Question for Gamestop Employees

[BonsaiK]

Are you trained to "talk up" a game that a customer has brought to the counter for purchase? I've lost count of the number of times that I've pulled a box off the shelf, handed it to a GA, and then been assaulted with gushing praise for the title.
If Gamestop is training its employees to do this, does anyone know why? I understand that some employees/companies go with the hard sell but why do that when the customer has clearly made up his mind to buy the product and is standing there with cash in hand?
Maybe I just have the best taste in games ever...

I swear on my heart that I opened this thread expecting the OP to be "...do you have Battletoads?". I'm impressed that it is actually something else.

People in game shops are just very enthusiastic, that's all. They're so used to being criticised and scorned for their gaming love that when someone wants to buy something that they like, they get a little over-excited.

 

[high_castle]

I work as a GA. We're not told to talk up particular title, but we are told to be friendly. And hey, I happy to be a friendly person anyway, so it works well for me. If I see someone buying Dragon Age or Uncharted, I'll probably have a few words to say to them. Very often, these same customers come back and share stories about their games. I happen to like gaming. It's part of the reason why I work at the store. So I'm happy to talk about games I like with other people, be them friends or customers. I'm sorry if you feel assaulted, but perhaps the GA was just trying to be nice.

 

[TheGreatKlaid]

This stuff happens in all sorts of stores. I once spen half and hour with a walmart employee talking about the best way to beat the final boss of FFX

 

[GodKlown]

I've had the unpleasant experience of picking up a game to ask about it, and the guy behind the counter copped this major attitude, giving me the impression that it was either beneath him to talk about it, or I looked stupid for asking anything about the merchandise in the store. Once in a while, you get a nice person to talk to who is enthusiastic about you buying a game (namely if it is a current game that is selling well), but I've gotten stuck with the elitist sales person more often than not. I had to quit going to Gamestop just because my luck stunk at getting the nice guy, but even my local game store seems to have the same elitist guy working at it. I actually looked the guy up to see if he had a social networking profile, he instead had an account on another forum site where he stated all the people who live in my town are either "wiggers or stupid asshats who wouldn't know a good game if it smacked them in the face". So why the hell do you work in video game retail if you think you are better than the customers? Common decency went out the window a long time ago.

 

[Julianking93]

Yes, they are.

I know this because I know the guys at my local Gamestop and they talk about how they're pushed to sell whatever is popular even if they know it sucks.

That's another thing, they can't tell you a game sucks. If you come up to one of them with a copy of say, Drake of the 99 Dragons, they can't tell you it sucks.

 

[Bat Vader]

If it wasn't for the fact that I was scared of crowds and hate the idea of working in retail I would most likely have found a job at Game Stop or Sam Goody.

 

[brtshstel]

I never found a good Game Stop. Ever. Nobody I have ever encountered at any of the nine Game Stops I have been to act like they deserve a job. I have worked in retail for seven years. I know how a retail clerk is supposed to act because I have been one for as long as I have been old enough to work.

There is a locally-owned game store in my home town. Whenever I buy an new console, I buy it from them, because they have only three locations within a fifty-mile radius, and unlike the "big store," they actually act like they need your business and treat you like a customer. They do not have that "well fuck him, he's just one customer that doesn't matter, we complete a thousand transactions for every one we lose" mentality that Game Stop has.

 

[Irridium]

Seeing as I used to work at a gamestop, I shall answer your question.

No, we did not "Train" to be used car salesmen. What we WERE told, is to give off the image of being a fellow gamer. Be their brothers, their homies, their best friends. So naturally we talk about games. You're going to have to be just a little bit more specific about what constitutes "Gushing", but I'm pretty sure the employee you met at the time just loved that game and was talking about it.

Yes, they tell you to act as friends, and when we let our guards down, you smack us in the head and drag us into the backroom where you absorb our life force.

I'm on to you...

[sub]/sarcasm[/sub]

"Sir, he knows. Yes sir."

"Excuse me, would you mind coming with me for just a moment?"

YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!

*runs off*

 

[skywalkerlion]

Well, one time I was at a Gamestop looking to buy Warhammer Online and the employees were all 'Do you play WoW?' 'Yep' 'Then Warhammer probably isn't for you, but whatever man'. Ofcourse after that he said he had eleven level 80s and then some other guy across the room was like 'I WANNA SEE THEM, EVERY SERVER!'. *sigh*

 

[skywalkerlion]

I want to know why they give so fucking little money for a game that still had the plastic wrapper on it.

eBay is your friend. I'm positive someone will buy it from there.