This reminds me of my local Gamestop. Similar story, I'm from the "applicant" end though. I can't say for sure, but I recall them beginning accepting applications back in March of Last year, and took untill the end of August just to get through the applications... mainly due to the fact the manager kept procrastinating and going on trips and conferences.
It wasn't until sometime in October for them to hire anyone new... the thing was, they kept procrastinating so long, it was up to corperate to hire people for them. Weither or not I had a chance, made no difference. They choose two people at random from the pile and that was that. Perhaps this is what was actually going on behind the scenes. Sad though that I actually was in good standing with the manager at the time, enough that I got through 2 interviews before the end. In the last 6 years, thats the furthest I've gotten.