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

I'm sorry

[Pinefresh]

I'm not meaning to troll or anything, but this just isn't that funny.

Re:I'm sorry

[XXIstCenturyBoy]

It wasn't. And a guy would have gotten the same answers. Me think the GameStop guy was probably the franchise owner or something.

Remember that its a job for them, and unlike most buyers, who are there because they are interested in videogames, employees aren't.

Same goes for most of the "specialized" store/entreprise staff, will it be cell phone co customers service or clerk in a Home Depot.

Posting that ground breaking exposee on the net is stupid and pretty much pointless. Those video game store employees might be better than miss shocking fact finding in other things, but they don't go around saying how inept she is doing it. High Tech/nerd/IT people are very good at making fun of people that don't spend their life reading Slashdot. But they don't see the sneers behind their back when they spend a whole evening talking about who will win the next console war.

Re:I'm sorry

[xerxesVII]

I do because I figured out a way to put a rearview mirror on the frames of my glasses. People say I look like a big nerd, but that's okay. When the borg come at me from behind, I'll be ready.

Re:I'm sorry

[cloak42]

Yes, but isn't it a part of their job that they need to be able to deal with customers and answer their questions? You say that they're not saying how inept she is at doing other things, but you leave out the important fact that it's not her job to be doing those things. When your job is to help customers, you actually need to be able to help them. Not knowing the difference between a polygon and a megabyte is not going to help anybody, and it just shows that a) you don't care about your job and b) you shouldn't be in that line of work.

retail is minimum wage

[joe094287523459087]

the quality of the answers probably is related to the labor available at minimum wage, rather than any kind of gender bias because the customer is female.

Re:retail is minimum wage

[MBCook]

I have to start by saying I've seen this before, it is NOT new. It is at least a few months old. It may have just hit the web, but I remember reading the exact same thing in a magazine a while back.

That said, I agree. While the guys at my local GameStop are knowledgeable and do like games, I have seen people at my local Best Buy that are the same way. This comparison is pretty meaningless except to see just how rude some people are. Now if they went to 10 GameStops, 10 Best Buys, etc... then they could draw some conclusions.

Interesting, but just anecdotes. Not data.

Whatever

[Karma Farmer]

The only interesting thing about the article was that in four tries, they managed to find someone who worked in retail who wasn't a rude clueless prick.

Complete BS

[Collision891]

I subscribe to EGM and this section with the exact same content came out months ago. In the corner of the section on the site it even says "*Interviews conducted before the PSP's release." So that just shows how outdated this is.
You can hardly laugh at the Clerks when nobody really knew about the next-gen consoles at the time

clueless like a fox? :)

[Xtifr]

I'm not sure the clerk was actually clueless. Consider:

Clerk: the new PS3 and the new XBox/360 are both expected within the next few months.
Customer: ok, I'll keep my money in my pocket and come back some other time (maybe). Bye!

vs.

Clerk: well, there's this new, small Playstation that we have in stock, but I don't know of any plans for a new XBox.
Customer: cool, I'm going to pull out my wallet and buy one each of the machines you've got right now. Ring me up!

I mean, duh, these guys are trying to sell stuff, not keep you up-to-date with the latest industry gossip! If you go into a store and ask questions, you should expect to hear answers designed to separate you from your money. It's that simple.

Re:clueless like a fox? :)

[Guppy06]

Ehhh... not really. The stores more or less break even on console sales, and barely see a return on the games themselves. The big money-making sales for the stores are the accessories, which is why they keep on trying to force these damnedable "value packs" down our throats when a new console comes out.

It's the skin-of-your-teeth profit margins that keep you from seeing many "mom-and-pop" video game stores any more.

Thank the gods

[SoulMaster]

That my girlfriend doesn't read /. I have a birthday coming up and would NEVER want her to get the idea to go to a store and talk to a clerk about games I might like (which is exactly what she would pull from this article!)

Comic Book Store Guy

[screwballicus]

It helps if you picture Comic Book Store Guy while you read the article:

Spy: Can you surf the Web on any of these systems?

Clerk: No [clearly disgusted].

Spy: How about movies? Can I watch movies on any of them?

Clerk: [Deep, horrified sigh] Yes, but you'll need to buy an extra remote for the Xbox.

Re:Comic Book Store Guy

[syynnapse]

Please dont tap on the glass. It contains a very rare photo of sean connery signed by roger moore.

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:Odd

[Apreche]

I've actually found that clerks in stores have a much greater opinion of Nintendo than most Halo fanboys. I attribute this to the fact that they are trained to sell things and will say all products on sale are good. But I also attribute it to the fact that clerks in game stores have a lot of time to sit around playing lots of games. People who actually play Nintendo games and give them a chance tend to like them. The only people who dislike them are the prejudiced punk kids.

