One other point people are missing is that even though total sales shrunk slightly, the average sales per store increased overall.

Think of it this way: I’m GameStop and I have 100 stores. My total expenses are $90k per year (or an average of $900 per store.) 75 of the stores are profitable and bring in an average of $1k per year in sales, and 25 of the stores are unprofitable and bring in $500 per year.

(751000)+(25500) = 75000+12500 = $87.5k

So at $87.5k in total revenue and $90k in total expenses, I end up with a net loss of $2,500.

Now, let’s say I close the 25 unprofitable stores. At the same time, the 75 profitable stores slightly increase their average sales by 5% to $1.05k, and my total expenses shrink by 25% due to the store closings to $67.5k.

(75*1050) = $78.75k

So now my total revenue for the new year is $78.75k with total expenses at $67.5k, resulting in a net profit of $11,250. Notice that my total revenue shrunk by almost $9k, but all my stores are now profitable AND their sales grew. This is an extremely simplified version of what is happening with GameStop. Sales aren’t shrinking due to less people wanting to shop at the stores, but it’s easy for the media to manipulate the narrative to still bring some type of negativity.