Gamestop trying out "gamestop of the future" floor models.

[MSI Magus]

http://kotaku.com/5115423/the-gamestop-of-the-future

They have needed this for a long long time. The touch screens alone are a huge improvement but the added floor space so your not constantly crowded......might make gamestop actually worth browsing. Now just if their prices can compete with amazon and ebays and games not be scratched to shit and missing the manual/case ;)

[guinaevere]

Fantastic. Lets take a company which is actually still showing a profit, and watch as they bankrupt themselves by remodeling all their stores.


There is a time and a place for everything. And this is not the time.

[FloodsAreUponUS]

I hope they go under.
Gamestop is the plague of the games industry.

[hhhdx4]

Hopefully they now have enough space to carry new games.

[thingsfallnapart]

Why don't they just focus on their stock and be happy making money instead of making Gamestop into Barnes and Noble 2.0

[camoor]

Fantastic. Lets take a company which is actually still showing a profit, and watch as they bankrupt themselves by remodeling all their stores.


There is a time and a place for everything. And this is not the time.

I doubt they'll change all their stores at once. This is going to be a market study - they'll use it to see if sales improve, customer sat goes up, etc, etc. While it may not be the time for massive expensive renovations, there is always time for market research (hell the shopping cart was invented during the depression)

[snookie_wookums]

Fantastic. Lets take a company which is actually still showing a profit, and watch as they bankrupt themselves by remodeling all their stores.


There is a time and a place for everything. And this is not the time.

Gamestop is still profitable this far into the recession -- trust that they don't go spending on things that don't make money. Their formula is tried and true. They know there is a problem with people getting to their goods in a timely fashion. If can get more product into consumers' hands faster, they might even deal with the 30 minute waits on line on account of some of the mouth-breathers they hire at the retail stores.

[MSI Magus]

I doubt they'll change all their stores at once. This is going to be a market study - they'll use it to see if sales improve, customer sat goes up, etc, etc. While it may not be the time for massive expensive renovations, there is always time for market research (hell the shopping cart was invented during the depression)

Exactly. This is 1 store that we know of and I would bet at most 3 or 4 in the nation/world they are trying this on. If it fails they will close/revert the store to the old style, if it succeeds we will see this style of store become more frequent.

[Malik112099]

Looks like the new improved Blockbuster stores.

[xycury]

honestly if they kept the game locked like in a rental space, instead of digging through the drawers... that could save time.I had one person run all over finding discs at the last b2g1 and it was at least 15 minutes.I think the touch screen is a nice addition, let you physically see stock available.I don't think this could be worth it, the existing retail space is tight for the few around me, and I don't see them getting a bigger spot.

[Rei no Otaku]

My store is going to be one of those at the beginning of the year. They're building it now. My manager told me that they're basically a test. If they don't make money off it, then they won't bother with the other stores.

[MSI Magus]

honestly if they kept the game locked like in a rental space, instead of digging through the drawers... that could save time.I had one person run all over finding discs at the last b2g1 and it was at least 15 minutes.I think the touch screen is a nice addition, let you physically see stock available.I don't think this could be worth it, the existing retail space is tight for the few around me, and I don't see them getting a bigger spot.

Funny thing is I suggested the touch screen months ago at this board and people insulted me and talked about how stupid it is and how people wont buy product less they can see the casing. Kind of funny given how online sales are booming ;)

[mike.m]

With all the GS hate, I find it funny that people are worried about them going bankrupt.

[camoor]

I think the touch screen is a nice addition, let you physically see stock available.I don't think this could be worth it, the existing retail space is tight for the few around me, and I don't see them getting a bigger spot.

Actually the touchscreen seems pretty worthless to me, due to all the employee hoarding.

[Hybrid5006]

Actually the touchscreen seems pretty worthless to me, due to all the employee hoarding.

Like you wouldn't?

[62t]

hmm if they allow customer to check on stock would that put an end to the employee hold draw?

[xycury]

Actually the touchscreen seems pretty worthless to me, due to all the employee hoarding.


Well it may be, since even if I find it on there, it's not like the screen will spit out the game, I'd still have to find it. And their stock is always ass-backwards... trying to pull of an alphabetical sort but with so many hands mixing it up, it's usually left hand picking... yuck.

I wouldn't mind it if they would just have a better way of displaying games more like a record store than a rental store.

[MSI Magus]

Actually the touchscreen seems pretty worthless to me, due to all the employee hoarding.

