ThinkGeek Closes Site, Moves in With GameStop (gamesindustry.biz) 127
Bootsy Collins writes: ThinkGeek -- the 20-year-old 'goods for nerds' retailer I've associated with Slashdot ever since they were both part of the Andover and VA Linux mega-empires -- appears to be dramatically scaling back their operations. On July 2, thinkgeek.com will be no more, and instead a "ThinkGeek-curated" selection of products will be for sale through the website of Gamestop, their current owner. They're attempting to clear out all existing inventory, and their rewards program is being shut down, too.
Saw this coming (Score:5, Interesting)
This has been a long time coming ever since Gamestop bought Thinkgeek. /* No Comment */ ", or even "There's no place like 127.0.0.1".
The true test was when they got rid of t-shirts that said things like "Meh" and "
Once they got rid of actual geek stuff and moved onto Pop Culture items, it became the end.
Re:Saw this coming (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Saw this coming (Score:5, Insightful)
They built a strong brand with a specific demographic and then stopped catering to them. I cannot fathom how this went so poorly.
Re: Saw this coming (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually if you read the top comment in the Dropbox thread right now, the thinking there would apply wholly to this situation as well:
https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=14163650&cid=58761532
In a nutshell they had a core clientele that probably peaked or at least slowed its growth to a nearly flat line. Some MBA comes along and makes these changes to the whole site and inventory thinking it will draw in new customers. And it does. But the changes also alienate the existing clientele, which over time causes a net drop in revenue. Biz school and MBA programs ram the concept of "the company is a shark. It has to keep moving forward (expanding) or die", so the idea of a stable company with a stable clientele and a stable revenue is seen as a defect that must be fixed at all costs, not a desired state.
And that is why pretty much all companies who don't have a strong founder with a consistent vision at the helm will eventually follow the same path.
Re: Saw this coming (Score:1)
Re: Saw this coming (Score:5, Insightful)
The shark analogy isn't wrong, but it must be applied correctly. This is a common failure of these kinds of analogies.
A shark doesn't move forward by ripping out its gills and trying to breathe air, hoping that somehow it will suddenly be able to eat all the plant matter on land. It moves forward by looking for more of the same kinds of things it's always consumed. It looks for new fish in a new area, or maybe it tries eating an octopus. But it still looks for aquatic animals to eat.
A better way for ThinkGeek to expand would be to spin off other "Think" branded apparel/curio websites, like ThinkSports or ThinkAnime, and catering to the niche markets in those genres. E.g. ThinkSports could have a bunch of stuff real sports nerds might love to have, but can be hard to find even in traditional sports merchandise shops. Could you imagine if ThinkAnime came out 5 years ago and catered to all the weeaboos and otakus out there? They'd have never had to sell to GameSpot, weebs will buy so much of that garbage it boggles the mind. Hell, they probably could have called it ThinkWeeb and gotten even more popular for it.
Or they could have stepped into different but similar markets, like a competitor for Drop or a custom merchandising company like Shopify or TeeSpring.
That's how you continually advance your company, not by cutting off your existing customers in the hopes that you'll appeal to a broader audience. The broader audience already has tons of places to get this kind of stuff. That's what made ThinkGeek successful in the first place - they catered to the niche.
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Of course, if a company gets new leadership you will almost never see the new leaders saying "let's just keep doing things the old way" because you can't justify high salaries by doing nothing. You see this even with new VPs and the like, almost everyone in the new job wants to do something new in order to be seen as doing something. I've seen this even go down the new entry level hires ("we should rewrite all of this in Rust!").
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Nobody just stops catering to a demographic (Score:3)
Re: I felt sorry for people wearing those shirts (Score:2, Insightful)
You sound like an adult who has lost their childlike wonder for the world, I feel sorry for you. Everyone is who they are, no one has any right to judge.
T,FTFY (Score:4, Funny)
I felt immensely sorry for them. Their entire culture and mindset revolved around wearing sports logos on their clothing. Most of them were best described as "manchildren". They were adult men, but behaved like children.
