Why my local gaming store just starting sucking!

[HatefulGravey]

I went online yesterday to check out the new stock at the local classic gaming store in town. I found a few things I wanted so I got off work and went by to pick them up. I walked in and ask the worker there to help me find Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Crazy Taxi for the Dreamcast. From the back room comes "we don't have those". I explained they were on the website and that they should fix that. The worker in the back said "they didn't take them out of the system when I bought them".

 

Just what the f***?

 

This is the same shit that bought the Turbo Duo system that came in and all the 3DO games, but not the 3DO. He freaking works there and gets all the good stuff. So I asked to buy their Sege CDx and they 3DO for around $210 total. When they rang them up I explained that I had been spending somewhere around $400 a month with them and that I kept running into this problem of wanting games they had, and then finding out a worker there bought them. I had them put the systems back (I could tell the owner was upset at this) and told them my business with this was done. If I had to got to the internet to buy the games I might as well go to the internet and pay less for the systems too.

 

This all got a response but it did not get my my freaking video games. I am the best customer they have (many of the workers have made comments about me keeping them in business at times) because many in this town don't care about classic gaming enough to buy the pricey stuff. It really sucks that there is a local place to buy games, but if anything half nice comes in I can have none. This same guy will by every copy of Contra that comes in, I don't even have 1 yet because he keeps buying them. Freaking kills me.

 

I would love to post their name and website here to bash them but good, but I'll let others learn to hate these shits. I just needed to vent to others that would understand and may want to vent themselves. Maybe in time I'll post their name and all anyway, just depends on how long I stay mad. On 24 hours now.

[akator]

just depends on how long I stay mad. On 24 hours now.

 

Back when I lived somewhere with local game stores, I had some frustrating experiences with one store in particular. I complained to the owners, but they didn't do anything about it. That lost my business, which amounted to at least a few thousand a year. There are way too many internet options to put up with local bozos. Their loss and not mine.

 

Likewise, it is the store's loss of business, not your loss in being able to find and purchase games.

[tz101]

No choice but to go elsewhere. Not to side with them, but the store owes you nothing.

 

The thing I have seen at Goodwill stores is that the employees who are regularly grabbing all the good game stuff for themselves tend not to last long. Usually we are talking about younger guys. This one young GW employee knew I came in every week for game stuff and told me one day that he had bought a Saturn system with about ten games the day before. I was somewhat mad because I never see Saturn systems in the wild around my area, but there wasn't much I could do.

 

Ironically, that employee was no longer working there in a couple of weeks. I did not complain to management, but maybe someone else did.

 

My attitude is that there is not much I can do about employees taking the good stuff for themselves or family members. I still frequent quite a few GW and SA locations and do find good stuff once in a while.

[Mirage]

Looks like you'll have to just get a job there.

[ls650]

Think of it this way: the employee might get a few great deals... but he has to work at a shit job to get them. It's like working at McDonald's just so you can eat cheap food.

[GKC]

IDK it sucks but can the owner really tell the workers they can't buy from the store? The employee shouldn't have said that he forgot to delete it after he bought it but, instead, should have said he forgot to take it off the list after it was sold. It really sounds like he was trying to be an ass by saying that he had bought it expecially after you came in looking for it. That's just me though.

Edited January 30, 2011 by GKC

[+jd_1138]

That's going to erode their customer base, if their employees are cherry picking all the best games and deals. I'd only let employees buy stuff if it's been in the inventory database more than a month. But it's probably hard to police, they could just say someone came in and paid cash for that hot item.

[tz101]

This is kind of related, and again there is not much I can do.

 

I also collect Mattel Hot Wheels in the package. Mattel knows that there are many collectors and rewards them by issuing special one-of-a-kind cars called treasure hunt cars. They are rare and hard to find at retail outlets. I ran into another collector at a Wal Mart near me some time back. He proceeded to tell me that the thing that makes Hot Wheels treasure hunt cars even rarer is the fact that the store employees grab for themselves as they stock the shelves. Not exactly fair, but that must be one of the perks of working for minimum wage at Wal Mart.

