8 ms·

I recently took my son on a "GameStop run" to sell our super old PS4. He's 7 and never been to a store with video games before. So we jumped in the car and arri

I recently took my son on a "GameStop run" to sell our super old PS4. He's 7 and never been to a store with video games before. So we jumped in the car and arrived at the store about 30 min north of Seattle just as the sun was setting. In the window were two kids in Taekwondo uniforms. Both were super nice to a younger kid and immediately let him play and gave him pro tips on how to do slide turns. We then sold the console for $50 and he immediately wanted to use the money to buy a giant Eevee squishmallow that was next to the checkout line. What can you do? :) Now he tells me the story as "remember that time we bought my Eevee and those karate kids gave me a quarter". Having real places is still awesome. I know the finances don't really scale, but shoutout to Lynnwood GameStop for keeping it real out there. And RIP RadioShack. You always had a hard drive when we needed one to reinstall windows during a lan party. holds up a glass

dylan604 1y ago
There are many retail places that I know that are just unable to keep up with ever increasing rent. There is only so much a retailer can do with the prices of their products before they lose customers. Losing customers only worsens the pressure on paying rent. Consumers say they lament the loss of brick and mortar stores, yet their actions of only buying online shows that isn't really that big of a loss to them. It's such a weird situation for a retailer. I don't envy their situation.
- Shog9 1y ago
  Even before "online" was an option, folks were fleeing high prices in high rent districts for cheaper goods on the outskirts. Heck, I remember folks banding together to get in on bulk buys decades ago, when that was neither convenient nor quick. High rent will kill retail in an area no matter what; if online also gets you faster and easier, then who would choose anything else?
  - dylan604 1y ago
    What it suggest to me is that delivery fees are too cheap. Amazon subsidizing shipping to the point customers expect same-day as an option on something as insignificant than it was just a simple button click. No other thought given to the actual cost. Where going to the store probably means putting on clothes, driving somewhere, dealing with other humans, before driving back. The original online purchase meant possibly saving taxes, but now everyone collects taxes so no savings there. If there was a tipping point of being able to save brick&mortar, COVID pushed it over to the non-recoverable side.
    - dehrmann 1y ago
      > Amazon subsidizing shipping Do they still do this?
      - dylan604 1y ago
        Do, did, does it matter. The sheeple are now hooked on the free shipping, and are now too addicted for how it happened to matter.
        dehrmann 1y ago
        It matters. If it's not subsidized, it's not actually free, it's just baked into the price, and a large player like Walmart might be able to compete.
        Shog9 1y ago
        Which is possibly the bigger deal. Every time I shop at a specialty provider I end up frustrated by their lack of clarity around shipping costs - many will actually force you to go through the entire order process before giving you a shipping estimate, complete with collecting contact information. Makes it very tedious to price-shop. I will actually go out of my way to search for some suppliers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, even Tictok before dealing with buying directly, just so I can rule them out if they're gonna pull a "$10 + $60 s&h" trick. And... Again, this isn't new; pretty sure Ronco was doing this on TV before the Web.
  - SoftTalker 1y ago
    There was a local camera shop in my town, this was back in the 1980s. I went in to look at some cameras and the salesman mentioned how they were having problems because people would come in and look at the cameras and get advice and then go order them from 47th Street Photo or Adorama or one of the other big mail-order places that advertised in photography magazines. Not a new phenomenon.
    - dylan604 1y ago
