One Stop Forward, Two Stops Back - GameStop Reforecasts Fiscal Quarter

[fitbabits]

Due to the effects of the EB Games 'merger' and the damage caused by the bonkers hurricane season, Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz) is reporting (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1416&Itemid=2) that GameStop has issued a new reforecast for its fiscal quarters up to the end of January 2006.

GameStop has issued a new reforecast for its fiscal quarters up to the end of January 2006. The firm says its Q3 sales per store will be down around 12% while its Q4 sales per store, taking in the peak Holiday traffic, will be up as much as 10%.

In a statement, it said Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had impacted its business, and that extra loans taken out to finance the EB deal would also hit the bottom line.
Come on kids, let's help GameStop out and buy lots of stuff this holiday season!

[jBusy]

Come on kids, let's help GameStop out and buy lots of stuff this holiday season!
Urge to kill... rising....

[fitbabits]

Urge to kill... rising....
Pfft, I can't imagine why! :D

[KarmaGhost]

Come on kids, let's help GameStop out and buy lots of stuff this holiday season!*sarcasm detected*

The interwebs is no place for sarcasm! ;)

[netcraazzy]

What's with all the Gamestop haters? I'm not in love with the company but I prefer them over Walmart or BestBuy.

[Twigz'N'Berries]

EB has made damn near $800 bucks on all of the 360 stuff I have ordered and paid for.
360 $400
4 games $240
1 wireless controller $50
1 play and charge kit $20
1 rechargeable battery pack $13
$779.35 after taxes (give or take a few cents)

Dang, I can hardly wait!!

[kizke]

Come on kids, let's help GameStop out and buy lots of stuff this holiday season!

You're joking, right?

[Evil Avatar]

What's with all the Gamestop haters? I'm not in love with the company but I prefer them over Walmart or BestBuy.

It might have something to do with the way that they overcharge for used titles, underpay when buying used titles, fail to stock the store shelves and then spend the entire time you are in the store trying to jam pre-orders down your throat so that they can get away with failing to stock the store shelves.

Having to shop at Gamestop is the only thing that could drive me away from gaming forever.

Good thing I shop at Fry's Electronics.

[fitbabits]

You're joking, right?
I'll leave that for you to decide. Oh, and I forgot to add in my original post that we all need to boycot Electronic Arts products as well this holiday season. We have a voice, people; let's use it! :rolleyes:

[Goronmon]

It might have something to do with the way that they overcharge for used titles, underpay when buying used titles, fail to stock the store shelves and then spend the entire time you are in the store trying to jam pre-orders down your throat so that they can get away with failing to stock the store shelves.
That about sums it up.

[Atorak]

Come on kids, let's help GameStop out and buy lots of stuff this holiday season!

The horror....

[JudasGoat]

Good thing I shop at Fry's Electronics.

Speaking of which: There's no Fry's here, so I don't really know what you're talking about. Anyone in the NYC area know of any indie game stores that get more than 2-5 of any one title on release day? I dislike shopping at Gamestop as much as the next guy, and the only other place I know of with a massive stock on release day is the Toys R Us in Times Square, and that's about enough to make me stab myself in the face.

[NoName]

I'll leave that for you to decide. Oh, and I forgot to add in my original post that we all need to boycot Electronic Arts products as well this holiday season. We have a voice, people; let's use it! :rolleyes:
Well it's a good thing I have no interest in buying any of the EA games coming out. Unless Spore ever finally comes out... I might have to break my boycott for that. :o

[netcraazzy]

It might have something to do with the way that they overcharge for used titles, underpay when buying used titles, fail to stock the store shelves and then spend the entire time you are in the store trying to jam pre-orders down your throat so that they can get away with failing to stock the store shelves.

Having to shop at Gamestop is the only thing that could drive me away from gaming forever.

Good thing I shop at Fry's Electronics.

I'm very aware of your dislike for Gamestop and EB Evil :p You do have a point with their trade-in policy but I really don't trade games so I'm not too concerned with that. As for inventory, maybe I'm just lucky to have well stocked EBs and Gamestops near me but they very rarely don't have what I'm looking for while the big box stores don't have what I want more often than they do. Fry's does sound like a pretty cool place, they need to open some stores in Florida. Just need to make sure they are at least 20ft above sea lvl and maybe 1-2 miles away from the coast and they'll be fine, I swear :)

[The Iron Weasel]

Yeah I've never had a problem with the EB's I've gone to, but then again EB in Canada could be under different management. Who knows.

