Confessions of a Game Store Clerk

[Rich Tate]

Games Radar sat down with 8 former game store workers to ask them about their experiences as well as expose some issues that happen daily at their stores. If you buy a lot of games, this is one you should definitely read.

To find out, we gathered eight current or former game store employees and began a massive, exhausting interrogation. The discussion ranged from ridiculous rules to dorky coworkers to heartless management to... you. Yes, you, the customer, dreaded and despised above all others. Wait and see if you think that description's unjust after you've read their stories.

 

[SpeedRunner]

Can someone copy/paste for those at work? Thanks.

 

[tacosareveryyummy]

IMO those were lame. They don't go through anything that anyone else in any CS position doesn't go through.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

It makes me never want to set foot in a retail store again. Obviously, that is impossible, but that is how such interviews make me feel.

 

[Ironman273]

This was the best:

GamesRadar: And the dumbest fact ever uttered by a customer?
#7: That Kingdom Hearts 3 is going to be on the Wii. Oh, and that it's going to feature Mario wielding a key blade.

especially after finding out about Mushroom Kingdom Hearts.

 

[pettybone]

That was boring all around.

 

[swatbat]

It makes me never want to set foot in a retail store again. Obviously, that is impossible, but that is how such interviews make me feel.

Worked in retail for like 4 years. Sucked ass.

 

[[Spectre]]

Is it sad I could pick out which stores a couple of them worked for?

Then again I worked for a videogame reatiler for a number of years.

 

[matrix563]

Worked in retail for like 4 years. Sucked ass.

i'm glad i don't do it anymore

 

[swatbat]

Is it sad I could pick out which stores a couple of them worked for?

Then again I worked for a videogame reatiler for a number of years.

Nah most of them seemed easy to narrow down to a store or 2.

 

[PolarbearBigEd]

Person #6 worked for Gamestop and I agree with everything they said...

I worked there for 7 years off and on and yes, it sucked balls.

 

[testbenchdude]

All retail is pretty much the same with these types of companies. I worked at Computer City from 94-95 and had many, many aggravating experiences. I was fresh out of HS and was interested in computers and games so I figured why the heck not.

This was their flagship store in Wilmington, DE. Manager turnover was 400% during the 11 months that I worked there. I started as a cashier, went to CS after a few months, then on to business sales; I was promised a raise from $6.25/hr to $6.75/hr at my 6-month mark but they found a way to cheat me out of that somehow. I stayed on until that eleventh month when my business sales manager had a mental breakdown and started chucking Apple tower computers around the office. By that point however I had taken to carying my two-week's notice letter in my inside jacket pocket--I guess I'd already seen the coming of the end.

Some other interesting notes:

My CS manager used to break out in hives when whenever she got too stressed out, which was about once a week. She had to be taken home every time it happened.

My "HR" rep was a spitting image of Frasier's ex-wife with a personality to match.

We used to keep all the hard drives in a cage behind the CS counter; we took the empty boxes and re-shrinkwrapped them, and then stacked those at aisle endcaps and shelves around the store. We had a lot of fun chucking those empty boxes at eachother around the store and in front of customers who didn't have a clue. This was back when drives were measured in hundreds of MB.

Those old HP DeskJet 500 series were nearly indestructable and so was their packaging. They regularly were tossed from the overhead shelves down to waiting stockers on the floor--and they got dropped a fair ammount of the time. I hardly ever saw a return for "defects".

My desk machine when I was in business sales was a 486-SX25 with 2 mb of ramm and was rediculously slow opening things in Windows 3.1. I'll never forget the day I "liberated" an extra 2mb from the printer server (which was a DX2 with 4 mb of ramm for some reason) and "relocated" it in my machine. I was the envy of the office for several months after that and nobody could figure out why my machine was so much faster than everyone else's. (I never had a chance to swap the procs though...) They were all old-school salesmen though and not very computer knowledgeable...

