In a recent interview with GameStop’s Eric Bright, featured on Rolling Stone’s website, he was asked about their infamous forced bundles, where items were picked and bundled together with hardware for customers to buy. Bright advised that this was convenient and was designed for a better shopping experience for customers. Here’s his full response below:
“We really try to do a great job of paring up items with things customers like to buy. In the case of the Switch, we know the customer is going to want a way to charge the Joycon (controllers), so we often throw in a charging device. We know the Switch has limited memory and customers like to download games, so we’ll add a memory stick. And then you need a game itself, because what good is a piece of hardware without a game to play with it? We make it more convenient. We put some items in the bundle from ThinkGeek.Com, retro items that would appeal to those buyers.
Customers have the opportunity to come into our stores and choose the accessories that they would like to bundle with their hardware, or buy online the pre determined bundles we have put together to help make the shopping experience more convenient. Customers also have the option of coming to into our GameStop stores to purchase non-bundled product.”
An example of a forced bundle at GameStop was the SNES Classic Edition Bundle which included the SNES classic, and a Zelda themed chess set. Bundling such in-demand items with items such as the chess set, for instance, has caused some controversy, as some customers argued that they would like to purchase the item on it’s own or with an item more relevant to the hardware.
What do you think of the forced bundles? Let us know in the comments below.
Nah. This isn’t star wars, get that forced shit outta here.
Translation: we have a bunch of plush Mega Man toys and Legend of Zelda backpack decals lying around, and we don’t make a lot of profit on the consoles themselves, so this allows us to mark everything up $90.
What bundles do is cut down on the ahole scalpers who think that they’re doing the world a favor by buying up all the systems and doubling or tripling the price…get a f’ing job. I wish people would get a clue and not buy from them. It’d help fix the problem of not finding them in stores. The SNES Classic isn’t even out yet and morons are paying scalpers on eBay $250+ for them. A fool and their money.
What scalper do you know of that thinks they’re doing people a favor? They’re just doing it to get a quick buck by dishonest means, nothing more.
If anything, this helps scalpers, because now they don’t have to compete with normal customers to get hands on a SNES Classic!
Hey GameStop, knows what even more convenient? Walmart. Or Toys R Us. Or Best Buy, maybe? Target, if you have them. Local drug stores, probably. Literally other place that sells video games.
Not Walmart tho. Literally anything but Walmart.
Hey Gamestop: you know what else is super convenient? Not wasting extra money on bundled sh*t I don’t want. Also, never going to your store. Super duper convenient.
LMAO, oh Gamestop….
They really are stupid aren’t they I Rember when I was trying to get a switch and one employee tried to force a switch bundle I didn’t want down my throat constantly said no to him till he got agitated and left, talk to the second one and told him what happen he said the company is actually making them force bundles for more profits and I can’t buy the system by its self so I did what any person with brains did went on eBay and got the switch tablet by it self qlong with two joycons and the system been working since they day it came in mail
What? You bought the Switch in parts?
Well no I brought it seperate the tablet came by it self I brought a two joycons together a charging grip and case by it self and a charger for the switch I got all of that under the launch price with extra cash to spare on mk8 deluxe off eBay too got all this in July a week before e3
Oh, ok. Just strange I guess. I would think it’d cost more in parts but I guess you got lucky.
Yeah probably my friends have been doing the same thing now they have a switch
I mean June of course
||The magnificence of self-destruction, summon me once their corpses are spread out in the ruins…||
“SNES Classic Edition Bundle which included the SNES classic, and a Zelda themed chess set”
TAKE MY MONEY. I would get this in a heartbeat.
I hate bundles. Didn’t anyone learn from cable? Yeah my faith in Gamestop has been lost years ago because of shit like this…
There’s nothing convenient about being forced to buy crap that you don’t want.
Bundles are not convenient if you are forced to buy them with no alternatives for a single piece of said bundle because you can’t afford said bundle. Now if you were getting a nice bit of money off of everything involved in the bundle then sweet. Otherwise, fuck right off!
A perfect chance for gamestop to poll it’s customers. See if they really, truly do like these forced bundles or not. Instead of just assuming customers do.
Buying a new car a dealership and signing up for a loan if you’re broke is convenient. Smart? Practical? Economically viable? Nope. But technically it IS convenient. So in that light, GameStop’s bundles are actually convenient too.