273: Confessions of a GameStop Employee - Part One

rockyoumonkeys

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Aug 31, 2010
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Wow, people who work in retail sure are uptight and defensive!
Batsamaritan said:
rockyoumonkeys you are wrong on every level, including genetic.

Unfortunately your glib response proves i'm right, and that your the guy who gets his food pissed in when he eats at restaurants. Any store doing their jobs correctly will give you a sealed copy and leave the gutted ones till last, its common sense, and find me a fool proof way of preventing theft and see the end of gutting completley. I'm not against people wanting their games sealed, but its annoying little pissants who have never once worked in retail and feel the need to lecture those who do who get laughed at and mocked as soon as they leave the store (plus the afformentioned pissed on food in restaurants) who need to shut the fuck up.

As for older games, most of which have had their prices slashed, what do you expect? No store I ever worked in had the copy depth to warrent putting out dummy boxes. At the end of the day take the games or leave them, no one really cares what you think, acting out to people trying to do their jobs makes you look like the **** you clearly are.
See, here's the problem. Or one of them, anyway. You're either conjuring up something out of things I don't say, or you're blatantly misrepresenting me so that you can then insult me.

Who ever EVER said anything about lecturing people in the store? That's idiotic. For one thing, I don't actually personally blame Gamestop employees for the gutting policy. Never said I did. I argue with people who defend it, that's all. It's a company policy I hate. I know employees don't create company policy.

Second of all, as I've said REPEATEDLY, what happens is I'll ask for a sealed copy. They won't have one. Sometimes they give ME attitude about it, insisting that a gutted copy is just as good, and arguing or mocking when I disagree. I don't go looking for a fight in a store, that's just embarrassing. But not all GS employees are angels. It's clear the hiring standards are low.

The only thing I personally blame employees for is handling discs poorly, which they often DO. The gutting policy is bad mostly because of this. However, I should point out that again, this isn't something that's played out right there in the store. Again, confrontation in a store is stupid. I'll point out that the disc is damaged, they'll either agree or disagree, and that's that. I leave without a game, they'll roll their eyes at me behind my back, and we go on with our lives.

So if you want to argue with things I've actually said, fine. If you want to invent scenarios to give yourself something to feel clever and superior about, find someone else to play along.

It's also pretty telling that you need to resort to childish name calling to "enhance" your argument. Pat yourself on the back for that one.
 

Tharticus

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Dec 10, 2008
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I've heard another youtube video called "Zero Originality" which is a Zero Punctuation copy of that employee's experience with GameStop.

I look forward to the next 3 parts.
 

Velocirapture07

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Jan 19, 2009
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This is a question for anyone reading who may have worked at a gamestop. DO YOU GET COMMISSIONS! I only ask because it seems every time I buy a game at gamestop/EB games the guys behind the counter pitch pre-orders and new games like their lives bloody depended on it.

Once I bought Red Dead Redemption and the guys kept me standing their asking if I wanted to pre-order such and such, this such and such game is so good, here have a look at such and such game trailer on my iphone!. It doesn't bother me too much but it just seems to absurd unless Gamestop or EB games employees get compensation for it.
 

SturmDolch

This Title is Ironic
May 17, 2009
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I really liked this series, having worked in retail myself. I worked in Best Buy in the camera's section, because owning a camera obviously qualifies you to sell them. Yeah I had no idea about cameras but I was still given a position there instead of in the video games and movies section.

Also, Scott Jones? Can I say awesome? I love Reviews on the Run!
 

Vortigar

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Nov 8, 2007
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Wow, I don't know any store in Holland that sells games or dvd's or cd's and doesn't practice 'gutting' (as its apparently called). Every time I go to France and I see games in those plastic cases with security tags and stuff it always seems a bit weird to me.

Been to a French specialist store that stored all of its games in glass display cases as if you were walking in a jewelry. It made sense but it just felt wrong, not being able to pull out the box and read the back.

Apparently there's people who see this practice as a problem, that's news to me. But I've yet to buy a new game and get the gutted box instead of a shrink wrapped one, so my experience with this is nothing but positive. Heck I even got a shrink wrapped game after paying for a used one once.
 
