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.

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.

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 So that just shows how outdated this is.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.

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.

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

[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.

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: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.