Gamestop Makes the Worst to Work For List

theultimateend

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Nov 1, 2007
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Does anyone know if they get in more copies than they do preorders?

I remember back in the day I wanted to buy a game and they had a wall of them behind the counter. They told me they couldn't sell me one because they had a preorder amount only.

I came back a few times and saw tons and never once saw them run out >_>.

I've wondered since if they just say that to push future preorders or if it is actually true.

Ended up being the last time I ever shopped there, I'm apparently a very fickle consumer. I just wander in to see if there is a new game I didn't hear about then grab it on Amazon.
 

Aeonknight

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Apr 8, 2011
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Comocat said:
The weird thing about Gamestop is how a business dedicated to my most favorite thing in the world makes me feel so terrible. I love just looking at games but I just get a weird vibe everytime I walk into one of their stores.

There actually used to be a really awesome Gamestop I would visit and the employees and I would just chat about games, then they closed it down. It would be nice if gamestop would become like starbucks, overcharging you for coffee, but making you feel awesome while they did it.

Edit: Just fyi

10- GameStop 9- Rite Aid 8- Hewlett Packard 7- Robert Half International 6- Sears 5- Office Max 4- Hertz 3- Radio Shack 2- Dillard's 1- Dish Network
Ha... that's funny. I used to work for Dish, and I can completely understand them being labeled #1.
 

Shuguard

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Apr 19, 2012
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Weird... My best friend actually works at Gamestop (maybe 20-30 minutes away from me). Yet he doesn't exactly have "horror stories." He probably found the best gamestop ever because he loves it. He loves his co-workers and he's already assistant manager in maybe 6-7 months.

The only real "horror stories" he gets are from customer experiences where little old ladies come in and ask if they could buy the "sky sword" (not even the game just the sky sword). Or other stupid teenagers who ask when mario comes out on the PS3.

The stories go on about really dumb questions and his only complaint is when customers don't put the display games back on the shelf properly or complain "it's false advertising when a display is on the shelf but they just recently ran out of that game in stock."

The only thing about quotas I know he has to make are in pre-orders, if he gets pre-orders he is making his quota.
 

Starke

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ecoho said:
Edit: ok how the hell is walmart not number 1?! they openly misstreat their workers and they have a 90% turnover rate!
Their methodology was restricted to publicly traded companies. As I recall, and I could be wrong, Wal-mart isn't.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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I don't have any great love for GameStop; I've been irritated by some of their corporate policies myself (while the employees of my local GS do seem to be reasonably good at their jobs.)

But it does seem a little peculiar to see so much abuse lobbed at them regarding their business model when, declining sales or not, they're still managing to turn a profit.

While selling a completely non-essential entertainment product.

In a down economy with high unemployment.
 

2HF

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May 24, 2011
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theultimateend said:
Did I do that right?

Sometimes we get more copies than preorders, but sometimes we really do only get what was preordered. If that's the case we can't sell the game to anyone who didn't preorder, at least not for 48 hours.
 

Veylon

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Starke said:
ecoho said:
Edit: ok how the hell is walmart not number 1?! they openly misstreat their workers and they have a 90% turnover rate!
Their methodology was restricted to publicly traded companies. As I recall, and I could be wrong, Wal-mart isn't.
Wal-Mart is indeed publicly traded. I work there, there's a program for employees to buy stock and I've got some.

I can also vouch for the high (though 90% may be excessive) turnover rate. I don't know whether it's incredibly brutal or the old-timers are right about the younger generation being wusses, but a huge chunk of new employees are gone within a couple weeks or a month of starting.
 

soitgoes19

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Jul 8, 2012
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I used to shop at gamestop all the time, but the last time I went into one the sales person gave me grief about pre-ordering Assassin's Creed III. He just would not take no for an answer ("But it's only five dollars. It comes with exclusive weapons" etc). I've pre-ordered in the past, and it just seems like a pointless exercise. There's no actual scarcity of the product, and the add-ons are never worth it. Now I just wait for price drops and buy online. It's better than shopping at gamestop in every way.
 

Belated

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Feb 2, 2011
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Am I the only one here who's seen "Zero Originality"? It almost bugs me that the article didn't even mention that video series. It's a long expose into the terrible business practices and borderline-if-not-flat-out-illegal ways the employees are treated. But it's done in the style of Zero Punctuation. Dunno if using a similar art style counts as any kind of plagiarism, considering the guy gives Yahtzee credit. But maybe that's why I've never seen anybody post those videos on here.

