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Thread: 28 Gamestop policies (good read)

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jorpho View Post
    I don't get it. Is this not clear and unambiguous justification for a substantial amount of Gamestop bashing? Is it not unreasonable to decry this corporate policy at every opportunity such that it might one day be changed? Wouldn't it be much more pleasant to shop there if the level of courtesy you get shown was independent of the number of preorders you made?

    I'm thinking about this too hard.
    Oh, no you're not. You've hit it on the head. There's a culture at Gamestop starting from the top down that really stinks. The corporate big-wigs have their employees treading on thin needles constantly. The employees are in constant fear of losing their jobs. So they push these pre-orders on the customers incessantly. And if you're not one of those customers that give in on a regular basis then you are likely not to be serviced favorably as the writing above suggested. This model may be successful for them in the logistics department as far as game orders are concerned, but it fails miserably at creating an inviting and healthy environment for its consumers AND employees.

    I've made some "friends" at Gamestops without giving in to their pre-orders pressures in the past, but I eventually found out that they were being friendly so they could take advantage of me later on (trade-in credit converted to a pre-order without my approval SEVERAL TIMES) or guilt trip me into helping them meet their quota. After those kinds of experiences I really haven't been back to Gamestop on a regular basis. I hope the big-wigs in Grapevine are listening to feedback. It's time for a new business model.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kitsune Sniper View Post
    (Relevant part bolded for clarity.)

    I have never. EVER. Seen this be done in ANY GAMESTOP STORE I'VE BEEN TO. I've been to stores in Texas, Tennessee, and California. NONE OF THEM DID THIS.

    Also, I took like 40 DVDs I had lying around today to my local store. I got 40 cents for most of them. I feel cheated, but I wasn't going to watch them and most of them were freebies or dollar DVDs anyway...
    I've seen the seal. And I've always requested that they not use it. Generally the employee was cool with it, if not the manager would tell them to pass on the seal. But I did get into a loud verbal argument at one store when they refused to not put the damn sticker on my game. I quit going to that store after the incident.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bojay1997 View Post
    The fact that this poster confirmed that corporate policy allows employees to "check out" new games is not only interesting, but frankly places them in clear violation of the law in several states including California. These are no longer new items if they have by definition been used for their intended purpose by someone other than the purchaser.
    Exactly. I've been saying this all along. Any aspiring lawyers wanna start a class action?

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    I have always had a sort of resentment from the FuncoLand/Gamestop corporate model. I understand they are trying to make a dollar and I dont mind them wanting to do that,but for goodness sakes they feed off kids who really dont have alot of income coming in living off their parents and know that they will easily sell their games for 10 cents on the dollar in order to get a Halo 3/Gears of War type game because they have no choice.

    Its true that kids normally dont take care of games that well and that scratches are always a concern, but if you get a 5 dollar trade in value on a fairly new game because of certain scratches,when its still playable only to learn that they use their buffer machine and then set it out the next day for 24.99 is what really pisses most people off and their buisness model. You feel you were fed a line of bullshit because they know your vulnerable to trade something in when you have played it a million times and become tired of it and to act like the game is worth alot less than scratches even though it doesnt skip a beat. I THINK EVERYONE HERE HAS SCRATCHES ON THEIR DISKS, ITS JUST A WAY OF LIFE


    I believe the system trading in policy needs serious work.I understand they have an abundance of xbox's, but why the hell won't they go down on it in price if they can't sell them, I mean its like 70 bucks still when its really worth the 39.99 price the gamecube is. No one wants to buy a used xbox when they can easily spend like 30 or 40 more and get a brand new ps2 slimeline.

    Also it pisses me off that they jack up the prices on games that are dirt common, but happen to be really fun. A game like FF7 is dirt common yet they still charge out the frame for it. They take the fun of finding a gem for 5 to 10 bucks that is the appeal to most collectors

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    You know, while I think it could be labeled as a "trivial" news story by most people, and for the most part, it would be ...

    ... most local television news stations have departments dedicated to doing exposees on businesses that have "unfair business practices".

