Okay, I gotta chime in on this... this being like, what... my third post? I'm a former Gamestop employee. Before that, I was a former GameCrazy employee, before the company went belly up, and we all went looking for greener pastures. Before I was either, though, I was a gamer. I started at 8, and haven't quite since. (Hint: I'm 31. Do the math.) When I lived in Chicago, there was a particular Gamestop that was on my two and a half hour route from the home, to the job-site, in St.Charles. I'd stop in there on payday just to peruse things, and came away, eventually, with three impressions--1.) One particular employee there was really cool. 2.) The other employees there were idiots. 'Uh, buy this new game.' 'Why?' '... it's new.' '... Okay, but why should I buy it?' '... It's new!' Wash, rinse, repeat until I'm bludgeoning his/my head against the closest wall to make the hurting stop. And 3.) ... I could do this job better than most of them!
Fast-forward, worked for GameCrazy. Loved it. LOVED IT. Sure, it had the same BS trade-up offers, and all of that, but my district-manager was cool, my boss was awesome, my co-workers were really sweet... no emphasis on up-sales, no 'You Have To Sell This Many Crap Subscriptions Or We Take Your Baby's Eyes'... great gig, right? Then the company went bubyes. So I thought about it, and ... hmm. Gamestop's the same thing, right? Just apply with them!
I was with them for a month, before I began to dread coming to work.
Okay, to be fair, we were, quite literally, the busiest store in the mall (which was the social-center of a forty-five mile radius, no kidding,) and we were constantly rushed... but at the same time, for ever cool customer, there were practically a hundred rude, pushy, idiots. And I mean that in as broad a generalization as possible. We had people *repeatedly* scam our return-policy (which, yes, was BS..) and then when we pushed them on it, they called corporate, corporate reprimanded us, AND we had to give them, with a big, shiny smile and a heartfelt apology, a 25-dollar gift-card. For scamming. And sometimes throwing things at us. And spitting on us. And yes, all of the above and then some had happened, and repeatedly. Corporate saw dollar-signs, we saw... well... 'protruding and smelly rectums on two legs'. Most of my co-workers were good people. My bosses (we went through 4 store-managers in less than a year) were corporate hacks.
And then, eventually, things began to change. My fun fellow-employees got fired, or moved on. My District Manager kept visiting the store, more, and more. My boss kept leaning on us, harder, and harder. Finally, after two years and twenty cents in raises (and three promotions, from store-associate to lead-associate to lead-game-advisor) they said, 'Get a nice cell-phone that can EMail corporate pictures if you have to, and check EMail, you're getting promoted to manager!' Huzzah! I can make a difference! I still held out that one, flickering dim hope that, if I could help enough people learn about games, banish the mythos that had clouded gamers like the putrid stink of the unwashed masses, if I could be a *manager*, then I could do something worthwhile! I'm a gamer! I love games! I work in a game-store!
They fired me two days later. Three days before Christmas. Because I'd been using my Edge-card to help out customers that had lost their's, and, while I remembered selling them one, it wouldn't pull up on our system. That's what they told ME. What they told other employees (that now stop by my current job to talk shop, and catch up,) was that I'd been involved in some 'huge theft-ring' of video-games, and had been 'stealing from the company for over a year'. Please. I hadn't even stolen a pen from that crap-joint.
Bottom line? Take employees like you take anyone else, as individuals. Try to factor in that they're going through crap, and, for those of you REALLY thinking about it, they get yelled at over the stupidest stuff that the person yelling, had they been on the other side of the fence, would have been stuck scratching their heads going, 'Bwa'h?' Look, I understand that people have problems, and pressures. I can dig it like a back-hoe. But at the same time, if I go into somewhere three times on three separate days, and you're a jerk on all three times? Chances are, you're a jerk. As for me? I don't shop there. I go to Gamefly, or Amazon. It's not because I don't like the employees... it's that I can't stand the employer, and the farce it's made of gamers, and gaming.
