Thinking of working at Gamestop

[Dolemite]

Other than working in a clothing store during the summer after I graduated High School, I've never had the misfortune of working in retail.

The worst part, aside from the crap pay and idiot customers, is being pushed constantly for sales numbers. Every month a different company pays your store money to push their shitty game, no matter how bad it is. So you're basically going to have to either omit facts about bad games or flat out lie to people to meet quotas and whatnot.

And if you failed to meet quotas...?

The worst is definitely the crap pay and closing. Man, I hated closing.

Why?

[toxic]

I used to manage a Merry-Go-Round (remember that crap store?) about 10 years ago.

Pros: Meeting female coworkers (this might not be the case at Gamestop), easy work, first dibs on good sales. Also, schmoozing other store managers in the mall, and getting your foot in the door of a better outfit.

Cons: You will almost always work weekends. Closing. Inventory. Stupid corporate mandates (like the one Mzo mentioned). Boredom.

If you lived in a big city, I would say work somewhere else ... but since you are in BFE Nebraska ... I say go for it. Everyone should work retail once in thier life.

[Mzo]

And if you failed to meet quotas...?

They talk to you a lot, and that always sucks. Do badly consistently and you're fired.

Why?

People pick up games to look at them, then drop them off somewhere else. You gotta straighten everything out, clean the floors, glass, organize and throw out the trash, and count out the register.

If you work from 11:00 am to 5 pm, at 5 pm your ass just LEAVES. Work to close and you'll probably be stuck at the store at least a half hour after they've stopped paying you. Bad deal all around.

[station82o]

Everyone should work retail once in thier life.

Only if you want to become bitter and cynical REAL fast. Why would you recommend this to anyone? Retail sucks man. Even in the supposed "cooler" places to work.

[JefmcC]

A new Gamestop is opening up where I live, in the middle of BFE Nebraska, and I was wondering how bad it might actually be. I've read all the past threads about the stupid things people do and say but I'm thinking there has to be some good side to working there. I know alot of it would depend on what the people I work with are like but I'd just like some input from those of you that have worked at Gamestop or some other type of gamestore. On a more specific note, do employees happen to get a discount, and if so how much? Thanks guys.

I worked for EB in my late teens and early 20s. It was fun, challenging, and very annoying. I grew to hate it, and swore it off for good. Most of my problems were with my manager anyway.

However, it's really not that bad of a job. If you can score the managers position, I say go for it. Every job, no matter what it is, will have it's own annoyances. I'm actually thinking of getting back into it.

[Bacon McShig]

It really depends on how many hours you are looking to work there. I worked retail full-time for a while and it was pretty damn sucky, but when I found a desk job and knocked the retail job down to 2 or 3 days a week, it was a lot more bearable, talking to customers and walking around doing some physical tasks was a somewhat welcome change of pace after sitting in front of a computer screen for hours.

It's better as supplemental income (and employee discount priveledges), not so much as a full-time deal.

[Josh]

The worst part, aside from the crap pay and idiot customers, is being pushed constantly for sales numbers. Every month a different company pays your store money to push their shitty game, no matter how bad it is. So you're basically going to have to either omit facts about bad games or flat out lie to people to meet quotas and whatnot.

The Vivendi guys came in and asked us to push Bruce Lee. I think I may have forgotten to tell my staff.

I got yelled at.

[FuryFox]

I work a few hours a week at GS right now, and we never have to push anything. We don't push the crappy line of GS products, we never recommend anything that sucks (but I'll go ahead and sell it if they don't ask), or try to sell them the overpriced compressed air or any other ridiculously marked-up merchandise. The manager figures repeat business is better than getting one sly sale.

The only thing we're encouraged to do is get pre-orders and game informer subs, but it's hardly job-breaking.

Crappy pay is definitely the worst part though.

[Josh]

The manager figures repeat business is better than getting one sly sale.

Your manager is going to get fired.

[Jetman]

I just started working in a game store a couple of months ago.

I dont really mind it so far. I work with a lot of cool people, who know their games - so conversation sometimes rolls down into the geeky realms of gamedom.Our manager isnt too bad - he's put up with a lot of my fuck-ups on exchanges, and stuff - ( we have a crazy exchange policy that can be abused to the benefit of the customer quite proficiently).
Employees get 25% off used stuff, 10% of the new, and can borrow out games at will (the used ones - of which we have a hell of a lot of)
Speaking of used stuff - we take back and trade everything from NES games ( I was blown away by how many college students and people in general actually still play these -guess they've never heard of ROM's), Genesis, Dreamcast,etc. all the way up to X-Box,Ps2,and Gamecube. Having to test out used systems kind of sucks, especially the quality of the stuff people bring in sometimes (some of the systems look like they were eaten off of or worse).

But, yeah ,I say go for it and try to work there man. It's not that bad. I've worked a lot of crap jobs in my lifetime, and having to stay half an hour later to count money, vaccum floors ,and clean-up, to me is nothing.There are a lot worse jobs out there that entail a hell of a lot more bullshit and work than that.