Tag: GameStop

How 1 Roaring Kitty tweet led GameStop stock to skyrocket again, explained

One tweet with just an image led to GameStop stock jumping again.

This is absurd, but it’s happening. Again.

The year was 2021. GameStop, the video game and electronics retail chain wasn’t doing well given the changes in buying habits. But then investors on Reddit decided to en masse buy stock and the whole thing exploded into “meme stocks” getting prices hiked thanks to people deciding to buy them together.

Since all that chaos, GameStop had its ups and downs in the stock market … and then Roaring Kitty tweeted.

Who is that, you ask? The answer: a financial analyst named Keith Gill who was all over Reddit hadn’t tweeted in three years from his Roaring Kitty account … until Sunday, with this meme:

Literally, that’s it. And on Monday, investors poured their money into GameStop, with the New York Stock Exchange halting trading a few times.

Ridiculous? Sure. We’ll see what happens going forward. But it’s amazing what one tweet did.

GameStop manager fired after robbers made off with PS5 systems

GameStop fired a manager after two robbers held up a single employee and made off with $5,000 worth of PS5s, which is 10 consoles

GameStop fired a manager after two robbers held up a single employee and made off with $5,000 worth of PS5s, which is 10 consoles (thanks, Kotaku). In response to the much-loved manager’s termination, all but two employees at the Easton, PA, location submitted their two-weeks notice or left immediately.

The robbery happened when just one employee, who had only been hired weeks before the incident took place, was working. Two men ordered him to put his hands over his head and take them to the back room where the consoles were kept. While they brandished no visible weapons, the employee said they told him to stay still while they removed the consoles unless he wanted to get hurt.

A week and a half later, the manager was fired, with corporate citing the robbery as the reason.

The man was the most tenured and the top performer in the district,” one former employee told Kotaku. “The dude bent over backwards for this company.”

It’s not the first time GameStop’s actions have prompted employees to leave in outrage, as the company expects more from fewer employees and even makes managers responsible for multiple stores at once. Staff cuts in the face of declining revenue – despite extensive investment in NFTs – make scenarios such as this one, where a new hire is alone in the store for their entire shift, increasingly common, to the point where a subreddit for employees frequently has posts asking for help on how to keep everything going.

The comments on the Kotaku article are filled with employees posting similar complaints. One said they were held responsible for a robbery where the perpetrators did pull a gun on the staff. Another former manager said they were fired and accused of theft after adjusting a customer’s return price up to the then-current price – $25 more than what they paid for it – because they bought $300 worth of product in the same visit.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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GameStop employees are fed up with being babysitters

Staff members vent about the common and dangerous practice where parents leave their children unattended in GameStop storesStaff members vent about the common and dangerous practice where parents leave their children unattended in GameStop stores

GameStop employees have enough to deal with in their day-to-day activities, from unruly customers to the threat of closures and restructuring as the parent company embarks on new, unsuccessful ventures and deals with the fallout from a volatile stock market. As Kotaku first reported, some of them have another unexpected – and potentially illegal – duty to contend with as well: minding other people’s children. Parents are leaving their kids unattended in GameStop stores with such regularity that one employee posted a request for help on the GameStop Reddit page, asking others for their advice on how to handle the issue.

“What do you guys do when kids randomly walk in while their parents are shopping elsewhere?” Reddit user CptPeebles wrote. “Or when parents just drop their kids off? Are we even ALLOWED to do anything?”

Responses ranged from telling the kids they needed a parent present to just letting them play with the demo systems and hoping for the best. Others joked that it was the ideal opportunity to sign up new members for GameStop’s Power Up Pro membership plan, since employees have a set number of sign-ups they’re supposed to reach each month.

“One time my DM was in my store, and a kid bought a Roblox mystery box,” CptPeebles wrote in response to another comment. “It was $6, and the kid only had $10 on him (I could see into his wallet from my perspective). He leaves the store and my DM asked me why I didn’t sell him a pro membership. 1: he had $10. 2) he’s 9.”

Humor aside, most commenters recognized how serious the problem could be, even if the parents don’t.