[King_Salamon]

There was a time when we could add to our collections and not pay an arm an a leg... or be happy now to even just find something at one of these shops. However, the market has made retro gaming a collectibles market and the prices are hitting mainstream. By that I mean even your people who don't game or have an interest in gaming is finding the stuff and ebaying it.

 

Be happy with what you have... this 'problem' isn't going to go away. It happened in the sports card market (now it's pretty well ruined for kids). It's happened with a lot of 'hobbies'. It seems the best way to get classic stuff is through trades on places like AtariAge.

 

As for my experience with a local game shop... I had pre-ordered a Collector's Edition of Fallout New Vegas with them and asked them 2 very important questions on 3 or 4 visits:

 

1 - Are you certain you will be getting the Collectors Ed?

 

2 - Strategy Guides... do I need to pre-order one of those too?

 

I was assured (as recently as the week before release) that they were getting both versions as well as enough copies of the guide to the point that I wouldn't need to pre-order one. Being happy about this, I proceeded to pre-order a few other items that were coming out over the next 2-3 weeks. Upon racing to the store so I could start my trip to Vegas, I was greeted with a 'we couldn't get the Collector's Editions in story'. I then said well, I'll look for one somewhere else. How about the guide? Nope... won't be getting any. (Not that they sold out.. they didn't order any). I kindly asked for my deposits back and told them I won't be supporting their store in the future. I doubt the guy cared although he was the manager.

 

I had to get the goods from EB Games in my old part of town. Everything there went smooth... I even had some questions that didn't get snotty remarks from them. All in all I was impressed... it's out of the way for me to go to this store but after that, I've been buying everything from them. I even pre-ordered my 3DS from them and will give that shop my money from now on. It's a shame that I tried to give the local shop my support but to flat out drop the ball on a big release (and not call to let me know about it) just irked me enough to change stores.

 

I'm not one to avoid a store because they charge $5 extra for a game because they're not a Wal-Mart or whatever... I see the $5 as a way to support the gaming industry. I suppose EB Games was a small time operation at one time and now they;re everywhere and corporate greed is usually how they operate. Maybe I hit the store on good days or something and wasn't doused in corporate snake oil salesmanship but I'll keep going to this EB shop.

 

At times I think I'm getting too old for this stuff (the BS at the shops - not the games themselves!)... maybe I was always 'too old' for that stuff. Hell I even worked at an EB Game store a decade ago (the PS2 launch was a logistical nightmare and one fun time all at the same time!) and customers liked me because I didn't do the corporate shtick on them. If I didn't know an answer, I told them so. Sometimes honesty is the best policy.

 

Time to go play some Colecovision now...

[Rev. Rob]

I went online yesterday to check out the new stock at the local classic gaming store in town. I found a few things I wanted so I got off work and went by to pick them up. I walked in and ask the worker there to help me find Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Crazy Taxi for the Dreamcast. From the back room comes "we don't have those". I explained they were on the website and that they should fix that. The worker in the back said "they didn't take them out of the system when I bought them".

 

Just what the f***?

 

This is the same shit that bought the Turbo Duo system that came in and all the 3DO games, but not the 3DO. He freaking works there and gets all the good stuff. So I asked to buy their Sege CDx and they 3DO for around $210 total. When they rang them up I explained that I had been spending somewhere around $400 a month with them and that I kept running into this problem of wanting games they had, and then finding out a worker there bought them. I had them put the systems back (I could tell the owner was upset at this) and told them my business with this was done. If I had to got to the internet to buy the games I might as well go to the internet and pay less for the systems too.

 

This all got a response but it did not get my my freaking video games. I am the best customer they have (many of the workers have made comments about me keeping them in business at times) because many in this town don't care about classic gaming enough to buy the pricey stuff. It really sucks that there is a local place to buy games, but if anything half nice comes in I can have none. This same guy will by every copy of Contra that comes in, I don't even have 1 yet because he keeps buying them. Freaking kills me.

