Movie Gallery to shut as many as 450 stores
By Danny King -- Video Business,10/29/2009
OCT. 29 | PHYSICAL: Movie Gallery might close as many as 450 of its eponymous and Hollywood Video stores, or about 14% of its total, by the end of the year, as the No. 2 U.S. movie-rental chain struggles against increasing kiosk and by-mail sales by competitors such as Redbox and Netflix.
Movie Gallery, which has about 2,900 units, has closed 250 stores since the beginning of last month and might close another 200 by year end, the company confirmed today. The company has said it would shut 200 of its Game Crazy stores this month.
Movie Gallery has faced growing competition from U.S. movie-rental kiosk leader Redbox and by-mail leader Netflix since emerging from Chapter 11 in May 2008. In the past few weeks, Movie Gallery set up a “real estate hotline” for its landlords that promised a 48-hour response to their inquiry, implying the chain has had trouble keeping up with its rent payments. One landlord told Video Business that the chain was 20 days late paying rent to him.
The closures were reported by Bloomberg News earlier today.
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| Submitted by: | Roadrunner 11/24/2009 1:21:58 AM PT |
| Location: | The Desert |
Bundles of empty boxes show up at the store. Then you get the call that your store is closing today. That's not a rumor. That's a fact.
If your labor has been cut to 125 hours and you haven't been getting new games, it's most likely you have also received past due, default or unlawful detainer notices from your landlord. Your store is on the "can be closed with no notice" list. Your store is rated F.
In order to take full advantage of your earned time off, check state law where you work regarding sick time and vacation time pay out requirements before your store closes. For instance in California you are paid accrued vacation time, but not sick time. Take what ever time off that you won't be paid for now. If you were saving it for a rainy day, look outside; those are pretty dark clouds over MG. Use it or lose it. Also, make sure your final pay check is correct and on time. In some states there is a penalty for late or incomplete payouts within a statutory time limit.
If you don't have another job lined up, don't bail. If you quit, you won't get unemployment. If you can put up with the BS, stick it out and do your best while you look for something else. Don't lie to your customers, but don't reveal confidential information that is not already available in the public domain. For instance on this site. Be open and honest. Your customers trust you. Go out with your head held high.
Think of MG as a Warner Brothers cartoon. Netflix is the Roadrunner and Sharif is the coyote. MG is out in the desert when it comes to the evolving movie and game distribution segment. Rather than adapt to technology of the 21st century and enter the digital age, the coyote conjers up an old ACME kit and sets up power play (visulaize coyote with complicated formula on blackboard). Ultimately, he puts the bowl of seeds on the edge of a cliff. Of course the roadrunner races toward the seeds with the coyote hot on his tail with the power of power play. The roadrunner stops on a dime and chows down on the seed. The coyote races past the roadrunner and over the edge of the cliff. For a few seconds he is suspended in mid air. Everyone knows what comes next. Thats exactly where Shariff and MG are right now. Beep! Beep!
| Submitted by: | Forget It (jimclark138@gmail.com) 11/24/2009 1:09:23 AM PT |
| Location: | USA |
| Occupation: | Between Jobs |
Woo, yeah, not threatened if they don't sell 100% powerplay, well thanks for that, it is reasonable not to threaten someone for not convincing every concievable customer to sign up, wow. Good answer for that question, but the fact remains that unless employees sell 1 in 10, managers are ordered to cut their hours and hire new people and they wait for a chance to fire them.
1 in 10 is ridiculous, consider the people who
a. don't HAVE a credit card, debit card
b. don't trust or want the plan
c. are merely passing by and don't want to suscribe to a specific store
d. don't rent often enough
e. are regulars who already said no to powerplay a hundred times but will be in every week to rent, driving the numbers down
f. everyone who IS entirely interested until you admit to them that they NEED to be charged monthly on a credit card or else pay THREE MONTHS in advance to sign up, even though the benefits only come once a month-- then they say 'nah, nevermind then'
g. and my personal favorite, literally 25% of the powerplays we do sell end up succombing to a glitch, either the powerplay isn't there one day or doesn't work, or over charges he acct, causing the frustrated customer to decide to cancel rather than deal with all this BS
h. and finally, if there is no money in the acct, the powerplay auto-cancels. WOW MG! GENIUS! You guys said that the Auto-Renewal was made mandatory because it guarantees money, well how does it do that when powerplay cancels itself, much better than letting people pay to renew in the store on a day they can afford to. morons.
