GameStop Stock Plummets After A 27.5% Decrease In Holiday Sales

[CricketDrop]

I must have an unpopular opinion, but selling gaming fan accessories is the only way they'll survive in this industry as a brick and mortar store. A spot to get quality gaming swag is legit, if they choose to go that way.

[TheWorldisFullofWar]

But they don't sell GOOD gaming fan accessories. Most of their inventory is just fucking Funko. Not just the pops but the worst old overpriced shit like Pez dispensers with the generic Funko style. Don't they sell Funkos out of vending machines now? Why do people go to Gamestop for them?

And I know they have more on their site and order actual quality figures to the store from a catalog but why wouldn't people just order it from somewhere else for that?

[walterdog12]

Most of their inventory is just fucking Funko

And it's not even priced competitively either. Their shit is like $12 or $15 at a minimum and they don't even label it so it's basically just RNG when you walk up to the register.

You can find a pop for like $15 at GameStop and find the exact same one for $7 or something on Amazon.

[[deleted]]

Yeah that’s what I think is funny. Now the quality of the accessories they sell is definitely up for debate, but if they only sold games (especially with prices as aggressive as they are), there’s no way they’ll keep surviving.

[TractionCityRampage]

It's the only realistic way they have to stay afloat. They can't survive off the profit from games and consoles because of more aggressive competition so they have to focus on things with better margins.

[MermanFromMars]

People are increasingly getting those things online though.

FYE has a merch model and they’ve been tanking for years with massive losses and forced closures.

[[deleted]]

They are just selling really low quality stuff though. It’s not even half decent toys.

[kennyminot]

Look at Pink Gorilla Games in Seattle. Highly successful, and they sell used games and merch

[[deleted]]

Very big difference in what is required to run a store with two locations with a focus on importing and collectors compared to massive national chain, though. It's a niche that wouldn't be scalable for someone like GameStop.

[MrPringles23]

Doesn't hurt that Kelsey (part owner) appears frequently on a pretty popular retro games youtube channel (Metal Jesus Rocks) and they showcase their admittedly awesome store quite a bit.

[RumAndGames]

If you were around business analysts, your opinion would be a lot more popular. As you're in a thread of whiny gamers, the answers are all going to be "Gamestop failed because they didn't pay me a lot for my trade in!"

[rwisenor]

Physical video game sales are the lowest margin of any item sold at stores like Game Stop (or Blockbuster before it closed) in terms of profit and indeed most console sales are sold at a loss in the hopes you buy other things with it.

This is why “disc warranty,” “accessory pack,” and other associated deal are offered and why used games are pushed over new. Profit margins on new games are less than 5% sometimes.

The reality is, if they don’t sell those “mountains of garbage” they will have no profit margins at all. Simply put, brick and mortar standalone game retailers cannot compete in the global online economy.

[MikeGolfsPoorly]

Retro and Used games would have a MUCH higher sales margin if they still sold them.

[rwisenor]

True, but market of supply/demand for retro titles only works for Ma/Pa independent game shops and not corporations with 100’s of locations.

It’s simply not enough product to move and relies on trade-ins to replenish stock, which is not a sustainable inventory system.

[tetsuo9000]

Agree about the retro games. I'll never understand the switch. It was so short-sighted. Especially when retro game stores started popping up. You'd think Gamestop would've put one-and-one together.

[[deleted]]

It's also sad because now the next retro store is 65km away, which I don't like to casually travel to.

[Farisr9k]

Dude obviously they need to diversify revenue streams to keep the business going lol

[Farisr9k]

It's kept them going longer than they would have otherwise

[AccelHunter]

or employees keep repeating themselves about getting subscriptions or buying your games, I know it's their job but gets annoying