A recent report from Business Insider revealed that seven employees at StockX’s various US Authentication Centers have tested positive for COVID-19.
Furthermore, on Thursday, April 23rd, StockX fired 12% of its staff following financial and logistical issues as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. This news comes fresh off the heels of a recent 3% increase in Buyer Fees and comments from StockX CEO Scott Cutler boasting the company’s financial security in the face of this crisis. In a March 23rd interview with Tech Crunch, Cutler stated:
“We’ve had more and more traffic and buyers coming to our site because in some respects, traditional retail in some geographies is not available…We thought we’ve always been a marketplace of scarcity, but now you can’t actually go into a real retail location, so you’re coming to StockX.”
Cutler’s comments, however, are in direct contradiction to their recent company-wide reduction. Roughly 100 StockX employees were fired from a variety of departments such as engineering, quality assurance, product, and the operations teams in both Detroit and Arizona locations.
At the company’s Atlanta Authentication Center, the location remained open despite the Georgia Governor’s order to close all non-essential businesses on March 24th. This location instead remained open as they combatted an ever-growing influx of orders, less staff, and growing health and safety precautions. As of April 28th, seven employees have tested positive for COVID-19 across the company’s Detroit, Moonachie, Atlanta, and Arizona facilities.
Business Insider also reports that one anonymous StockX employee questioned Cutler’s handling of its employee’s health during a company-wide Slack-based Q&A session. Their message read:
“We (Stock-X) are currently part of the problem and not the solution…By having our facilities continue to stay open we are on the wrong side of history. There’s no way to market or PR spin our way out of this. It’s literally life or death. People or profit.”
In response to whether or not the company was valuing capital over employee life, Cutler replied: “A hundred percent no”.
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UPDATE (April 29, 2020):
StockX has replied to the report from Business Insider refuting their claims with the message below and a link to their March 30th post regarding Health & Safety standards in the company:
Later this same day, StockX also announced their “Always Verified Authentic” charity lottery, where 90% of all proceeds go to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. StockX will be keeping “a 10% processing fee per transaction”. Items being raffled come from a variety of different celebrities and influencers who have donated their rare and exclusive items to the charity including Eminem’s personal pair of deadstock Jordan 4 Retro ‘Eminem Carhartt’ and a pair of customized Air Force 1s from social media influencer @hidden.ny.
