Downtown Evanston’s GameStop closed Sunday as part of the international video game company’s downsizing plan.
The video game store, 920 Church St., was one of 250 locations the Grapevine, Texas-based retailer announced it would shutter this year.
“Closing 250 stores enables us to deal with the very small percentage of stores that we have that are unprofitable, but also to close marginally profitable stores and actually make more money by moving customers to other nearby stores,” chief financial officer Rob Lloyd said in February at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. “We’ve been successful at that for two years, and we’ll continue that program in 2013.”
Lloyd said 60 to 70 stores are expected to open in the United States this year — a decrease from 2012 — in addition to the acquisition of about 40 in France. Overall, GameStop will reduce its net square footage by 2 percent in 2013, according to the CFO.
The next-closest GameStop is three miles south of Northwestern’s Evanston campus at 1751 W. Howard St.
— Susan Du