We kept the laptops on the overhead stock, accessable by a wheeled ladder with a sign labelled "Employees only". Three times while I worked there, a customer had climbed the ladder and helped himself to a laptop and simply waltzed right out. The third time, the floor manager ended up tackling him in his car and was dragged about 20 feet hanging through the perp's open driver-side door. The floor manager actually won that fight and managed to restrain the guy in his car until the cops showed up.

I once had a guy in my line who tried to pay for a computer system with a credit card and for some reason it wasn't going through. We tried several times, and pretty soon he was on the phone with his card company while the line stacked up behind him. He was very apologetic and finally after about 20 minutes he decided he wasn't getting anywhere with the card so he went out to his car to get his checkbook. The cart full of computer equipment was pushed off to the side and my line started moving again.. About 5 minutes later, the guy's wife comes in the store (I guess she had been waiting in the car) and proceeded to tear me a new one for refusing her hubby's card. Swearing up a storm, red-faced and spitting even. In front of all my other customers and the rest of the CS staff. She actually threw a punch at me after I tried to explain how it wasn't my fault and that's when that same floor manager intervened and physically escorted her out. I never saw her or her husband again and they left the system there.

You have no idea how satisfying it was to hear that the chain went bankrupt and was bought out (by Circuit City I think) a few years later.

 

[[Spectre]]

Person #6 worked for Gamestop and I agree with everything they said...

I worked there for 7 years off and on and yes, it sucked balls.

Glad I was out before that merger (EB/GameStop).

On the general topic....customers were a funny lot nad I ran in to every type they talked about. Though they missed my stores bread and butter. The big spending 35+ group that was getting back into games. I had one customer was around a $600-1000 a month customer.

 

[CodeX]

GamesRadar: Before we move on, what other store practices would the public be shocked or angry to discover?

#6: The shrink-wrapping of returned merchandise and reselling it as new.

#2: We also hold systems that people want until an ad breaks. Every other week or so, we sit on about 40 Wiis but keep telling customers that we don't have any. They cannot be sold until the ads come out. And another thing... we know where and when you bought your "broken" systems, so stop trying to bring them back to stores you didn't buy them from.

I always knew they did that, both of those things...

 

[testbenchdude]

Oops, I actually meant to say that Customer service turnover was 400% and we changed GM's once.

 

[[Spectre]]

I always knew they did that, both of those things...

I can say we never did either of those things at the store I worked for.

Keeping stock of hot consoles until ads hit would have been colossally stupid as our future allocation was based on how fast we went through them. Not cycling through them fast enough meant our sales would suffer as we didn't have the hot item on the shelf...which brough the wrath of the DM.

On the shrink wrapping issue...the only thing that got re shrink wrapped were the games that had been gutted for display because people steal anything that isn't nailed down.

 

[Technoob]

these guys were whining idiots who somehow think that a retail experience in selling games is somehow worse than retail selling clothes or food, or anything else that involves the public.

Get over yourselves.

 

[Rich Tate]

We have seen first hand internal memos leaked on the net from Best Buy where they were instructed to hold their 360 units for Sunday sales per say.

It always seemed like a crock to me that people want to buy units and there they are, sitting in a back room somewhere because corporate says so.

 

[[Spectre]]

We have seen first hand internal memos leaked on the net from Best Buy where they were instructed to hold their 360 units for Sunday sales per say.

I didn't work for BestBuy

 

[CodeX]

We have seen first hand internal memos leaked on the net from Best Buy where they were instructed to hold their 360 units for Sunday sales per say.

It always seemed like a crock to me that people want to buy units and there they are, sitting in a back room somewhere because corporate says so.

I know for a fact we did this at target for the 360, PS3, and Wii releases. I also no for a fact that (at my store at least) management and other "higher ups" "purchased" these before they were allowed to sell them...

 

[RogerX]

Most of the employees come off sounding like 18-25 year old know-it-alls. If I had this attitude about customers when I was 18 and working PC retail and service, I would have never learned what I needed to learn to become a successful adult with a "real" career.