      I purchased my telescope and mount from a "local" store. It was >30 miles away in the metroplex, but it was a physical store with human employees. I went in with an idea of what I wanted to buy, but the person there asked me a whole slew of questions to ensure I was going to be happy with the purchase. They then also knew that my selected scope and selected mount would need an additional adapter plate that I would not have known about if I bought the items online. When I went to pick it up, they opened the boxes with me and helped me assemble the whole thing with a quick walk through on operating the mount. The only thing missing from this white glove service were the literal white gloves. A year later, I wanted to buy a scope as a guide scope, and they had sadly closed. Telescopes are clearly a niche market, and even though it was a proper store the market just wasn't there to sustain the rent. There are plenty of places to go online to get similar advice, but nothing online can replace the experience of having someone right there showing something to you. Sadly, the longer the internet exists, the less I'm liking it. It is soulless and just sucks the soul out of humanity more than it adds.
    - wrp 1y ago
      I remember that from the 1970s, too. I think photo gear might have been a unique case because the market was big enough to support those huge mailorder shops in NYC, and most items were expensive enough that the markup of buying at a local shop really hurt. As a young, cash-strapped, photography enthusiast, I felt guilty about buying all my major gear online, but I could bring myself to purchase only small accessories from the (really nice) people at the local camera shop.
- glimshe 1y ago
  If retail is dying, how can rents keep going up?
  - dylan604 1y ago
    The landlords do not care what type of tenants are renting (for the most part). They just rent to a new retail customer that thinks they can survive. I'm sure there's a 6 degrees to Spirit Halloween to compete with Bacon.
  - bluGill 1y ago
    Retail is not dieing. Spetiality retail is dieing though.
    - werdnapk 1y ago
      Specialty retail is what I generally buy from brick and mortar as it's almost always cheaper in-store compared to what I find online.
      - bluGill 1y ago
        IF you can find the store at all maybe. Your city might not even have one store depending on the specialty.
  - mschuster91 1y ago
    Tax crap. An empty rental lot can be used to offset taxes from a more profitable location of the same owner - you just use virtual or real expenses such as mortgage payments. The ultra rich are, once again, externalizing costs to society (because a run-down mall is a blight that takes down the value of everything around it) while taking and gobbling their profits. The other alternative is that instead of niche specialty dealerships, you got national or even international chains moving in, that sell cheap-ass clothes from Bangladesh or other sweatshops in masses.
darknavi 1y ago
I have the fondest teenage memories waiting for Halo midnight releases. For Halo 3 we had LAN parties in the back of pick-up trucks after rushing down to GameCrazy (Hollywood Video's game store chain which was attached on the side) after middle school in Canyon Park. Halo Reach was the Lynnwood GameStop after a friend begged his parents to let him stay out late that night. So many friends and memories. I miss those energetic meet-ups!
alexpotato 1y ago
Had a similar experience going to a GameStop with my son to fix a gift card that wasn't working online. Store was great and the young men who worked there were - polite - helpful - persistent in calling HQ store help line to get the card working I even asked them if there was a way I could give feedback on the store and mention them specifically. They said "Given how the company is doing, that would be great but it won't matter but thank you." Which prompted another thought: Retail was a great first job for kids in high school. It taught you customer service, sales, responsibility etc. Barrier to entry was also low in case you came from a lower socioeconomic tier and were looking to gain experience for your resume etc. Feels like we lost a lot by killing off physical locations on multiple fronts.