    If the right person compiled the right information and presented it to a local news station (preferably in a major market like NYC) in a mature, professional way (read : NOT a 12 year old calling a news tip-line) ... they might be able to get it on the air, and the non-traditional-game-consumer (AKA the kind of people that companies like Gamestop Inc. DON'T like taking note of business practices like selling used product at full retail price) might actually take note of what the company is doing.

    Now, I'm not interested in seeking any type of damages, retribution, or serious damage to the company, as I really don't have any hard feelings for my former employers ... and whether or not a news report would even change anything is anybody's guess ... but I know companies like Game Stop don't like negative news ... especially when it could result in lost sales around the holiday season.

    Anybody up to the task?
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    I'd rather shop for games at K-mart.

    "Hey you should pre-order Madden 2010! Hey do you like shooters? Well Halo 4 will probably never come out, but if it does, you can pre-order it right here! Hey you're wearing all blue, do you like Mega Man? Did you hear about Mega Man Battle Network Emissions v. 6.9? Well you know that if you don't pre-order it, we don't get it. thats just the way it works. Do you want to buy an extended warranty on all these games? For just 5 dollars, we will replace this game for two years, even if you break it up into pieces, eat it, shit it out in a cd case and return it to us? Its a steal!"

    fuck off game stop.

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    I remember pre ordering Madden 2005. I got the automated machine saying they have it and come get it. I drove down to get it and lo and behold, the truck was delayed, making me wait until the next day. No phone call letting me know not to come get it, no automated machine saying "forget everything the last machine said", nope, I was never told. I now make sure I call ahead before buying new.
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    As another former employee, I fully understand everything this guy is saying.

    But the harsh reality is, IT DOESN'T MATTER. GameStop makes 98% of their money from casual and non-hardcore folk.

    If people are OK with their policy, let them shop there. THey're obviously fine with whatever policies GameStop is implementing.

    If people aren't fine with it, they'll take their business elsewhere. It's going to take a whole shit-ton of people to make any sizeable dent in GameStop's earnings, but if it makes you feel better as a consumer to not do business with them, then so be it, as that's all that really matters in the long run.
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    Quote Originally Posted by vgc View Post
    We only offer a 2 day FREE Return if the customer doesn't like the game, but we also let the customer try out any USED Games first. Mike : )
    Mike, how on Earth do you manage that? I've considered it and would love to do it but it would mean a line of kids "trying out" every used game that they're "going to buy". I don't really expect you to share your trade secret but God bless you for pulling that one off.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ecresto View Post
    Gamestop policy is, for better or worse, that employees may check out new games that are more than two weeks past their original release so long as they are returned in mint condition.
    ...and sold as "new"?

    Absolutely unacceptable.
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    I would probably preorder more if there was a price match policy in place. I get bent out of shape when I preorder a game and find it elsewhere cheaper. I don't care if it is on sale or not.

    I especially hate when I'm asked to preorder and the price of the game is unknown.

    Best example I can think of was the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. We preordered a copy at a local Gamestop. (I don't think there was an incentive for it, but I could be wrong). The day it comes out, we go pick it up and the price is $35 ($30 with our deposit). I drive a mile away and Toys R Us has the same game for $30 with a free case (big deal). I bought the game at TRU and promptly drove back to Gamestop and returned my $35 copy.

    If you are going to want me to preorder, you need me to feel like I'm not being taken advantage of by appearing to jack up the price. I gave you my money to reserve the game (potentially) months in advance. Don't tell me that $5 is the cost to save my spot in line or some such nonsense.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Oobgarm View Post
    As another former employee, I fully understand everything this guy is saying.

    But the harsh reality is, IT DOESN'T MATTER. GameStop makes 98% of their money from casual and non-hardcore folk.

    If people are OK with their policy, let them shop there. THey're obviously fine with whatever policies GameStop is implementing.

    If people aren't fine with it, they'll take their business elsewhere. It's going to take a whole shit-ton of people to make any sizeable dent in GameStop's earnings, but if it makes you feel better as a consumer to not do business with them, then so be it, as that's all that really matters in the long run.
    Ditto.

    Hell, work retail anywhere and the ones that don't pay commission, the employees would rather see you go and get some ice cream next door and just forget about shopping their store entirely. For Gamestop, subs or not, with the general understanding of how people view the company, I wouldn't want people coming into the store if all they are going to do is give you crap.