Ok so you walk into a gamestop to see if they have a copy of Digital Devil Saga. As things stand you have to look through pretty much look through every PS2 game since even if that particular store tries to alaphabatize things kids pick stuff up and dont put it back in the right spot. This means you can spend 20 mins looking for 1 freaking game. Meanwhile with a touch screen you could walk in, click PS2, click the letter D and there you go price and availabilty of the game. A touch screen could also inform you if a gamestop within a certain radius has a copy available. It is also great for browsing since they could organize things by genres. So for instance my mom always knew I liked RPGs growing up but had no clue what was an RPG and what wasnt. So every Christmas she had to stick to my list hardcore. With a touch screen she could have walked into the store and selected by genre RPG then browsed for a game in her price limit that she didnt see in my collection.

Touch screens offer many great uses.

Also Xycury with touch screens you wouldn't have to find the game. First off if its not in stock your issue is solved. Second though when you think about it with a touch screen they could keep everything under the counter or in a room in the back.

[xycury]

Ok so you walk into a gamestop to see if they have a copy of Digital Devil Saga. As things stand you have to look through pretty much look through every PS2 game since even if that particular store tries to alaphabatize things kids pick stuff up and dont put it back in the right spot. This means you can spend 20 mins looking for 1 freaking game. Meanwhile with a touch screen you could walk in, click PS2, click the letter D and there you go price and availabilty of the game. A touch screen could also inform you if a gamestop within a certain radius has a copy available. It is also great for browsing since they could organize things by genres. So for instance my mom always knew I liked RPGs growing up but had no clue what was an RPG and what wasnt. So every Christmas she had to stick to my list hardcore. With a touch screen she could have walked into the store and selected by genre RPG then browsed for a game in her price limit that she didnt see in my collection.

Touch screens offer many great uses.

Also Xycury with touch screens you wouldn't have to find the game. First off if its not in stock your issue is solved. Second though when you think about it with a touch screen they could keep everything under the counter or in a room in the back.


What does this replace the website???? because I can type Digital Devil Saga at Gamestop.com.....

so really I think having it onsite would be nice... but not 'needed' or label it a feature of the future... since the future is the internet.

Grouping by genre would be nice, since something like RPG on the Wii would be small and I can quickly glance through that, but still something like Action and Adventure would be huge, especially on the PS2.... it's still going to be a fluster cuck to find something.

and your 2nd thought about keeping everything in a room in the back... what are they doing in the STORE... placards for everything?!?!?

wtf is this going to be a library and you're going through the index cards for games and bring it up to the counter.

I find that a major flaw in the fail dept if it's going that route.

Plus like someone else stated, if employees could say they "couldn't find it".... but bought it later.

they need realtime inventory with better inventory storage.... and it's not much of an improvement as of now...

[Vinny]

Rather than spending all that money remodeling their stores, they should spend that money organizing all the crap in their stores better. The Gamestops around here are a total mess.

[captainfrizo]

I doubt that this will ever become the standard format for all their stores, namely because I have yet to be in a Gamestop big enough to have such a nice and open layout. Every Gamestop (or EB, for that matter) I've ever gone in has been stuffed with carts overflowing with used games in a store way too small for their current inventory anyway.

If the rest of the Gamestop stores are anything like that, there's no way in hell they'll be able to pull this off.

[Rei no Otaku]

I doubt that this will ever become the standard format for all their stores, namely because I have yet to be in a Gamestop big enough to have such a nice and open layout. Every Gamestop (or EB, for that matter) I've ever gone in has been stuffed with carts overflowing with used games in a store way too small for their current inventory anyway.

If the rest of the Gamestop stores are anything like that, there's no way in hell they'll be able to pull this off.
In the case of my store they bought a larger space close to where my store is now. With others they're renovating so there's more room. They're not using existing store sizes. But yeah, I doubt every store will be like that.

[FloodsAreUponUS]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/junkwaffle/Forum%20Art/used.jpg

[captainfrizo]

In the case of my store they bought a larger space close to where my store is now. With others they're renovating so there's more room. They're not using existing store sizes. But yeah, I doubt every store will be like that.

That's going to become real expensive, real fast. Unless they see a huge improvement in sales there's no way they'll be able to justify the cost if expansion like that is needed for most locations they may be considering.

[MSI Magus]

Rather than spending all that money remodeling their stores, they should spend that money organizing all the crap in their stores better. The Gamestops around here are a total mess.

