Game Crazy-ness (Now with Better Grammar!)

[DDCecil]

It seems my local Hollywood Video finally got one of these (I'm somewhat pissed though)... and they are hiring! I was wondering if anyone here has/is working there. Do you get discounts or anything?

I think if I start at the bottom (working for them) I can finally realize my dream of owning my own store... Plus it would be closer than the job I have right now (12 miles to and from). Plus I could build up my very bad social skills.

But then I have the fears from when I was working for my dad's store - Huge groups of loudmouth teenagers, people who can't speak very well (aka mumbling), and people who get mad when they don't get enough from their games.

[AFGiant]

My dad owns a videostore too. If you hang around there enough, your dream of owning one will probably diminish. But if it doesn't, good luck to ya!

[Dangerboy]

From what I have heard of GC employees, it's not as bad as Game Stop's apparent psycho verbal beatdowns from upper management, but still very hard on it's crew. I knwo several ex-GS folk that jumped ship to GC, and then jumped ship from there.

The pay is also on the lower end.

I could never work there for one reason and one reason alone: World's suckiest POS system ever. There's no scanner, barcode, or numerical sku system set up. You literally have to manually type/search to find everything.

Also, their store credit is non-transferable. You have it saved at one store, that's where you have to use it.

I found that out the hard way.

Jason

[boatofcar]

people who can't speak English very good


:roll:

Anybody read 12 Angry Men lately?

[DDCecil]

^ :P

I fixed it. :embarrassed:

[-hellvin-]

I would recommend getting as far away from video game "retail" as possible.

[Push Upstairs]

How about getting away from retail in general.


I was witness to a wonderful display as a woman complained that her son couldnt play his Gameboy Color becuase the "screen was too dark".

After some explaining by the gamestore employee that Gameboys...except the SP, all have crappy screens. Well after getting a different system and having her other son try it out...BY STANDING IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT they deemed the newer system "better".

After the family left the store myself and the employee proceeded to test the system out only to find out there was nothing wrong with the GBC except some inept owners.


I'll never miss retail.

[-hellvin-]

How about getting away from retail in general.

Even better. What little faith I had in people (not that I really had any beforehand) has been utterly destroyed by working at best buy.

[Cryomancer]

Although I will also say tdon't bother, the employee perks are fairly decent. I work at the hollywood side, and both sides get each other's discounts. Which means you get up to three free movies at a time, and can also get movies about a week before they're out. You also get 10% off anything you buy in the store. At crazy, you get 10% off new stuff, and 20% off used (my store has a used blue-button steel battalion...tempting at 20% off...). You might also get like 10% extra for tradeins but that might be the MVP card thing too, I can't remember. This is all at my store though, and the hollywood side is getting about retarded with rules so I'm gonna be out of there soon anyway. However I did get a giant box filled with standard jewel cases (and a damn nice amount of the dual ones that takeone slot) for free the other day as they were throwing them out.

Edit: also forgot to mention that anything sega cd or 32x taht comes in game crazy they don't sell, so they basically give it to the employees for free (damnit I swear I applied to work there...). They don't get a bunch but hell, free games. Also you can rent three games at once instead fo movies if you want, and they leave teh manuals / xbox live cards / nintendo PINs in the display boxes and don't seem to care if people take them. In my last two weeks there I am trying very hard to get a decent current-gen manual collection going, heh.

[PhoeniX]

Hey man good luck with your goal but with a little bit of experiance on the retail side of things and you would be surprised how fast you could become disenchanted; it's good experiance though either way. :)

As far as GC goes, of any of the big chains it's my favorite to shop in, that has to be indicative of something important, but then again maybe it isn't....

[kevincure]

Hey, the Game Crazy idiot POS system worked for me last time I was there. I saw a list of games that listed Speed Devils DC for 4.99. Speed Devils Online Racing was in the case for 19.99. So I asked for a pricecheck; sure enough, she types in Speed Devils, and sells me the SDOR (not the same game) for 4.99. Good stuff.

[EnemyZero]

I work for GameCrazy, I can say I really enjoy my job, its fun really. Theres work to be done but not much usually and when your done you can play whatever you want fot whatever, have tons of used games to pop in and play :P, me and my store manager are in constant competiion...and yes we get discounts - new games 10% used games 20%, and if someone A) leaves/or gives us a game or system that we can't take in, or that is "broke" we can call dibs on them...i have so many free games and systems i got from people who just wanted us to toss em out....i got tons of posters, signs, cardboard standees.....B) they really do advance you within the corp if your doing a good job...you get paid minimum wage BUT they have a commision base....we sell MVP cards for 20 bucks for a year where customers save money on games...also we sell warrenties and we do pre-orders...now on those 3 items we make commission :)....ive pocketed an extra 100 bucks in comm before...

My manager started when the store opened as a reg employee..and 3 weeks later he was manager and off opening new stores...:D

[Neil Koch]

I'll never miss retail.


Right on... I was in it for over 10 years myself and I'll NEVER go back.


I think if I start at the bottom (working for them) I can finally realize my dream of owning my own store...

That's all it is... a dream... retail companies very rarely promote that highly from within. At the last store I worked at, they had managers that had literally months of retail experience put in charge of one of the biggest stores in the company (about $250K in sales per day) just because they had a degree. You might move to middle or even upper manangement, but believe me by the time you make it up that high, your soul is crushed or you're so brainwashed by corporate bullshit that it doesn't really matter.

Retail is good for short summer/college jobs, but don't expect to make a career out of it.

[Push Upstairs]

What little faith I had in people (not that I really had any beforehand) has been utterly destroyed by working at best buy.

Yup, That sounds like Best Buy.

[PDorr3]

my hollywood and blockbuster have yet to get one of these...i wonder why some of them do not have them yet?
How old do you have to be to work in hollywood or gamecrazy? im 16 now and id love to work in EB or gamestop eventhough im sure they only hire 18 and up. can any1 confirm this?

[Sylentwulf]

Retail stores almost NEVER promote from within. Another problem is, as hiring wages increase, your rate of raises does not increase, so you're seeing new people hired for more than what you're making after you've been there for 4 years. VERY easy work though. Anyone complaining about working retail has never had to have a real job.

[Hakkenden]

I just special ordered Diskworld from my local Game Crazy.
Me and my freind were like the only people there the with exception of a cluless person who had himself convinced GTA:San Andres was out.
The first day it was so full you couldnt walk. But I live in Oklahoma so I wouldnt be able to work at my local GC without smiting someone every once in a while because it seems everyone here only likes Xbox and has no respect for the classics.
But anyways, to work there you have to be familiar with old operating systems. The guy that worked there hated his computer so bad he wrote everything on post-its.If you work there you will want to kill all the younger generation because they are cluless about games.

[PDorr3]

I just special ordered Diskworld from my local Game Crazy.
Me and my freind were like the only people there the with exception of a cluless person who had himself convinced GTA:San Andres was out.
The first day it was so full you couldnt walk. But I live in Oklahoma so I wouldnt be able to work at my local GC without smiting someone every once in a while because it seems everyone here only likes Xbox and has no respect for the classics.
But anyways, to work there you have to be familiar with old operating systems. The guy that worked there hated his computer so bad he wrote everything on post-its.If you work there you will want to kill all the younger generation because they are cluless about games.

LOL LOL so true, im only 16 but I take great respect on all generations of games. If I walk into EB i almost always hear people talking about how they like Xbox because it has better graphics than ps2. It makes me sick how people never thought about how games evolved, they never think twice about NES, Atari, or even pong. Everything to casual gamers is about killing, blood, violence, and graphics.