The customers are what gets you that meager paycheck. Yes, some of them have annoying personal traits or poor hygiene; that is true of all of life. You'll have classmates, neighbors, and coworkers who match these traits as well. Learning to deal with them makes you a better person. Whining about how stupid they are makes you look like a dick.

Also, the "reserve it or you don't get it-- ever-- cuz we won't stock it otherwise" is a crock of crap. Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade talk about this all the time. If a game turns out to be great but didn't have a ton of promotion, and nobody pre-orders it... the stores rarely carry it, even if word of mouth makes a ton of people want to buy it.

Personal anecdote: The GameStop at Tower City in downtown Cleveland lost my business a year ago. I spent between 50-100 bucks a month on new PC games, accessories, and used DVDs there on my lunch breaks, since I work nearby... I'd stop in about once a week. When Quake 4's ship date was announced, I paid the crazy $69 plus 8 percent tax for the DVD "special edition" with "free T-shirt for pre-orders." I wanted a Quake 4 T-shirt, and I hate Best Buy, so I went ahead and ordered. They were out of shirts but told me to "keep coming back with my receipt" to get my shirt.

I did, twice. They kept telling me no shirts. The second time, the asshat in back with the shaved head, six face piercings, and comic-book-guy attitude told me, "We took care of your shirt last week, sir!" I looked him in the eye and told him, "No, I was told to keep coming back." The clerk I had been dealing with finally gave me a Call of Duty 2 shirt (unworn, anyone wanna buy it? $10 shipped ) to shut me up. I said "Thank You," and left. As I was walking back to the office, two of my coworkers who were still in the store when I left tell me that the bald guy said to his co-worker, "That fatass comes in here three times a week looking for his damn shirt, what a loser!"

I haven't bought anything there since... I just enjoy the smug satisfaction of knowing I have a decent life and a much better job... he's late 20s/early 30s and working as assistant manager at GameStop, treating people like crap; and I have a good salary and benefits, wife and two kids, and a house. "The best revenge is living a good life." If that's how you treat people, especially people who are regular paying customers, you deserve your crappy little job you got for yourself.

Cheers!

 

[Magnus]

Yep, that article was every bit as riveting as an in depth interview of a Micky Dees crew. These whiners are exactly what Corporate sales deserves.

 

[MrE]

These guys that Games Radar interviewed are whiny idiots. #6: "With all the crap we have to put up with, the customers are lucky we don't kill them." Nice, assholes. Try working on a team with people you don't like and have to interface with every damn day. There are days when I miss how simple retail was in comparison of my Tech career.

 

[k1pp3r]

That was boring all around.

Yes it was, i got no enjoyment or enlightenment out of that

 

[RoffleCopter]

What kind of discount do you get for working at these joints? Seems like a good amount if the discount is a major reason for working there in the first place.

 

[Crosshairs]

That was boring all around.

+1.......

 

[Nuc_E]

If these guys whine so much about working in a game store, perhaps they should try working in another area of retail, for instance, grocery. Perhaps working at a video game store wouldn't look so bad after a Saturday afternoon or two as a cashier at a major supermarket.

 

[swatbat]

These guys that Games Radar interviewed are whiny idiots. #6: "With all the crap we have to put up with, the customers are lucky we don't kill them." Nice, assholes. Try working on a team with people you don't like and have to interface with every damn day. There are days when I miss how simple retail was in comparison of my Tech career.

Looking back at retail I still wish I could have killed a fair share of the people I had to deal with. I've moved on to a much better tech job and although it is much harder and complex then what I use to deal with one thing is much different, Respect. In retail you got next to nothing for respect. Your own company in many cases looked at you like you are nothing, the customers looked at you like you were nothing. While people may not like me now I have much more respect then I use to. Goes a long way.

