Quote Originally Posted by Flashback2012 View Post
Try not to interpret this as an attack but are either of you employed full time? Both of you strike me as younger and more impulsive with your opinions; the type that "shoot first and ask questions later." I know firsthand how crappy GS is because I worked for them for just shy of 10 years but their poor service/practices/polices notwithstanding, how is it ever a good thing for a company that has 4.7-6.6K locations worldwide and employs between 17-20K people to go belly up? Regardless of what the politicians and pundits say, to me it feels like we're still one foot in the water regarding a recession. There's like 3M+ currently on unemployment and I read another 38K first time claims were reported just this past week so who in their right mind would want that number to grow bigger?

Hostess employed roughly the same number of people and for the most part their brand was revered by many; should we ask their workforce of approx. 18K-ish people how they feel about being now unemployed?
If Gamestop goes under it would just allow other opportunities for new businesses to take it's place. Maybe we'll see a rise of independent stores again since most of the previous existing ones were forced out due to Gamestop's competition. Plenty of big businesses go under when they become redundant or make poor decisions, not just recently due to the current economy problems. Plus there's no localized culture anymore, why travel anywhere when it's all the same? You can travel across the country to see what's there, you can visit their Walmart or Target, eat at their McDonalds or Starbucks, all of which have practically identical product to any other location. What's worse now is that most of the big box stores carry the same products as their competitors, all that varies is the pricing between them. It's pretty boring shopping in new stores, at least shopping in used stores the items carried vary and change all the time. Nowadays I'd rather visit a thrift store or flea market than a shopping mall. I know Gamestop carries used goods which can vary, but current consoles don't really interest me so I don't see much point to visit these stores too often anyway.

That being said I don't think Gamestop will go out of business so soon, cutting back some locations doesn't mean they're about to go under.

Quote Originally Posted by retroguy View Post
Aside from it just being a good story in and of itself, I think Pixar made WALL-E as a warning. They were trying to tell people exactly what you just said.
While I liked the movie it was pretty hypocritical. They showed everyone being bombarded with advertising and propaganda promoting a giant corporation as their best friend, all part of cold big business. How do the makers of WALL-E choose to spread their warning of consumerism? They commercialize the movie as much as possible, creating as much merchandise as they can(including licensed video games) and integrating the characters into theme parks. They made the movie to make money, not just to tell a good story.