GameStop Store Visits Will Now Take Longer...

[MotoRacer]

So my last visit to GameStop took a lot longer than normal, and apparently there's a reason for it.

 

GameStop has changed some of it's policies recently (within the last week) which really don't help customers much at all who are in any semblance of a rush. Nor does it seem the employees are too jazzed about any of this either.

 

Thanks to a store getting robbed (I'm not sure which one), all game drawers where loose discs are stored behind the counter are now to be locked.....all 15-20 of them. Here's the issue, only the manager on staff has the drawer key. Combine the wait for any normal employee to get the key from the manager, drawers' labels only tell the employee which system it represents.. not what range of the alphabet it contains. This means that if an employee isn't sure which drawer the "L" section is in, they'll be having to slowly unlock, then re-lock, then unlock and repeat each drawer until they find the proper area.

 

Just a fun fact, this robbery supposedly was at night after closing hours. Robbers apparently stole all the games in the drawers. Why this translates to game drawers having to be locked during daytime business hours.. I don't have a clue.

 

Couple that with new system sales rules, the wait gets ever longer. The guy in front of me wanted a Switch. Now there is a binder that houses barcodes for EACH AND EVERY SYSTEM they have on inventory by serial number. The employee now has to go in the back, pick out a system... oh but wait, he can't bring it out to the register. He has to memorize the serial number, leave the system in the backroom which is locked, come back out, find the serial number in the binder (pray he didn't forget the number...), scan the barcode in the binder, find a sharpie to mark "sold" over the barcode, check out the customer, go back in the backroom to get the system after unlocking the door (keep in mind only managers have the key), and then give it to the customer.

 

Needless to say, this took forever, as the employee forgot the number twice, and had to go back and forth multiple times, each time asking his manager for the door key. The store manager and employee talked about this with me, and how much of a hindrance these changes has been for their store. And if a manager is busy with a customer, again... no keys for the normal employee. This puts all transactions to a halt until the keys can be handed off to the cashier. Essentially anything other than a toy or collectable will need a key from the manager himself/herself. I asked why they don't just keep doing what they were doing before. Apparently, if Loss Prevention or a GM ever comes in the store, and tugs on a drawer that's open, the employees will be written up if lucky or fired if they're not.

 

Get ready to be in line for a long, long, long time this upcoming Christmas season.

 

So, if there weren't already 1 million reasons why the place is a pain in the ass, here's 1 million and two....

Edited March 12, 2018 by MotoRacer

[Austin]

Or, don't go to GameStop. Problem solved.

[Flojomojo]

Yeah, this is the kind of problem that will solve itself when Gamestop goes out of business.

 

And now, this

[S1500]

Go to any GameStop, and it seems like selling video games is the last thing they sell. They might as well shutter the business and re-start them as ThinkGeek stores.

[Professor Gull]

Go to any GameStop, and it seems like selling video games is the last thing they sell. They might as well shutter the business and re-start them as ThinkGeek stores.

Or the new Toys R Us outlets since their big stores are done for and dumping extra stock into Gamestop makes sense.

 

"I'll take Call of Duty and that box of diapers please."

[SignGuy81]

Thanks to a store getting robbed (I'm not sure which one), all game drawers where loose discs are stored behind the counter are now to be locked.....all 15-20 of them. Here's the issue, only the manager on staff has the drawer key. Combine the wait for any normal employee to get the key from the manager, drawers' labels only tell the employee which system it represents.. not what range of the alphabet it contains. This means that if an employee isn't sure which drawer the "L" section is in, they'll be having to slowly unlock, then re-lock, then unlock and repeat each drawer until they find the proper area.

 

 

I can't stand any store at all that does this in general. For example there being a problem at a department store where something is ringing up the wrong price, but the item is clearly marked but the "employee" just can't simply fix it then. Instead they have to call over a "manager" and make everyone in line wait an additional ten minutes because they don't give "employees" the power to handle it themselves.

Edited March 12, 2018 by SignGuy81

[SignGuy81]

They should instead have electronic locks installed and give managers and employees codes, each of their own, which records the last code entered in case there ever was a problem they'd know who screwed up.

[+Atari_Warlord]

They could always implement the old Toys'R'Us process where you just buy a tag and then take it with the receipt to the caged in area to get the actual game/system. Eventually they'll probably end up the same as TRU and we'll all be nostalgic about the good old days when we used to get belittled for not buying the insurance plan.

[Flojomojo]

Go to any GameStop, and it seems like selling video games is the last thing they sell. They might as well shutter the business and re-start them as ThinkGeek stores.

 

This seems to be their cycle between major console launches. I remember thinking this in the N64 days, when they could have been mistaken for a Pokemon store. Between Amazon undercutting them for release day software, and digital shops selling the same thing tax-free, no waiting, they're in a difficult position.