Anyone that works in retail for long enough will end up hating people in general. Sure most of the people don't bother you. I know when I worked in retail we would have at least 1 asshat go off a day. Most of the time we had a lot more then that. They would want to return something that they had destoryed, would fight on warranty issues(my pc died, replace it for free right now), etc. A lot of times they would try to return something that was just flat out wrong(hd dies so they buy a new one and try to return the old one in its box). Also people knew you were nothing to your own company and would treat you that way. I've seen them get mad and throw shit, threaten life(last person to do that to me was arrested as I filed charges), and scream like little children. People in the US just seem to think they are better then the retail workers.

A good example of this was I rember this older lady going off with the sales manager where I worked. She had a kodak camera dock that was given to her as a gift that she wanted to return for cash. She claimed that whoever bought it for her got it from us. Person behind the counter at customer service refused the return. She has them get the manger who agrees that we can not return it for cash(which is what she wanted) without a ticket. Anyway he walks it over to the front desk of the tech shop so we can look up if we even sold one of these within the return policy(I had access to the back end systems to check). We didn't ever carry that model of kodac dock company wide. Wasn't in the system. Simple as that, she did not buy it from us. He tried to explain this to her as nice as possible. She went off the deep end. Sceaming and cussing as she stormed out the door a good 15 minutes later. Her comment was we sold other ones from that vendor so we should be able to return the one she bought. He had managed to sit there with a simle on his face the entire time and remained polite. Gave him props for that. She, like many americans, has a notion that all they have to do is yell enough to get what they want from a store. Your average person can only deal with that shit but so long.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Retail does suck in general, but I don't think a game store would be any worse than most mall stores.

 

[swatbat]

Retail does suck in general, but I don't think a game store would be any worse than most mall stores.

Depends. I would think it would be harder but yea both would suck. Thing with a game store is people wait for a release date and bitch if shit isn't in. I don't think you would have this issue as bad other then at a movie/music store. Also the idea to sell addons is something only other electronics stores have and many of the game stores have more shit to try to addon.

 

[MrE]

Looking back at retail I still wish I could have killed a fair share of the people I had to deal with. I've moved on to a much better tech job and although it is much harder and complex then what I use to deal with one thing is much different, Respect. In retail you got next to nothing for respect. Your own company in many cases looked at you like you are nothing, the customers looked at you like you were nothing. While people may not like me now I have much more respect then I use to. Goes a long way.

Anyone that works in retail for long enough will end up hating people in general. Sure most of the people don't bother you. I know when I worked in retail we would have at least 1 asshat go off a day.

I know, and I don't disagree with that. Remember though, the customer goes away at the end of the day and you get a new Asshat the next day. When you work on a team you see the same asshole(s) every day and get to know them in ways that make you wanna bleach your brain. Asinine crap that has nothing to do with work, or, hell, the politics as people play the corporate game of "climb the ladder over your co-workers".

My point was simply the less time demanding/hectic/complex a career is vs. a job that you can just say @#$% it and walk home. Sometimes I miss the ability to do that.

 

[Advil]

I've owned a computer store for over ten years and worked in one for about two years before that. I still work the counter and still fix at least some of their machines. In store and on-site. Let me tell you, no matter where you work you get your crap from somewhere.

Unlike working FOR another company I can treat customers far better than they are used to without pushing crap on them they don't need. Also unlike working FOR another company I have to deal with every little detail of operating a business like paying the lease, phone bill, electricity, heat, dealing with parking issues, harassing people who write bad checks... you name it.

I make ok money when the economy is good... I make crap money and wonder why I do this when the economy is bad. I have big highs when large orders go out and customers are happy. Sometimes they write letters or leave us food. How often does this happen to you in your job? Then there is the occasional huge low when someone decides to take their life's frustrations out on me. (hasn't happened more than a handfull of times to me in ten years, thank God.)

And no, I'm not hiring.

Door to door salesmen are my #1 pet peeve. They've made a raging comeback the last few years. The only good thing I have to say about them is that they give me an awesome outlet for frustration. There's an endless supply for me to throw out before they can even open their mouth.