[amusedtoe]

Every EB should be burned to the ground for the sheer fact they put stickers that permanently mar your case on every inch of everything they sell. :mad:

[Fractal514]

I can tell you right now where the hate towards gamestop comes from. EB is a corporate shill, and they always have been, and while people may have positive experiances on an individual basis, EB is, was, and probably will continue to be, all about the bottom line. Gamestop was different. Each store was run like a private business, the specials and stock in each store was unique and the employees were creative and sincere in their love of video games and helping customers. About three-four years ago, with the purchase of Funcoland, that all changed. It is now just as bad, if not worse than EB. Reservations, which were supposed to be provided as a service to customers who wanted it, is now a forced policy that employees are fired for not complying with. Subscriptions to a magazine that is an ad book with reviews you can find on the internet and the occasionaly good article are forced down customers throats, and while the rates on the magazines and the difficulty in selling them goes up, so to does the expectations on employees to push them. Many of the reasons gamestop was prefered are no longer in place. Most of the managers who had personality and ideas have been replaced or forced out by one's who are willing to impliment corporate policy and fire the part timers who don't push the promos. This behavior we expect from some stores, but not gamestop, and that's why it hurts all the more when we see it. I used to love gamestop, it was a haven in an otherwise cold world of video game retail, but in growing into the conglomerate they now are, they have lost the heart and soul of what made them a great place to shop, work, and trade. I welcome anyone who would like to debate this to do so...

[doyama]

I'm not a big fan of Gamestop. I've only ever been to like 2 stores but they have pratically NO stock of PC games EVER. At least EB carries a half decent stock even if it is at the back of the store. I certainly hope with the merger that the stock of PC games doesnt drop at the EB locations or I might just end up buying stuff at BestBuy

[Worldcrafter]

My biggest problem with the local EB is all the people that work there don't give a rat's ass about games. I used to be able to walk into a game store, and chat about the latest games. Now, everytime I ask them if they have a game, I'm surprised if the person at the register even knows anything about that game.

Another problem I have with EB is it's actually getting hard to find new copies of games in EB. 80% of the stock seems to be used. When I was in college, I would try to find the cheapest copy of a game, but now that I have money, I would rather support the developers as much as possible. EB sure makes that hard with them constantly pushing used copies at you.

[Mondopest]

As far as stocking store shelves, it is an antiquated idea. I hate stocking store shelves just so some special-ed kid can come along and put all the A's next to the F's and all the G's next to the Q's. Then you go fix it, come back to the counter, and wait for the next moron to come in and rearrange EVERYTHING.

In my days as a Gamestop employee (use to be one anyway) I have felt like walking on to the floor with a handgun and daring people to rearrange the on-floor stock many times. A last stand with the bodies of my victims strewn about and make shift barricades being made out of racks as the SWAT team breaks through and mows us all down. ATTICA! ATTICA!

Ahem, seriously though, I have always thought that a better system would be to have one empty box attached to the wall instead and all of the real stock behind the counter. The box would be attached to a nylon string that is coiled around a winding mechanism that keeps it tethered to it's location. Customers could pull the box away, look at it and simply let go, letting the coil mechanism pull the game back agains the wall. Then they could just go to the counter and let the staff know what they want.

As far as jamming pre-orders and all that stuff down customer's throats, dont whole-heartedly blame the staff as they have orders and pressures from their managers and district managers and so on to keep good quotas of pre-orders. This is a high priority for the management and, IMHO, does nothing but to annoy and irritate people. I hate high-pressure salespeople! Gamestop management needs to rethink their methods and pass those methods onto their employees.

[XxSATANxX]

Well they just agreed to pick up BOOM CHAIR so I LOVE THEM.

I'm hoping that they do what it takes to win over Gamers.

[GoblinToe]

After reading Elysium's well done article about his experience as an Electronic Boutique employee for 10 months, I'm pretty much on a EB/Gamestop boycott. His article really shows you the slimey scumbag ways of their business practices, and I feel ill supporting them financially.

I'm sure most of you know the article I'm talking about, and for those that don't, I tried to look it up on his site, gamerswithjobs.com, but I can't find it, and I'm out of the door in 5 minutes. Sorry.

