Gamestop Cuts Hundreds of Jobs

1up.com is reporting that in the wake of the Gamestop/EB Games merger, hundreds of employees are getting the boot. From the article: "In addition, GameStop will also be shutting down the EB Games corporate headquarters in West Chester and distribution site in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Layoffs aren't immediate, however, and will be staggered throughout early next year and into the summer, with some employees having the option of relocating to Dallas, Texas."

Cool!

[fujiman]

E3 will be less crowded next year!

Bad option

[drewmca]

So they're offering Philadelphia area locals (West Chester) the option of relocating to Dallas? To anyone who knows anything about football rivalries, that's a pretty poor option for those folks.

This just in: Dead Sea Technologies is closing their Jerusalem office and relocating employees to their Egyptian offices.

EB lately has been...well...

[bluemeep]

I've been having the absolute WORST luck with EB lately. In my little nook of Orlando, I'm ringed by about six of them. Honestly, I don't know if they're all just terminally depressed from the merger notification or if they all just hire out of the same gene pool, but it was a nightmare just trying to get a stinkin' preorder done a month or two ago. The following is a direct quotation:

[I walk into the store, currently draped in Madden '06 flags, standees and posters]
Me: Hi, I can I preorder--
Clerk: Madden, right?
Me: Uh, n--
Clerk: Because it's coming out soon. It's gonna be the best one yet!
Me: Actually, I wanted Sigma Star Saga.
[Clerk stares vacantly for a second before cocking his head towards the GBA rack]
Clerk: Oh. Yeah. Well... Mario Superstar Saga's been out forever.
Me: No, Sigma Star Saga. It's a new one.
Clerk: They're not making a sequal to that one.
Me: It's a different franchise. Done by Wayforward? Namco's the publisher?
Clerk: ...
Me: ...
Clerk: Yeah... We don't do preorders here... You'll have to go to our Longwood location.
[I turn the PREORDER MADDEN 06!!!! standee on the desk to face him. He glances at it.]
Clerk: Excuse me, but I have to check our inventory for another customer.
[Clerk walks into the back room. I wait another 10 minutes before giving up and leaving. During this time, several college fratboys take the opportunity to shoplift several copies of Doom 3 and Half Life 2 while the counter is unmanned.]

And this is why I only preorder at Gamestop now. They not only let me do the preorder, but they also had copies of Riviera (which EB never even got) and a used Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis. Gotta slog through hell before reaching heaven, I guess.