They had never experienced true culture. They had never gone to a museum. They had never gone LARPing or to a CON. They had never built a server from scratch. They had never repaired a radio. They had never played Doom or Mario or some other competitive team video game. They had no goats or traps, and thus no kids. They had never gone to a LAN party. They had never played guitar or drums in a filk band.
Their whole existence was defined by foreign made trinkets and printed shirts, and by making obscure references to that hockey game that nobody else in the office cared about. We just politely smiled and nodded at them.
What a sad existence these people had. I hope at least some of them have managed to turn their lives around.
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They had no goats or traps, and thus no kids.
Wait, what?
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Their entire culture and mindset revolved around wearing sports logos on their clothing.
As someone with a lot of Star Wars stuff, I'm not very comfortable casting aspersions on those who prefer sports logos over Jedi symbols... :-)
They had never gone to a museum.
Can you really make that assumption though? I know a lot of die hard sports fans (and Star Wars fans) that enjoy lots and lots of different cultural experiences, that go to museums all the time....
Re:Saw this coming (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the reality is that a lot of geek stuff IS Pop Culture stuff. I dunno if you've heard of a movie franchise called The Avengers, but it's based on a *comic book*. That used to be the territory of geeks, but it's as mainstream as you get now. Little spy cameras? Blue LEDs? Video Game merch? It's all mainstream now. Everyone and their dog is learning to code.
Stop being sad for a time where it was hard to find this stuff and expensive to buy it, and just roll with the fact that we were here early, we had some good times and some dumb jokes, and now everyone else has caught up so it costs $5 for a Doctor Who tee instead of searching for someone on the internet that'll print you a one-off for $25 + shipping.
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Re:Saw this coming (Score:4, Insightful)
Everything you said is wrong.
Jokes about comments or localhost are firmly geek-only references. Probably less than 1% of daily computer users would understand either.
Comic books were only the territory of geeks for a brief moment. Throughout most of history they were consumed mostly by children, then for maybe a few years they were dominated by geeks and indie comics rose out of obscurity as kids focused on video games, but now they are mainstream again due to the avalanche of marvel movies. Hollywood has been out of ideas for a long time now, so once they figured out that comic book movies would sell, they went all in.
The garbage sold on thinkgeek was never hard to find. It was on eBay the whole time, and then it was on Amazon and AliExpress as well. And it was always cheaper somewhere else.
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Yeah, I did say "a lot" and not "all". There are still a few things here and there that are still the domain of only the nerdiest of us, but there wasn't a lot of stuff on ThinkGeek that appealed to me 20 years ago either. A lot of the things that did—small electronics of various kinds, some nerdy references to nerdy shows—just became more and more available without having to bother with going to the site.
I've been working as a game developer for the better part of those 20 years, and I've watch
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We didn't take over. Mainstream culture co-opted the few bits of geek culture that it liked, hacking and whacking at it freely in the process, and still looks at nerds and geeks like dorks and dweebs.
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Exactly!!!!
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Jokes about Comments and localhost or 127.0.0.1 is relatively soft geek stuff. Mostly because while less then 1% will not understand it off hand. If they ask and you explain it, they will go Oh... Ok... Where before they will either label as a computer geek, now it is just a joke they didn't get, which they have lot of them anyways.
I work with some medical students, and they have some clever Medical Humor Shirts.
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Also worth noting: actual comic books aren't mainstream at all. In particular, monthly comics are almost dead, barely kept alive by licensing revenue from the movies. Crowdfunded graphic novels, OTOH, are doing quite well. Maybe I'm wrong, but crowdfunding a comic book about a new hero, not something from the movies or a classic, sound pretty nerdy to me.
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Maybe I'm wrong, but crowdfunding a comic book about a new hero, not something from the movies or a classic, sound pretty nerdy to me.
It was before crowdfunding had an official name and was generally known to the public. You can expect to see a lot more of that going forwards, especially if nobody wants to buy that stuff retail. Comic shops will go away, but I was a poor child, so I won't miss them much anyway.
