Gamestop closing secondary mall stores?

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spmahn

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I just found out today that, at least in this area, Gamestop is closing all of their secondary mall stores. When Gamestop bought out EB in 2005, many malls ended up with 2 Gamestop stores, which both operated simultaneously. In fact, there are even a few areas I can think of locally, where after the merger, the result was 4-5 Gamestop stores all within spitting distance of each other, once you factor in free standing Gamestops and EB stores that existed in the same area as mall stores.

Now I guess due to the changing retail environment, and the high cost of rent in malls, it just doesn't make sense to have so many retail stores, so in malls with two stores, they are shuttering the slower of the two stores, although in the mall where I work, they are closing the busier Gamestop, because the former EB store is larger, and was recently renovated. The duplicate mall stores are being shuttered after tomorrow, and duplicate free standing stores are going to be gone within the next month or two. No going out of business sales or anything, all stock is being boxed up and relocated.
 
most if not all of the malls around my area have either been turned into open area malls or Westfields (mall aimed directly at women)
 
[quote name='thenuke1']most if not all of the malls around my area have either been turned into open area malls or Westfields (mall aimed directly at women)[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the mall environment as a whole has changed a lot over the last decade, and I suspect we are going to see a lot more dead malls in the upcoming years. I've worked at a movie theater in a mall run by General Growth Properties (who themselves have had one foot in the grave for years), and the only thing that holds the mall together is the anchor stores and the movie theater. Literally 60% of the storefronts are empty now, since most of the smaller independent stores were driven out by high rent costs, and even now, most of the chain stores are slowly pulling out as well. What's left in the mall is a lot of stores and kiosks selling phony junk merchandise run by the same couple of Indian guys that rotate. It's sad really, but the days of us going to the shopping mall are slowly coming to a close.
 
[quote name='spmahn']I just found out today that, at least in this area, Gamestop is closing all of their secondary mall stores.[/QUOTE]
And where did you hear this from?
 
[quote name='EarthBound Sucks']And where did you hear this from?[/QUOTE]

The voicemail message I got from some woman in Texas speaking with a southern drawl telling me my 3DS pre-order was being moved to the other store in the mall. Also, friends that work for the company.
 
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Old news for all the malls within 30 miles of me that had 2 Gamestops, and one of them even had 3 for awhile.

It's probably been about 2 years since any of the malls around here even had 2 Gamestops still open, so I guess the ones in your state were just clinging on for dear life to keep them both open, but until now, didn't have to shut it down.

And I have 4 Gamestop stores around me, that are all within 5-10 miles of each other, are not shutting down, nor doing any of that sort, or have I heard any Gamestops in these areas even close to closing down.

This could just be a regional thing, and I also have friends that work at Gamestop, and they have heard nothing of this, nor do they even intend to prepare for it, because it's not happening here.

What state do you live in?

This could just be a statewide or corporate thing.
 
I live in Connecticut, but we seem to be overloaded when it comes to just about all retail stores. Within a 15 minute drive from where I sit, there are literally 30 or more Gamestop stores. The worst offender in the area is Dunkin Donuts and Subway, which often times has 4 or 5 stores on the same block, let alone city or area. So I suppose it only makes sense to start closing down redundant stores.
 
Wow, that sounds like a retail wonderland...or nightmare.

But yeah, if you put it that way, I think they probably finally realized it's just not a savvy decision to keep so many of the same stores open.
 
Right by where I am there's a mall with a GS inside it (formerly a software etc, still haven't even bothered to change the software etc sign) and another gs in the strip mall right next to it. this seems pointless but they're both really really busy.
 
i remember the best mall that was ever in my area was the Sherman Oaks Galleria ... 3 stories full of all sorts of shops and an arcade ....

now its an open mall with a movie theater 3 boutiques 1 shoe store and alot of restuarants....
 
Yeah that's the super strange thing about Gamestop. We have three within 5 minutes of each other and each one is packed to the gills all the time. I'm not sure I should be surprised though. I once was in line and saw a woman with two used games. I told her that her third would be free since it was during a B2G1F sale. She said, "Oh I didn't know. Thanks so much! :)" as she literally swatted away one of those giant B2G1F signs that hang from the ceiling. I held her place in line LOL.
 
It's all about oversaturation, in the Quakerbridge mall(lawrenceville NJ) the store manager said the EB games was closing and only GS would remain b/c of the lease. It's closed before the holiday rush late October. There's another GS 1 mile away in a plaza w/walmart, BB & sam's club so that one would draw anyway.
 
There's literally 3 Gamestop stores here within a 5-10 minute drive of each other. I don't even know how the one in the one dimly lit shopping center still manages to survive, since it has very little traffic save for the weekends.

None of these Gamestops were even originally an actual Gamestop store. They were 2 EB Games(miss that chain:cry:) and a Funcoland before the mergers/acquisitions.

Either way I'd say if they're closing stores chainwide to avoid paying rent in underperforming locations then this one would definitely be ripe for closure.
 
