GameStop has announced that its subsidiary, EB Games, would be shutting down some of its retail outlets within Australia. The retailer operates more than 300 stores in the country, and a total of 19 stores will be closed in this latest round of bad news. These closures are slated to occur within the month of January, with the final inventory clearout to occur in the preceding weeks.
The video game retailer explained in a statement to Kotaku Australia that they were “constantly evaluating [their] property portfolio” to keep on top of the “changing retail landscape.” During the most recent review, EB Games decided that 19 total stores had been deemed to be too unprofitable to keep open, and the decision was made to shutter them. Staff at these locations will be offered positions at surrounding stores in many cases.
All of the stores included in the closure round will be holding closing sales, trying to empty out their remaining inventory. Discounts around 20% to 60% are reported. These EB Games locations may be a quick scalp for any Australian gamers looking to snag some used games on the cheap. Some of the stores are located in trendy locations, and should have some interesting deals.
The stores being closed include those in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. The stores located in Blacktown in New South Wales and Docklands in Victoria are rather popular and large locations. So if you’re nearby, hit them up.
GameStop and their various subsidiaries have been having a pretty rough go of things in these last few months. The company has been losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually across it’s various brands. Dozens of GameStop stores in the US have closed as well, with more closures planned throughout the coming months. For the Australian segment, the company is going through many of the same problems with sagging retail sales.
The closures, staff cuts and other reductions are just part of their plan to save the company. The company under the GameStop label has focused on console gaming and similar areas since the mid-1990s. Throughout the early 2000s EB Games pushed through various closures and expansions as part of the GameStop growth strategy. Part of this plan involved acquiring various retailers and distributors internationally, turning EB Games into a more common retail outlet outside the US compared to GameStop. Since then, the company has attempted to pull out of the profit nosedive by diversifying with new retail outlets like Zing Pop Culture. EB Games and Zing Pop Culture stores will be combined as a part of this revamp. GameStop previously tried to revamp through services like a rental program, which shuttered almost immediately.