 

I would love to post their name and website here to bash them but good, but I'll let others learn to hate these shits. I just needed to vent to others that would understand and may want to vent themselves. Maybe in time I'll post their name and all anyway, just depends on how long I stay mad. On 24 hours now.

 

I understand where you're coming from, but this happens in every game store. When I worked at Fungamecoabbage'stop we all did the same thing. The only difference is the stock would never been in view of the customer, so they wouldn't know it's there. If someone had dibs on something and it was on the shelf and a customer wanted it, then it got sold.

 

My local classic games store is worse. They don't price tag anything. When you get to the counter they go on eBay and look at the BIN prices and sell it to you for that. I told them if I wanted eBay prices then I'd shop on eBay and not pay tax. I've never been back since, and I know a lot of gamers who have sworn them off.

[+jd_1138]

My local classic games store is worse. They don't price tag anything. When you get to the counter they go on eBay and look at the BIN prices and sell it to you for that. I told them if I wanted eBay prices then I'd shop on eBay and not pay tax. I've never been back since, and I know a lot of gamers who have sworn them off.

 

But if you bought on ebay, you'd have to pay shipping and wait for the item and buying local keeps your money in your local economy.

 

But I can sort of see why it'd be annoying to take an item up to the register and they do an ebay check. If the prices are on the low side of the BIN prices, then it'd be less painful.

[Prodos8]

My local Good Will used to be good for finding things, but I think over the last few years they've gone to listing all the old gaming stuff online --- www.shopgoodwill.com I think. In the past I used to find something just about everytime I went. Like a $9.99 ColecoVision, $7.99 Dreamcast, Saturn, SNES, NES or maybe a 2600 and also $4.99 Genesis systems. They were mostly all bare but they were offered for sale there. I even found a $1.99 NES-101 top-loader once, yeah the power switch was broke but it was an easy fix. Also, they used to put the loose carts in with the cassettes and 8-tracks for $0.79 no matter what system it was for. Now when I go I only find a few PC joysticks/Steering wheels or perhaps a few oddball older controllers.

[jferio]

I've noticed that the thrifts around me have slimmed down somewhat on classic gaming stuff, but more on the older generation stuff. I suspect it's a combination of being in a lull of people cleaning out attics and garages, and that at least one of the thrifts in my area has reduced the size of their electronics area, and might be doing passive discouragement of donations of 'antique' A/V gear because of the digital television changeover, which catches the old video game hardware up as well.

 

Don't get me wrong, I still do find stuff... but a good portion of the time it's stuff I already have if it's hardware, although I can still get some truly stellar hits for the software.

 

As for my local game stores, I've got a local two-store operation called Level 7 Games that's been exceptionally good to me. We also still have a couple of franchises for Game Force, a place called Game Xplosion, one Buy Back that's decent, but another that I only hit if I'm 'in the area' already, and there's a couple of stores down in Colorado Springs in the Play n Trade franchise. I actually haven't done the pre-order deal, I'm still adjusting to the whole price point involved in that I can actually buy a game new, off the shelf, in the original shrink wrap, again.

[Austin]

I can understand one being annoyed by this. On several occasions I have asked for semi-rare games at local places, only to be given a greedy smirk by an employee saying, "I bought it! hahaha!" The only thing I can think when that happens is, "Yeah, great way to treat your customers, you ass-clown!" Sure, snapping up rare items is a perk to working at a game store and I've done it myself on plenty of occasions. Would I ever brag to a customer about it though? Hell no, nor would I even mention that it was ever there to begin with. It's terrible customer service and that's what some in this thread don't see.

 

At the main local game store now, the owner rarely lets his employee purchase games there, and when he does, they can only pick from the common stuff. That keeps their stock fresh with plenty of uncommon titles that regulars may look for. The only downside is that they are also a fairly large e-commerce site, so the inventory is open to far more people than just the local regulars.

