While Christmas is still a few months away, retailers are already in high gear doing whatever magical things they do behind the scenes in order to separate you from that hard earned dollar you’ve been hiding away in that shoe box underneath your bed. GameStop as well as anyone realizes that in order to do just that, you need to know your customers — and the customers are changing. So sayeth Daniel DeMatteo, COO of GameStop:
“Honestly, we are having to retool the way we think of things in our stores in terms of merchandising, layout and also customer service because it is no longer only the hardcore gamer walking in who knows exactly what he wants.”
Taking notice that new genres have sprung up in recent years, those powers that be in the corporate world have decided that the layout is ready for makeover of sorts. Expect to walk into your local Gamestop somewhere down the line and see two new sections: music and family. The first will be dedicated to those games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar, while the latter will focus on those younger players with the abundance of discretionary income. While I am by no means employed by GameStop, I fully expect to find a lot of Nintendo merchandise in this area. Just call it a hunch.
I’d like to see them focus on giving us more than pennies on the dollar for trade-ins that they promptly resell for slightly less than new games, but that’s just capitalism at work. Even evil game stores need to make a profit.
[Via Gamesindustry — Thanks Justin]
