When people think of places to buy games and meet other players, many minds still drift to GameStop, one of the largest physical retail chains in America. Despite its place in people's nostalgia, the store chain has not been doing very well, something that even hiring Nintendo of America's former president Reggie Fils Aime probably can't fix.
With online stores and gaming subscription services becoming more prominent both on consoles and on PC, GameStop has faced many challenges. As players increasingly purchase their games from online storefronts, there has been little GameStop has done, or indeed, been able to do to close the sales gap with competitors.
The problems that GameStop has been facing have only been compounded by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, which has prompted self-isolation from many. This is perfect for online stores and terrible for GameStop, which has always been both a physical store and a social gathering point.
To ensure the safety of customers and employees, GameStop recently assembled an in-company taskforce to protect people in the stores themselves from the Coronavirus. It seems that the task force was not thorough enough in its work, however, as employees have been complaining that the company as a whole has not done nearly enough to ensure Coronavirus safety in stores or among employees.
According to interviews conducted by Kotaku, several storefronts have not received necessities like hand sanitizer, which has been on backorder through GameStop's supply chain. One supervisor stated, "My colleagues and I are sharing a small bottle of hand sanitizer that was purchased through our own pocket as well as making as much usage out of a depleting bottle of All Purpose Cleaner." That last part is important, because sanitization materials for the stores, in general, have also been hard to come by through the same channels, leaving individual storefront employees to purchase these materials on their own.
While they can expense these purchases to the company, the purchase can sometimes be difficult if the supply of these materials is low in the GameStop's local area, leading to unacceptable shortages of toilet paper, for example. One employee said, "At least in my store's regard, it's virtually impossible to find the items we need to adequately clean and sanitize the stores and keep ourselves as safe as we can." All signs point towards the Coronavirus being one of the factors that may put GameStop under for good.
The Coronavirus may be one of the biggest problems for GameStop at the moment, but it is far from the only one, and the company's attempts to stem the issues have not been very effective. GameStop's recent layoffs to cut costs have not saved the company, and the lack of coordinated district managers are no doubt hitting hard now, when their experience would help in the face of the problems caused by COVID-19.
For many who grew up buying games there, the idea of GameStop being in major trouble is unfortunate, but that is definitely the situation the company is in now. With its employees reporting poor morale and bad pressure across the board, the question of GameStop's closure is becoming one people will have to take seriously.
Source: Kotaku