GameStop is opening 80 GameStop Kids stores, a new franchise of gaming stores aimed at children. The first store is opening today in Irvine, Texas. This is surprising when you consider how many gamers download content online. Many are becoming more comfortable with making digital rather than physical purchases, which often leaves brick and mortar stores like GameStop with fewer customers. When you add that to the declining sales in the games industry over the past several years, this doesn’t look like a great move.
GameStop Kids will offer the most popular video games, video game accessories, and video game toys and collectibles. Since the average gamer is left out in the cold with this move, who is this store supposed to serve? Parents and grandparents. A lot of gamers complain about the huge amount of upselling that goes on every time they set foot in a GameStop. We know what we want, and we just want to get out of there. It works on some people, but those people mostly don’t know about gaming.
If a parent or grandparent who isn’t really in the loop on the whole gaming scene were to walk into the average store and see the amounts of graphic blood and nudity in a lot of games, they might not buy anything since it won’t seem appropriate for their kids. If you give them an entire store full of age-appropriate products with kid-friendly packaging and a large selection of toys, parents and kids will like that. With that in mind, let’s see how GameStop Kids does this holiday season. It will at least keep the number of scandalized parents covering the eyes of their children down.