Re:Odd

[Guppy06]

"Your family knows you like games, but to surprise you they might not ask you but some knucklehead retail guy."

Consider what your stereotypical "clueless girlfriend" usually shops for and where she usually shops. I'm probably carousing for trouble in saying this, but most of these "clueless" types are ones that spend a good deal of time shopping for clothes and other status-symbol items. There, they ask store clerks for their opinions partly because they're looking for a feel of what the current trends are, what other people have bought recently and the like. Because that's the shopping experience they're used to, they use the same methods in the video game store, looking less for something they know their signifigant other would enjoy and more for something that would "look good in his collection."

I'd say you'd have better luck if the "clueless girlfriend" is more accustomed to shopping for books than clothes, or anything else that relies more on personal taste than the taste of others. While it still may not be as good as simply asking you (which isn't an option if we're talking about a surprise gift), they'll at least understand things like "genres" and know that you're looking more for certain categories of games.

"Xbox media center"

[Suddenly_Dead]

and it's the only console that can hook up to a PC (through the Xbox Media Center).

The Xbox Media Center is a homebrew program requiring a softmod or modchip. They might have meant "Media Center Extender for the Xbox" (Microsoft product, works with Media Center PCs), but at least we know that 1UP.COM uses and endorses mod chips now :)

Any biases?

[rohlfinator]

Did anyone else find it odd that none of the clerks had anything good (or factual) to say about Nintendo? Most of them stated blatant mistruths in favor of the PS2 and Xbox. The Toys 'R' Us guy made up a bunch of stuff about the PSP, the Best Buy clerk claimed that the GameCube is "for toddlers" and that Nintendo makes games for other systems, and the EBGames salesperson recommends the PSP hands down, no questions asked.

Is there a valid business reason for this, or is it just personal preference? I just find it odd that three out of four of them recommended anything but Nintendo. At my local game stores, most of the clerks at least try to figure out which console fits the customer's interest, rather than trying to sell them on one specific product. Maybe they get paid more commission for selling PS2s?

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.

Re:Any biases?

[ajd1474]

I've stopped buying at my local EB (in Australia). They have a 7 day guarantee on ALL games. You dont like it? bring it back in 7 days for a refund or exchange. This means that the sales staff are now even less useful!! They just push any crap they can out the door and use the "just bring it back if you dont like it" sales pitch.

The last game i bought there was Colin McRae 2004 which had CLEARLY been bought and sold 2-3 times. It was effectively second hand. What did the sales guy tell me? If it doesnt work or you dont like it, just bring it back and get something else!!

Worse than that, I had the last guy I spoke to there try to pre-sell me an XBOX360... to put this within the correct timeframe, he called it the XBox 2! I asked if he had any specs on it (knowing none had been announced), and he proceeded to sprout all sorts of interesting "facts" which were really nothing more than rumours....most of which have since been found to be flat out false. Main example being the use of an HD-DVD drive! Surely there is some sort of law against MAKING SHIT UP!?!?

Thanks EB, but i'm only buying sealed games from now on and not from you.

Bad questions, what did they expect?

[thesandtiger]

The quality of the answers was directly related to how dumb her questions were.

I used to work in retail, selling PCs, and I have to say that I quickly used a triage system for customers. Being asked a relevant and technically accurate question (ex: Does this machine have an AGP slot? or What kind of memory does this one use?) would get friendly and helpful service. Being asked a bizarre question (ex: How many bauds can I fit in this hard-drive? [to which I responded "All of them, if you buy the extended warranty."]) would get less helpful responses from me. Why?

Because customers who ask random noise questions like that have no fucking idea what they're talking about, but it is clear that they either think they do, or at least want to portray the idea that they do so they don't get taken advantage of. People who approach a purchase with that kind of idea are not going to take well to being (gently) corrected by the person they're asking the questions of. They will, almost universally, go and bitch to the manager that the salesperson was throwing all kinds of complex jargon around like "mouse" and "keyboard" around, trying to confuse them.

If I worked at a game store, and someone asked me about progressive scan and online gaming, I'd give them answers. If they asked me which one had more polygons, I'd make fun of them - I'll get bitched at anyway, might as well get to enjoy myself first.

So, their article showed that, if you act like a moron, you'll be treated like one. What a shock!

Re:Bad questions, what did they expect?