Yeah, selling 1 in 10 is impossible. At my store we were lucky to get one person to bite a day, but then some days we'd have 3-4 already suscribed members cancel for one of the reasons I mentioned above.
| Submitted by: | Its Awful 11/23/2009 9:09:16 PM PT |
I sit back and just take into consideration all of the talk that is going on... I have been in close contact with past Dm's and SM's and they are just so thankful they got out before all of this has started again. However, I think that we need to just let the dirty laundry be aired so that way people can face the fact of the direction of the company and move on with life. I feel that I am not in anyway respected by the higher ups sitting in the office making a paycheck not knowing what it is like to be inside that store busting my ass to sell sell sell. Let us all remember that if we dont sell powerplay they are not going to threaten us with our job but they sure will find a way to get rid of us. However, the communication in this company has went downhill drastically. Movie gallery has made a turn for the worse but hopefully something can happen and they will understand one day when they are out of a job what if feels like to be the low man on the pole again. I think that we all need to share our thoughts togather and just understand that what happens, happens. There is nothing we can do about what they have planned for the company but my major concern is why cant they answer our questions. We are working countless hours to make budget but yet no answers are ever given. In this day and time I say watch out because you never know when the sherrif my show up with an eviction paper or court summons. Shew its awful to think but I would honestly giggle on the inside becuase I used to love my job now I dont. I love customer service and movie gallery is just not what it once was.
| Submitted by: | Another poster 11/23/2009 8:43:07 PM PT |
| Location: | Somewhere |
| Occupation: | Wanderer |
Also, he stated that we should ignore the rumor mill and not contribute to it, which means he or someone in mgt has accessed this comment sections to follow what's being posted (that's why i leave my email out). Other than the typical speech, he espoused on the different new aspects that the company is taking
| Submitted by: | Jack Smith 11/23/2009 8:38:08 PM PT |
| Location: | South |
| Occupation: | Dreamer |
All of the pple in my district and some that I spoke with in surrounding districts thought this call was bs! Yes CEO said that PP is not for everyone but that for those who really was into saving money (1 in 10). The sm who spoke up about threatening our jobs was right on, but Sherif said that "he doesn't tolerate threats", but we are held responsible for results. Of course we know that a politically correct response for losing our jobs no matter what. We all who were on the call know that most of it was BS! Of course outlet stores are "just fine", yeah right! He needs to get his head out of the clouds and down to the street level.
| Submitted by: | EPCOT2009 (Ilovemissionspace@hotmail.com) 11/23/2009 7:34:52 PM PT |
| Location: | FL-Orlando |
| Occupation: | SM |
come on, that girl took ten minutes of valuable time whining- when i was going to ask a real question- WHY is our stores rent NOT getting paid- we received a court summons last week for tommorrow- wish us luck!
| Submitted by: | long time employee 11/23/2009 7:27:17 PM PT |
| Location: | threatsville |
| Occupation: | sm |
Hats off and a standing ovation for the person who spoke up on the conference call about being threatened!!
I'm sure if we were not muted, we would have all joined
in, which is exactly why they keep us muted!!
| Submitted by: | Sunshine and Rainbows 11/23/2009 6:09:39 PM PT |
| Location: | backwoods Maine |
| Occupation: | SM |
The conference call was alot of Bologna!!!! Its all rainbows and sunshine in our CEOs world. "The company is not doing that well, we will be closing the bottom 10% revenue stores. Thats 3-400." This came directly from him. A manager asked why we were being "threatened" with losing our jobs if we do not sell the god-forsaken-powerplay?!?! Our Ceo says "this company does NOT threaten the lost of your job if you do not have 100% powerplay!" he also said "all we want is for you to sell 1 in every 10 customers!" hahahaha! what a bunch of CRAP!!!! The big wigs at our company need to get a clue, because this is reality everyday, we are threatened constantly that if Powerplay is not at goal, we WILL be replaced! BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!
| Submitted by: | the_man (working4@theman.com) 11/23/2009 1:36:33 PM PT |
| Location: | hell |
| Occupation: | working for thieves |
yup. same thing -- what's the deal SANTA?
| Submitted by: | not saying 11/23/2009 1:31:49 PM PT |
| Location: | nope |
| Occupation: | scsa |
yeah some woman asked for who it was for and than the spelling of my name. should i give it to her? won't i be in deep $#1t if they find out who i am?
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