BryanB's Gamestop story
Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 9:34 pm
Taken from the dead people thread!
We had to "greet" each customer that walked in the door and we could not ask them yes or no questions. "HOW can I help you today?" "WHAT are you looking for?" Not, "Anything I can help you find?" Most people wanted to just browse games and I hated bugging them. Don't get me wrong, the general public are pieces of shit, Rochestarians more so, but being forced to talk to people in a non-human way was humiliating.
We had to answer the phone in a way meant to DRIVE UP SALES. So dumb. We didn't press the pre-order thing too much.
I didn't really get consistent hours. The number was consistent but the hours would change each week and I never understood why.
It wasn't all bad. We got free gaming magazines. I read 'em all back then. At least in 1998, EB had a pretty good warranty policy - if the console you are buying breaks, bring it in and exchange it for a new one, no questions ask. You needed to have the receipts and so forth, but still. I saw it with my own eyes. People had Playstations that broke. We'd send it back to Sony and take a new one off the shelf and give it to them. If even the controller broke you could technically exchange the entire console. I dunno if they still allow that. Oh! I forgot to say, getting this EB warranty cost money. I forget what it was, let's say $50 for two years? Pure profit for the most part for them.
I would also say that I had a string of Friday nights that weren't all that bad. At times, my manager was difficult to work with. He would get paranoid and worry about too much. But there were a stretch of Friday nights were the store would be busy but not overwhelming. There was a kid, Michael Bauer (who is registered here and I wish he would post!) who would hang out in the store looking at games and was a joy to be around. He probably should have just been hired. He was on good terms with my manager and was able to put him in a positive mood. He cracked him up in a way I could not. By that time I knew everything about video games, at least from the PC side, and what I didn't know, either my boss or Bauer did. And we'd sell video games to people and talk about games for six straight hours. I remember thinking, and I want to say this was a stretch in maybe 1997 from... I don't know, March to July? I remember thinking, "This is not the worst thing in the world, it really isn't."
Oh man, if you had just been able to hold a little longer - they are a SHIT company, though. I apologize if I have stated this too many times over the course of running this BBS. Gamestop has the same management philosophy as EB Games / Electroincs Boutique and it makes me wonder if - while Gamestop bought Babbages and EB, if somehow that philosophy was there in both places or if it "won out."bryanb wrote:Post by bryanb ยป Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:12 am
True story: I was a Gamestop shareholder for a number of years until relatively recently. In my defense, it was a reliable dividend payer and an important gaming retailer during a certain period in our nation's history. I had long accepted that it was likely my investment would ultimately go to zero after a few particularly rough years, but I held on just in case the company somehow managed to successfully pivot away from brick and mortar. I still feel that there's no reason it can't continue to grow its online business. I was also hoping it would eventually become the American version of Tencent and start investing in gaming and tech companies. Ryan Cohen seems to envision it possibly becoming a PC parts seller and a custom PC builder. Mostly, though, it has kept selling physical products in physical stores which isn't a great model in an industry where digital distribution is dominant.
When the stock ran up and I saw an opportunity to make myself whole a few weeks ago, I grabbed it. It had been down for so long that I was relieved to see the light at the end of the tunnel. At one point I had thought it was the worst investment I had ever made. I even felt ashamed to tell anyone I owned the stock...not that I talk that much about my investments, but sometimes Gamestop would come up in conversation and there were insights I could have shared that I generally chose not to. When I sold, I was aware of the unreasonable level of short interest in the stock, and I was aware there were people on Wall Street Bets who were extremely bullish. I didn't think it would come to anything. If I had held just a bit longer, I could have bought a new car with the proceeds among other things. We're close to reaching new house levels now. It'll probably all come crashing down soon enough, but it's tough to not feel some regret.
We had to "greet" each customer that walked in the door and we could not ask them yes or no questions. "HOW can I help you today?" "WHAT are you looking for?" Not, "Anything I can help you find?" Most people wanted to just browse games and I hated bugging them. Don't get me wrong, the general public are pieces of shit, Rochestarians more so, but being forced to talk to people in a non-human way was humiliating.
We had to answer the phone in a way meant to DRIVE UP SALES. So dumb. We didn't press the pre-order thing too much.
I didn't really get consistent hours. The number was consistent but the hours would change each week and I never understood why.
It wasn't all bad. We got free gaming magazines. I read 'em all back then. At least in 1998, EB had a pretty good warranty policy - if the console you are buying breaks, bring it in and exchange it for a new one, no questions ask. You needed to have the receipts and so forth, but still. I saw it with my own eyes. People had Playstations that broke. We'd send it back to Sony and take a new one off the shelf and give it to them. If even the controller broke you could technically exchange the entire console. I dunno if they still allow that. Oh! I forgot to say, getting this EB warranty cost money. I forget what it was, let's say $50 for two years? Pure profit for the most part for them.
I would also say that I had a string of Friday nights that weren't all that bad. At times, my manager was difficult to work with. He would get paranoid and worry about too much. But there were a stretch of Friday nights were the store would be busy but not overwhelming. There was a kid, Michael Bauer (who is registered here and I wish he would post!) who would hang out in the store looking at games and was a joy to be around. He probably should have just been hired. He was on good terms with my manager and was able to put him in a positive mood. He cracked him up in a way I could not. By that time I knew everything about video games, at least from the PC side, and what I didn't know, either my boss or Bauer did. And we'd sell video games to people and talk about games for six straight hours. I remember thinking, and I want to say this was a stretch in maybe 1997 from... I don't know, March to July? I remember thinking, "This is not the worst thing in the world, it really isn't."