No it is not (Score:5, Insightful)
Eh, the association of things like "The Avengers" to "geeks" that ThinkGeek originally catered for is part of the problem. I call myself a "geek". I love to read Heinlein, Asimov etc, but always found most superhero comic books a complete waste of time (although I do like a few of what you'd call "graphic novels"). I may like a movie *despite* it being a superhero movie (e.g. Dark Knight is amazing, I've watched it several times on 1570 Imax so far). Many of my friends are physics researchers (because my undergrad was physics so my then friends continued that path when I moved to CS) and yet they have nothing in common with the "Big Bang Theory" characters. So, ThinkGeek originally had stuff that I and people like me would find funny, which is a niche, I admit. Now they cater more to the "comic book geek" type, or in general what pop culture perceives as "geek" which is definitely not the same thing and while it is less of a niche there is extreme competition selling to that crowd.
I can understand if you tried to keep your core computer/physics geeks and start adding popular stuff that everybody offers, but why remove real geek stuff?
Re: (Score:2)
1. Whether or not you think they're geeky/nerdy things is not the actual definition of whether they're geeky/nerdy. Collecting comic books has been a nerd's pursuit for a long time. Not all of us do it (just as not all of us are programmers), but that doesn't mean that it's not geeky, even if it was The Avengers. Not all geeks have read Heinlein and Asimov.
2. The Dark Knight comic book is better. :)
(Also, the best live-action Batman movie is clearly the first Tim Burton Batman. Michael Keaton is the canonic
Re: Saw this coming (Score:2, Informative)
God no, The Avengers featured Steed and Emma Peel.
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Comic books still are the territory of geeks.
Comic book movies never really have been.
Re: Saw this coming (Score:1)
I still have the "binary clock" I got there a long time ago - still on my desk in fact although it's pushed aside currently. Maybe I'll bring it back to the limelight to memorialize ThinkGeek
. Shame they started sucking
Re:Saw this coming (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only this, but opening up physical retail locations in malls. They became just another generic mall "pop culture toy store" of sorts. They lost all uniqueness and likability, becoming another cookie cutter store that is easily replaced (and thus, now that is exactly what is happening!)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I am on the wrong continent to start with to buy think geek things but I have never desired a disney princess tea set.
dr who went sjw, rotten tomatoes confirms it lost it, star trek went sjw with std too,, erm i have not either seen the last two star wars films - nobody is buying star wars stuff licensed by disney - theres people on youtube who explain that thing better than i can.
I prefer those $10000 usd conference t-shirts.
Re: (Score:2)
This, and what other commenters have noted, namely that they now sell a lot of generic comic-book-oriented merchandise like plush dolls, superhero icons and tools, etc. Their store feels like a mashup of Brookstone and a comic-book store. It just isn't needed. Their current crap will fit perfectly in a corner of a GameStop, though.
Re:Saw this coming (Score:4, Insightful)
Same thing happened to TechTV 15 years ago. G4 bought it, removed all the tech/geek/internet/os shows and pushed pop culture, console gamers and x-sports.
So ScreenSavers and other show developers/hosts moved on and gave us Revision3 and Twit.tv.
Re: (Score:2)
Geek Culture had a good run at being the cool kids for a while.
The late 1990's - late 2000's
Being a Geek before this time frame, things like Comic Book Heros, Dr. Who, Even using a computer to talk to people in different countries was just considered taboo and being Anti-Social.
During the late 1990's - late 2000's Geeky things kinda became cool and accepted. And what happened it became mainstream and pop-culture. Thus no longer became geeky.
Stores like Think Geek is basically selling pop culture stuff now.
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I don't think Dr. Who was ever taboo in the UK. Otherwise it wouldn't have run for so long. Liking Dr. Who in America is akin to liking Anime, yeah it seems geeky and its a subculture here but in their homelands its mainstream.
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Yeah, it was a great site, but even at half off there's nothing there I'd want any more, and it used to be a mainstay for Christmas gifts.
wg
I think they were already doomed (Score:2)
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Reminds me of the time AOL relaunched the AOL Instant Messenger client with one that didn't have buddy lists anymore.
The put them back but the damage was done. They never recovered.
