Nearly a month ago GameStop disclosed to investors the company have lost $95 million year-to-date and net sales decreased 8.5% year-over-year. GameStop CEO Matt Furlong revealed this has caused the decision to start yet another cost-cutting measure across the board. One major cause of this has been the company’s venture into NFT’s and the blockchain with the launch of GameStop NFT platform. The company launched the platform after demand for NFTs cooled down across the board and their partnership with the on-going saga that is FTX.
A group that has also seen a huge hit has been the stores themselves as hours have been cut severely in regions across the country while also reportedly looking into investing more in Store Leader 2 positions which makes 1one person become the store manager at two or more locations with some possibly operating four stores at once. Several have taken to the GameStop Subreddit to state their frustration with hours continuing to be cut for not just employees, but the store itself with some stores now having mid-day closures from 2pm-4pm. One Senior Game Advisor noted their hours have now dropped from 15 hours per week to zero. Others have heard rumblings of a zero tolerance policy with regards to overtime.
Over the course of 2022, GameStop closed down several locations across Europe (https://www.gamingconviction.com/gamestop-closes-majority-of-stores-across-europe/) and layoffs at the corporate offices in Grapevine with around 20% of their staff being let go. GameStop also faced lawsuits from Belk after the retail chain accused them of a “coordinated raid” after poaching their former CEO and several senior managers away from the company. Another scandle that took place at the company was accusations of Wiretapping after a report from Bloomberg were tracking purchase and browsing history and sold them to advertising company’s without the user’s consent.
