GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer, will close 250 stores nationwide in an effort to streamline its business and shed unprofitable locations. The company’s chief financial office made the announcement at yesterday’s Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco.
GameStop has 13 stores in Maine. That’s a drop in the bucket among the 6,650 stores the company operates in 15 countries, but I still wanted to know if any of those 13 Maine locations were on the chopping block.
An employee at the GameStop in the Bangor Mall on Wednesday afternoon refused to comment. “I don’t want to lose my job,” she said. “I won’t say anything.”
Only the corporate office, she said, was allowed to comment.
I was able to reach Wendy Dominguez, a spokeswoman for the Grapevine, Texas-based video game retailer.
Dominguez confirmed the CFO’s comments, but said it was too early to release details about which stores the company would close.
“Right now there’s an evaluation period going on and those stores should be closed within 6 months,” she said.
In the same announcement, the CFO said the company would also be opening as many as 70 new stores. There’s no word on whether Maine will be the beneficiary of those new video game havens.