Spy Girl In Game Stores

1up.com has a great feature up detailing the exploits of a young woman they sent in to various game stores under the cover of a clueless girlfriend. The results are both informative and hilarious. From the article: "Spy: When are the new systems coming out? Clerk: Sony just came out with a new version of the PlayStation. It's smaller, more compact, that's about it. Xbox--they haven't mentioned anything about something new coming out."

Comments

Odd

[dk4]

I found this informative and humorous.

While not scientific, it does bring to light the issue that those of us with clueless girlfriends or wives, or clueless boyfriends or husbands, or siblings, parents, etc. need to be concerned with.

Your family knows you like games, but to surprise you they might not ask you but some knucklehead retail guy. Perhaps trolling around town for a good game shop, and letting your family know which one to go to, or even better using something like an Amazon wish list, is highly recommended.

Unfortunately we all have friends and family who don't game, and this is what the first line of defense for information will likely be for them.

Oh, and Iwata had best get some good info out to retail clerks if they'll ever change anyone's opinion on Nintendo...

Re:Any biases?

[GrimSean]

I am a clerk in a game store in a small city in Canada. Our only competition in the city is an EB and several department stores, which means I occasionally have to phone them in order to check a price.

That said, almost every EB employee I have ever spoken to (you know, after that huge spiel when they answer the phone) is a complete idiot who wouldn't last a week in the store I work at. They lie to their customers about anything and everything in order to make a profit, they've completely bought into the "Nintendo is dying" BS that is being spread around, and they rarely know anything about the game they're selling if the title is something other than "Madden" or "GTA". They are casual gamers for the most part, with a small minority being hardcore FPS-freaks (usually Halo) who make minimum wage, don't care about their customers, and have little control over what is on their shelves (meaning if it's rare, it's not there).

Case in point, I had a mother come in the other day who had bought her 6 year old an Xbox at EB along with a Shrek game at the advice of the sales clerk. He neglected to mention that games aimed at 6 year olds make up a decimal-point percentage of the titles on the system, but he did tell her that since Nintendo was going out of business, the Xbox was the 'smarter' buy, and although the GC was cheaper, she believed him. She was rather shocked when I told her that Mario didn't come on anything other than Nintendo consoles, and that I usually recommend the GC for people with younger kids as there are a number of games that can be played together. I don't know why they do this, and although it's bad for the people who shop there, I don't want them to stop as most of those people tend to stop going there and come to my store instead.

Now, that doesn't mean that I view the GC as a system for kids - I just feel it's the best buy for people with kids, as there are games that will appeal to more age groups on it (the GC was the first console of this generation that I bought, being a broke student and all). RE4 and Eternal Darkness are great for older players, and the first-party games tend to work for everyone (I've gotten drunk playing Mario Kart with a bunch of my buddies). The number of games limits the GC, but those that are good on it are very, very good.

Holy bias, Batman!

[Inoshiro]

As I have been and continue to be an employee at EB, despite my better judgement, in a Canadian city, whose only competition are a single piss-ant local run video game store and the usual Wal-mart/Future Shop/Superstore trimunitive, I can say that we're the only place that does things like: Hey, I see you're buying a PS2/GC, I bet you'd like a memory card to save your progress. Or (and we had a 3 hour staff meeting about this one, so the new girl would learn this): if someone wants WoW, ensure they know it's on online only, pay-to-play game. Just because they hear it's shit hot, doesn't mean it's right for them.

Part of making "quality sales that last" is making sure you get as close to 0% returns as possible. That means you don't sell Shrek and an Xbox to someone's 6-y-o when they'd be better off with a GameCube. Perhaps the stores are mismanaged in your part of the world, but in Saskatchewan they are not, and our district is very strongly focusing itself on this.

Additionally, and unsatisfied customer is an unhappy, not returning customer. Anyone with sales experience knows this, and EB has a whole retail training program about it (not unlike Future Shop, or other places).

I worked at EB and I own over 400 video games. Ironically, I own no N-Gage games despite owning 2 N-Gage systems.