Confessions of a Gamestop Manager

The site Consumerist has up a lengthy post from a former Gamestop manager, listing some of the sins, boons, pitfalls and promises perpetrated while he was on the job. Includes a discussion of the 'gutted' display game, pre-orders, the 'discount' card, trades, and lots of 'pro-tips' on how to get the most out of your Gamestopping experience. "19) Don't be afraid to sell things on your own! The going resell rates for any current games or accessories online is usually close to what we resell for. If its a much newer title and you don't mind listing and shipping it, you could make a small handful more selling it online yourself. Ebay and Amazon.com are obvious choices, but you may find other outlets that work for you."

Comments

Selling policies

[ZorbaTHut]

I have to say, the thing I've always wondered about is the business side of things. I've heard, although I have no hard evidence, that Gamestop/EB stores don't make any significant profit off new games, which is why they're always pushing used games. Their profit sources are "used games" and "product placement" - publishers pay big bucks to have things like Halo 3 in the front-and-center of stores.

What I'm curious about is what they would do if you went to them and said "I have a game, I would like you to sell it, we've been doing advertising and it should sell quite a bit, we can't afford to pay you for placement but we'll sell the actual copies to you for $15 less so you can actually make a profit on it". Would they give some of that front-and-center space over to it in the hopes of selling more, or would they just relegate it to the back shelves because it's not paying the bucks?

Unfortunately it seems impossible to actually get information on the big business policies. Ah well.

Re:Selling policies

[zegota]

I doubt it. Gamestop strikes me very much as a company that sticks to the guidelines they have layed out for themselves. They make a very small profit off of new games, but beyond that, the new games will get people into the store. "Hey, buying Halo 3? Why not pick up a used controller or strategy guide?" That sort of thing. As much as I'd like independent game companies to be able to get their games into stores this way, it seems unlikely that Gamestop would accept anything outside of a regular distributor, given that they don't buy games unless its going to absolutely sell (which is why they require preorders to allot shipments).

Worth a try, though. Call corporate, of course -- retail stores/managers will have absolutely no idea.

Re:Selling policies

[orclevegam]

Going to tackle this in reverse order. First, individual stores don't order games (disclaimer: I have never worked for EB/Gamestop, but I have talked with employees). Stores place pre-orders and other than that what they receive in their shipments is decided by someone in corporate. Presumably they have some sort of system, that probably involves big sweaty rolls of money from other large corporations being left in certain key CEO pockets, and possibly dart boards at some step to help determine exactly which games and what quantities will show up. As far as not making money on new releases that's not entirely true. They of course make profit off them, otherwise they wouldn't stock them, just like any other business. The key thing is that new games are not their most profitable item. They have essentially perfected a formula for squeezing the maximum profit out of each store that they possibly can. They start by reducing orders of new games to nearly the exact amount demanded. They do that by only carrying 1 or 2 new copies of any given game beyond what's pre-ordered. That ensures that they have enough on hand to meet the initial demand (assuming everyone pre-orders, and they probably order a certain percentage of the pre-orders extra to meet demand of those that didn't, say 10% of the pre-orders), but that they won't have many or any extra copies laying around. That's the initial investment, and they do make a bit of profit there. Where the big profit comes in though is in the re-sells. They give you something like $5 credit on a game that they'll turn around a re-sell for $40, that's 700% profit! That's why they want you to trade games in and buy used games, they make insane profit off each one. As for the strategy guides and accessories, those are just icing on the cake. They like to sell them of course, it's all profit after all, but the big bucks come from the re-sells. I'm what EB would consider a nightmare customer. I buy nothing but brand new games, rarely pre-order (unless I think it'll sell out, I'm usually right on that call to), and never buy guides or accessories. I also never trade in used games.

Re:Selling policies

[eison]

That's funny, I got the impression that refusing to stock what I want to buy and insisting that I make reservations and wait/come back later was the perfect formula for driving me to online stores and putting their bricks and mortar store out of business. Why should I pre-order with Gamestop when Amazon will have it delivered right to me?

acts of gord

[farkus888]

http://www.actsofgord.com/ excellent reading. all the horrible things he did to customers in a undisclosed video game store.

Just make it easier...

[FadedTimes]

Gamestop should just change policy and practice to make it easier for the consumer. People should not have to have a specialty method or use a guide to get the most out of the experience.

Resell

[Pxtl]

The Gamestop trade-in business is based on on key tenet; we hardly turn down ANYTHING. For all the rage and screaming we take from people getting one dollar for years-old Madden games, you need to remember one key fact; we are taking in games that are often unlikely to EVER resell.

17) Outdated consoles are traded in every day. Almost every gamestop literally has fifty or more used Xboxes and Gamecubes in stock at any time. They do not sell and we get one at least every day, so they are worth very little. The new slim PSP is in much higher demand than the original, and so the trade-in value on the old model has since dropped. If you want the hot new version of anything, trade in as far before its release as you can stand so you can get the peak value.

in other words: we pointlessly hoard crap that we're not planning to ever resell, because we'd rather it go into a landfill than to actually sell it to people for what it's actually worth. I mean seriously - every game store I've ever seen has a huge stack of games they wouldn't give two bucks for if you brought them in, sitting in a bin, unsorted... and still priced at $30 each. I think they need to learn the meaning of the word "clearance".

