GameStop, an American chain of brick-and-mortar video game stores, had struggled in the years leading up to the short squeeze due to competition from digital distribution services, as well as the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced the number of people who shopped in-person. As a result, GameStop's stock price declined, leading many institutional investors to believe it would continue falling, thus short-selling the stock. On January 22, 2021, approximately 140 percent of GameStop's public float[a] had been sold short, meaning some shorted shares had been re-lent and shorted again.[6][7] Analysts at Goldman Sachs later noted that short interest exceeding 100 percent of a company's public float had only occurred 15 times in the prior 10 years.[6]