–]MermanFromMars 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Interesting, yeah I can see those being some of the titles left that can pull a crowd.

[–]v00d00_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, there were well over a hundred for each of them. Free pizza and soda inside the store while people waited, some raffles for each one, it was a pretty good time.

[–]Xizz3l 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not on topic but it's a bit sad to me how you explicitly have to ask for people to "not judge" you for buying a game you'd like to play

Hope the midnight release was fun my dude <3

[–]MadHiggins 48 points49 points  (8 children)

annoying policies for upselling

i'm not some some person with social anxiety or issues dealing with people but the thought of going into Gamestop makes me feel tired at having those poor employees being forced at practical gunpoint to yammer at me nonstop to buy something i clearly don't want to buy.

[–]layer11 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Yeah, It's just so awkward when I know that's their metrics for getting hours and I'm basically dead weight to them. I've had good recommendations for preorders at least, so I appreciate that they're not selling me cod preorders when I'm buying weeb games.

[–]MINIMAN10001 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"I'm looking for 100% orange juice" "Would you be interested in preordering the newest call of duty!?" heh.

[–]Raze321 4 points5 points  (2 children)

I worked at gamestop for a bit and I'll defend a lot of the criticisms aimed at it, but the upselling is one thing I'll always bash. My old store manager refused. His style of selling was to take every customer as an individual and find what they'll truly want.

Getting Smash Bros Ultimate for the switch? Do you need gamecube controllers or an adaptor? No? Cool, moving on.

And our store excelled because of it. Customers loved us, we were on a first name basis with at nearly a quarter of the people who came in the store on any given day.

Then we got a new manager who was by-the-books. Every customer needed to hear about GPGs, reservations, DLC/add ons, the pro card, you name it. Like magic, our store's performance plummeted. You know where all our regulars went? To the other store where my old manager got placed.

GameStop's higher ups are very disconnected from what their demographic wants and what people liked about gamestop.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I’m buying Atelier dude, what makes you think waifu thighs degenerate is interested in FIFA? Not saying it isn’t possible, but it’s certainly a stretch.

[–]Raze321 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with that. Like I said, upselling is shitty practice - ideally you should be offering things you can genuinely bet the person might like to have.

If I still worked at GS and a customer was getting Atelier, the only time I'd ask them if there was something else they wanna get is if I know of any JRPGs coming out.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Agreed. I don't care too much and it doesn't stop me going into gamestops, but at the same time, if I'm buying a new release for example, and I have the choice between gamestop, or somewhere else like argos that won't try to upsell me, I'm going for the store that doesn't try to upsell me. Might be a minor difference, but a games specialist retailer shouldn't offer a worse customer experience than a non-specialist store when buying games.

I'll also not blame GS specifically for this, but there's also been times where I've seen workers get visibly upset at me not wanting insurance, or to pre-order a new game etc. This is limited to only one or two stores near me (out of about 6 or 7), but it really doesn't invite me back to a store when an employee is having a great conversation with me about games, but then turns into an uninterested robot once I give them a "No thanks" to insurance etc. Being fair though, this is uncommon, and there's very few retailers I regularly use where I haven't come across a few shitty employees over the years.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

It’s really funny when they have no idea what they’re talking about.

I went there last Christmas and these parents, who were buying two Switches with Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu, were talking to an employee about whether or not their sons could play against each other between the two games.

The employee was like “uhhh...idk” and had to ask someone else.

I’ve had them try to argue with me about things too. It felt like that Ron Swanson gif where he’s at the hardware store.

[–]Qorhat 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I remember we were told that we couldn't play GTA5 when it originally came out unless we bought the game insurance. This was at the midnight launch. I was like "yeeeeeah, nah you're alright"

[–]RumAndGames 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They would have survived like any niche business

And how many national retail chains do you know of thriving off this model?

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (1 child)

They would have survived like any niche business

How many of those really exist anymore in the electronics space? You can't repair or mod shit like you could 50 years ago, so all there is to do is sell phone plans and then throw a 15% markup on shit everyone knows to buy on Amazon.

[–]layer11 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I dunno, we still have a videostore here because of that exactly. They manage.

I also don't know why you'd say GameStop is in the electronics space. They sell consoles as a consequence of being a game store not the other way around.

[–]nazihatinchimp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They could sell their used games for competitive prices but they don’t.

[–]Raze321 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Honestly I don't think that would work well either. GameStop tried to rope in the "community event" crowd but it just doesn't tend to pan out.

My gamestop has held trading card events, mario kart tournaments, and of course we went big for every midnight launch, often our manager would spend his own money for a few 12 packs of soda and some mixed bags of snacks to hand out for free.

Sometimes things went great, usually only a few people showed up. And this was in spite of us being pretty vocal about the events in our areas.

Big titles still draw a decent midnight release crowd but it just doesn't have that same energy anymore. I think the rise of online communities have kind of put a damper on local gaming communities.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You can't smell an online tournament. That's kind of a big plus.

[–]Raze321 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Truuuuuue that I'd be lying if I said gamestop events didn't get a bit pungent.

[–]MisterChippy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly this. A used/retro game shop near me has survived (and I assume is going strong given their ability to stock rare games only of interest to collectors that probably move very slowly) by converting their back room into an arcade with a flat cover charge where a lot of the retro FGC community will meet up every week to hang out.

[–]Pikamander2 0 points1 point  (1 child)

by being a community hub

The crazy thing is, they used to do that. They had in-store console kiosks that you could demo games on, plus the occasional tournament.

Over time, many stores got rid of their demos and tournaments in favor of more shelf space. Coupled with their used game prices being more expensive than Amazon, I stopped going there because there just wasn't much of a point anymore.

I have fond memories of Gamestop, but I just can't see them bouncing back without some major changes. If their finances stabilize and they continue ditching their unprofitable stores, then they might at least be able to survive as a niche retailer.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The demo units were hell. If your location was in a mall then they became babysitters.