I've already been mourning their loss ... (Score:5, Insightful)
For like 4 years now. GameSpot completely destroyed ThinkGeek. And it's a shame. My family and I bough so many gifts, home decor, clothing etc. from ThinkGeek. We were absolutely in love with them. It's the only store I can think of where I actually cared about collecting and redeeming their customer loyalty points. And their customer service was out of this world. If they sent you the wrong item they'd let you keep it while they sent the correct one free of charge. One of the best places I've ever done business with.
Maybe everything TG carried can now be found at other places ... but man it was such a great store in its glory days. So much unique and hard to find stuff.
Fuck GameSpot and R.I.P. ThinkGeek.
Re: I've already been mourning their loss ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: I've already been mourning their loss ... (Score:2)
Gamestop is an utter failure (Score:4, Interesting)
GameStop has always failed to change with the time. They borrowed money to buy out ThinkGeek to stay afloat for a while...
Never allow your company to be bought by someone deeper in debt than you are. Ever.
Re:Gamestop is an utter failure (Score:4, Insightful)
Never allow your company to be bought by someone deeper in debt than you are. Ever
I wish I had the money to rent a billboard along 101 in Silicon Valley and put this on it. This describes so many companies I can think of.
Re: (Score:3)
Look into the digital screen based billboard providers.
In St. Louis I can get a 20 minute time slice for pretty cheap (I'm positive this isn't the case where you are). And they will tell you the time ahead of it (for me would simply be a photo op and a laugh for the kids). Obviously weekday rush hour is going to cost more, but Sunday isn't bad around here.
My idea: I want to run one that has my name, JASON, in the format of the usual JESUS billboards you see in rural areas. At first they rejected it (the
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, the billboard provider rejected a non-obscene, non-offensive, random ad spot? I would have taken your money and let you run it!
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You are too much of a capitalist! Get out of here!
Oh... wait, the pitchforks weren't out yet. Carry on.
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“I wish I had the money...”
Charge it to your credit card.
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GameStop has always failed to change with the time. They borrowed money to buy out ThinkGeek to stay afloat for a while...
Never allow your company to be bought by someone deeper in debt than you are. Ever.
If you're the owner and you get a massive payout- does it matter beyond mere sentimentality if they run the company into the ground after you sell it?
I liked ThinkGeek's products (Score:1)
I hope this means the products that I liked at ThinkGeek will still be around. One thing I *didn't* like was that their shipping rates to Canada were exorbitant.
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I hope this means the products that I liked at ThinkGeek will still be around. One thing I *didn't* like was that their shipping rates to Canada were exorbitant.
They occasionally had a product I would like, but it would always be too expensive. I think I only ever bought one thing from them, and it was on clearance.
Even at 50% off, most of their stuff is too expensive.
Re:"Andover and VA Linux mega-empires"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Take a deep breath, and remember that sometimes people say stuff that everyone knows isn't literally true,. This is often called "humor". If you look at that little card of faces you carry around in your back pocket to recognize emotion, its the one where people are smiling, or smiling and making sounds with their mouths open.
Its confusing, I know, and not logical and doesn't make sense when people say stuff that is provably false, but not for the intent of deception but for mutual enjoyment. One tip is to take cues from others in the room if this happens in person, and to see if they match the "humor" section on that card. If they are, it's a good bet the statement isn't meant to be serious.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Re: "Andover and VA Linux mega-empires"? (Score:1)
Things are usually not funny when youâ(TM)re too stupid to get the joke.
Re: (Score:2)
And that was the funniest thing on Slashdot today.
Thank you ThinkGeek (Score:2, Informative)
....for all the nice nostalgia gadgets. It was always interesting to get that one thing that other "geeks" didn't have. Back in the day. I bought my Star Trek Pizza Cutter from this site.
End of an Era (Score:5, Insightful)
An elegant site from a more civilized internet.
Re: (Score:2)
Even in its heyday- circa ten to fifteen years ago- ThinkGeek was always about pushing a very commodified view of geek culture as some sort of consumerist lifestyle where you showed how much of a geek/nerd you were by how many of their overpriced boys' toys et al you owned. Even at the time this left a somewhat bad taste in my mouth [slashdot.org].
Don't get me wrong, everyone's entitled to want a few fun novelties, but I don't think there
Re: skymall of the internet (Score:1)
Now try to look at their prices and pay for international shipping plus duty.