    I like window shopping, just browsing. Stuff that retailers hate. The only reason I still shop at stores is so I can still window shop other days. Something about getting the item by hand and not through mail.
    Last edited by MonoTekETeA; 11-07-2007 at 09:46 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by digitalpress View Post
    Mike, how on Earth do you manage that? I've considered it and would love to do it but it would mean a line of kids "trying out" every used game that they're "going to buy". I don't really expect you to share your trade secret but God bless you for pulling that one off.

    Hello, let me rephrase that. We let people try games they are interested in buying. We ask if they are planning on purchasing that day. You get to know which customeres are real customers and which are just Playing Games pretty quickly. We have had times when people try out games a little too much but thats OK. They dont need alot of attention while playing and you can help out others. We do have a time limit and cut off the game after they get enough time to try it out. Customers don't need to try out games they have already played before either just games they haven't played. Mike : )
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    I've been to a gamestop an hour before they closed. A couple of kids had a Halo 3 on reserve and they had some kind of deal where if you traded games in toward your purchase of halo 3, you get an extra 20% or something like that. Well, the employee working there turned the kids away with the trade-ins (after already explaining they wanted to get the reserve credit) and told them to go to a different gamestop. This is a perfect example of one of the bad gamestops. You should have to go by thier rules of getting good customer service. "Oh if you don't pre-order and buy the magazine, then we will treat you like shit". Not buying that at all so they can fuck themselves on that. "come in at 8 instead of 9 to trade in games or we'll tell you to fuck off" hey, I'm here shopping at your store and you're telling me to fuck off?

    I went to a gamestop going to get Eternal Sonata. The kid went to pull the gutted copy without asking if I even minded a gutted copy. I asked "do you have any that are still sealed?" and he replies with, "would I be walking over here if I did?" oohhhh sorry buddy but that bitch ass remark lost your company a $60 sale.

    Its not the pre-orders or any of the extra stuff they try to push on me that makes me mad, its policies like "oh I can't take your trade ins" fuck you, you're open till 9, you fucking take those trade-ins.

    as far as the gutted games. Go to Best Buy and look at some of thier products. If it is a floor display, they give a discount. If a box has been opened, they sell it as open item for a reasonable discount. Many other retail stores do this as well. I went to buy a 5.1 surround system and they were going to discount $300 off the price tag. Reguardless of what any of the managers or anybody tells you, the gutted games are used, take $5 off, no two ways around that.

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    Solution:

    1: Remove discs, manuals and cases from all old used sports titles that aren't selling
    2: Recycle paper from inserts and manuals, dispose of discs
    3: Send adequate number of each type of blank case to each store
    4: Print paper inserts for "display" cases
    5: Send paper inserts to each store
    6: Instruct store employees to use paper inserts in blank cases
    7: Instruct store employees to remove blank display case when no more new copies are / will be available
    8: Recycle paper inserts

    I know it sounds rather simplistic, but that's one potential way of solving the gutted games problem. The company finds a new use for all of those cases cluttering up their warehouses as well. I also know this won't fly as it would cost money and the company sees so little profit from new game sales anyway. Furthermore, the company doesn't see it as a "problem", the gamers do. As long as the games keep selling through, the policy will not change. Meh, it's nice to dream...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frankie_Hates_You View Post
    Do you think they should be charging full retail for something that may have been taken home and played in an employees home system?

    I'm just curious, as we seem to be the only ex-employees chiming in.
    I am an ex-employee. I worked at a major video game chain for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the big merger. I worked my way up the ranks and was eventually offered a store manager position by the district manager. She was a nice woman and we got along well, but the salary she offered me was horrible...only $3,000 more per year than I was already making as an assistant manager...so I declined and left the company shortly afterwards.

    Gutting:

    My coworkers and I gutted games every day, but we were extremely careful when cutting open the shrink wrap. We'd slice open the bottom, slide the plastic game case out of it, and carefully open the bottom of the game case to take the disc out...without damaging the security seal at the top of the case. Then, we'd snap the bottom of the case shut and slide it back into the shrink wrap.

    We'd immediately put the disc in a Ziploc-style bag and alphabetize it in a drawer. In my store, we did not allow game borrowing, so all of our gutted games were not used and were in perfect condition.