[gcatullus]

I definitely agree that in reatil there is a huge swing in who gets help from the clek and who gets ignored. But I have not noticed this in tech retail as much as in places like Home Depot. But in Hom eDepot it is the reverse - the clueless customers get the most help. I usually know what I want in teh store, but if I need help, there is no one to even ask a question; if my wife goes there, almost every time a clerk will ask her if she needs help. Now, I can understand that the usually male clerk would prefer to talk to a female, but I think the clerks are instructed that if Suzy Housewife walks in to help her find whatever she needs because she is the member of the household who will decide to buy new wallpaper, etc. Being clueless has also helped for me at the pool store. I just bought a house with a pool, knew nothing about taking care of it, walked into the pool store, said I was clueless, they tested teh water, talked with me for about 10 minutes, and I bought about $50.00 in chemicals. maybe I was robbed, but I couldn't see how 10 minutes of time was made up for in $50 in sales

Re:Bad questions, what did they expect?

[iocat]

Two things I know for sure: 1) The author of the story is very cute. I know this because she is my girlfiend. 2) I also know she asked the exact same questions, the exact same way, in each store, because I listened to the tapes in the car.

Obviously it's just a short, anecdotal piece; I recognized most of the people she talked to (she went to stores in the neighborhood), and personality definitely played a factor. But the main thing is: if you want a game for a present, make sure you give uninformed consumers (non-gaming girlfriends, mothers, etc) a freaking *list* so they don't ask any half-baked questions and get you like a Genesis or something...

Re:Bad questions, what did they expect?

[Vo0k]

Bad questions or inability to answer them?
There are plainly bad questions and plainly terrible customers who are clueless but act informed. But there are clueless customers who know they are clueless and seek your help. In this case they don't know what are the questions they should ask, but formula "What questions should I ask about this", or "Tell me all I should know about this" is not one commonly acceptable, so they start with just such questions like the girl presented.

Suggested route:

Spy: Which gaming system is the best to buy for my boyfriend?

Clerk: PS2 and Xbox, depending on what type of games he likes to play. [Launches into enthusiastic speech on the merits of each system.]
[wrong. Customer gets lost at once. The right, and expected answer is: "Depends on what your boyfriend wants to do with it." followed with a series of questions mapping capablities of the available models into real life applications. With a series of answers you know the answer and you can say "this" model has most of what you'd need.

Spy: Which is the most powerful?
No need for such a question after that. It wouldn't happen.

Spy: What about the GameCube?
You give answer, which of its capablities didn't match the list.

Spy: Does it play movies?
Yes, from DVD.

Spy: My boyfriend said something about progressive scan? Whazzat?
Just a marketing buzzword. If you want, I can go into all the messy technical details, but it really doesn't matter that much.

Spy: What about the handhelds? Would you recommend buying a DS or waiting for the PSP?*
Again, what do you want to use it for?

Spy: My boyfriend says more polygons are better. What are those?
Something like horsepower in a car. Ability to display lots and lots of things, fast. But there's much more to a good console than polygon count.

Spy: Do any of these hook to a PC?
Answer. Though this probably wouldn't happen after initial question - connectivity with PC should be one of them.

Spy: What about sports games? Which is the best for them?
Depends on your, or your boyfriend's taste. We have... I personally like...

Spy: Do I need anything besides the system and a couple of games?
Just a TV set. [yes, you don't know HOW clueless the customer is, but don't make it sound rude] - but if you intend to ..., then you will need ... (play together with your boyfriend - get a second controller)

Spy: When are the new systems coming out?
Give estimate dates. This way she may return and buy them later, at that date. Say rather later than early because it's better to sell the console a month after it arrived, than say "sorry, not yet, try in a month".

Spy: So are the prices of these systems ever going to come down?

Spy: Is the GameCube just for kids?
Shouldn't happen, but just answer.

Spy: Does Nintendo make games for the other systems?
AFAIK, no. (if it looks the customer DOES have some clue after all, you can mention emulation)

Spy: Can you surf the Web on any of these systems?
Guide towards "what do you need" series of questions.

Spy: Is that that football hockey game?
Explain.

Spy: [Picks up Manhunt.] Is this game good?
I don't know, I didn't play it.

Clueless Girlfriend asking for Linux Help.

[Picass0]

GF: All of the software is free?

Slashdot Guy: Why are you even at the installfest? Yeah, the software is free, as in Freedom. Unlike your spyware windows free beer shit. You can download an ISO image, or RPMs, or yum install, or apt-get, or compile from source.

GF: Um, could you explain what some of that means?

Slashdot Guy: (Big sigh) Oh for fsck's sake! Download it and RTFM. (under breath "Dumb bitch")

GF: RTFM? Isn't an installfest where I'm supposed to be able to ask questions?

Slashdot Guy: Yeah. If you're not a windows 'tard.

Re:Clueless Girlfriend asking for Linux Help.

