@Mr_Muscle What JayJ is referring to is how they destroyed the retail landscape for games specialty stores. Once upon a time there were several major competing chains, plus a large number of independent stores, plus the big box stores. Among all of them, GameStop was always the worst of the bunch. Electronics Boutique (EB) was a fantastic store with great stores, policies, etc. Babbages, which is actually the company that morphed into GameStop eventually was similarly excellent, if not superior, though it was more PC focused. Funcoland always seemed a bit exploitative in they way they pushed their overpriced used market. I never went in there much as a result. These were all very high quality stores, with excellent in-store atmosphere, a very professional feeling, and no sense you're getting jerked around.

At one point Babbages merged/stock-swapped with Software Etc (this eventually became GameStop). That's when things started going badly.

At this point the company that owned all this, before the GameStop brand, essentially went bankrupt. This is in the mid-90's. They were in debt, and couldn't secure credit for holiday inventory (similar to Sears-K-Mart now.) They went for liquidation. EB actually bid to buy them, but the courts awarded the sale to the Software Etc. CEO who was also a principal investor in Barns & Noble and a board member. He then sold the company to Barns & Noble.

THIS is where our story begins. What we call "GameStop" is not "GameStop." It was a franchise birthed entirely by B&N. It was B&N Games more appropriately. Yes, the company that similarly destroyed the retail landscape for books and music in their big box consolidation rise.

For the "dark years" that saw GameStop buy out EB and Funco, the shift of the stores to the ugly yellow, teen-focused layout (they've since reverted to the EB layout/color scheme), high pressure sales, "game insurance", selling opened games, etc, they were actually a wholly owned subsidiary of B&N. Then they bought a few smaller chains and closed them. Then they went with the Walmart military strategy of "enclosure" by supersaturating every area with stores piled so dense you could walk between them in concentric circles to squeeze out all the independent stores that remained....then massively closed a bunch of those stores at once leaving them abandoned once they crushed the smaller competitors. It was run the way B&N ran in consolidating into a book monopoly (until Amazon broke their monopoly in both cases.) Then B&N spun it off into an IPO and they've been their own company, running with former B&N board members ever since, plus a shuffle board of executives with one that was absent on and off with (eventually fatal) illness, and then a bunch of other part time, acting, interim exectuives, executives resigning randomly ,etc. It's been a mess since B&N sold it off....but they sold it off after they already made it into what it is and saw that it was going to enter a decline.

Ultimately, it was Gamestop and their B&N ownership that went out of their way to destroy the retail landscape for games the same way Walmart damaged the retail landscape at large.

Gamestop's history isn't just a matter of an outgunned video game specialty boutique that is struggling. They're a Fortune 500 from the heart of the 90's and 00's big box consolidation effort, created by and inextricably tied to B&N (also failing now, and also destroyed the market in their own core markets of books and music). There were better alternatives, including much better chains that understood the business they were in, but the investor-driven expansionist B&N made sure that only their brand remained. EB and such can sit next to Walden and Borders with stores that were outmaneuvered by a finance-driven B&N.

Anecdotally, I recall as far back as maybe 12 years ago during the B&N heyday, I was going to buy a PC game on disc. They wanted to sell me one of their opened games for full price with their seal of quality stickers closing it in the jewel case. I refused to pay full price for an open box. They endlessly argued about their shrinkage and so forth. So I just walked out, walked 200 steps down the parking lot to Best Buy and bought a shiny sealed copy. For $2 less. That's their mentality. It's about what's good for them, and they'll argue with you about what's good for them, when their competitor is literally in visual range offering the better result.... That's B&N arrogance. GameStop inherited their leadership....unfortunately for them.

Meanwhile just a few months ago was the KH3 PS4 preorder debacle. Reports say they got an estimate from Sony how many they'd get. They not only bet on the high delivery number, but the oversold THAT number. Sony delivered on the low side of the estimate. Meaning they'd oversold their preorders by a factor of nearly 2. They've done that before. They use it to force the vendor to produce more for them. Meanwhile they actively lie on the phone to customers that they're trying to get more from the vendor and they'll call or email you etc. etc. That's after having you wait on the hold queue. On top of THAT, their employee quota systems had stores selling inventory they didn't have.....which they pulled from the online store allotment...meaning most online preorders were cancelled. And they didn't notify anyone until they were supposed to have shipped. Customers found out with an email telling you you cancelled your preorder. Then a coupon for your next purchase and an explanation a few hours later.

And several times I ordered, online, "in stock" items....that then showed as backordered after I ordered them. And they ship in 2 weeks. From a random retail location.

It's like they go out of their way to make the customer experience as unpleasant as possible. I try to like them. I keep giving them additional chances. And they prove every time why they're just a terrible company to work with compared to any other option. The retail stores are nice with great staff....I enjoy going in now and then. But the company overall is just on a track that assumes the position that dealing with customers is a problem they'd rather work around rather than a relationship to curate.