    If a customer wanted to buy a gutted game, we'd slide the game case out of the shrink wrap, open the bottom part (again, being careful not to damage the security seal at the top), inset the disc, slide the game case back into the shrink wrap, and seal the bottom with a sticker from the home office that stated something like "non-refundable if seal is broken."

    99.9% of our customers didn't mind buying gutted games or paying full price for gutted games. Even when I worked at a different location where the games were gutted in the normal, non-anal way, 99.9% of the customers still didn't have a problem with it. The few people who preferred buying factory sealed games either waited for us to get a sealed copy in or bought the game at a different store. We'd suggest trying Sam Goody across the hall or our competitor on the second floor. We didn't mind losing a sale from time to time because we knew the customer would be happy and would come back to us because of that (which they did).

    Trade-ins:

    My coworkers and I always loved getting trade-ins, even if they were five minutes before we closed. The district manager kept track of our trade-ins, so we looked at it as a nice, easy last-minute boost for our store. My coworkers and I were so good and efficient that we'd have an entire duffel bag worth of trade-ins processed, tagged, organized, and on the shelf within ten minutes. We knew how to search for products in the POS computer system using different department codes, whereas employees from other stores didn't even know what that feature was.

    We had no problems taking in consoles from the previous generations (Nintendo 64, PlayStation, original Game Boy, Game Gear, etc.). Other store employees would treat that stuff like useless garbage and throw it somewhere in the back room, believing that it will never sell. That is a horrible attitude. My coworkers and I paid attention to the type of customers who'd shop at our store. Many of them were Latino and would scour our bin of inexpensive PlayStation games every day...so we knew a decent percentage of our customers wanted cheap, fun games and didn't care about hot new releases.

    We'd take an old PlayStation or Game Boy that someone just traded in, clean it off, make it look really nice, and package it with used controllers, used memory cards, and a couple of cheap, decent used games. We'd shrink wrap the whole thing into one neat package, put it in the bin for whatever the total price was at the time ($50, $60, whatever), and it would always sell within an hour or two. Other store employees, like the guy who wrote the original post, saw older consoles as junk, but we saw them as a gold mine.

    Sales goals:

    Our district manager pressured us with Shopper Track, trade-ins, pre-owned sales, player's guides, extended warranties, pre-orders, and Game Doctors. This was before Game Informer subscriptions.

    Shoper Track was a sensor that the home office installed in the doorway of every store to track how many people were entering the store vs. how many sales we were making. If 100 people entered the store within an hour and only 10 transactions were made within that time, that was bad. If 20 transactions were made within that time, that was better.

    The more trade-ins we took in, the better. The more pre-owned games we sold, the better. (Profit on used games is much, much higher than on new games.) The more Game Doctors we sold, the better. The profit margin on them must've been so high that the company actually gave us a $1 or $2 commission on them. The other stores in my district struggled to sell one or two Game Doctors a week, while my coworkers and I had no problem selling 20 or 30. My store was always at the top in the district with this type of stuff. It was just a matter of talking to our customers like normal people, making them feel comfortable, and...most importantly...giving them what they wanted.

    For example, several months after the PlayStation 2 was released, PS2 memory cards were selling like crazy. Every other store in the mall was sold out of them, but once in a while we'd get some in. We knew people were going to buy them no matter what, so we used our brains to boost our store's numbers and included a one-year extended warranty in the price. We'd sell the $30 memory cards for $35. That's $5 of pure profit on top of the profit we were already making on the memory card itself. Customers would come in and ask if we had any in stock, expecting us to say no. We'd say yes and the customers would be amazed and excited. It might sound sneaky and tricky, but they were happy to pay $35 and were even happier that their memory cards were insured for a year. They wanted a memory card very badly and we wanted to boost our store's numbers very badly. It was a win-win situation.

