It’s time to end Gamestop once and for all.
By now everyone’s seen the news or the countless of Youtube videos describing Gamestop’s behaviour during the COVID19 pandemic. It’s been reckless at the very least and outright appalling at worst. And it’s time to punish the former video game giant.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, Gamestop refused to close any of their locations while the rest of the world-major sports leagues, huge international events, the ENTIRE entertainment industry- came to a grinding halt in an attempt to contain and control the spread of the current global plague. COVID19 has scared people so much entire countries have closed up shop (with more likely to follow suit before all is said and done).
Translation, COVID-19 is definitely something to take seriously.
Yet Gamestop-a video game retailer that’s been on the ropes the past few years-not only refused to close, but had the unimaginable gall to label themselves “essential.” Yep, Gamestop considers itself right up there with grocery stores and pharmacies. Gamestop even thumped its chest more than a little, insisting it would pursue legal action against any level of government or law enforcement agency that tried to force them to close (because people need their video games and mouse pads during a pandemic).
It was all pointless bluster of course. As soon as the new Animal Crossing and Doom Eternal releases hit the market, Gamestop quickly changed their tune and, claiming they were looking out for the health of their customers and employees, shuttered their stores until further notice, replacing their storefronts with curb side pickups and focusing on their web store.
Yep, Gamestop was defying common sense, scientific advice and legal demands so they could reap the immediate economic benefits of one big release weekend, wearing a straight face while telling everyone they were just as important as the places you bought food and medicine.
The encyclopedia Britannica couldn’t list everything wrong with Gamestop’s behaviour. If they were hellbent on taking advantage of that one particular weekend in March, they could have closed their stores and reopened them for those pivotal three days, using the closure as an opportunity to clean their locations from top to bottom and educating staff and customers alike on social distancing. Then they could re-close until the world rode this particular wave out.
But while that action would have still bordered on the irresponsible, Gamestop wasn’t even capable of that much.
Despite repeated claims they were stepping up their game (pardon the pun) and supplying stores with a treasure trove of supplies to accommodate their enhanced cleaning protocols, all Gamestop really sent its stores was a shopping list and orders to buy said products at the local grocery store. According to their employees, from the people who run the cash registers right up to franchise managers and district heads, Gamestop didn’t even send its stores a single paper towel. Staff were expected staff to buy hand sanitizer and lysol wipes at Walmart instead.
You know, stuff that hasn’t been on a store shelf since February and is on back order until the Second Coming.
So you can add rampant and shameless lying on top of their reckless corporate greed and appalling indifference.
Now Gamestop was already shambling along like a stubborn zombie before any of us had even heard of COVID-19. Referring to Gamestop as a member of the undead isn’t an understatement. At best it’s a pile of decayed flesh that tied its fate to the new PlayStation 5 and X-Box 10 consoles launching later this year, praying that they would pull it back from the brink of bankruptcy. There was at least a 50/50 chance they were going to be putting up Going Out Of Business signs as soon as their Holiday Sale ones came down.
And now that those consoles may be pushed back to next year, well there’s no other Ark for Gamestop to climb aboard during this biblical flood. So all of this may be moot and we could well be talking about their liquidation sale six months from now.
There’s a good chance this was Gamestop’s last hurrah, stuffing as much cash into its corporate pockets as possible before declaring bankruptcy, blaming COVID19 for their demise instead of their ineptitude and stupidity (and likely screwing their employees as much as possible in the process).
But that doesn’t mean we can’t at least raise one hell of a huge finger to them on their way out.
Gamestop has proven that they don’t care about their employees nor their customers. And while we can debate why anyone was actually shopping at GameStop while the rest of the world was on hold, their employees were given no choice and it won’t be surprising it if it’s revealed over the next little while that people became sick as a direct result of Gamestop’s negligence (not that they would care).
So it’s time customers prove they don’t care about Gamestop. Consumers wield an enormous amount of power, especially during a time when the term “retailocalypse” has become part of our every day vernacular. Look at it this way; during times like these plenty of people dream about rising up and eating the rich. Well, this is your chance to put a little extra weight on the guillotine blade that will inevitably fall on Gamestop’s neck.
Don’t visit their website. If their stores do re-open (a big if given the companies extremely precarious financial footing) avoid like them proverbial plague (that’s pun number two, for those keeping track at home). Let it stagger and starve before it finally succumbs to it’s inevitable demise. And when those liquidation signs do go up? Resist the temptation to fall on them like a pack of locusts. Avoid them until the very last second, until desperation forces them to sell everything they have left for mere pennies. And then pick the corpse apart with merciless abandon.
Don’t let it end there though. When the Canadian and American governments start handing out bailout dollars-probably before Gamestop and it’s Canadian arm EB Games go down for the final count-call your local member of government and demand they retain from giving Gamestop (or EB) a single tax dollar of relief. If they can figure out a way to get a cheque into the hands of the front line workers constantly screwed by Gamestop’s nonsense, by all means. But as far as the Corporate wraiths themselves are concerned? Burn the corpse and salt every inch of earth it ever touched.
Make no mistake, Gamestop is by no means the only retailer behaving badly during this crisis, but it is the one Nerd-dom has the most direct influence over and can punish the most. To paraphrase everyone’s favourite Master of the Universe-you have the power. And this is the moment Nerd-dom needs to drive a stake through Gamestop’s cold, dark and soulless heart once and for all.
Image via stacknews.com
