Biggest video game retailer closing select stores

The closure of underperforming GameStop stores will hopefully strengthen the company.

The world’s largest video game retailer, GameStop, has a staggering number of stores around the world: Over 5,700 as of September 2019.

While that massive number of retail locations might’ve made sense in a previous decade, it’s become a liability for the game retail giant as consumers increasingly buy digital games.

That’s why, among many other reasons, GameStop is beginning to shut down some of its many retail locations.

In the Philippines, there at least three listed branches—one in Trinoma Mall in Quezon City and two in Greenhills, San Juan.

“We are on track to close between 180 and 200 underperforming stores globally by the end of this fiscal year,” GameStop CFO Jim Bell said during the company’s Q2 earnings call recently.

And that’s not all: The company is expecting to close a “much larger” group of stores in the next one to two years.

The initial wave of closures, Bell said, are “opportunistic,” whereas the next wave of closures will come from a deeper look at each store and its region.

“We are applying a more definitive, analytic approach, including profit levels and sales transferability, that we expect will yield a much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 to 24 months,” Bell said.

It’s unclear how many stores will be closed in the long run, but it is clear that GameStop execs are taking a more deliberate approach to the next wave of stores the company closes.

The closures are the latest cost-saving measure from GameStop’s new leadership team. The company has already had two waves of layoffs.

Under its new leadership team, GameStop launched an initiative known as ” GameStop Reboot” that’s intended to breathe new life into the retail chain.

The first step of the reboot involves addressing issues with so-called SG & A, a financial term that stands for Selling, General and Administrative Expenses. In simpler terms: It means lowering the cost of salaries, taxes, advertising, and other nonproduction costs.

Unfortunately, it also means layoffs and store closures. (Business Insider)