[godslabrat]

My local classic games store is worse. They don't price tag anything. When you get to the counter they go on eBay and look at the BIN prices and sell it to you for that. I told them if I wanted eBay prices then I'd shop on eBay and not pay tax. I've never been back since, and I know a lot of gamers who have sworn them off.

 

But if you bought on ebay, you'd have to pay shipping and wait for the item and buying local keeps your money in your local economy.

 

But I can sort of see why it'd be annoying to take an item up to the register and they do an ebay check. If the prices are on the low side of the BIN prices, then it'd be less painful.

 

Hey, if the price isn't set, it's open to negotiation. I'd start having some fun.

[SlowCoder]

The thing about buying locally with "supporting local economy" in mind is great. But if the local stores you're buying from are sheisters, it might not be worth it.

 

Those stores that allow employees to get the best stuff should definitely place limits on what or how much the employees can buy in a given period. 1. Restrict a monetary amount in a given time. 2. Restrict the number of items they can purchase in a given time. 3. Require all items be available for a specific time to shoppers before they can be bought by employees.

 

If your store looks up BIN prices, you're already getting ripped off. Most BIN prices I've seen on ebay are rediculous and seem to be set for the impatient or desperate buyers.

[atarian63]

Sadly local game store have to sell stuff online to stay alive. Gameslop and other crappy nation chains have cut into thier bottom line. God knows why as they are almost always the most expensive choice for used games.

[bah]

The thrifts around me have also slimmed down considerably.

 

First off, it's now store policy to sell systems, controllers, and cord separately to maximize profits. Secondly if you stop in too often you begin to see the same people over and over who buy strictly to resell. This means the Ebay stuff often comes from Goodwill just marked up.

 

The Good will manager also told me that employees are not allowed to buy anything until their shift ends so the stuff sits on the shelf at least the day it is put out.

[tz101]

Sadly local game store have to sell stuff online to stay alive. Gameslop and other crappy nation chains have cut into thier bottom line. God knows why as they are almost always the most expensive choice for used games.

 

Y, one game store by me does many amazon sales. The guy that runs it told me that's how he stays in business, because the local sales alone just don't cut it. He keeps most of the early stuff like CV, INTV, 5200, and even oddball stuff like Jaguar in a back room. If I ask, he always lets me browse the back room before he posts the stuff online.

 

Unfortunately, he bases his local in-store prices on online "going rates". Because of that, some of his prices are high. I asked the source he compares to, and all he will say is that he looks at a few different websites.

[CGQuarterly]

It's always a shame when someone tries to do the right thing and support local small businesses, only to have a bad experience there.

 

I don't really have a problem with employees buying stuff from the store at which they work (as has already been said, it's their consolation for working at a shitty minimum wage job), but you certainly don't go telling customers about it, and the ownership should place some sort of limit on it. If the employees are buying up all the good stuff so that all that's left on the shelf are commons, then the customer base is going to dry up very quickly. I don't know what the policy is, but the only place that I regularly shop for games is a local store here that sells new and used CDs, DVDs, and games. More than once I have purchased something and the guy at the counter has been visibly disappointed, and I assume that it was because he was planning on buying it for himself. Maybe there's a waiting period or something.

 

You should just tell the owner what happened and tell him that you aren't going to continue shopping there of the employees are going to buy everything for themselves and leave the shelves stocked with sports titles and copies of SMB/Duck Hunt.

 

Chris

[atarian63]

Sadly local game store have to sell stuff online to stay alive. Gameslop and other crappy nation chains have cut into thier bottom line. God knows why as they are almost always the most expensive choice for used games.

 

Y, one game store by me does many amazon sales. The guy that runs it told me that's how he stays in business, because the local sales alone just don't cut it. He keeps most of the early stuff like CV, INTV, 5200, and even oddball stuff like Jaguar in a back room. If I ask, he always lets me browse the back room before he posts the stuff online.