It's because of all of you that said you had crappy experiences at Gamestop, and said you'd never shop there, again.
It's because of the way they cut the throat of the gaming-industry by robbing them of any and all money through trade and used-game transactions.
It's because customers treated us like crap, bosses treated us like crap, corporate treated us like crap, so we started to become the very things we dreaded.
It's because I can find better deals elsewhere.
.. and it's because my membership-card expired.
C.
Fast-forward, worked for GameCrazy. Loved it. LOVED IT. Sure, it had the same BS trade-up offers, and all of that, but my district-manager was cool, my boss was awesome, my co-workers were really sweet... no emphasis on up-sales, no 'You Have To Sell This Many Crap Subscriptions Or We Take Your Baby's Eyes'... great gig, right? Then the company went bubyes. So I thought about it, and ... hmm. Gamestop's the same thing, right? Just apply with them!
I was with them for a month, before I began to dread coming to work.
Okay, to be fair, we were, quite literally, the busiest store in the mall (which was the social-center of a forty-five mile radius, no kidding,) and we were constantly rushed... but at the same time, for ever cool customer, there were practically a hundred rude, pushy, idiots. And I mean that in as broad a generalization as possible. We had people *repeatedly* scam our return-policy (which, yes, was BS..) and then when we pushed them on it, they called corporate, corporate reprimanded us, AND we had to give them, with a big, shiny smile and a heartfelt apology, a 25-dollar gift-card. For scamming. And sometimes throwing things at us. And spitting on us. And yes, all of the above and then some had happened, and repeatedly. Corporate saw dollar-signs, we saw... well... 'protruding and smelly rectums on two legs'. Most of my co-workers were good people. My bosses (we went through 4 store-managers in less than a year) were corporate hacks.
And then, eventually, things began to change. My fun fellow-employees got fired, or moved on. My District Manager kept visiting the store, more, and more. My boss kept leaning on us, harder, and harder. Finally, after two years and twenty cents in raises (and three promotions, from store-associate to lead-associate to lead-game-advisor) they said, 'Get a nice cell-phone that can EMail corporate pictures if you have to, and check EMail, you're getting promoted to manager!' Huzzah! I can make a difference! I still held out that one, flickering dim hope that, if I could help enough people learn about games, banish the mythos that had clouded gamers like the putrid stink of the unwashed masses, if I could be a *manager*, then I could do something worthwhile! I'm a gamer! I love games! I work in a game-store!
They fired me two days later. Three days before Christmas. Because I'd been using my Edge-card to help out customers that had lost their's, and, while I remembered selling them one, it wouldn't pull up on our system. That's what they told ME. What they told other employees (that now stop by my current job to talk shop, and catch up,) was that I'd been involved in some 'huge theft-ring' of video-games, and had been 'stealing from the company for over a year'. Please. I hadn't even stolen a pen from that crap-joint.
Bottom line? Take employees like you take anyone else, as individuals. Try to factor in that they're going through crap, and, for those of you REALLY thinking about it, they get yelled at over the stupidest stuff that the person yelling, had they been on the other side of the fence, would have been stuck scratching their heads going, 'Bwa'h?' Look, I understand that people have problems, and pressures. I can dig it like a back-hoe. But at the same time, if I go into somewhere three times on three separate days, and you're a jerk on all three times? Chances are, you're a jerk. As for me? I don't shop there. I go to Gamefly, or Amazon. It's not because I don't like the employees... it's that I can't stand the employer, and the farce it's made of gamers, and gaming.
It's because of all of you that said you had crappy experiences at Gamestop, and said you'd never shop there, again.
It's because of the way they cut the throat of the gaming-industry by robbing them of any and all money through trade and used-game transactions.
It's because customers treated us like crap, bosses treated us like crap, corporate treated us like crap, so we started to become the very things we dreaded.
It's because I can find better deals elsewhere.
.. and it's because my membership-card expired.
C.
) and I've personally seen similar things happen first hand. Good on them to get rid of the riff-raff. That s*** does more harm to the company than they realize.