    Within six months, we were able to turn one of the lowest ranked stores in the region into one of the highest ranked stores in the region. It was a combination of creative thinking and being really, really friendly to our customers. We'd greet them, ask them what they're currently playing, ask them their opinions about games, ask them what future releases they're excited about, etc. In turn, they'd ask us for our thoughts and opinions too, and took us seriously.
    Last edited by Rob2600; 11-07-2007 at 12:16 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob2600 View Post
    Several months after the PlayStation 2 was released, PS2 memory cards were selling like crazy. Every other store in the mall was sold out of them, but we'd get some in. Our trick was to include a one-year extended warranty in the price...so we'd sell the $30 memory cards for $35. Customers would come in and ask if we had any in stock, expecting us to say no. We'd say yes and the customers would be amazed and excited. It might sound sneaky and tricky, but they were happy to pay $35 and were even happier that their memory cards were insured for a year. They wanted a memory card and we wanted to boost our store's numbers. It was a win-win situation.

    Sounds like you deceived the customer. A big no-no if the higher ups knew that.

    Right

    "We have Playstation 2 memory cards in stock! They are $29.99, and for only $5.00 more you can extend the warranty of the product to a full year in case something goes wrong!"

    Wrong

    "Playstation 2 memory cards are $34.99 and come with a 1 year warranty."

    "If you want to purchase a Playstation 2 memory card, you have to purchase the $5.00 1-year extended warranty with the memory card."

    Both wrong ways are deceitful and harmful to the customer. I have caught EBs and Gamestop employees try to add that extra price on before. Guess what, every time they were reported, they no longer worked for the company.

    Honesty is the best policy. Now THAT's a Win-Win situation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GrandAmChandler View Post
    Sounds like you deceived the customer. A big no-no if the higher ups knew that.
    I understand and agree with you, but the reality of the situation was that our customers didn't mind us doing that. I know, I know...that doesn't mean it was right. Of course, we stopped doing that once the memory cards were plentiful.

    You call it deceitful; we called it creative thinking.

    Keep in mind, it's easy for you or me to sit in front of our computer monitors and state that something like that is wrong, but when district managers are keeping track of each store's sales data and sending out emails every week comparing stores to each other and calling every day asking about sales goals and threatening to cut hours if the profit margin doesn't pick up, we had to do what we had to do.
    Last edited by Rob2600; 11-07-2007 at 12:28 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob2600 View Post
    I am an ex-employee. I worked at a major video game chain for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before the big merger. I worked my way up the ranks and was eventually offered a store manager position by the district manager. She was a nice woman and we got along well, but the salary she offered me was horrible...only $3,000 more per year than I was already making as an assistant manager...so I declined and left the company shortly afterwards.

    Gutting:

    My coworkers and I gutted games every day, but we were extremely careful when cutting open the shrink wrap. We'd slice open the bottom, slide the plastic game case out of it, and carefully open the bottom of the game case to take the disc out...without damaging the security seal at the top of the case. Then, we'd snap the bottom of the case shut and slide it back into the shrink wrap.

    We'd immediately put the disc in a Ziploc-style bag and alphabetize it in a drawer. In my store, we did not allow game borrowing, so all of our gutted games were not used and were in perfect condition.

    If a customer wanted to buy a gutted game, we'd slide the game case out of the shrink wrap, open the bottom part (again, being careful not to damage the security seal at the top), inset the disc, slide the game case back into the shrink wrap, and seal the bottom with a sticker from the home office that stated something like "non-refundable if seal is broken."

    99.9% of our customers didn't mind buying gutted games or paying full price for gutted games. Even when I worked at a different location where the games were gutted in the normal, non-anal way, 99.9% of the customers still didn't have a problem with it. The few people who preferred buying factory sealed games either waited for us to get a sealed copy in or bought the game at a different store. We'd suggest trying Sam Goody across the hall or our competitor on the second floor. We didn't mind losing a sale from time to time because we knew the customer would be happy and would come back to us because of that (which they did).
    I'm not sure if by quoting me if you were focusing on the "ex-employee" part of my statement, or the "gutted games" portion ...

    ... but if you were trying to share your opinion on the "gutted games" issue - I feel like again, it has come down to "our customers didn't mind" mentality.

    And while you have good first hand experience of the situation, and fortunately didn't have to experience going against your personal feelings of participating in "unfair/dishonest business practices" (like myself for so many years) - you also seem to be missing the point of my issue.

    I suppose I'll have to go into "generalizations" here to clarify my point, but I'll try to avoid comparing apples to oranges.

