GameStop is an Essential Business? | Games ReCAP

GameStop have closed off its storefronts following the outcry from employees and calls from lawmakers to stay at home as coronavirus spreads in the united states welcome to another episode of games recap hello everybody I am Brandon Pham you can tweet today's news at me at blue champs or you can follow us and subscribe for Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays games recap news all right on to the today's biggest topic eight current employees told CNN business that Game Stop was keeping its store open to profit off of a video game shopping spree that is happening during a global pandemic video game sales have risen for retailers on online shops as analysts anticipate more people are playing video games more than ever as they are playing and staying at home PC game stores steam

reported an all-time high of 21 million users a couple weeks ago Animal Crossing new Horizons that's just launched in stores Friday and doom internal has been taken advantage of this pandemic and was available a day earlier ahead of those two major video game releases game stops sent out an internal memo Thursday the store leaders and other employees saying that it believed its stores should be classified as an essential business and remain open during this global pandemic it told employees in a letter view by CNN business but they should direct law enforcement to call a corporate number if they try to enforce store closures now this is pretty silly right everyone is hurting all over the place employees employers have never faced anything like this before and a lot of shops when the home quarantine is a little bit more

relaxed a lot of businesses around your town will be closed and so everyone's suffering and everyone's freaking out and given that a Gamestop has been in this general decline in the past few years this is no surprise but it's always funny to kind of make fun of them because they are so ridiculous and so behind the curve that it's always fun to kind of watch them burn several current employees told CNN business that only select shops carry that kind of equipment PC equipment that can help people work from home they're not a RadioShack our gamestop is doing whatever they can to act like and profit from this pandemic that's absolutely ridiculous if someone's trying to work from home they don't want that $85 razor keyboard we have or the $60 razor mouse some cheap $20 microsoft mouse or keyboard will do just fine said Dustin Carson who is 31 years old a game advised on a games table we can guarantee that he's not

working there anymore they can get that at Walmart they can get that at any other stores that also have groceries and are arguably much more essential to being open right now so this is kind of crazy right employees are not on gamestop side consumers are not on gamestop side Game Stop is only on its own side and so this is the response from there from the head of Game Stop this is an unprecedented time and each day brings new information about the kovat 19 pandemic our priority has been and continues to be on the well-being of our employees quote unquote customers and business partners we have been steadfast in our adherence to CDC guided safety and local government orders for retailers in each of our communities George Sherman gamestop CEO said in a statement so every employee is still working during the ongoing pandemic until recently that they closed all the shops but they set that during this time this proper safety measures aren't being taken to ensure that they don't get sick

according to a memo sent to gamestop managers and reported by the Boston Globe employees we report a tool to cover their hands and arms with plastic bags when interacting with customers so makeshift MacGyver glows lightly you want to be able to get it off easily tape a Gamestop plastic bag over your hand and arm the metal said do not open the door all the way keep the glass between you and the guesses face just reach out your arm you freaking robot like Blockbuster Video and Tower Records before a game stop faces a major challenge to its business model from the internet as more people buy video games through digital storefronts fewer buy games a physical disk from Gamestop leaving the company struggling to modernize its business GameStop has about 500 million dollars in cash on its balance sheet which gives it some breathing room but the company posted negative free cash flow of nearly 500 million dollars in its fiscal 2019 year the company is seeing some increase

the man as people are forced to hunker down at home but US stores are closed or were closed on March 22nd due to the pandemic and the overall complaints and any initial surging demand will eventually dissipate if it hasn't already new game consoles are set to launch later this year which will continue to hurt demand for current generations consoles combined already a weak demand without what will likely be a deep recession due to the Cova 19th Annette McKee and it's clear that game stock sales are going to be ugly for most of this year there's also the possibility that the new game consoles will be delayed either due to supply chain issues or type of demand for pricey consumer gadgets there was little reasons of investing games problems prior to its fourth-quarter report now with the company rejiggering its reporting to hide important information investors should be even more leery of this failing retailer so I always like to poke fun at Gamestop because I feel like they are a dying breed of what I mentioned before blockbuster and Tower

Records they had way too late to modernize their business and it's crazy cuz it's funny to see them going down kicking and screaming I mean my heart and sympathy goes to people who don't have jobs right now because of this whole pandemic as the nation faces something that is globally devastating these type of businesses that try to take advantage of the employees and not really protect them it's not worth risking your life's over right plastic bags in their hands and just sticking your arm out to give out stuff you know you don't need to do that all right we're in the day and age of Amazon there's a reason why they're not sustainable it's crazy that just trying to stay alive they have read the writing on the wall at this point right so it's just let them die slowly I guess not as quietly as we want them to but I believe this is the last year of Game Stop and it's been fun talking about them will ever know you guys are slots is there a place in your heart for a game stop do you feel for what they're

trying to do is it all nostalgia or do you feel like this is done no one's gonna be buying physical copies much more after this if they are it's gonna be probably through a delivery service like Amazon you [Music]