 

[RogerX]

People in the US just seem to think they are better then the retail workers.
...
Gave him props for that. She, like many americans, has a notion that all they have to do is yell enough to get what they want from a store. Your average person can only deal with that shit but so long.

This is not US-specific, and the casual bashing of "American culture" in the name of the bad behavior of a certain type of person really bugs me. There certainly are more of them here, but there are plenty of youtube videos and blog aco!!!!s of europeans, asians, etc. losing their cool and acting like a dick. The difference is how society reacts. People are a lot more blunt in general in the US, but my experiences just seem to indicate poorly mannered and/or poorlyeducated individuals are... individuals, not representative of a whole society.

 

[Phelptwan]

Does this remind anybody else of http://www.actsofgord.com/?

 

[FLECOM]

can i have the last 15 mins of my life back?

if you havent worked retail, then read it... if you have, its the same crap everyone goes through... i worked retail for a while and i ran into all types just like they talked about...

it just sounds like they are all whining that they cant play games all day and tell the customers to go fsk themselves... which mind you would have been great, but retail is nothing like "clerks"

the stupid questions/crazy stories were enjoyable tho... reminds me of a few i got... my favorite was

customer: do you have any scsi zip drives?
me: we only have USB zip drives
customer: oh dont you know anything SCSI and USB are the same thing!
me:

 

[swatbat]

This is not US-specific, and the casual bashing of "American culture" in the name of the bad behavior of a certain type of person really bugs me. There certainly are more of them here, but there are plenty of youtube videos and blog aco!!!!s of europeans, asians, etc. losing their cool and acting like a dick. The difference is how society reacts. People are a lot more blunt in general in the US, but my experiences just seem to indicate poorly mannered and/or poorlyeducated individuals are... individuals, not representative of a whole society.

I haven't been to europe in a few years and didn't want to comment on it over there. Yes otehr countries have the same issues. I was just speaking more on first hand accounts of mine.

my favorite was

customer: do you have any scsi zip drives?
me: we only have USB zip drives
customer: oh dont you know anything SCSI and USB are the same thing!
me:

I always liked when someone came in and asked for a pentanium chip. The tech at the counter said we didn't carry that brand and the customer walked out.

 

[Manny Calavera]

#5: Me: "Hi, can I help you find something?" Her: "Yes, I'm looking for Mario Bros. for PlayStation." Me: "Oh. Well, they don't make it for PlayStation. We've got it for several Nintendo systems." Her: "They do too make it for PlayStation!" Me: "Trust me, they don't. Sony and Nintendo are in competition with one another, and Mario games are one of Nintendo's biggest sellers. They'd actually be helping their competition by making a Mario game for PlayStation, and they'd never do that." Her: "I saw it here last week!" Me: "... ... ...We're sold out." Her: "Oh, darn. Thanks anyway!"

I was witness to something very close to the above when I picked up HL2 last weekend.
And NO,I was not the one asking for a game not published on other consoles...It
was some middle aged lady in the store for her ..I think hubby.

 

[[Spectre]]

What kind of discount do you get for working at these joints? Seems like a good amount if the discount is a major reason for working there in the first place.

10% at my former store but that was a number of years ago before some corporate mergers etc. So currently I don't know for sure.....butI would guess not much more since margin is very slim on new items (or at least it was when I worked there).

 

[[Spectre]]

Retail does suck in general, but I don't think a game store would be any worse than most mall stores.

Baby sitting. Seriously we had parents start dropping off kids around the age of 4 for them to play games while they shopped. It was possibly the worst part of the job.

 

[swatbat]

Baby sitting. Seriously we had parents start dropping off kids around the age of 4 for them to play games while they shopped. It was possibly the worst part of the job.

One quick phone call to child protection services(or whatever your state calls it) fixes that. If you were in a normal mall you could always turn the kids over to the mail security too.

Yea I've seen parents do that shit to friends before. Pissed them off. One of them would wait a good 30 minutes tops and make a call everytime.