GameStop, the vintage video game shop that enjoyed a retail heyday back around when Bill Clinton was still president, has not had an easy go of it in recent years:
And I am sad for the store's sake to report that it's lately not going any better for them:
GameStop said Thursday it plans to shut down more stores after failing to meet second-quarter earnings forecasts. The news comes six months after the video game retailer announced in March it had closed 287 stores across the globe in the previous 12 months.
The company now has just over 4,000 brick and mortar locations and says it's identifying additional stores for closure. The company cites dwindling sales due to consumers' shift towards streaming platforms, digital downloads, and online shopping.
In its most recent earnings report, the company "announced it had made $798.3 million in revenue for the quarter ending Aug. 3, compared to $1.16 billion a year prior, a 31% drop." Stocks plummeted 15% as a result.
The company further filed for an offering of up to 20 million shares this week, which it said it intends to use "for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and investments in a manner consistent with our investment policy."
(Translation:)
I suppose the news isn't that surprising. I mean, when was the last time you were in a GameStop? A decade? Longer? When was the last time you walked out of there with one of those comically oversized bags?
Still, it's sort of sad to see a longtime American business go down. Even if none of us shop there anymore.
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