If they spend the money to remodel though they wont HAVE to organize. Again like usual people are thinking about the small picture and not at all logically. Many stores DO organize but people are stupid and not polite in the least so they pick stuff up then carry it all over the store just to end up leaving it in the wrong place. The employee must then notice that it is in the wrong place and reorganize it. Then there is the fact that gamestop gets in massive amounts of trade ins so they are constantly having to reorganize the whole entire store to make those new games fit alphabetically.

If they simply use the touch screen method it solves this problem as well as many others and things no one is thinking about. For instance curry mocked whats the point in having the store tis empty then. Well no its not.....now the store can be filled with game kiosks and other displays. This means in addition to the countless other benefits I have named gamers get to demo more games and there wont always been 1 kid hogging a machine all day.

Like I said....people simply are not thinking about this process nor the benefits it could have. Laugh and call it a library all you want....but at the end of the day you are getting your games, you are getting your games faster, game stop can hire less employees, you get to demo more games.....the benefits are just gigantic if you think logically. 1 final huge bright side and the reason this will happen be it in the next few years or the next 15 is it gives the store a clean and modern look. Society has constantly moved towards stores being cleaner, less cluttered and more about interacting with products then buying and leaving. As those pictures show it gives gamestop a look thats less like a disorganized pawn shop that chases people away and more like something like a library or the apple store thats not just organized but clean and chic looking.

Edit - And to all those saying that this will mean huge stores so it will never happen......look at best buy. This will be a transformation where gamesotp goes from a pawn shop where you find one on every block and their all tiny towards the big chain that gamestop has become. If they go through with this it will make them more like best buy and walmart. Instead of it being that within a 15 minute radius there are 10 gamestops(shit a lot of people have malls with 2 fucking gamestops)it will be that they close many of the small stores and open a big store such as the walmart/best buy/staples. They could double justify the intial opening with the fact that they are trying to create moviestop and having to open brand new stores with mixed results. They could open 1 giant store that caters to multiple needs.

[VanillaGorilla]

I hope they go under.
Gamestop is the plague of the games industry.Yeah, all their employees don't deserve to make money or even have jobs. But I guess since they only gave you $2 for your copy of Madden 2005, they suck and should go out of business.

[FloodsAreUponUS]

Yeah, all their employees don't deserve to make money or even have jobs. But I guess since they only gave you $2 for your copy of Madden 2005, they suck and should go out of business.

They can find new jobs.

Your logic is weak, if you think the problem with Gamestop is giving shitty trade ins.

[xycury]

wall of text

So is this going to ultimately be a vending machine? We can do away with employees? We'll have robots hassle us for Edge memberships and pre-ordering games...

What you make it describe as such is nothing what the picture had.

Getting a bigger store does NOTHING to the organization of the area, besides getting more space to walk, and more space to clean up.

This would function almost like a webpage online... walk up to the screen, look at the website, find what you want, and print out a slip. Take that slip to the front desk and wait wait wait wait wait for the employee to fill your order. Meanwhile what do you do... wait around? sit around?

ultimately I could see this going to be a drive through... how fantastic is that... pull up and say .. gimmie GTA 4 and I'll take LBP.... find out then after driving away that they gave you something lame instead, or it's all scratched up like hell.


They have to redefine used gaming as it stands what they have is browsing badly in a mess of crap.


A single touch screen isn't JUST the answer. A bigger retail place isn't just the answer.

I would like it if they did have more previews of games, more kiosks, but then wouldn't it be a glorified arcade and people would then loiter and need to be kicked out? Who's buying when they are playing....

It's just not the answer to what gamestop needs.... there is so much more.....

...and what we're discussing goes well and above/beyond what they are going to do anyways.

[Chase]

All I need to know is if GameStop will still sell open/used new games.

[FloodsAreUponUS]

All I need to know is if GameStop will still sell open/used new games.

Why would they stop?

[Chase]

Because their stores are prettier?

[FloodsAreUponUS]

No sir.

[Squarehard]

I normally don't spend too much time shopping in Gamestops. I just go in, browse a little, grab what I want, and leave. It isn't really a place that I go to for the "shopping experience".

And the self check stock system will undoubtably not help too much more, because the employees are still going to have to dig through the piles of games and search for them. And I am also sure people will be hoarding the self check system since they can pretty much just waste their own time sitting there checking random games to see if they have them.

There will also be an abundance of kids sitting at those stations touching the pad and not knowing what they are even doing, but the clicking is fun, and you dont really want to kick them away in fear that they break down and cry.

What the dealio!

[KingDox]

Instead up spending so much on new decor in the store how about they pay their employees a bit more?

Then they can hire someone who isn't an asshole and will actually want to help me spend $60 in his store rather then text on his phone.