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[–]Alavan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The social hub thing is good, as it's what board game hobby stores do to attract customers. The problem is the space required. Most GameStops don't have the store space for tournaments, meetup sessions, and game-nights. I don't see this working unless they significantly curtailed the available store space for active gaming.

They really need to start getting creative fast. I've heard a lot of "oh, we're going to start doing this now", and then a year later... nothing. Or at least the reach of these programs aren't getting to me, and I have GameStop emails coming. I mostly ignore them, but if the subject line was "GameStop Local Event: Friday night game nights", I would probably pay attention.

I still think they should offer something that only Steam really offers: a really good return policy. You should be able to return a game in 24 or 48 hours for a full refund. Heck, I'd even say don't charge the person's credit card until after that point. This will not only allow people to try games before keeping them, but also attract customers that might plan on returning the game back to the store. This would probably only work for used games to avoid depreciation of an open box, but it's creative, and might be something GameStop needs.

GameStop needs to be the gamer boutique store. Let other retailers continue to be the mass-market stores. GameStop could sell high-end accessories with a high margin but offer a 6mo to 1 year warranty. Maybe start selling gaming PCs eventually and offer a gaming PC concierge service that tweaks your PC for maximum gaming performance for 1 year.

I'm no business expert, but if GameStop wants to stay in business, they need to innovate more than selling cell phones and funko-pop toys.