 

They should instead have electronic locks installed and give managers and employees codes, each of their own, which records the last code entered in case there ever was a problem they'd know who screwed up.

 

 

As Michael Dell once said of Apple, "They should shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." (that wasn't true of Apple, but how is Gamestop going to pull out of their tailspin?)

[S1500]

Maybe it's just a sign of the times as games go digital, as GameStop struggles to stay relevant. Of course, I remember buying GTA 5 new in box. Did I go to GameStop? Nope, I went to WalMart which had a huge pallet of them for sale.

 

Or if GS wants to get weird, they could focus moreso on video game hardware, like being some sort of reborn LikSang.

[KeeperofLindblum]

...Does anybody actually think about these policies before they are put in place?

Inconvenient is like the nicest word here. There's a lot more words that cover this that aren't nearly as nice.

 

I really only go to Gamestop in hopes of some good sale/deal on something. This... pretty much kills it for me.

 

I feel like you could pretty easily troll a Gamestop by going up to the counter with like 4-5 titles and then changing your mind on several mid-transaction. Then walking away when it takes too long.

[spacecadet]

This sounds like a stopgap solution until they come up with a better system. If that's the case, then I don't blame them for it. I run an online store that until recently was also a physical store; people think that theft and loss is kind of a victimless crime, but it isn't. It's actually one of the reasons we had to close our physical store. And we didn't even have that much of it. But when your profit per store is only about $1,000 per month after rent, salaries, utilities, cost of goods, etc. and somebody comes in and steals $1,000 worth of merchandise one day, well, there goes your entire reason for being in business. That one jackass just ruined it for everyone.

 

Insurance doesn't matter because your rates will go up more than the amount that was stolen, so nobody ever reports thefts like that to insurance. Gamestop might have reported this one, though, because that's gotta be way more than $1,000 worth of merchandise that somebody got away with. But they'll be paying for that for a long time on their insurance. Eventually they will have paid more than the amount of the theft, it'll just be spread out over time.

 

So I can't blame them for trying to do something drastic to stop theft. But hopefully it's just a band-aid solution that works with their current equipment until they can figure out something a little more streamlined. They might need to invest in a new setup or more anti-theft equipment, or both, and I'm not sure they can afford that right now.

[godslabrat]

To me, the most frustrating thing of watching GameStop die is seeing people blame the shift to digital. It overshadows the three dozen other reasons they’re losing money like a Tourette’s patient next to a swear jar.

 

Reminds me of when Circuit City went under, every news outlet just attributed it to the bad economy. Anyone who had stepped into one of the stores in the previous 3-4 years knew it was a much more complicated story.

[Blazing Lazers]

I'm not worried about this. After all, I still have Software etc, Babbages, Funcoland, Electronics Boutique, Game Crazy, FYE, Sam Goody, Sears, and plenty of independent software stores to buy games from!

[Flojomojo]

I'm not worried about this. After all, I still have Software etc, Babbages, Funcoland, Electronics Boutique, Game Crazy, FYE, Sam Goody, Sears, and plenty of independent software stores to buy games from!

 

[RodLightning]

They could always implement the old Toys'R'Us process where you just buy a tag and then take it with the receipt to the caged in area to get the actual game/system. Eventually they'll probably end up the same as TRU and we'll all be nostalgic about the good old days when we used to get belittled for not buying the insurance plan.

 

Furthermore, they should focus on app-to-store pickup of online orders, if crime is such a huge problem. The days of casual shopping in a showroom seem to be ending anyway. Wouldn't it be easier to shop, check store inventory, and pay in advance online? It amazes me how many people walk up to a register these days with seemingly the whole day to kill. I would rather have my order bagged and ready to go when possible.

[Keatah]

Sounds to me like idle hands at corporate, rules and procedures being made up just to have something to do. Makework. Unless there is a real genuine problem at GameStop.. IDK. I'm not a GS patron so I don't know what the store is like. I see a certain game, whatever, I'll order it online.

[godslabrat]

At this rate, I can’t imagine them surviving the next year in their current incarnation. GameStop either becomes ThinkGeek, completely, or they join the retail graveyard.

[Keatah]

I'm becoming a more and more a supporter of online purchasing. I've always done mail order since I was a kid. Though the "fear" of paying and not getting began dissipating sometime between 1985 and 1995.

 

Prior to 1985 I was always concerned that I would pay for something and never get it. Mail order was scary! Post 1995 I never thought twice (or even once) about it. Don't know what, or if there was, any once experience in the intervening decade that changed my mind.

 

But in any case it's fun. You never know exactly precisely when a package will come, unless you're refreshing the tracking status at hyper-speed 24/7.