dylan604 1y ago

There are many retail places that I know that are just unable to keep up with ever increasing rent. There is only so much a retailer can do with the prices of their products before they lose customers. Losing customers only worsens the pressure on paying rent. Consumers say they lament the loss of brick and mortar stores, yet their actions of only buying online shows that isn't really that big of a loss to them. It's such a weird situation for a retailer. I don't envy their situation.

Shog9 1y ago
Even before "online" was an option, folks were fleeing high prices in high rent districts for cheaper goods on the outskirts. Heck, I remember folks banding together to get in on bulk buys decades ago, when that was neither convenient nor quick. High rent will kill retail in an area no matter what; if online also gets you faster and easier, then who would choose anything else?
- dylan604 1y ago
  What it suggest to me is that delivery fees are too cheap. Amazon subsidizing shipping to the point customers expect same-day as an option on something as insignificant than it was just a simple button click. No other thought given to the actual cost. Where going to the store probably means putting on clothes, driving somewhere, dealing with other humans, before driving back. The original online purchase meant possibly saving taxes, but now everyone collects taxes so no savings there. If there was a tipping point of being able to save brick&mortar, COVID pushed it over to the non-recoverable side.
  - dehrmann 1y ago
    > Amazon subsidizing shipping Do they still do this?
    - dylan604 1y ago
      Do, did, does it matter. The sheeple are now hooked on the free shipping, and are now too addicted for how it happened to matter.
      - dehrmann 1y ago
        It matters. If it's not subsidized, it's not actually free, it's just baked into the price, and a large player like Walmart might be able to compete.
        Shog9 1y ago
        Which is possibly the bigger deal. Every time I shop at a specialty provider I end up frustrated by their lack of clarity around shipping costs - many will actually force you to go through the entire order process before giving you a shipping estimate, complete with collecting contact information. Makes it very tedious to price-shop. I will actually go out of my way to search for some suppliers on Amazon, eBay, Walmart, even Tictok before dealing with buying directly, just so I can rule them out if they're gonna pull a "$10 + $60 s&h" trick. And... Again, this isn't new; pretty sure Ronco was doing this on TV before the Web.
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  There was a local camera shop in my town, this was back in the 1980s. I went in to look at some cameras and the salesman mentioned how they were having problems because people would come in and look at the cameras and get advice and then go order them from 47th Street Photo or Adorama or one of the other big mail-order places that advertised in photography magazines. Not a new phenomenon.
  - dylan604 1y ago
    I purchased my telescope and mount from a "local" store. It was >30 miles away in the metroplex, but it was a physical store with human employees. I went in with an idea of what I wanted to buy, but the person there asked me a whole slew of questions to ensure I was going to be happy with the purchase. They then also knew that my selected scope and selected mount would need an additional adapter plate that I would not have known about if I bought the items online. When I went to pick it up, they opened the boxes with me and helped me assemble the whole thing with a quick walk through on operating the mount. The only thing missing from this white glove service were the literal white gloves. A year later, I wanted to buy a scope as a guide scope, and they had sadly closed. Telescopes are clearly a niche market, and even though it was a proper store the market just wasn't there to sustain the rent. There are plenty of places to go online to get similar advice, but nothing online can replace the experience of having someone right there showing something to you. Sadly, the longer the internet exists, the less I'm liking it. It is soulless and just sucks the soul out of humanity more than it adds.
  - wrp 1y ago
    I remember that from the 1970s, too. I think photo gear might have been a unique case because the market was big enough to support those huge mailorder shops in NYC, and most items were expensive enough that the markup of buying at a local shop really hurt. As a young, cash-strapped, photography enthusiast, I felt guilty about buying all my major gear online, but I could bring myself to purchase only small accessories from the (really nice) people at the local camera shop.
glimshe 1y ago
If retail is dying, how can rents keep going up?
- dylan604 1y ago
  The landlords do not care what type of tenants are renting (for the most part). They just rent to a new retail customer that thinks they can survive. I'm sure there's a 6 degrees to Spirit Halloween to compete with Bacon.
- bluGill 1y ago
  Retail is not dieing. Spetiality retail is dieing though.
  - werdnapk 1y ago
    Specialty retail is what I generally buy from brick and mortar as it's almost always cheaper in-store compared to what I find online.
    - bluGill 1y ago
      IF you can find the store at all maybe. Your city might not even have one store depending on the specialty.
- mschuster91 1y ago
  Tax crap. An empty rental lot can be used to offset taxes from a more profitable location of the same owner - you just use virtual or real expenses such as mortgage payments. The ultra rich are, once again, externalizing costs to society (because a run-down mall is a blight that takes down the value of everything around it) while taking and gobbling their profits. The other alternative is that instead of niche specialty dealerships, you got national or even international chains moving in, that sell cheap-ass clothes from Bangladesh or other sweatshops in masses.

darknavi 1y ago

I have the fondest teenage memories waiting for Halo midnight releases. For Halo 3 we had LAN parties in the back of pick-up trucks after rushing down to GameCrazy (Hollywood Video's game store chain which was attached on the side) after middle school in Canyon Park. Halo Reach was the Lynnwood GameStop after a friend begged his parents to let him stay out late that night. So many friends and memories. I miss those energetic meet-ups!

alexpotato 1y ago

Had a similar experience going to a GameStop with my son to fix a gift card that wasn't working online. Store was great and the young men who worked there were - polite - helpful - persistent in calling HQ store help line to get the card working I even asked them if there was a way I could give feedback on the store and mention them specifically. They said "Given how the company is doing, that would be great but it won't matter but thank you." Which prompted another thought: Retail was a great first job for kids in high school. It taught you customer service, sales, responsibility etc. Barrier to entry was also low in case you came from a lower socioeconomic tier and were looking to gain experience for your resume etc. Feels like we lost a lot by killing off physical locations on multiple fronts.