Things are rough over at GameStop these days. With falling revenues, rising costs, and an increasing number of customers switching to digital, GameStop staff are feeling the brunt of it. One of those was laying off workers throughout 2022, leaving stores understaffed and remaining employees overworked. Things don't seem to have gotten any better in 2023, as a viral TikTok video shows.
TikTok user Red (@redsonjattv) gave us an update on the current state of GameStop. "Everything's on clearance," wrote Red. "No one comes in anymore and the corporate layoffs have started."
GameStop attempted to pivot away from strictly being a games retailer in 2021. First it wanted to mirror Amazon and become a massive online retailer, and then it looked to use its windfall from the bizarre Reddit stock fiasco to break into NFTs. With NFTs failing, GameStop might have looked to its basic retail business as a means of securing much-needed cash, but Red told The Daily Dot that’s not happening either.
"It was dead pre-Christmas, picked up during the holidays and then immediately died again after New Years," she said. "It even had its dead moments during the holidays too, which was odd. I mean, for Black Friday we opened at 5, [and] I got there at 3 to make sure everything was set up and ready – no customers showed up until after 8 AM."
Although Red says her store doesn't plan to close, more have closed in her area and across the country. "Tons of GameStop stores have closed over the years and recently. Currently, there are stores going through closure in other cities/states, but the employees are being told to still push reservations for games coming out after the store will be closed. It’s a little disgusting on corporate’s part."
In addition to store closures, Red said she's heard of 50 district managers losing their jobs, an entire warehouse closed, and both a technical support team and a customer service team all being laid off. Red said that she blames poor management for the state of GameStop and that she expects to leave on her own even if her store doesn’t close.