Game store clerks risk all, speak out ... anonymously

God I hate gamesradar.

"I remember back when Funcoland first opened. I think I was five at the time (and probably one of the annoying kids these employees hate) but it was an awesome place. You knew if you went there people were informed on games, would talk games, were about games. "

YEAH BUDDY! you got that right :)

I worked at Funcoland for 3 years. When I was a kid 14-15 I spent many long days in that store, basically working for free. I loved gaming so much I got a kick out of helping people pick out good games etc.. This was back in the good old days when we had 1000's of nintendo, sega, super nes, game boy games in stock..all the time. Today a store like that would be like fucking Mecca (sadly they no longer exist, thanks EB). I turned 16 a month before the Playstation was released, and I immediately got a job there.

I'll agree that there are customers that annoy you. For me, the only annoying customer was "that one guy that just is really weird and sits in the store all day talking about games and d&d, to everyone all the time even when it's completely obvious they don't want his fucking opinion". We had like 4 or 5 of those, and sometimes they were cool and you didn't mind them being there...but usually they were just creepy and sad.

I spent my days loving games, talking about games, and helping people make good purchases. I would sell upgrades to earn commission, but I never sold anything the custmoer didn't really need. We had the opportunity to play a library of 10,000 games or more...whenever we had the time. If we were slow? prop a chair in front of one of the 10 test arcades, and have an employee only 1080 snowboarding tournament (lol) or come on guys let's do time trials in Ridge Racer (1) for 4 hours.

That was the best job I ever had. The quality of employees at today's videogame stores is a direct result of the change in CULTURE in the video game BUSINESS. EB games employees NEVER liked their job, even 10 years ago I didn't know any "cool" eb games stores that I wanted to hang out in. Because they didn't have the same type of loose, gamer friendly environment that smaller companies like Funcoland and Rhino fostered. EB games is killing the retail game store. Slowly and surely they are taking away everything I loved about going to the mall to buy games.

BTW anybody remember where Game Informer magazine originated? Funcoland. Back then they were quarterly and only had about 40 pages....i still treausre my oldest issues of that magazine. And does anybody remember the beloved "price sheets". Little newspapers outlining the trade in and purchase price of every game for every system that Funcoland sold. god damn i miss that place.

R.I.P. FUNCOLAND :(

best job I ever had

Game store employees are to the 2000's what record store employees were to the 80's and 90's.

I love how people who had bad exerpiences at two or maybe three GameStop's hate on the entire company. "Surely if my local store is bad, all 4000 other stores are bad too!"

Let's compare this to something everyone is familiar with: McDonald's. Some are pretty cool, with (for McDonald's) good food, smiling faces, and fast service. Heck, one of the McD's in my area has a baby grand piano inside of it - how cool is that? Others are pretty bad - filthy store, inattentive cashiers, and a horrendous wait for food that comes out at room temperature if you're lucky.

The differences are even more astute when you travel - I'm sure the McDonald's in New York City are MUCH different then the McDonald's in Las Vegas.

I can drive from one Best Buy to another in my town, and pass 10 different GameStops. Yeah, a couple of 'em suck, and fit all the bad stereotypes. Guess what? I don't go to those stores. A couple of 'em, though, are pretty cool - they are helpful, keep an organized store, and are definitely not condescending. They provide good customer service, and are definitely more knowledgable than the clowns at WalMart.

As to why I don't shop online, it's easy. I like being able to physically handle what I'm buying. A lot of people are like that. I enjoy browsing through the hundreds of games, and I like being able to see the physical disc I'm planning on buying. Ordering something used on the internet, to me at least, seems a lot chancier. I don't know the condition of what I'm getting. Heck, I don't even know for sure what I'm getting! I read the articles about the poor guy who bought "Playstation, 3" thinking he would get a PS3, and instead got three PS1's.

Basically all I'm saying is shop around. Find the outlet that's best for you....but there's no need to go crazy on GameStop if you don't like them. Just don't shop there, and the market will take care of the rest

I went into EB to buy Oblivion and there was this pudgy, acerbic bastard working. I guess he was into Oblivion and he took a liking to me, telling me in conspiratorial tones what moronic idiots most customers are and what lame jack asses his bosses were. I got a man crush on immediatly. Haven't seen him since though.

I have been at Gamestop for about 8 years now, and still not making much more than minimum wage...it's my nite job, but still absolutely love working there. Sure there are A-hole customers, and sure, we can be jerks or even know-it-alls or whatever. But I'm sure the same could be said about many other stores and buisnesses.
Rude? Ignoring customers? Try being an Amazonian Woman shopping in a Bebe or other upscale store for a friends b-day-- "you KNOW we don't carry your size here" or even "are you SURE you can afford this?" So there is worse customer service out there....(although, to be fair, a rice cake and a sit up now and then wouldn't kill me, either) :P
Either way, I can only speak for myself and my experiences--and we try hard and genuinely like 95% of our customers, and want them to come back.

If your not a people person then don't get a job in a retail store. A lot of the Gamestop/EB games employee's are not people persons, they are more of the type that feel their above everyone else yet don't seem to have much of a life outside of the store. I'm certainly not stereo-typing them because I don't know them from adam or eve, but their appearance, their mannerisms and their overall attitude makes myself and probably everyone think the worst of people like them. I think the article was part satire, part truth. It's deciding which is which is the hard part.

RYAN's right about FuncoLand. I used to go there and just read through the entire price sheet. That thing was amazing. Then I'd buy 4 Duck Hunts for a dollar, just because I could.

to #48
Thank you so much for making me LOL.

This comment (Then there are the parents who drop their kids off (Free baby sitting, wtf?) = comedy gold

I just LOL'ed after i read it again

Good Job Sir. Game.Set.Match