    In any retail environment a product that comes from the manufacturer in a "sealed" state with security stickers and factory shrink-wrap that, in the instance of modern game case shrink-wraps, can NOT be duplicated by retail stores with shrink-wrap machines should ONLY be considered "new" if it is sold in that exact state.

    If a game has it's shrink-wrap seal broken, and security stickers cut or removed, it is no longer in "new" condition.

    Whether the game is handled by human hands for a fraction of a second before being dumped into a paper envelope, or for an entire weekend at a GameStop employee's house - REGARDLESS of the fact that it has not gone through the process of being "rung up", it is no longer a "new" product - and to sell it to a consumer as one, is an unfair business practice.

    Since you commented on Sam Goody, let's take a look at a contemporary company along the lines of Sam Goody (who are now defunct as a corporation) - Suncoast Video.

    Suncoast stores (a subsidiary of FYE stores) deal primarily with DVD movies. And in some cases, Suncoast stores carry NEW video games, much like Sam Goody did.

    For the most part, Suncoast stores do not have much larger retail square footage than the typical GameStop store, and in the case of DVD "movies" they carry a MUCH larger stock of titles "new" on DVD than most GameStops do "new" DVD -case games.

    (The potential argument for "not enough store space for new titles on display" should be squashed here ... as most GameStop employees and managers should be able to verify - in the case of "NEW" product, it rarely ever fills a single glass display area behind the counter.)

    Do they "gut" movies at Suncoast? No. They do not. New movies are available in a display area - complete in new, original factory shrink wrap most times with no additional security devices.

    Would you tolerate the "gutting" of new DVD's that you're purchasing from a retail environment like Suncoast (perhaps on a weekly basis)?

    Can you think of any other retail chain that practices this procedure in part or in whole (opening a factory new product, potentially using it for days or weeks, and then selling it to consumers at FULL RETAIL PRICE) with virtually NO compensation / discount to the consumer?

    I can't.

    (And I'd love to get Joe's two cents on this issue, as I can't recall ever seeing this kind of thing happen at the Digital Press store ... granted it might happen, I've just never been witness to it.)

    I think a major problem here is that GameStop inc. has developed an "unfair, yet tolerated retail culture". In most cases - people who want that "gutted" game, and can't find it anywhere else are left with little to no alternative but to buy it - and when they're offered NO compensation for buying what is essentially a no-longer-new product - they simply cave. This act of caving has happened so often, and happens on such a regular basis, that GameStop inc. had decided that they can simply employ it as a "practice".

    And, another a major problem is that no "business standards/practices" organization is looking into the practice and/or levying any type of punitive actions on them for creating this type of retail culture...

    How many times as an employee have you proceeded to sell a "gutted" game to a consumer who explains "but this is for a birthday/holiday present, I need it to be NEW." ... that statement should be all the evidence that one needs as to what the general consumer EXPECTS of a new product (and that part of the general game-buying-public may either be completely ignorant to the practice of selling not-new as new OR they may have actually purchased a "gutted" game in the past and been dissatisfied with the condition/quality of the product).

    I digress.

    The short short is that what's going on here is in fact an unfair business practice, it's simply one that's been TOLERATED for years because Sally and Johnny gamer simply MUST have their copy of "Nintendogs : Rabies Edition" or "Halo 4" DAY AND DATE of release, and GameStop inc has built a culture of misinformation around it.

    There is NO legitimate reason for "gutting" games. There are several clear alternatives to get packages out on the retail sales floor for customers to "handle" (dummy game boxes with inserts and/or security plastic covers, or both), and no other major game retailer handles their quote-unquote "new" products like the GameStop family of stores does.
    Last edited by Frankie_Says_Relax; 11-07-2007 at 01:14 PM.
    "And the book says: 'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'"


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    Quote Originally Posted by Rob2600 View Post
    Keep in mind, it's easy for you or me to sit in front of our computer monitors and state that something like that is wrong, but when district managers are keeping track of each store's sales data and sending out emails every week comparing stores to each other and calling every day asking about sales goals and threatening to cut hours if the profit margin doesn't pick up, we had to do what we had to do.
    Weak.
    "One of the ways I gauge a DS game is by recharges. "...Tycho (Penny Arcade)

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