I encourage you to google them though. It's a great expose about a terrible business.
 

Waaghpowa

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Apr 13, 2010
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I wonder where Wal mart sits, since I work electronics there. Personally never had an problem with the company, but I know people who complain. Then again, who doesn't complain about where they work?

Also, does EB games fall under GameStop, or are they considered separate still? The only reason I didn't take the job at my local EB was because Walmart pays more than anyone else. I may have dodged a bullet :D
 

EricKei

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Aug 30, 2010
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As a former 'Stopper (by several years), I can vouch for much of what has been said in here. Former low-end manager, and former general wage slave for a few years. Note that I had one of the good stores, staffed 100% with game enthusiasts would even tell people NOT to buy certain games because they sucked so badly. If someone ignored this advice, they invariably came back a week later saying, "I wish I had listened to you..."

Sales over...well, everything. Ho boy. I've listened in on the occasional District call and the like. The simplest way to explain Corporate's message on just about any topic is "If you don't exceed our expectations, you/the workers must be lazy. Push harder. (yes, if you DO exceed expectations, said minimums will rise)...If you break a rule that theoretically costs them money in any way, you are a thief. Failure to meet expectations also makes you a thief because you don't "earn" your salary".

- Corporate assigns a specific number of non-Salary hours per week; often an anemic amount. Salaried Management (usually just the store manager/SM) needs to take up the slack. This is typically 50-60 hours to week for said SM -- not atypical for a salaried job. During holidays, this can easily exceed eighty hours a week at a big store. Note that -- to Corporate -- an employee who inadvertently works 5 minutes over their allotted hours can expect a First & Final warning (read: one more screwup and you're toast), for the heinous crime of stealing from the company. If this gives them even one segment (15 mins) of Overtime...well...just don't show up any more. Ever. This, too, is the SM's fault, even if he was not there that day. If the store in general exceeds hours, same deal. Manager is accused of outright THEFT from the company/incompetence/he'd better shape up/etc

- Being #1 in the district in say, 5 out of 6 areas and #7 in the last does not equal "Really good store with one deficient area". It equals "(F***ing) lazy management who really doesn't care about their job" (an example of how this could happen: High theft in a high crime area with no security cameras, no guards, open late, etc; or crap Reserves/subscriptions sold in an area where people just don't WANT them and are not afraid to tell you so)

- Preorders vs how many they get -- Yup. If they get 2 preorders for a game per store as of the order date (Corp does the ordering), they will either order 2 copies per store or none at all, and hope that it ends up getting ordered eventually anyway. If a game has 700-900 preorders per store (read: Turkey-lovin' Dude FOOTBALL that comes out every year), then they'll order in more like 1500 for the initial release. And yes, like any other subject -- offering preorders/magazine subscriptions/cards is not optional for the workers. Their only way out of it is if you ask them not to ahead of time -- preferably via cleverly working it into your banter when you get up to the register...Saying it before that point means nothing, and if the DM or any Corp brass are in town, they gotta say it anyway, just in case.

- Employees -- just like any other shop. Sometimes you get the awesome dudes, sometimes you get the people who just don't care. I have found the former far more often, tho.

- Constantly bugging you/asking questions...Well, to be fair, the best way to prevent shrink (theft) is to make sure that the thieves (who ignore all of the overtures of friendliness anyway) know that you know that they know that they are being watched. Doesn't help all that much. After all, according to Corporate, the overwhelming bulk of shrink is by employees...And they act that way. High shrink = the employees must all be filthy thieves. This despite the fact that they get searched/bag checked every time they leave the store for any reason (or are supposed to be anyway). Also, Corp looooves to send in mystery shoppers. Failure to greet ANY customer upon entry into the store means the store fails that audit automatically. If the cashier is the only one on the floor at that time, he is also the greeter, no matter how rude that may be to the customers actually checking out. This is also supposed to apply to answering the phone, too.

- Holidays -- wasn't really touched upon. Ever wonder why stores seem to double their staff for 2 months or so from around Black Friday to early January? That's because Corporate forces them to. Naturally, one might assume that, with double the staff, the store would get double the hours, so that they may all be properly trained (Corp expects the newbies to be well trained). You can stop laughing now. Mayybe 10-20% increase in hours. The purpose of the newbies is so that one, mayyybe two might hang on after January to replace any current employees who burn/freak out and quit during the holiday season, for cheap. Our store routinely got several dozen applications a DAY during XMAS time.

