Posted in: eSports, Game Hardware, Games, Video Games | Tagged: coronavirus, games, gamestop, Gamestop 2.0, video games

Gamestop Claims "Essential Retail" Status, "Can Stay Open"

Gamestop, a key retailer of video games, video game accessories, and (potentially soon) video game experiences, has announced that due to having status as an "essential" retailer, they can keep their stores open during these times of the COVID-19 (also known as Coronavirus) outbreak.

According to sources, Gamestop sent a memo out to their staff stating, "Due to the products we carry that enable and enhance our customers' experience in working from home, we believe GameStop is classified as essential retail and therefore is able to remain open during this time."

I managed to get a quote attributed to Gary Riding, the Vice President of Store Operations for Gamestop, while investigating this claim:

GameStop is working diligently during this unprecedented time to provide our customers and associates with the safest environment possible. Like many businesses, we are taking action to institute multiple social distancing practices in our stores, such as only allowing 10 customers in our stores at any given time, cancelling all gaming events and midnight launch activities until further notice, disabling temporarily all interactive gaming stations in our stores, introducing in-store line management practices that creates a 1-meter parameter between customers in checkout lines, and encouraging customers to leverage our online ecommerce capabilities and direct deliveries to their homes from our warehouses or stores.

Additionally, we have implemented heightened cleaning practices on all high-touchpoint surfaces within our stores. And like other retailers, we are taking aggressive actions, in an admittedly difficult environment, to quickly obtain the necessary cleaning supplies needed.

We are all in this together. Like many businesses, we are continuing to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic closely, while satisfying our gamers demand for the product they want in a manner that protects both our customers and our associates.

Therefore, there are a few factors that seem to belie any cries of Gamestop being a problem while staying open if what Riding says is genuine and true throughout every Gamestop location. However, with the store models in Tulsa, which I had reported on just over a month ago, I'd be more worried if these locations were to keep their doors open in the midst of a global pandemic. Granted, they are instituting a bottleneck by releasing certain new-release games, ones that would release simultaneously like Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, on different days, so there's merit to that.

But what you think about this? Should Gamestop stay open amid this crisis, or should it do what other stores are doing and stay closed for the time being? Let us know in the comments!

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