“If your kid gets taken, it’s in no way shape or form my fault,” one user wrote. “These parents are so irresponsible, what if I was a creep? They just don’t think things through. Don’t pawn them off on a 20-year-old retail worker.”

Compounding the issue is that GameStop reportedly has no policy in place for dealing with unattended children, so managers and team members just have to improvise every time it happens.

Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF

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GameStop’s NFT marketplace has worst revenue day since opening

The retailer’s NFT marketplace is already struggling mere weeks after launching.

There’s no question that GameStop’s business venture into NFTs and cryptocurrency has been the subject of much criticism. The announcement sure didn’t have a warm reception, and it looks like public perception isn’t improving.

A post on r/wallstreetbets, a subreddit devoted to tracking financial investments and trends, notes that on July 30, 2022, GameStop’s NFT marketplace had its worst day thus far. At one point, the controversial storefront was making approximately $13.40 an hour. Conversely, the highest revenue point came in at around $475.41, which is obviously better but still relatively poor all around. For the whole weekend, total profits came in at roughly $4696.41.

Several posters in the thread mention that this was partially due to the minting process briefly going on hold, which means no NFTs were being made. Either way, it’s not a great look for a platform that only launched early last month.

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Controversy has been enveloping the company for most of this year. Last month, GameStop had to pull an NFT that mimicked a photograph from 9/11. Then there was an incident in Lincoln, Nebraska, where several employees walked off the job — urging customers to shop elsewhere while doing so. 

It’s, of course, possible that this all turns around, but as of right now, the GameStop NFT market is looking rough.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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GameStop employees walk out, urge customers to shop elsewhere

Abusive district management, unfeasible quotas, and improper training made employees walk off the job at a Lincoln, Nebraska location.

A GameStop location at Gateway Mall in Lincoln, Nebraska, unexpectedly shut down over the weekend after four employees walked out permanently, leaving behind a single note on the front door.

“We regret to inform you that we all quit,” reads the note via Reddit. “Our District Manager has no respect for us as employees or as human beings. We have been told by our district manager that we were supposed to have had this store achieving sales quotas and running perfectly [six] months ago. Which was [three] months before [a lot] of us even got hired. Unfortunately, despite the staff’s best efforts, we are not god.”

The message then lists several competitors, insisting customers “Spend your money at an establishment that respects [its] employees.”

Check out the full note for yourself below.

Gateway mall GameStop is closed til further notice from lincoln

“For my health, I had to leave,” Frank Maurer, former store manager, said via Kotaku. Citing alleged low pay, impossible-to-meet sales quotas, and an abusive district manager as reasons for staff walkout. Maurer had only begun working at the location late last year and apparently never received proper training.

Earlier this year, another GameStop in the Lincoln area also left a sign on the front door claiming the district manager made working conditions unbearable.

“There have actually been four walkouts since August 2021 because of him,” wrote one former employee on Facebook. “Two at each location. The first ones were kept pretty quiet, though.”

These incidents are all part of the ongoing turmoil between GameStop and employees. The company also made headlines earlier this year with its cryptocurrency investments.

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.

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The latest Robinhood news has GameStop stock exploding again

Another chapter in this saga.

If you’ve been following the GameStop stock saga — which is what I’m calling it but it’s really a stock market saga involving a bunch of companies and some investors on Reddit who are driving prices up all over the place — you know the latest chapter was investment app Robinhood restricting trades of certain stocks, including GameStop.

That might have led to the already huge price of GameStop dipping a bit on Thursday, but still at pretty extraordinary values.

But now there’s some reports about what’s next for Robinhood: per the New York Times, it raised $1 billion from its investors after all this “activity [that] has put a strain on Robinhood, which has to pay customers who are owed money from trades while posting additional cash to its clearing facility to insulate its trading partners from potential losses.”

Now, CNBC reports that Robinhood “said it will resume limited trading of previously restricted securities” after that influx of cash.

And that, in turn, sent pre-market prices of GameStop shooting up:

GameStop shares shot up 75% to trade at $339 in premarket trading, after closing down 44% to $193.60 during regular hours Thursday. The stock’s high for the week is $483.