Waagh -- GS bought out EB some time back. For reasons still a mystery to me (and I have a friend of 15+ years who runs a GS), some stores retain the EB name.
 

Call Me Jose

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Jul 4, 2012
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I'm sure most people working their first job to have some extra change for the weekend is the worst on the planet, I know I felt that way growing up, but I am surprised to see Dish Network as the top dog. Now I wonder if the CEO is notified that his company was rated as one of the worst places to work for and how does he feel about it.
 

Darren716

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Jul 7, 2011
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Of course this gets Released a few days after I apply for my first job there. Well from reading some of the replies maybe I'll get lucky and actually enjoy working there.
 

Call Me Jose

That One Jose
Jul 4, 2012
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Call Me Jose said:
I'm sure most people working their first job to have some extra change for the weekend is the worst on the planet...
Darren716 said:
Of course this gets Released a few days after I apply for my first job there. Well from reading some of the replies maybe I'll get lucky and actually enjoy working there.
See what I mean! Exactly! I pray that you'll enjoy working there my friend, I've actually had a couple friends work there, never heard them complain about it and it "seemed" like they enjoyed it
 

Solo-Wing

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Dec 15, 2010
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This is EXTREMELY relevent.


Finally. A perfect chance to bastardize those pricks.
 

GeeksUtopia

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Feb 26, 2011
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Actually I worked at a gamestop, and what they did the last time I worked there was grade each employee based on the number of power up rewards they sold and reservations they made. Bad idea, especially since they put your job on the line based on the grade you continue to have over a period of time. Now what I noticed with a lot of customers that don't get hazed about the reservations, is that they took the time to get to know the employees. Know the employees well enough, you won't get hazed....as much....
 

Wintermoot

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Jhooud said:
The gamestop near where I work actually seems pretty decent. The employees are polite, fairly well informed and don't seem particularly prone to pushing anything that doesn't interest me. Luck of the draw I suppose.
I think there is a video series on youtube made by a ex-employee where he said that most employes don't follow the company policy.
Although Youtube removed it I think.
wait got it
Solo-Wing said:
This is EXTREMELY relevent.


Finally. A perfect chance to bastardize those pricks.
thanks Solo Wing I was already looking for it.
 

Solo-Wing

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Dec 15, 2010
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GeeksUtopia said:
Actually I worked at a gamestop, and what they did the last time I worked there was grade each employee based on the number of power up rewards they sold and reservations they made. Bad idea, especially since they put your job on the line based on the grade you continue to have over a period of time. Now what I noticed with a lot of customers that don't get hazed about the reservations, is that they took the time to get to know the employees. Know the employees well enough, you won't get hazed....as much....
Oh yeah the vid I posted was made by a previous Gamestop employee. At the half-way point he broke away from how shitty Gamestops "deals" are and goes to his experience working there. Spent a solid 10 minutes on that RETARDED point system alone. Fucking hilarious.
Wintermoot said:
Solo-Wing said:
This is EXTREMELY relevent.


Finally. A perfect chance to bastardize those pricks.
thanks Solo Wing I was already looking for it.
No problem. I aim to please.... Unlike Gamestop. /Badumtish
 

GeeksUtopia

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Feb 26, 2011
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Solo-Wing said:
GeeksUtopia said:
Actually I worked at a gamestop, and what they did the last time I worked there was grade each employee based on the number of power up rewards they sold and reservations they made. Bad idea, especially since they put your job on the line based on the grade you continue to have over a period of time. Now what I noticed with a lot of customers that don't get hazed about the reservations, is that they took the time to get to know the employees. Know the employees well enough, you won't get hazed....as much....
Oh yeah the vid I posted was made by a previous Gamestop employee. At the half-way point he broke away from how shitty Gamestops "deals" are and goes to his experience working there. Spent a solid 10 minutes on that RETARDED point system alone. Fucking hilarious.
Dude, if you worked at Game Stop everyday you would loose some kind of faith in humanity. And what the vid you posted does shed a little light on what the employees go through, the actually experience is nothing pretty. From people who look like the dropped the system, to people who look like that dropped it, ran it over, shot it with a 9mm, and come to the store straight faced serious about getting some money on it.