A mall about 30 minutes away from me still has the two gamestops, or at least they did when I went there three weeks ago, but I'm sure that'll change soon.

Yeah, the mall environment as a whole has changed a lot over the last decade, and I suspect we are going to see a lot more dead malls in the upcoming years
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Yeah malls in general seem to be in bad shape... we have two malls in the area, one is still doing pretty well, but the other one looks like a Mad Max setpiece. The threatre closed, as did about 3/4s of the shops... all that remains are the two anchor stores (Bonton and Macy's, neither of which I imagine are in very good shape themselves) and a bunch of junk stores. Personally I think even calling them junk stores is too complementary... basically this one guy rents about half the stores in the mall... he bought the machines from the tiny arcade that used to be there and dispersed them to about three different storefronts throughout the mall (so they're basically just big empty rooms with a handful of arcade cabinents), threw a rentable moonbounce in another, and opened a "dollar store" which I'm pretty sure are just dented can specials from the nearby grocery stores. There was always a silver lining in that they had an FYE, but I haven't been able to bring myself to that mall in about 8 months so I don't know if its even there anymore.
 
The Mall closest to me had 2 stores for many years. Then about 3-4 years ago, they closed the second store and had just the one store.

Well I was in that Mall again on Friday and they had just opened up a brand new second store. I'll have to see if they intend to keep both stores open, or if maybe they opened the new one so they could close down the older store without having any downtime when no Gamestops were open in the Mall.
 
I miss the "old mall" times 10 years or so ago :( I remember visiting EB games in the mall near me with excitement to pick up Diablo 2 shortly after it came out. Now, the mall just depresses me because it seems so empty. I still go with a group of girlfriends once a year around christmas, but it isn't the same.

I also always wonder how Gamestop's less than a mile away from each other survive..
 
There were 2 gamestops in each of the two malls closest to me until recently within the last year or so, 1 at each mall was closed. There were also 2 gamestops within walking distance to me, right across the street from each other for a while, and 1 finally closed down. The one near my house is crowded all the time, located in between a Target and TRU. And don't get me started on the Mall locations, they're so crowded, it always smell like sweaty ass in each store.
 
There was a mall near me with 2 EB's (1 regular EB, and 1 EB Kids store) and a GS. When they merged they closed the EB and moved the EB to the EB Kids (it was bigger) and now both former EB stores are closed with just the 1 smaller GS.
 
My nearest mall used to have two EBs, though technically not in the same complex. The mall in question is divided by a highway, and the EB in the smaller half of the complex went out in 2006. The excuse the employees gave then was that it was a matter of redundancy and that that location was the weaker of the two. This was pretty much true as the place was dingy and small, its bargain bins were mostly junk SNES titles (yes, in 2006 somehow), and I was usually the only person in there whenever I went.

I've seen malls elsewhere with multiple GSes since then that seem to do good business and have lots of customers in spite of their proximity, though. I've even been to a mall that didn't have a GS but had both an EB and a Babbage's. Maybe brand loyalty still counts for something, but there can't be many people left that honestly think that the store's name means anything anymore when all the price stickers, in-store posters, and bags say Gamestop on them. Whatever the case, I'm guessing that this is just a regional thing until there are widespread reports of "redundant" mall GSes closing.

Also, nobody really has to worry about this happening to freestanding GSes. In urban areas, the population density can sustain GSes that are close together. Mall GSes are weaker by nature simply because, as people have pointed out, malls in general are dying.
 
I don't understand the idea of a mall or any area having Gamestops within literally 100 ft of each other. Hell, I don't get how a mall in my area has 2 Lids stores. Who buys that many hats to support those stores?
 
This wouldn't surprise me at all. At the Garden State Plaza, there are 3 stores. A GS, EB and Planet X (I think Planet X might have closed, but I'm not 100% sure). At Willowbrook, there was a Software Etc... and then a Gamestop plus an EB. There really is no point in having 3 different stores in one area.
 
This is probably true, I went to one mall last week that had a Gamestop close, there is no other Gamestop in this mall however there are 2 gamestop's within 5 min of this mall. When there are 2 much larger stores literately 5 min within the mall why keep the tiny mall location open??

What seems to be thriving more here are shopping plaza's rather than malls. I have noticed a lot less people in malls and more and more people in shopping plaza's. The plaza's in some cases have more stores than the malls do.

The only thing keeping the malls alive here are the Canadian shoppers. When I go to the mall I go for entertainment and exercise, I rarely buy anything. Most of the merchandise is just too expensive to buy. I don't need $80 jeans or a $30 shirt. Some malls don't have any deals at all and most stores charge full price for merchandise which is a lot more than I want to pay for stuff.
 
There's one mall out here by where I live that has three GS stores, two within the mall interior and one right outside the store in a strip mall complex right around the parking lot from the main mall complex. The third one is a stand-alone store while the other two are mall stores.

The stand-alone store used to be a Funcoland for multiple years and then when GS took over EB, it turned into a GS store. The two interior stores, one of them was an EB and has turned into a GS store.