Oct 2, 2009
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Up until the company shut down this year, I worked at a local Game Crazy (very similar to GameStop in most respects). Oddly enough, my manager there, Heath, was an eyes-bleeding Madden player too, and beyond that, only an occasional gamer. The other employees there were varied types of gamers. Ben was the achievment farmer who borrowed games for free from the Hollywood Video next door. Karl was the WoW man and the rpg player in general. Mike was the trade-in whore; he would literally buy a game, beat it, and trade it in the next day or two later to put towards another one (he was probably the most avid gamer among us, unless you count WoW hours). I myself was the shooter guy, but I also play a lot of rpgs.
Anyhoo, we all pretty much formed a cohesive team where we at least one of us could tell a prospective customer about a game, or which game they should get. If one of us "specialists" hadn't played a game (Heath: sports, Karl: WoW/rpgs, me: shooters/rpgs) then Mike or Ben had probably played it at some point before anyway.
Even if the manager of the store isn't a "true gamer" (whatever that really means) the majority/all of the other employees likely are, and can help with most problems and questions a customer might have with games and systems.
As far as behind the counter stuff goes...yeah that's pretty much the same. None of us had thought of any better way to do it, and there's no way we'd put "live" games out there. On the other hand, a popular game/one we have several/dozens of copies of is available behind the counter in full shrink wrap if a customer cares enough to ask for one. In addition, many of the new games were kept on display shelves behind the counter anyway, so we could afford to keep those ones live.
Different stores have different policies about many things, but shrink is unavoidable unless measures like gutting are taken.
 

AlmostLikeLife

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Apr 24, 2009
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The people working at both of the Gamestops in my town are actually heavy gamers. That being said, I've been rejected for a job by Gamestop twice in the last year. But then my room-mate, who already has a job (well-paying one, I might add) applies there just for some extra pocket cash and they call him in for an interview the very next day. He's just doing it for extra cash, while I'm just sitting here, jobless.
 

J.McMillen

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Sep 11, 2008
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AlmostLikeLife said:
The people working at both of the Gamestops in my town are actually heavy gamers. That being said, I've been rejected for a job by Gamestop twice in the last year. But then my room-mate, who already has a job (well-paying one, I might add) applies there just for some extra pocket cash and they call him in for an interview the very next day. He's just doing it for extra cash, while I'm just sitting here, jobless.
Sorry to hear about the job troubles. But it's actually a known fact that it's easier to get a job when you are already employed that if you're unemployed. Especially if you've been unemployed for a while. Potential employers will sometimes find the lack of employment a strike against you. So sometimes it's best to swallow your pride and take any job you can.

I had to do that a few years ago when I was unemployed. My savings were running out and had no leads. Dropped off an application at my local Fry's Electronics on Saturday, got a call on Sunday, and got through the first 2 of three interviews on Monday. Two days later I interviewed with the store manager and the following Monday started my first day of work. And that was after deciding years ago I would never work retail again.
 

mikekearn

Erudite Loquaciousness
Aug 27, 2008
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If people don't like GameStop's practices, there's an easy solution: Don't fucking shop at GameStop! I'm so tired of all the bitching about a store that most people say they don't even shop at anymore. Really? Good for you. Take your business elsewhere, then. I'll continue to shop somewhere that I can get cheaper games, thanks very much.
 

-Samurai-

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Oct 8, 2009
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Gutting is one of the reasons I won't buy new from GameStop. I know that there's nothing wrong with the disks, and it cuts down on(not completely eliminates) shrink, but there's something I like about pulling the plastic wrap off the new game myself. To be the first person to open it and see its contents is something I enjoy. It's stupid, I know, but that's just me.

Also, if you think gutting is tedious; You know all those tags on coats and what not in stores that are hanging from the hanger in a plastic case on a rubber band? Those papers don't put themselves in the plastic case, and the plastic case doesn't put a rubber band in itself, then wrap itself around the hanger. I do that on a Thursday. :(
 

SL33TBL1ND

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Nov 9, 2008
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This story reminded me of this little gem:


Anyways, this is pretty interesting, can't wait for more.
 

Mr. Grey

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Aug 31, 2009
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HG131 said:
Infernoshadow211 said:
I understand the gutting thing. It makes sense to me. What I don't understand is why people complain that a game isn't new when only the shrink wrap is off. To me as, long as the disc is pristine, I get an instruction manual, and the box isn't dented, it's new.
Same here. The shrink wrap is just something I have to waste my time cutting open with a knife or razor blade back home. You think I want to waste that much time?
But it preserves the scent of a newly opened case... the glorious scent.
 

tigermilk

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Sep 4, 2010
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bimbley said:
A friend working for Game also told me about how employees were encouraged to take the new releases home, for free, to play through so they knew what they were talking about to customers.
-Bim
So that gutted game may not be new, it may have been taken home by an employee, played and bought back or played in an employees break.

Speaking personally my brief time working at GAME was charecterised by being told to bullshit the customer and push pre-owned games as they have a higher mark up.
 

bimbley

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tigermilk said:
So that gutted game may not be new, it may have been taken home by an employee, played and bought back or played in an employees break.
No... the games used by employees were sold on as preowned.


Speaking personally my brief time working at GAME was charecterised by being told to bullshit the customer and push pre-owned games as they have a higher mark up.

Sounds like good business sense to me.

-Bim
 

rockyoumonkeys

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Aug 31, 2010
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bimbley said:
tigermilk said:
So that gutted game may not be new, it may have been taken home by an employee, played and bought back or played in an employees break.
No... the games used by employees were sold on as preowned.
As far as you know. You can't account for the actions of all Gamestop employees nation wide.