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You didn't want the Tauntaun sleeping bag? You, sir, are a swine.
It's not a complete loss... (Score:5, Funny)
At least when you get tired of your Thinkgeek merchandise now, Gamestop will generously purchase it from you for 1/10th of what you paid for it.
Lounge lizard (Score:3)
They never did get around to making the Jabba the Hutt giant beanbag chair.
April Fools Day (Score:4, Interesting)
Won't be as much fun anymore. :(
Re: April Fools Day (Score:1)
It's because April fools day isn't funny when your bosom heaves and bodice tears as yet another bad dude from some corporation goes through your trash. Seems like it should be, given how unlikely such an event is.
Shit Selection (Score:2)
ThinkGeek vs. Slashdot (Score:2, Interesting)
I remember hanging around the Slashdot booth at LinuxWorld Expo in NYC (ca. Y2K, +/- a year or so) when the ThinkGeek crew came running over and attacked the Slashdot crew with a massive barrage of Nerf projectiles. Good times.
Nothing there that I still want (Score:2)
I also had my eye on the Doctor Who scarves, but they haven't sold them in quite a while. I guess I'll go to ebay for that instead.
It was a neat idea, but it probably ran its course. A
Is there a ThinkGeek Alternative? (Score:2)
I miss the great many times when they tried to outgeek everyone with their April Fool's day gags.
I loved their idea of catering to my niche field and want to know if anyone else out there does such a thing. I suppose I can wait for another Con such as DEFCON or the last DerbyCon, but there has to be some alternative to fill the void left behind.
Hell of a way to run a railroad (Score:2)
We're running out of money! Close the website, keep the mall stores open!
The ThinkGeek I remember... (Score:2)
... would never have had a "Disney Princess 16 Piece Dinner Set" advertised on their front page. They wouldn't have even carried such a thing.
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SHIT! No more Bag of Holding! (Score:3)
First I have heard of this, and I went immediately to the site to buy another Bag of Holding. However, it looks like the product no longer exists. It's by far the best laptop/travel bag I've ever had and I need another one because a zipper on the one I have has given out after years of use. It's surprisingly hard to find a messenger back where all the spaces have zippers to keep things from falling out, let alone ones with a laptop section.
Don't lose hope (Score:1)
It's by far the best laptop/travel bag I've ever had and I need another one because a zipper on the one I have has given out after years of use.
Repair or replace the zipper. Don't know how? Yes you do, you are a nerd. Google it, watch some videos. Hack that textile till you really own it.
Good Riddance (Score:2)
Their customer support is horrible. I once paid for overnight shipping and they used my old address on file in their own database rather than the one I entered in during check out. When I complained, they told me they wouldn't even ship a new one to me. They said they don't honor the shipping address used during checkout and that it was my fault that I didn't updated my shipping address in my profile.
Joseph Elwell.
A long time coming (Score:2)
I'm glad it's finally being put out of its misery. It's been a shadow of its one-time self for years now.
So, what's the current best source for a "#include <beer.h>" pint glass or Tux poster or whatever?
shitty selection what happened? (Score:2)
Yeah well i went and found my account credentials and logged in hoping to pick up a cheap blade runner umbrella, or some WTF mugs to replace my old faded one, or even an NPC shirt...
None of those items are available. So i can see that things have obviously changed. I went through pages of items and what wasn't sold out, there was nothing i would want for even half off the price listed. Its all just tchotchkes and not functional items. Sure they have shirts still but the designs weren't as great as they were
Just got my clearance sale shipment yesterday. (Score:2)
I didn't know they were going out of business though. I've bought a lot of gifts from them. They sent a thing saying they were "moving" but I thought that was like moving their operations or something, not this.
Very depressing. My best friend who died 3 years ago and who used to read /. as well I gave my RTFM mug to which came from them. I had a Linux shark on my old 1998 civic which I got from them.
Just sitting on my desk I have a Millennium Falcon metal model you have to build I got from them, some Fi
Alienated core demographic. (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
This.
I can crank out my own design and get it printed locally for a good price.
Or I can throw my design on Redbubble and I might even get a few sales out of it.