GameStop is giving the impression it's no longer interested in selling new games. The company's latest sales tactics reportedly discourages its employees to sell new games to their customers.
Circle of Life Sales Program
GameStop instituted a sales program called Circle of Life. This means each of its retail stores is assigned quotas for pre-orders, reward card subscriptions, used games and trade-ins. Kotaku explains this system by citing an example. Imagine an employee with a used game sales quota of 30 percent. He or she will need to sell $150 worth of pre-owned items after selling $500 worth of new games.
Employees Penalized Under New System
A lot of GameStop employees are complaining about new company sales policy. The pressure of selling a certain amount of pre-owned games for every new ones they sold has taken its toll. Many of them find it convenient not to sell new games to prospective buyers rather than struggle with selling pre-owned items.
The company is closely monitoring every retail store and employees with regards to its Circle of Life sales program. Failure to meet the quotas will result in severe punishment that can even lead firing. This is a powerful incentive for people simply stopped selling new games.
A number of employees are adjusting to the controversial policy. They formed their own Reddit section where they discussed ways on how to sell more pre-owned games. It's also place where many complained about GameStop and its program.
GameStop Reason For Controversial Program
It seems unthinkable that GameStop would discourage the sales of new games since this means loss of revenue. Upon closer examination though, much of the company profits are coming from pre-owned items. Take the case of new game that's available for $30, as pre-owned item though it's selling at double that price. Critics pointed out though, customers who don't like pre-owned can get new games from various sources.