I wouldn't be surprised if both the mall stores closed up and they retained the stand-alone store outside the mall. I'd guess it would be cheaper than being inside the mall itself. Both of the mall stores seem to get a reasonable business when I've been in the mall, though it's been a while since I've been there recently.
 
I have 5 Gamestops within 5 miles of me. It's convenient during B2G1's since I can usually find everything I want, but it is a bit much. There's two malls that have one Gamestop each. The slower mall of the two has another Gamestop right across the street. The nice mall has two Gamestops two or three lights down from it.

Apparently when Gamestop bought EB, it left them with these two stores right across the street from each other. One doesn't get much business save for whenever the movie theater in front of it is busy. I avoid this one at all costs as the guys there just seem to hate their own lives and it makes going there not enjoyable. Throw in the fact that the cashier told me multiple times they would be doing a midnight release for MvC3, but then didn't; I have zero desire to go there. The one across the street from it however has a great staff. They are all actually passionate about games and I have never seen one be rude to a customer, even the annoying ones. Couple that with the store manager's choice to do midnight releases for every notable release (even Bulletstorm and Killzone 3), and they have secured my business.

Long story short, there's a shitload of Gamestops out there, and especially around me. However, I am thankful, because at least one of them doesn't fit the evil empire mold that Gamestop has made famous.
 
I doubt it'll happen at the local mall with 2 GameStops where I live (Bakersfield, CA. #2 most toxic place in the U.S. by a recent survey. Woo!) because the mall life in our city is still very vibrant compared to what's being said in this topic. We have a dead mall, but it's been dead for nearly 10 years and there was never a GameStop in it. In fact, about two years ago they finally put in a new GameStop in the east side of Bakersfield. The main mall where the two GameStops are always have a lot of traffic; even on weekdays. I can understand closing the second store if the mall is suffering but one of the GameStops in the mall just got a new sign put in and renewed their lease for another 4 or 5 years and I doubt their going to close up shop anytime soon.

Now, when the lease is up, it's a different story altogether.
 
[quote name='ArQuesta']I doubt it'll happen at the local mall with 2 GameStops where I live (Bakersfield, CA. #2 most toxic place in the U.S. by a recent survey. Woo!) because the mall life in our city is still very vibrant compared to what's being said in this topic. We have a dead mall, but it's been dead for nearly 10 years and there was never a GameStop in it. In fact, about two years ago they finally put in a new GameStop in the east side of Bakersfield. The main mall where the two GameStops are always have a lot of traffic; even on weekdays. I can understand closing the second store if the mall is suffering but one of the GameStops in the mall just got a new sign put in and renewed their lease for another 4 or 5 years and I doubt their going to close up shop anytime soon.

Now, when the lease is up, it's a different story altogether.[/QUOTE]

hey don't forget there's also a third one just down the street from valley plaza, and in my experience all three are always packed. I know the two mall stores used to take their reserves over to the ming one to do the midnight launches, idk if they still work together like that.
 
There was a GS in the Belden Village Mall in Canton, OH that closed recently. I went to check for penny guides and found out it was gone.
 
[quote name='spmahn']I live in Connecticut, but we seem to be overloaded when it comes to just about all retail stores. Within a 15 minute drive from where I sit, there are literally 30 or more Gamestop stores. The worst offender in the area is Dunkin Donuts and Subway, which often times has 4 or 5 stores on the same block, let alone city or area. So I suppose it only makes sense to start closing down redundant stores.[/QUOTE]

Waterbury mall?
 
[quote name='shrike4242']There's one mall out here by where I live that has three GS stores, two within the mall interior and one right outside the store in a strip mall complex right around the parking lot from the main mall complex. The third one is a stand-alone store while the other two are mall stores.

The stand-alone store used to be a Funcoland for multiple years and then when GS took over EB, it turned into a GS store. The two interior stores, one of them was an EB and has turned into a GS store.

I wouldn't be surprised if both the mall stores closed up and they retained the stand-alone store outside the mall. I'd guess it would be cheaper than being inside the mall itself. Both of the mall stores seem to get a reasonable business when I've been in the mall, though it's been a while since I've been there recently.[/QUOTE]


Sounds exactly like The Century Iii mall in pittsburgh pa where I live. But from the looks of it kept the ebgames, and funcoland gamestop stores, and just closed the original gamestop store on the bottom floor in the mall.
 
So as an update on my earlier post, my local Mall has two gamestops, including one that just opened in 2011. They have no plans to close the older store.
 
[quote name='thenuke1']most if not all of the malls around my area have either been turned into open area malls or Westfields (mall aimed directly at women)[/QUOTE]

Where did this name come from? There is a town named Westfield near me and the downtown area is like one big outdoor mall with boutique shops and restaurants. Just wondering if there is any correlation...

Anyway, I would have thought they'd get rid of all of the duplicate stores on a rolling basis immediately when the leases started ending...
 
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