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Gamestop Cuts Hundreds of Jobs
1up.com is reporting that in the wake of the Gamestop/EB Games merger, hundreds of employees are getting the boot. From the article: "In addition, GameStop will also be shutting down the EB Games corporate headquarters in West Chester and distribution site in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Layoffs aren't immediate, however, and will be staggered throughout early next year and into the summer, with some employees having the option of relocating to Dallas, Texas."
Have an EB Games and GameStop in your town? Soon you'll only have one. And no, it won't be a bigger store, either. This will make it harder to find used games, or certain things you're looking for without looking online. For example, last week I needed Hori screen protectors for my Nintendo DS. The GameStop in my town only had the Pelican ones - they leave sticky residue. So I made a trip to EB Games and discovered they indeed had Hori protectors. Eliminating one store will also eliminate selection.
I'm just surprised that after all this time, Dallas still figures so prominently in the consolidation. That's where the old Babbage's Inc., headquarters was, and also Babbage's Store #1 in Northpark Center, where I worked as a seasonal employee one Christmas back in the early 1990s :)
I remember saving up my money and getting my employee discount, to buy the first Stereo SoundBlaster at that store for something like $186.11.
...so besides Walmart, Best Buy, and Comp USA, there is now only one other chain to buy a new game in my locality (Wichita, KS, 400,000 lost souls). Now many places in the US now have one choice of specialty digital gaming shop.
I'm sure that this will do simply wonderful things to competition... and I'm sure that the bustling market in used titles will begin to slow down as the prices rise, and the sellback payouts drop.
Although on the console side, if I was interested in more than 10 console games across all three of this generation's consoles, I would just start up a Gamefly account.
Its getting harder and harder to buy a PC game these days.
So, slashdotters, what other specialty shop chains are around these days to pick up the slack and restore sanity to the retail PC market?
Performing sanity checks on your own beliefs is vital in avoiding poisoned koolaid.
E3 will be less crowded next year!
Anyone remember the early days of EB when the sales clerk wore shirt and ties to sell you the rarest video games? And there was 4-5 people servicing the store. Super service, and treat the customers like a million bucks.
I am sorry, but both EB and Gamestop today is a mess. The management folks have done nothing to improve the store image. Besides buying old games, nothing separate it from some Bestbuy video games shelf.
And why does every guy behind the counter have to be so biased toward some system. Can I buy a PS2 game in peace without some guy shoving Xbox-is-better at me.
Dallas is good because it is centrally located in the United States. There are a few other companies that I know of that located in Dallas for this reason. In addition, the main Gamestop office is right on the western edge of DFW International Airport, making shipping via FedEx, UPS, DHL and other carriers relatively easy. From working there over a period of a few years, I can think of a few instances where that worked to their advantage (Dreamcast launch for one).
Wasn't the point of the Merger to increase revenue of both companies rather than to shut one down
No the point of a merger is to increase profitability of both companies.
Of course mergers are never a benefit to the consumer, buying companies shareholders, or the employees of both companies (one gets laid off while the other picks up the slack with no pay raise).
What a short-sighted attitude, mergers != less competition. Sometimes it's better for consumers to get savings from economies of scale at the sacrifice of some competition. As long as an industry continues to have healthy competition (in this case Gamestop goes against Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Amazon.com, etc.), when two companies merge the new company can be more aggressive relative to the others in the industry, and actually increase competition.
The buying company shareholders can benefit long term by holding a bigger, more profitable company. As for the employees, yes it sucks they lose their jobs, but it's because their jobs are redundant. Jobs exist not to employ people, but to fill a need.
Personally, I think business mergers should be outlawed... It decreases competition and actually hurts capitalism (the economy) in general. Only indviduals should only be allowed to own stock in corporations and corporations should be forbidden in owning stock in other corporations.
As I mentioned before, sometimes it hurts competition, sometimes it helps competition. Forbidding corporations from making investments in other companies hurts capitalism too. Sometimes there are startups with great ideas that need to raise capital, sometimes larger companies need to acquire specific technology to move forward. Many times the big guy, the little guy, and even the consumer wins.
Then again, the stockmarket is a good way to ruin a good company with a good business model, but shitty investors who are out to suck the comapny dry of all its venture capital.
Then again the stockmarket is a good way to make a good company with a good business model even better, and reduce risk to investors. Venture capitalists are typically much more money hungry than stock investors. They are looking for much greater rates of return because they are taking more risk.
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So they're offering Philadelphia area locals (West Chester) the option of relocating to Dallas? To anyone who knows anything about football rivalries, that's a pretty poor option for those folks.
This just in: Dead Sea Technologies is closing their Jerusalem office and relocating employees to their Egyptian offices.
I've been having the absolute WORST luck with EB lately. In my little nook of Orlando, I'm ringed by about six of them. Honestly, I don't know if they're all just terminally depressed from the merger notification or if they all just hire out of the same gene pool, but it was a nightmare just trying to get a stinkin' preorder done a month or two ago. The following is a direct quotation:
... ...
[I walk into the store, currently draped in Madden '06 flags, standees and posters]
Me: Hi, I can I preorder--
Clerk: Madden, right?
Me: Uh, n--
Clerk: Because it's coming out soon. It's gonna be the best one yet!
Me: Actually, I wanted Sigma Star Saga.
[Clerk stares vacantly for a second before cocking his head towards the GBA rack]
Clerk: Oh. Yeah. Well... Mario Superstar Saga's been out forever.
Me: No, Sigma Star Saga. It's a new one.
Clerk: They're not making a sequal to that one.
Me: It's a different franchise. Done by Wayforward? Namco's the publisher?
Clerk:
Me:
Clerk: Yeah... We don't do preorders here... You'll have to go to our Longwood location.
[I turn the PREORDER MADDEN 06!!!! standee on the desk to face him. He glances at it.]
Clerk: Excuse me, but I have to check our inventory for another customer.
[Clerk walks into the back room. I wait another 10 minutes before giving up and leaving. During this time, several college fratboys take the opportunity to shoplift several copies of Doom 3 and Half Life 2 while the counter is unmanned.]
And this is why I only preorder at Gamestop now. They not only let me do the preorder, but they also had copies of Riviera (which EB never even got) and a used Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis. Gotta slog through hell before reaching heaven, I guess.
In reference to the comment saying this will be a BAD merger for second hand selection could be slightly inaccurate. If there is only one shop in each town then surely that shop will be the main place that people will go to to sell on their old games, whereas people may see both as competition in the town and think they both pay old.
This could also symbolise the slowing in growth and decline of video game sales nowdays, although I can see overall profits going up in the next few months with the Xbox360, christmas and more.
Business Voyeur