Saving Face: GameStop Closing Shops Anyway In Favor of Curbside Pickup

Last week when lawmakers ordered all non-essential retail to close to limit the spreading of the Coronavirus, Gamestop somehow considered itself essential enough to stay open, which lead to serious backlash from the company's employees, customers, and local law enforcement. Yesterday, Gamestop's CEO decided it was better to close shop anyway, as reported by CNN. 

"This is an unprecedented time and each day brings new information about the COVID-19 pandemic. Our priority has been and continues to be on the well-being of our employees, customers and business partners. We have been steadfast in our adherence to CDC-guided safety and local government orders for retailers in each of our communities," notes CNN as George Sherman, GameStop CEO's statement.

Gamestop's website is unreachable at the time of writing, so we are unable to confirm this statement.

For the next two weeks, Gamestop will only be delivering its goods or handing orders to customers as a curbside pickup. 

In a letter to its employees, Sherman also promised that it would continue to pay its employees as appropriate to their employment agreements with the company, as tweeted by Jason Schreier. This includes employees not eligible for PTO, who will be paid their average weekly earnings over the last 10 weeks.