[rbarreira]

Yeah. Then:

Slashdot Guy (thinking): Why come I never attract any girls? :(

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.

Look in the mirror, Robin!

[GrimSean]

Your local "piss-ant" video game store. Cute. You exemplify a number of qualities I dislike about EB employees in that statement alone - you think you're better because you're EB, and instead of giving reasons (like I did) you simply denigrate your competition instead. I am partially to blame for this, though, as in reviewing my initial post I realize I was too general in my description of EB. My experiences have only been with the local EBs that I stopped shopping at 5 years ago and have since only interacted with over the phone (I stopped shopping there due to an employee asking me to leave my bag at the front of the store - my bag was at that point holding about $200 of books and a $1500 laptop - I had no problem with this, until I asked to set it behind the counter, a request to which he responded "No, it has to be out in front where I can see it", so I left and never returned). Perhaps they are better run in Saskatchewan, but here in Southern Ontario, they're staffed by idiots.

You hired a new girl - good on you - but then you had to have a 3 hour meeting to explain something that should be patiently obvious to anyone working in a game store. Could you do me a favour and send out a chain-wide memo with notes from that meeting? It took me half an hour and two websites the other day to convince a guy that you have to pay for Final Fantasy 11 on the PS2, as those fine fellows at my local EB told him it was free - "They don't charge on consoles, only on PCs!".

As to your "quality sales that last" and "0% returns", what I hear from my customers is that the local EB does that by refusing them any returns whatsoever - even on unopened merchandise that hasn't left the store.

How exactly are these people kept happy again?

Some don't seem to care

[Moraelin]

The fact is, I've seen with my own eyes people being ripped off by a clerk, once that clerk got wind that the customer is clueless.

E.g., there was this older guy in front of me a few years back, who just wanted a simple machine to send emails and surf the web. He explicitly said he never plays any games. It was pretty much an experience watching the clerk talk him into buying a rig that was more powerful than my gaming rig (and I'm a gamer and a compulsive upgrader!), had twice the RAM I had, and had the latest top-of-the-line Nvidia graphics card too. (Apparently you need a very powerful graphics card to see your grandson's photo, don't you know? Well, I certainly didn't.)

Would that guy buy from that shop again, after his son (who gave him the original pointers as to what to buy) finds out what the guys at the shop talked him into buying? Probably not. But then with computers being bought for 3-4 years or more (there still are people on Cyrix 300+ machines), does it even matter?

Or there've been stories like the older lady who got sold a sound card upgrade, and they just loaded some different drivers on her machine... which didn't actually work with the old card. Turns out after the "upgrade" not only she had the same model of sound card as before, it had the same serial number sticker too once someone opened the box. Now that's a funny coincidence ;)

I don't think it's necessarily sexist as such, though. Some people are basically sharks. If they smell new blood in the water, they'll be all over it, regardless of whose blood it is. If you look like you have no clue, you'll get royally scammed, regardless of gender, race, age or religion.

Women just run into the stereotype of being clueless about cars or computers, and I might add that some are _happy_ to perpetuate that stereotype. For some it's like it's a thing of pride to know nothing about that nerdy stuff. Makes them more socially acceptable or something.

So anyway, once you're stereotyped in that category, you get scammed. You get car mechanics charging you twice the price, you get sold a PS One as the newest game console, you get talked into buying a Quadro professional OpenGL card for your web surfing computer, or in really extreme cases you get your old sound card back as an upgrade.

Let's guess: You worked at Best Buy?

[ianscot]

I can sort of sympathize. I worked in book stores all through college, and there was one set of customers who wanted to seem "cultured" and talk about their reading, but whose idea of high culture was Ayn Rand or Stephen King. This company wasn't paying me minimum wage so I could pretend to wax enthusiastic over stuff I found pretty depressingly awful. There were also the Blockbuster shoppers: people who asked for a recommendation, but then expected you to read their minds or the minds of the people for whom they were buying a gift. Those people would say they liked a particular author, but then they wound up rejecting any suggestions you made, and eventually they left with something completely unlike that initial example they'd given. You wound up wondering if they had any idea what they were asking for, or whether they'd even read their "favorite" author at all.

But you know, they're people, and you were frustrated by the whole situation partly because you decided to write them off. That's what your "triage system" was. Spend your day learning to shut yourself off from idjits, and it'll drag you into a low place.

We had some pretty nuts regulars at one of the stores I worked in; one of whom was a squeaky-voiced little guy who prefaced every sentence with your name and the words "Could you please tell me...?" ("Ian, could you please tell me this? And Ian, could you please tell me...?") I actually kind of liked the guy after a while. Didn't wear my soul down any to do so, either.