makingmusic476 on 20 June 2009
A few days ago, it came to light on the web that GameStop was easing up on its push of used sales for games less than 60 days old, in an effort to "improve vendor relations." From Kotaku:
According to a GameStop manager who forwarded us details of that internal e-mail, the company is altering one of its more aggressive sales tactics, one which prompts employees to offer a used version of a new title brought to the sales desk. The GameStop Point of Sale system is said to no longer prompt employees to push that used copy for 60 days after the game's initial release.
I work at GameStop, and was at my store when we received the e-mail in question. Chances are Activision, EA, and the rest were bitching about the company's aggressive emphasis on used items, and an agreement was made to ease off on the pushing of used items in place of new for such recent releases. I was rather happy when we received the e-mail, and thought it was a very good thing.
Then I showed up for work today, and discovered an order from corporate requiring us to ship a number of our new titles back to the warehouse. Many titles were on the list, including the likes of Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter IV, and Killzone 2. We were required to not just ship a few copies of said titles, but our entire stock, including any spare collector's editions. We shipped off ~32 pounds of goods. Essentially, we were shipping off just about every popular title released in the past six months that had been on the market for over 60 days. As a result, we are now basically forced to sell used copies of these titles to consumers, as we have no other option.
So while we may be easing off on the sales of used items for games less than two months old, we now have no choice but to sell used copies of many titles that are just past that mark. I guess this is corporate's way of getting back at publishers.
- Is GameStop really doing what I think they're doing?
- To any others that work at GameStop, did you receive a similar order for your store?
