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GameStop’s No Good Very Bad Week
As the new coronavirus continues to ravage the global economy, many companies are under siege and scrambling to stay afloat among historic downturn. Whether it is restaurants battling government-mandated closings or small businesses struggling to decide whether or not they can pay their employees if they are sick, no one is free of the effects of this devastating virus. The last thing anyone wants to fight on top of COVID-19 is a public relations nightmare, and yet that is exactly what GameStop has forced itself to do.
In the five days since Monday, March 16th, GameStop has seen their stocks trend towards penny stock territory, one of their conference calls was leaked online, and they have been widely mocked and disparaged for claiming that they are “essential retail” which must stay open during the pandemic. GameStop was already widely penned as the next business to slowly shut down due to changing economic forces in the market, similar to the way Blockbuster slowly wound down over the course of a decade following the rise of Netflix and other streaming sources. The last thing they needed on top of the stresses of a global pandemic and a looming recession was to damage their credibility.
Here is what happened in what is undoubtedly one of the worst possible weeks for the beleaguered company.