PS. Don't you just see RED when an employee offers you one of those insurance policies on your little $40 GAME? Holy shit, what a rip. Elysium's article really spells out well the sheer amount of profit they get from those scams. Thanks, but I'll shop where I at least have the illusion that the business isn't trying to actually rip me off.

[Heretic Machine]

Well Evil, if you want to sell used titles for a fair price, go to eBay. If you want to buy used titles for a fair price, go to eBay. Otherwise you should expect to be underpayed and overpay when it comes to used games, as Gamestop needs to make a profit. As for pre-orders, what's the big deal? They like pre-orders, it's better for them if you pre-order than if you don't, of course they're going to try to get you to do it.

If you don't like shopping at Gamestop, fine, but they aren't that bad of a store.

[Zurik]

Well I used to like EB and Gamestop where I live, until lately that is. Now they've hired salespeople with no knowledge or interest in what they sell. So they're pushing crap you could care less about on you, yet can barely conprehend what you're asking when you look for a specific title. I'm just about done with them, the problem I have seems to be common enough to everyone here: There's no other game retailer around. I have ordered some stuff online from places like Gogamer, but sometimes there's games that I would like to have when they come out(especially if I've been waiting all year for them to be released). Guess what I'm trying to say is that we need more indie stores run by people that care about both their customers and gaming, they'd be doing a hell of a business with the way things are headed.

[netcraazzy]

Well as a person who has worked various retail jobs I can tell you that the practice of offering every customer service plans and high profit add-ons is pretty much universal to all major retail chains. The electronics stores push service plans, credit cards and even magazines. Discount stores like Walmart and Target push store charge accounts as do most major department stores. For games stores it's preorders, strategy guides and frequent shopper cards.

I do get annoyed when I get asked if I want to preorder every stupid game I ask about but having worked retail jobs myself I understand the purpose of the question and the motivation of the company for doing it. Whenever you get mad at an employee for asking you to sign up for a service plan just remind yourself that their whole reason for existing is that they want as much of your money as possible and your reason for being there is that you want something as cheaply as possible. That conflict of interest is inherent in every retail transaction you make.

[screwtape]

Guess what I'm trying to say is that we need more indie stores run by people that care about both their customers and gaming, they'd be doing a hell of a business with the way things are headed.
While I agree with you in theory, the excellent and lengthy article GoblinToe mentioned (available here (http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/17063)) really puts a different perspective on things. If it's that hard to make a profit in the gaming industry, it's no surprise they're shifting tactics. Given the choice between no game stores or stores that push worthless crap, I think I'd rather keep the stores around.

That being said, I still dislike the way most EB or Gamestop employees act. I don't look like a typical gamer, so they usually treat me like an idiot.

Isn't Wal-Mart going to get full-boar into the games market soon? Huge selection, lowest prices on release day?

[TheKeck]

I usually buy my games from Best Buy, Wal-mart, or online. (Although, Fry's works great, while I'm living near one.)

[Evil Avatar]

Well Evil, if you want to sell used titles for a fair price, go to eBay. If you want to buy used titles for a fair price, go to eBay. Otherwise you should expect to be underpayed and overpay when it comes to used games, as Gamestop needs to make a profit.

Making a profit is a good idea. Making $25.00 profit on a title you gave someone $20.00 in credit for is a crime.

[fitbabits]

Thinking out loud here, but would GameStop have to make so much money back on their used stuff if they stopped filling their stores with miscellaneous GameStop-related crap? I often feel that I am paying for their lavish displays by paying over the odds for used games.

[Heretic Machine]

Why are you guys even asking questions to these store clerks? What possible answer could they give that you couldn't get on the internet? Hell, I -know- I'm going to know more about any game in their store than they would. Chances are, if you read Evil Avatar, then you're going to as well.

As for the $25 profit... I dunno what you're talking about Evil. I never pay more than $20 for a used game from those places. If it's going to cost more than that you might as well buy it new.

[JudasGoat]

Precisely. If it's a used game that's less than 3 months old, they usually charge $44.99 for it USED. THAT is what's insane.

[Twigz'N'Berries]

As for the description of EB, I have to disagree on some points. They do push the preorder, but they don't force it down your throat. The clerks at the store I shop at are pretty knowledgeable and they are definitely gamers. They will steer you away from crud if they can.
I know that every store is slightly different. Hope you all have a better experience like I did. Gamestop...I have to agree w/what was said.