The site also reports AMC and Bed Bath and Beyond — among the other stocks targeted for similar reasons — are up before the market opens on Friday morning.

So … this madness continues.

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Panthers OT Russell Okung rips Wall Street for moving goal posts

When Russell Okung is right, you know something really wrong happened.

When Russell Okung is right, you know something really wrong happened. The Panthers’ soon to be free agent but for now starting left tackle is one of many people who are expressing their outrage on social media with the financial news that’s taking the world by storm.

The short version is that hedge funds and trading apps are moving the goal posts after a bunch of Redditors pumped up the value of seemingly worthless stocks like GameStop and AMC, upsetting Wall Street titans that held short positions against them. There are plenty of villains to go around, but the Robinhood App is taking the most heat over their decision to suspend buying of those stocks, only allowing investors to sell.

Here’s a few tweets Okung shared this morning with his thoughts on Robinhood and the situation in general.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. This kind of flagrant favoritism should provoke a bipartisan response – and for a change that might actually happen. House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ted Cruz both support the idea of holding hearings.

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The Robinhood stock app restriction on GameStop and others, explained

Another chapter in this wild saga.

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Today, we’re catching you up on the latest chapter in the stock market saga that has GameStop and other companies suddenly seeing their prices go up, and it involves an app.

This week, we’ve explained what the heck is going on with this madness on the stock market, in which investors on Reddit have flocked to various stocks that are being “short sold” and pumping up the value. It’s had a ripple effect that’s included New York Mets owner Steve Cohen infusing money into a firm hit hard by this. It’s pretty wild.

But something happened on Thursday morning that has social media abuzz and it involves something call Robinhood.

Dude, that’s a typo. It’s Robin Hood.

Oh, you must be confused. Robin Hood is the English legend of the guy who took from the rich and gave it to the poor.

Robinhood is a stock trading app that touts “commission-free investing.”

And what’s going on with them?

Seems like a lot of people have been using it to trade stocks like GameStop, AMC Theaters, Nokia and other apps that have been discussed by Redditors.

So what happened Thursday morning?

In a blog post, the app announced it was restricting transactions for many of the stocks being targeted — AMC, BlackBerry, Bed Bath and Beyond, Express Inc, GameStop, Koss Corporation, Naked Brand and Nokia.

What?! Does that mean people are stuck with that stock?

No. Users are allowed to sell them only, but they can’t do anything else with them.

What did they say about it?

Here are excerpts:

Our mission at Robinhood is to democratize finance for all. We’re proud to have created a platform that has helped everyday people, from all backgrounds, shape their financial futures and invest for the long term.

We continuously monitor the markets and make changes where necessary. In light of recent volatility, we are restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including $AMC, $BB, $BBBY, $EXPR, $GME, $KOSS, $NAKD and $NOK. We also raised margin requirements for certain securities. …

We’re committed to helping our customers navigate this uncertainty. We fundamentally believe that everyone should have access to financial markets. We’re humbled to have helped many people invest in the markets for the first time. And we’re determined to provide new and experienced investors with the tools and resources to help them invest responsibly for their long-term financial futures.

I can’t imagine people were happy about this.

You would be correct:

Those are the ones we could print.

So what are these investors going to do now?

They’re trying to find other apps to do their buying and there’s A LOT of social media chatter on how those who own these stocks should NOT sell them.

It sounds pretty chaotic right now.

Yup.

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AMC and 4 other stocks being bought like GameStop

This is nuts.

Something absolutely stunning is happening with the stock market this week, as a group of investors on Reddit helped drive up the price of GameStop stock, leading to some firms who were invested in it getting hit hard (New York Mets owner Steve Cohen reportedly helped bail out one of those firms).

But on Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ve seen other stocks getting this kind of boost. The top United States trend on Wednesday morning was #SaveAMC as investors rallied to buy into the theater chain that has taken a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, apparently using a similar strategy that was used to drive up the price of GameStop (at least that’s my understanding of it!).

Here are some of the stocks experts see as getting that treatment: