GameStop is shutting down more stores in California. <\/p>\n
The video game, toy and collectible retailer has been struggling to find a way to thrive in a market where most of what it sells is easier to get online. It has been shrinking its brick-and-mortar retail footprint for years to lower costs and has reportedly shut dozens of branches in California. <\/p>\n
An unofficial blog<\/a> tracking store closures estimates that more than 400 GameStop locations, and more than 40 in California, have closed or are slated to close this month. <\/p>\n Calls to 10 GameStop locations across the Southland, including in Inglewood, Canoga Park and Gardena, went unanswered. A recorded message told callers that store associates were \u201cassisting other customers\u201d and to \u201ccall back in a few minutes.\u201d One store employee in a San Francisco Bay Area outlet confirmed that the outlet was closing on Thursday. <\/p>\n Gamestop\u2019s official store directory showed many California stores closed all week.<\/p>\n The closures were previously disclosed in the company\u2019s December financial filings, though the exact number wasn\u2019t announced. GameStop did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Texas-based video game retailer\u2019s decision to shed locations was the result of a \u201ccomprehensive store portfolio optimization review\u201d that looked at market conditions and individual store performance, according to its December Securities and Exchange Commission filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n GameStop closed 590 stores nationwide during the 2024 fiscal year, according to the filing. <\/p>\n \u201cWe anticipate closing a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025,\u201d the company said in its December filing. The company\u2019s fiscal year ends on Jan. 31.<\/p>\n GameStop had 2,325 U.S. stores as of Feb. 2025, the company wrote in a March filing<\/a>. <\/p>\n GameStop has struggled as many customers download video games instead of buying physical copies at brick-and-mortar stores, the company said in the filing.<\/p>\n \u201cDownloading of video game content to the current generation video game systems continues to grow and take an increasing percentage of new video game sales,\u201d the company wrote. \u201cIf consumers\u2019 preference for downloading video game content in lieu of physical software continues to increase, our business and financial performance may be adversely impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n The company\u2019s difficulties in staying relevant somewhat echo those of the video chain Blockbuster, which has one remaining location<\/a>, and RadioShack<\/a>, once a fixture at malls across America.<\/p>\n GameStop originated in the 1980s as Babbage\u2019s, a computer shop in Dallas that later shifted its focus to video games. The company, which underwent several acquisitions, including by the book retailer Barnes & Noble<\/a>, was later renamed GameStop.<\/p>\n In 2021, GameStop became the emblematic \u201cmeme\u201d stock<\/a> when investors drove up share prices during an online craze amid hopes there was a way to salvage the already struggling brand. <\/p>\n The company has more recently turned to cryptocurrency. Last May, it announced<\/a> that it had acquired more than 4,700 Bitcoin, which Reuters<\/a> estimated at the time to be worth around $513 million.<\/p>\n GameStop shares have been volatile over the last 12 months. As of Thursday, shares had fallen around 25% over that time period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GameStop is shutting down more stores in California. The video game, toy and collectible retailer has been struggling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1804,69346,14630,24302,5936,5990,3906,69348,7037,69347,2429,33437,8843,72],"class_list":["post-136089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-company","tag-december-financial-filing","tag-filing","tag-gamestop","tag-location","tag-market","tag-month","tag-more-store","tag-stock","tag-store-closure","tag-thursday","tag-video-game","tag-way","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}