GameStop closing about 30 New York stores as nationwide purge mounts due to falling sales

GameStop is pulling the plug on some 30 New York stores as part of a nationwide shutdown that will wipe out more than 470 locations by the end of the month, according to an online compilation of the closures.The New York shutdowns span every corner of the state — from New York City and Long Island to Westchester, the Hudson Valley and upstate — and include both mall-based and standalone locations.In the Big Apple, multiple GameStop stores were set to go dark across the five boroughs, according to the compilation, which was based on publicly available info about “recently close” branches on GameStop’s official site.A South Bronx store is already closed, while Brooklyn locations in Bensonhurst, Brownsville and downtown were slated for shutdowns later this month.GameStop is also shrinking its Long Island footprint, with stores in Valley Stream, Rosedale and West Islip on the chopping block.The company has shuttered a White Plains location and a Yonkers store at the Cross County Center, too.Upstate and suburban New York were heavily represented on the list.Closures were planned in Buffalo, Rochester, Middletown, Poughkeepsie, Plattsburgh, Ithaca, Amsterdam, Lockport, Evans Mills, Hudson, Monticello and Herkimer, among others.The New York shutdowns are part of a massive national retrenchment that is unfolding as GameStop wraps up its fiscal year, which ends on Jan.31.Stores across 43 states were slated to close by the end of this month, capping off one of the most aggressive retail pullbacks in the company’s history.The January wave follows the closure of 590 US stores during the prior fiscal year.Combined, the two rounds mean GameStop will have shuttered more than 1,000 locations in roughly two years, slashing its once-sprawling footprint by a staggering margin.At its peak, the video game retailer operated more than 6,000 stores worldwide.After the latest cuts, the chain is expected to be left with fewer than 2,000 locations.Despite the scale of the closure...