In releasing its results for its fiscal Q2 ended August 3, GameStop revealed that it has closed 195 stores since Q2 of last year and will close 180-200 stores globally by the end of its fiscal year. And it sounds like there’s much more to come. "While these closures were more opportunistic, we are applying a more definitive analytic approach, including profit levels and sales transferability that we expect will yield a much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 months to 24 months," GameStop CFO Jim Bell said in the conference call.
In Wall Street-ese, Gamestop CEO described the hoped-for results. "We believe that store de-densification will be materially accretive to the overall business model." Translation: we think closing stores will help us be more profitable.
Overall global sales were down 14.3%in the quarter, with comparable store sales down 11.6% in the quarter, the company reported. Every category was down, led by hardware as gamer wait for new consoles next year, except collectibles, which were up 21.2%. That’s a significant improvement over the last quarter, when collectible sales were up 10.5% (see "Collectibles Remain Sole Bright Spot as Gamestop Sales Decline").
The company is issuing guidance for the fiscal year with comp store sales declines in the low teens.
As Sales Decline 14.3% in Quarter
Posted by Milton Griepp on September 11, 2019 @ 10:02 am CT