According to a report from The Star-Telegram, GameStop is spreading into new brands and stores that will be selling Apple gear and other services. This includes significantly expanding Simply Mac, a chain of authorized Apple resale and repair shops that are centered in smaller markets without Apple’s official stores.
Simply Mac currently has 23 stores across the western United States. GameStop acquired a 49.9 percent stake in the company back in October 2012, when the company only had eight stores. Steve Bain, the executive behind Simply Mac, has announced his intention to open 50 additional Simply Mac stores in 2015 alone.
These stores are in no way rivals to Apple’s own stores: a lot are much smaller and as previously mentioned, they’re in locations that aren’t presently served by Apple Stores. The intended growth rate is impressive, however, outnumbering Apple itself, which opens roughly 30 stores a year.
Whilst Simply Mac seems to be going through a period of growth, GameStop’s core business is suffering, and the company intends to downsize operations by closing as many as 130 of its stores (currently it has 6,400). GameStop’s CEO believes that Simple Mac and another technology business owned by GameStop (like Spring Mobile) could result in an additional $1 billion in revenue and contribute 10 percent of GameStop’s entire revenue by 2016.
