Gamestop places 16 in Barron's top companies list

I assume screwing over your customers doesn't count against you then?

I hate this semi-monopoly GameStop seems to have. I HATE their trade in values and etc. but there's absolutely nowhere else nearby that I can buy games from, 'cept FYE, and they have shit selection.

so, I guess losing money like Microsoft gaming sector has been doing last few years is good enough to get a "B" in "cash-flow returns on investment,"?

but then again, if GameStop is on there, you just know the credibility of that list itself. ;)

@ 2

theres always the internet i dont remember the last time ive been in any videogame store

People, stop bitching about their trade in value... take a bit of time and eBay your used stuffs. Or get a job so you can get whatever you want.

GO SENS GO!!

@kingofwale

Microsoft is more than just Entertainment and Devices.

& why does everyone hate Gamestop? The worst I heard was that they unwrap some new games before selling them to you (how devious!), they ask you to reserve games (now they're realllly pushing it), and they showed the LoZ:TP ending in store (ok, that last one's a bit offensive- reminds me of Homer coming out of The Empire Strikes Back). But still, all this hate... for that? Yeah. They're really shafting gamers.

@4 Dirty Bastard

I'm 14, no credit card, no job until summer :-/

@7 ok

when you get a job open a bank account and use your debit card

@8....you have to be 18 to get a debit card but not a checking account.

Source: Bank employee for the last 3years.

Read the article, Mr Russ Miller was definitely trying to imply it was "game industry" sector of Microsoft.

maybe it's just a way to draw more fanboy brawl? ;)

ive got my first debit card when i was 16 from fleet bank before fleet became bank of america

I just purchased at Gamestop for the first time this weekend, only because it still had a funcoland sign and felt nostalgic . . .

Eh...fuck Gamestop. EB was MUCH better by itself...and much better than Babbages/Gamestop/Funcoland was at the time they were purchased to complete the gaming monopoly.

I like buying games used from Hollywood Video, when possible. They're a bit MORE used than other sources, but it's cheaper, and they have commercial-quality disc resurfacers that make general wear-and-tear disappear.

Obviously, Barron's doesn't consider the fact that Gamestop's growth is going to slow a great deal with the next generation of console hardware, due to digital distribution. It's okay, because Gamestop doesn't seem to grasp that fact, either, as referenced in this Penny Arcade from back in March:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/30

After all, if I was a console manufacturer that made a few bucks off of every copy of a game, I wouldn't want that game re-sold three or four times, because I only make money from it the first time. Heck, if I was the developer of the game, I wouldn't want that, either. If you go to digital distribution, you cut out the middle-man of the brick-and-mortar stores, which adds to your bottom line, and a lack of a physical copy of a game means the license can't be transfered. XBLA, the Wii Shop channel, and ... whatever Sony's got going... are basically just test-runs for the next generation systems.

"But the bandwidth! Who will pay for the bandwidth, man!" you say? At sixty bucks a game, they can send the twenty-some gigabytes of a Blu-Ray disc and still make a very healthy profit, because Apple's selling episodes of Grey's Anatomy that clock in at around half a gigabyte for two dollars. Bandwidth is cheap, and I think the console manufacturers and the developers would be very happy to wash their hands of physical media forever.

In closing, I'm sure that being ranked 16th on this Barron's list will do wonders for the stock price of Gamestop in the short term, but I'd start selling the stock off in a couple of years.

It's funny because if Nintendo made it on the list everyone would be all happy and defensive of Nintendo, despite how it obviously shows they mark up their products too much. Gamestop makes their money by ripping people off. The more profit a company makes, the less of amount of money they are investing in their product, and the less savings they are passing onto the consumer.

@16, a couple of points:
1) It's not the job of any company to provide savings to a customer. The fundamental rule of capitalism is to provide the highest quality goods possible for the lowest cost possible while paying the highest wages possible.

2) Any publicly owned corporation does not exist to primarily serve the consumer's interest. Corporations exist first and foremost to serve the shareholders' interest by increasing shareholder value. Cutting prices and "passing savings on to the customer" only erodes shareholder value when the system is so popular that it immediately flies off of store shelves upon its arrival.

3) Economics 101: Anything is worth what the purchaser will pay for it: "Ripping off the customer" is par for the course in a supply-and-demand economy; particularly in one without any real organized competition (as in the used-games market). If a gamer is done with a game, he will accept what he can get for it and buy a used game, as the alternative (eBay, garage sale, et cetera) will yield the gamer more money than he would get from the retailer at the expense of the gamer's own time and effort. Barring that, the game is worth exactly what the retailer gives the gamer. Sell your college books back to the bookstore at the end of term to live through this scenario again. Try the old Oliver Twist "Please, sir, I want some more," line on them just to see what they do.

I was going to make a point about the "the less of amount of money they are investing in their product" point, but I'll just write it up later somewhere else. In closing, though, it's not show-friends, it's show-business. The console manufacturers, the publishers, the developers, and (most definitely) the retailers don't owe you anything... unless you're a shareholder.