BUSINESS NEWS
Retailer closing up to 200 stores
Kelly Tyko
USA TODAY
Published 10:56 PM EDT Sep 10, 2019
On the same day Apple unveiled the launch date of its subscription service Arcade, brick-and-mortar video game hub GameStop announced store closures.
During Tuesday’s quarterly earnings call with analysts, GameStop chief financial officer Jim Bell said the company was “on track to close between 180 and 200 underperforming stores globally by the end of this fiscal year.”
Bell also said there have been 195 store closures since last year.
How many stores could close in the U.S. was not disclosed. GameStop did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Tuesday.
GameStop CEO George Sherman spoke of right-sizing the company and said there were “recent efforts” across the corporate infrastructure and U.S. store leadership organization.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, in August, the company laid off 120 employees.
“Over the last couple of months, we implemented changes that require us to make tough, but necessary decisions for the benefit of our organization moving forward,” Sherman said.
GameStop isn’t alone in closing stores.
More than 8,200 stores are slated to shutter this year with thousands of locations already gone, based on figures from global marketing research firm Coresight Research, retailers’ earnings reports, bankruptcy filings and other records.
According to Coresight Research’s Sept. 6 weekly closing report, the announced closures are “40% higher than total closures in 2018.”
Coresight, which has offices in Manhattan, London and Hong Kong, tracked the 5,864 closings in 2018, which included all Toys R Us stores and hundreds of Kmart and Sears locations.
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