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Life Behind The Counter
MTV Games has a run-down on a blog that relates what it is like behind a videogame store counter. The blog, DayintheLifeofVideogames relates the best and worst moments from their unique perspective on the games industry. From the article: "So pity the game store employee anxious to sell apples to people shopping for oranges. 'I die a little bit inside each time,' Post said. 'I think people are afraid to take a chance.' He gets just that close to getting people to buy the good stuff, but he said that if people haven't seen a TV commercial for a game, it's very hard to sell them on it. And cheer Post and Whitman for their acts of retail kindness, like warning customers buying EA's recent 'NFL Head Coach' that it doesn't actually let people play football. 'I warned two people, and both of them said, 'I'm glad you told me. I don't want it now,' ' Post said. 'You want to make the sale, but you don't want the guy to go home and say, 'That guy doesn't even know what he's talking about.'" It would be against the scriptures not to mention the most holy of holy books at this juncture. Yay, though I walk through the shadow of the non-believers, always do I keep the Acts of Gord in my mind.
How does the customer know whether the salesman is giving him good advice or just trying to push some POS game for other reasons, like higher profit margins or pressure from management?
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
The point that hits hardest is the one thing a lot of the Gamestop/EB managers seem to get wrong. If people wanted cheap, they'd go to Walmart. But they come into the GAMES store for the large selection of games, and the assumption that people behind the counter know what's good and what's not. If someone asks for a recommendation and you go for the easy sale, and recommend a piece of crap game, you'll come off looking like a tool and people won't come back to your store anymore. "The guy at the store told me my son would like this game, but it sucked. That guy didn't know what he was talking about. Screw that, I'll just go to Best Buy next time." But if you recommend a great game, people might come back next week or next month and buy another, and another. Or maybe if you're really lucky they'll recommend your store to their friends.
I am a semi-regular at an EB Games in Portland, Oregon. I reluctantly use them to purchase new PC games on release day mainly out of convinience- it is on my drive home from work. My wife and I refer to the store as 'Rust Proofing' due to their excessive hard-sell of the extended warranty on every object in the store. There have been many times where I have had to repeatedly insist that no, I don't want to insure my DVD/CDs as I am very careful with them and have never once had a scratched disc.
I have long since abandoned trying to ask questions of the staff that stray from their script as they seem determined to veer me back into their needlesly complicated Wii pre-preorder down payment plan or DS cartridge insurance.
This blogger sounds more self-aware than the robo-teens at my local EB. I must imagine that the pressure from management to sell their high profit rust proofing is pretty intense. Couple that with the high ratio of mouth breathing junior high kids, and it has got to be a thoroughly maddening and soul crushing job.