GameStop Announces It Will Close Up To 200 'Underperforming' Stores
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — GameStop announced it would be closing up to 200 underperforming stores across the United States and abroad in the next six months in an earnings call earlier this week.
The announcement came during a Sept. 10 call where it was revealed that the company's total sales declined $315.4 million — 14.3% — as compared to the second quarter of 2018.
"While not up to our expectations, these results are generally in-line with declines across the video game industry and indicative of sales volumes at this point in the console cycle," Jim Bell, GameStop chief financial officer, said.
Bell said that more than 95% of the company's 5,700 stores remained profitable — though the company has closed 195 of its stores in the past 12 months.
Bell also said that the company was in the process of applying a more definitive analytic approach to its retail footprint that the company said would likely lead to an even larger number of stores closing in the next 12-24 months.
"We believe these actions will significantly add to our profit improvement run rate with little to no cash expense as our average lease life is approximately two years," Bell said of the store closing plans.
The company did not disclose the locations of the stores slated for closure.
