GameStop

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GameStop Corporation whose headquarters are in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas) is the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer. The company operates 5,000 retail stores throughout U.S., Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Austria, Puerto Rico , Switzerland, Portugal and Sweden.

Retail stores operate primarily under the GameStop and EB Games brands. In addition, the company runs two e-commerce websites, GameStop.com and EBgames.com, and also Game Informer magazine, GameStop's proprietary video and computer game publication. In addition to video and computer games, GameStop sells magazines, strategy guides, entertainment DVDs, and other related merchandise. A major source of the company's profit is also buying used games and movies from its customers and selling them back at an increase. A new store concept called MovieStop, which focuses on selling movies rather than games, is currently building and operating stores in the Southeastern United States, including the Dallas area.

History

Babbage's and Software Etc.

GameStop traces its roots to Babbage's, a small software retailer that started in Dallas, Texas in 1983. The movements that made Babbage's into GameStop started in 1994 with a series of mergers. The first was with Software Etc. in 1994, the second was with Funcoland stores in 2000, and the third was with Electronics Boutique (now EB Games) in 2005, taking four competing, major mall software retailers and placing them under a single corporate umbrella.

When Babbage's merged with another mall software retailer, Software Etc., in 1994 the combined company was named NeoStar Retail, but the two halves continued to operate as if they were separate entities.

The combined management of the newly formed entity developed a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. This ultimately caused NeoStar to go into Chapter 11 reorganization in early fall of 1996. At this point the company had approximately 800 stores in the United States. Several potential buyers of NeoStar's assets emerged.

Leonard Riggio

On the last day of the manager's conference there was a special guest during lunch. Leonard Riggio, the head of Barnes & Noble, announced that he and a group of investors were going to put in place the financing to keep the company afloat, and get new merchandise into the stores in time for Christmas. (At this point, the company's creditors were owed so much back revenue that they were no longer shipping anything to NeoStar.)

In a personal comment during the address, Riggio stated that he "hated" the name NeoStar Retail, and thought that the merged Babbage's/Software Etc. should have been called Babbage's Etc. He said should his buyout bid be successful, and he was boldly confident it would be, that the company would be renamed.

From the potential buyers, the judge desired to accept the offer from the one that would keep the most people working, preserve the most competition and consumer choice, and be the most stable. Ultimately, Riggio's offer was accepted on the day before Thanksgiving. Barnes and Noble, through B. Dalton, was the original owner of Software Etc. A new management team largely composed of former Software Etc. executives and long time associates of Len Riggio was put in place to run Babbage's Etc.

1996 Closures

The day after Thanksgiving 1996 approximately 100 Babbage's and Software Etc. stores closed their doors. The remaining merchandise from these stores was shipped to 100 of the remaining stores that would participate in a massive "going out of business" sale throughout December. These 100 stores would close for the last time on Christmas Eve, and all merchandise left would be shipped back to corporate headquarters by New Year's Eve. The company would be pared back to about 600 of its best performing stores.

Acquisition by Barnes & Noble

When Funco, Inc. (operator of FuncoLand stores) was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2000, there was a corporate restructuring, and Babbage's Etc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Funco. The name at that time was changed to GameStop, Inc.

In 2002, GameStop bought out the Gamesworld franchise in Ireland and immediately took control of their 10 stores; the company now operates at over 40 locations in the country.

On November 12, 2004, GameStop spun off from Barnes & Noble. Due to Riggio's involvement, GameStop and Barnes & Noble employees still receive employee discounts at each other's stores, despite the companies being completely separate.

Merger with EB Games

GameStop and EB Games announced on April 18, 2005, that they had entered into a "definitive agreement and plan of merger". After shareholders and US regulatory agencies approved it, the merger closed on October 10 of that year. After the new year started, however, integration of the two companies was ramped up, starting with the realignment of districts and the closure of EB's West Chester, PA headquarters. Through the spring and summer, GameStop stores transitioned to the EB Games' Windows-based POS (Point of Sale) system, which replaced GameStop's aging MS-DOS-based program. As of the end of 2006, the remaining differences between individual stores are primarily a function of stores' interior design and layouts, based on when they were built and what company owned them at the time. Both EB Games and GameStop stores have several distinct designs.

On January 4, 2007 GameStop Corp. officially purchased Rhino Video Games from Blockbuster and the stores were renamed GameStop.

The GameStop Edge Card and Game Informer Magazine

For nearly every point-of-sale transaction, GameStop employees are pushed to offer the Edge Card including a 12-month subscription to Game Informer Magazine, at a cost of $14.99. With the Edge Card, the value of items traded in for store credit is increased by 10%, and it decreases the cost of used items by 10% (in both cases, video game systems are excluded). The increase/discount is often able to be combined with various other offers. GameStop employees are rated on a weekly basis on their ability to push Edge Card and Game Informer subscriptions.

Midnight Release

Gamestop has the occasional midnight release for select games that have a certain number of reservations. This has happened numerous times, with Guitar Hero 3, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl being the most recent. Midnight release simply means that the game is released at midnight, so the price of the game will remain the same.

Reservations and New Games

GameStop offers customers the option to reserve games by placing a deposit. The minimum is typically $5.00, but the exact amount can vary. Typically, systems and other forms of hardware (such as MP3 players) have higher required deposits. All money in the deposit is applied to the purchase, therefore, technically, making the reservation free; though GameStop employees are rated on their ability to both push-to-sale and discourage customers from cancelling their pre-orders. GameStop has recently started experimenting with requiring a $10 deposit on titles in an attempt to increase the percentage of titles picked up by customers who have placed reservations.

Also, customers are able to make payments on the game and pay it off before its release. The customer can claim their reserved game upon release day, and the 2 business days following the release day. If the customer does not pick up their reserve in that time frame, the money can either be refunded, moved to another reservation or, if extra copies of the game are available, placed towards the purchase of the desired game.

For reasons such as anti-theft, conservation of space, and display purposes, most copies of every new game are opened (with the exception of reserved pre-orders), with the contents removed from the case and placed in an organized drawer, while the empty game case itself is placed on the shelf. However, when multiple copies of the existing new software are in stock, employees are free to check out these new games, and are in turn sold to customers as "new" and "never having been played." Upon request, employees will reseal or shrink wrap an opened copy of the game, though some collectors would not consider these games "new" due to the removal of the original seal. The games are also guaranteed to work and have never been played; pre-orders usually are not affected.

MovieStop

MovieStop is a store that focuses on selling movies rather than games, with a structure similar to that of a GameStop. They buy, sell, and trade movies. MovieStop offers an array of movies, both used and new. As of November 2007, there are 36 MovieStop stores across the United States, including those in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Florida. Also, similar to GameStop's policy with games, customers do not need a case to trade DVDs.

References

External links

• GameStop official website

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Last updated on Monday March 10, 2008 at 12:31:40 PDT (GMT -0700)
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