GameStop has shut down all stores across the United States in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, while customers aren’t allowed to enter the stores themselves, business is still being done. While GameStop employees are instructed to not let employees inside, they are doing curbside pickup, which does lead to interaction between employees and customers, and these interactions come with some pretty strange instruction from corporate.
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According to one source we spoke to, when making an exchange with a customer, employees are only supposed to open the door enough for their arm to reach out. While doing this, employees are instructed to make sure the door separates the customer’s face from their own face. Meanwhile, when reaching out an arm for an exchange, employees are supposed to always have their hands covered. Usually, this will mean adorning a pair of gloves, however, GameStop has instructed employees to use plastic bags if there are no gloves available.
From here, employees will bring the card back to the register, run it with the hand still in the bag. After this, they are supposed to flip the bag inside out, and put the purchase in the bag with the card. Once this is done, they can head back to the customer waiting outside.
Meanwhile, corporate is also still telling employees that if local law enforcement comes around telling the store it needs to close, to hand them a note that says the operation falls under essential business. However, if this does happen, managers are also instructed to go ahead and shut up shop and notify their district manager.
At the moment of publishing, it’s unclear how long GameStop will remain closed, but it will presumably be until the virus is brought under control in America, which seems like it won’t be happening anytime soon.
In other recent and related news, this week GameStop revealed that it will be closing over 300 more stores this fiscal year as part of a plan to de-densify. Meanwhile, the retailer also recently commented on the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series, and whether the pair of next-gen consoles will be delayed due to coronavirus-related complications.