Also, Don't lose your receipt and expect us to find records for you, it is quite difficult.

Our IT Structure Is Still Suck In The '70s.

I refuse to buy from Gamestop

[justinlindh]

After several bad experiences, I stopped buying altogether from Gamestop over a year ago.

The pre-order sales push is ridiculous. I was literally called a "retard" for not pre-ordering Halo 3 when I tried to pick my copy of Gears of War up from the store. There wasn't even a confirmed release date for the game at the time. I couldn't believe I was called a retard, and asked the clerk, "excuse me?" to which he repeated, "yeah, only a retard wouldn't pre-order that game... man, it's going to be impossible to get!".

Another time, I had walked into a Gamestop (different store) and asked about the new SSX game for the Wii. The store employee said, "Oh, do you have it reserved? OF COURSE YOU DON'T OR YOU WOULDN'T BE ASKING IF WE HAD IT!" to which he laughed at me, and then told me that they did have some extra copies but that they were only going to be selling the pre-orders on that day.

One of my pre-orders that I DID place was 3 days late and I got a different excuse each time. Finally I demanded my refund for the pre-order back and went to Target and picked a copy up off of the shelf.

GameStop doesn't treat customers with any respect whatsoever. I shouldn't have to feel like I'm walking into a used car lot when I want to buy a video game. The sales tactics, lies, and pressure make me loathe the place, and I refuse to buy anything from them. Hastings and Target have always had the title ready for me on the day of release (yes, even Halo 3), so I will shop there. I will also tell anybody that I possibly can about the above stories so that others may also avoid this place.

Gamestop employees: I don't care if you're "just doing your job". You're a puppet made to act like a pushy asshole. Get a new job. They're out there.

Re:I refuse to buy from Gamestop

[CatPieMan]

I recently purchased a 360 Elite from GameStop. I was told by 3 different GameStops that it had a built-in HD-DVD player.

Sure, I looked online, but they were inconclusive. Amazon.com even said that buying this product would make you elegible for 5 free hd-dvds, which implies that it had a built in player (there is an offer to recieve 5 free movies by mail if you buy a certain HD-DVD player).

Also, xbox.com didn't deny that it was built in. It also did not mention an included player, so I suspected the GS employees were lying.

There is no included HD player in the 360 Elite. Not that it really mattered, as I wanted the system anyways. I just take offence to being lied to by 5 employees of 3 different stores (Vienna, VA; Reston, VA; and Herndon, VA).

I talked to a friend who used to work at a GameStop in Texas who said "We lie to customers all the time".

-CPM

Gamestop corporate sucks

[StarvingSE]

FTFA: 7) Everybody decries the nature of the Gamestop employee to push reserves on the uninterested consumer. Please understand, no matter how dedicated an employee may be, on the district level and higher, he is of no value beyond his reserves and Game Informer subscriptions. Nearly any employee is the sum of their reserves, and unfortunately good people who treat customers well will see their job fade away because of poor numbers. A Gamestop worker pushing a reserve on you is trying to keep their job, literally.

What's sad is that the employee pushiness is the reason I don't shop there, even though I could walk to it from my apartment. I wonder if corporate knows they're actually losing customers because of this?

Glad to hear the truth about the company - employees are nothing but numbers. I really want to know why companies do this to their employees. It makes the employees unhappy and pissed off, and the customers irate. I used to work at Sam's Club way back in the day, and if we didn't process 2 credit card apps a shift, we'd get written up - 3 strikes and you're fired. My next job was Micro Center, they kept a daily percentage on how many people you successfully added to their customer database. Not only that, but if you mistyped the address and it came up as bogus, you get dinged for that as well. This is because Micro Center is too cheap to just mass mail their flyers, they rely on the customer data entered at point of sale.

Despite what the article is trying to claim, there really is no reason to shop at Gamestop. Their used prices are way too high, and their new games aren't any cheaper than other retailers that don't hassle you as much.

I would shop at gamestop if they differentiated themselves a bit from other retailes (besides being annoying). They could do this by doing things like hosting lan parties in store, or gaming tournaments, something that would make it fun to go there. For now, I just avoid it like the plague.

Re:Revervations are pointless

[EtoilePB]

Because of the warehouse distribution model they use.

Warehouse has 1000 copies of Game X for distribution to all the area stores. Store A has 150 pre-orders, so they get 200 copies. Store B has 12 pre-orders, so they get 15 copies. Store C has 247 pre-orders, so they get 350 copies.

I don't know if it's changed since the merger, but that's how it worked back when I worked at GameStop. Pre-orders are construed as "local area interest," and so in a store with low pre-orders, no extra games. It's a self-perpetuating cycle sort of thing.

Re:Yeah right

[oDDmON oUT]

"Care to explain then how my local EB took several times more orders for the collectors edition of Burning Crusade then it was actually getting?"

Two words:

Unsecured loan

That's right Sparky, your hard earned pesastas can go into a floating fund for 30/60/90 days, during which time the company in question makes interest off it for nothing, pays down higher interest loans, funds a corporate fly by of Strippers'r'Us World Domination Tour©, or any other thing they f*cking well please.

What's a little gamer angst when stacked up against that, eh?