After taking a public relations blackeye for not providing direction or disinfecting supplies to employees to manage Coronavirus safety in stores, GameStop management is finally stepping up. GameStop CEO George Sherman released a letter to customers today, stating that employees are being provided with disinfectant and hand sanitizer, as well as directions for COVID-19 safety.
The letter also stated that store associates are instructed to stay home if they have flu-like symptoms similar to COVID-19, and not return to work until cleared by a medical professional. That’s sort of a no-brainer, but Sherman’s letter didn’t say if employees would be paid for their sick leave. Hopefully, GameStop employees will be paid as they are providing an important community service by selling games to people who may be isolated in their homes for weeks or months to come.
GameStop will keep their retail stores open, at least for now, but they’ve cancelled midnight product launches events and gaming events. As first reported by Kotaku, an internal memo at GameStop provided these instructions to employees:
“Until further notice, late night launch events are suspended,” the memo reads. “To maintain the health and safety of our guests and associates, it is best that we avoid situations where large numbers of guests are gathered indoors or standing in line.”
It’s going to be a mess in GameStop stores on Friday, March 20 when Animal Crossing: New Horizons and DOOM Eternal drop. Customers keen on purchasing the game on release day may find themselves queueing up outside anyway because GameStop will be limiting the amount of the people that can be in the store at the same time.
On a roll, Kotaku was also the first media outlet to reveal that employees were being forced to buy their own cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer, and to reinstall interactive demo stations, which employees had removed to reduce to the spread of COVID-19. Thankfully, the bad press was not ignored by GameStop’s corporate bosses, who are looking into additional ways to minimize the exposure to COVID-19 within stores.