 

And to emulate, or simulate, getting toys like when I was a kid. I can ask the wife to put the package (a new game for example) in the car, and take us on a drive around town, do some window shopping (women always like that). And on the way back I get to open it and look at it and fondle it. Then rush into the house and power it up or play it right away. Woot!!

[Tanooki]

To me, the most frustrating thing of watching GameStop die is seeing people blame the shift to digital. It overshadows the three dozen other reasons they’re losing money like a Tourette’s patient next to a swear jar.

 

Reminds me of when Circuit City went under, every news outlet just attributed it to the bad economy. Anyone who had stepped into one of the stores in the previous 3-4 years knew it was a much more complicated story.

I know this is kind of off topic, but Circuit City is back! Check their website and read all the details. The old owners (or some owner/owners) of it bought it back from the predatory firm that snapped their bones up after shuttering and ran that lousy website that went nowhere. The website says PHYSICAL STORES more than once in the little bit of information given. I'll be pleased to see them back if it ends up succeeding nationally as best buy has gone downhill and was mostly their inferior anyway. Read the 2nd of two blocks of text under 'our story' for one reference to it: http://circuitcitycorporation.com/ Another reference is here: http://circuitcitycorporation.com/about-us/

 

They seem to have figured out they can run brick and mortal stores with a decent supply, but then like the McDonalds tryout system that rolled out last year in some spaces, they'll have a virtual store front in the store too to order anything else they don't have on hand on top of just using the website as well.

[pacman000]

Stupid system.

 

Hint for GS employees: take a picture of the serial number with your phone. Helps a lot when looking up lawn mower parts.

[godslabrat]

I know this is kind of off topic, but Circuit City is back! Check their website and read all the details. The old owners (or some owner/owners) of it bought it back from the predatory firm that snapped their bones up after shuttering and ran that lousy website that went nowhere. The website says PHYSICAL STORES more than once in the little bit of information given. I'll be pleased to see them back if it ends up succeeding nationally as best buy has gone downhill and was mostly their inferior anyway. Read the 2nd of two blocks of text under 'our story' for one reference to it: http://circuitcitycorporation.com/ Another reference is here: http://circuitcitycorporation.com/about-us/

 

 

This isn't a good thing. If the "old owners" were involved in the company's downward spiral (1998-2008) they're entirely the reason it failed and do not deserve a second chance. I think we'd need to see exactly who is involved and what role they held with the prior company, but CC died rightfully.

 

Source: wore a red shirt.

[Inky]

Gamestop doesn't have gamers running the company.

Not sure if that's why the company is a complete cluster, but it's something.

[MotoRacer]

Stupid system.

 

Hint for GS employees: take a picture of the serial number with your phone. Helps a lot when looking up lawn mower parts.

 

I offered that suggestion, too, ironically enough. Employees aren't supposed to use their phone on shift. If they catch you using your phone, you'll be written up. And with the store recorded, especially the back room where the systems are.. well, that wouldn't last long.

 

Honestly, it's just too much of a bother anymore. It's easier at this point to find the 1 person in the electronics area at Walmart than to get out of GameStop in any decent amount of time.

Edited March 12, 2018 by MotoRacer

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

I offered that suggestion, too, ironically enough. Employees aren't supposed to use their phone on shift. If they catch you using your phone, you'll be written up. And with the store recorded, especially the back room where the systems are.. well, that wouldn't last long.

 

Honestly, it's just too much of a bother anymore. It's easier at this point to find the 1 person in the electronics area at Walmart than to get out of GameStop in any decent amount of time.

Then what they need to do is use an old digital camera or even an older cell phone that doesn't have a sim card in it, they only use for taking temp pics withs for stuff like this.

 

 

I can't stand any store at all that does this in general. For example there being a problem at a department store where something is ringing up the wrong price, but the item is clearly marked but the "employee" just can't simply fix it then. Instead they have to call over a "manager" and make everyone in line wait an additional ten minutes because they don't give "employees" the power to handle it themselves.

There is a reason for this. I program point of sale systems and you wouldn't believe all the ways that employees steal from the system. So yes, things like that have to be put into place to prevent the employees from giving themselves discounts on items purchased or simply stealing from the drawer. It is also part of what I do in my job. I find potential ways that employees could be stealing from the system from the way the systems are currently programmed and through system journals that track details. When I find activity that I deem unusual, I mention it to to the highest levels of my customer's chain of command. It is annoying, but these things are required to keep the tills closed as much as possible and make it that more difficult for employees to cheat the system for their means because it honestly happens all the time. The worst is when we find out the managers themselves are the ones behind it all and a person suddenly finds themselves out of a job they have had for the past 10 years because of it.

Edited March 12, 2018 by -^Cro§Bow^-