 

Unfortunately, he bases his local in-store prices on online "going rates". Because of that, some of his prices are high. I asked the source he compares to, and all he will say is that he looks at a few different websites.

yes, that has really screwed up retro prices. That is how the locals do it here as well.

[+jd_1138]

There's a local place here that has a great selection of vintage and current gen stuff -- consoles and games, from the Atari 2600 to Wii/Xbox 360/PS3. He supplements the gaming business by buying/selling/trading flat panel TV's, laptops/computers, and expensive DVD/Bluray box sets of TV shows. But the store's stock is 85% gaming related. It's smart of him to do what he has to do to stay open. I'm going to stop there tomorrow and pick up a top loader NES. He has about 20 of them.

[akator]

I don't have a problem with employees having the opportunity to buy as much merchandise as they want. However, it should be on their own time and not while on the clock.

 

I had years of great experiences with the store I eventually stopped doing business with. The owners and I got along well, and they appreciated my business. Everything changed in the third year when they lost interest and staffed the store with snotty college-aged replacements who treated customers poorly.

 

First strike: when one of those employees tried charging me twice the marked price for Atari and Inty carts, then made snotty comments that I would spend my money on them at all.

 

Second strike was being the only customer in the store for a hour and witnessing 3 employees watch Hulu, badmouthing customers, and acting put out when I wanted to pay for $150 worth of stuff.

 

Third strike: taking a dozen DC games to the counter to checkout only to have the employee tell me I couldn't buy one because he wanted it.

 

As my experiences went down the tubes so did the quality of the merchandise. Games were no longer cleaned and tested before going onto the floor, making returns more necessary.

 

About this time I talked to the owners about their store's decline, they apologized profusely, and promised to get things straightened out.

 

The last strike was another attempt to purchase about $200 worth of games for many systems 45 minutes before the store closed. I tried to checkout, he looked through my games, then told me I would have to come back some other time because he was closing the store.

 

What I figured out, through employee behavior and unprofessional discussion while on the sales floor, was a vehement disrespect for anything pre-NES and anyone over 30 that was interested in gaming. It didn't have to be both, I watched them be massively rude to someone else my age who was buying 360 games.

 

It was disappointing to lose a one reliable vendor, but what was worse was that the owners didn't care.

[HatefulGravey]

I have forgiven this kind of thing from the guy before. He is the manager if it matters. Many times I have over looked his comments and thought the same way you guys do about this. However, I have reason to believe he is getting a great discount, more then likely paying what the store did to take the item in, and he seems to do it every freaking time!

 

I'm still really pissed, but I'm not going to post their information. I really want to, but it seems this is everywhere, so I'll just assume you all are assiming we are going to have this problem everytime you look at a site for a retail store.

 

To think, I was going to drop a grand on an arcade machine from them at the end of Feb. Too bad for them. I think maybe I'll stop by and let the owner know about that as well. A few of the employees knew I was going to get it too, so they can confirm it. This might help make my point.

 

Its sad that this level of crap is going on every where. If you can't controll what employees buy, and the company I work for does VERY VERY WELL, then you should atleast see to it they don't get crazy discounts on everything through the door. I also know for a fact that pawn shops, which is basically what these classic game stores are on a legal level if nothing else, restict how often you can buy from them as a worker. Just saying, some places do it right, so people are jerks.

[Rik]

This classic game vendor at my local flea market has just set up a PC at his stall with internet access and checks everything you want to buy on Ebay, and wants the insane high Ebay prices.It's getting worse and worse all the time folks.Anyway i don't agree with employees getting 1st choice of merchandise at the store they work at.They are friggin "EMPLOYEES", not customers, but who's to stop them from doing so?, it's their choice to do it, but it still sucks. .I'm sure anyone in this situation would do the same anyway.

Edited January 31, 2011 by Rik