Wouldn't surprise me, Hollywood Videos have been shutting down like crazy too.

Everyone working within the company knows things are looking bad because of corporate policies. Hell, the big push for selling games that was just made with the video stores got killed entirely. Games aren't ever shipped in the first place, accessories are shipped out, and there's no more pre-orders.

The horrible irony is that the reason for a pre-order cut is that there were TOO MANY. They had so much business they had trouble filling all the orders. So instead of working harder for more money, they decided to make no money at all.

Movie Gallery has been quietly rolling up their stores right and left, in hopes that they get bought out by one of the other chains. So far that has not developed.

Expect Chapter 11 filings in the 4th quarter this year.

@zekedms: yea the hollywood video around me closed. I actually got to go into the store after it closed and I got a lot of cool video game signs and gamecrazy signs.

The Hollywood Videos in my are have all been closed down for more than a year. I've never even heard of Game Crazy. My friend goes to Blockbuster a lot and I'll go with him and they are always empty. I don't understand how they make money with no one there.

I've been in my local gamecrazy once. I was trying to pre-order something (something I rarely do, I'm more of a "buy it used 4 months later" gamer).

I stood in the store for about 20 min without being acknowledged by any of the three employees. One was playing video games on a console with a customer. Another one was BSing with some friends, and the third actively avoided looking at me the entire time I was there (but greeted people he knew as they came in behind me).
Since they obviously weren't interested in running a store so much as a hangout for their friends I went to my local Gamestop and ordered it there. Gamestop may have its own share of flaws, but at least they are friendly and helpful when I try to spend money there.

@Pixel: I don't understand why people don't just walk up to a staffer and say, "Hey, got a minute?"
It's either a Light A Candle Rather Than Curse The Darkness thing or a Thank God For Unaggressive Salespeople thing, either way, better, right?

@Pixel: It's sad for the state of customer service that you'd associate this with any chain. Maybe it's just my feelings as a retail monkey, but if you're getting paid to do basic retail work... You should be DOING the basic retail work, and that means customer service.

Am I just nuts?

Is it just me or is this a little off the mark...
"The vast majority of our stores will be unaffected by these efforts."
"plans to close 200 of its approximately 680 locations"
That's about 2/3 un-affected... Personally, I don't consider 'the vast majority' to be only 2/3.
~Chu

@Trai_Dep:
At first I didn't go up to a staffer because they appeared to be busy. After about 10min I realized I was being *actively* ignored, rather than them just being super busy. Then it became an interesting social experiment to see how long they were planning to ignore a potential paying customer. I wasn't browsing or otherwise doing anything but standing at the counter near the register quite obviously waiting for something that required a sales person's help.

@Nekoincardine:
I agree with you, I worked retail for ages and was always baffled by co-workers who thought interacting with the customers was a massive burden. Dude, your job description is to help customers, if this is too hard for you, get a warehouse job or something where you never have to interact with the public.

On a different note, I use to work for a Game Crazy when I was in College. The Employee discount was alright, but I was in it for the free rentals at Hollywood Video. The manager of our store (which was new) hired her best friend as assistant manager, and then 2 of her good friends as Shift leaders, and another good friend as a CSR (Failed background check to be trusted with a keycode for the store/safe). One of her friends had a high(ish) work ethic and did his job, other than that, nobody did anything but have fun and purposfully screw around and play games. Can't tell you how many times I got called in to work because the assistant manager was passed out drunk at the managers house.

Horrible place to work, and I am not suprised that they are going under. Unless you have a good manager/staff, the employees screw around constantly and nothing gets done, the place looks like crap, and its a pain to visit. I'm not suprised people are going for online services where they can bypass the store/employees.

The Gamecrazy's around here already closed up around 2-3 years ago maybe. No hollywood videos either around here, they all closed up.

If I had to wait in a store for more than 2-5 min without acknowledgement I am going to head right to Amazon or Newegg where I will probably get the item I want for a cheaper price anyways. Consumers have little patience these days and I don't have time to be waiting around in a store when I am there to give the store my money. A simple, I am busy and I will be with you as soon as I can would be sufficient.

@Nekoincardine: It boils down to management. If you realize your boss doesn't care about how you do your job and never coaches/punishes/reprimands you, are you really going to be that interested in working hard?

It's no rumor. The most prominant Game Crazy employee on the CAG message boards is a manager of one of the stores closing, and could possibly be the source of the Joystiq story.

YEAH NEWEGG!

Latest game that I bought was two weeks ago called "IL-2 Sturmovik". Fricking awesome.

One can guess that the Game Crazy/Hollywood Video here on the northwest side of Fort Wayne is probably on that list. Every business in that building except Kroger has moved or closed because Kroger itself is renovating and almost doubling in size soon, and almost all the other businesses except Game Crazy/Hollywood Video and a travel agency left long ago.

Anyway, I'll be looking for a fire sale on some Wii games, and maybe an extra Wiimote. That is, unless Gordon Brothers is handling the liquidations, like what happens with store closing sales 50% of the time.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

My friend is one of those who will be FUNemployed at the end of October, as they're closing down BOTH GameCrazy's in his town.