I try...and I try...and I try...and I still hate retail...

[Phil12]

I will tell you this. From hearing about my friends working there, they call you less and less until they shake you off for good. There are constantly new employees at mine.

[jp]

Gamestop treats their employees like shit.


Get away while you can man. Its a soul crushing job with shit pay and no payoff, ever.


Seriously, I got a 50% sub ratio and some upper 20s% reserve ratio one week and I got jackshit for it. After that I just quit giving a shit.

[The n00b]

I'm through arguing my point or trying to prove myself to anyone on here, which I don't need to do.

Glad you get the point, Dave.

Honestly I feel bad for you and n00b mocking anxiety is beyond the pale, but I was curious as to whether you could be prodded towards rethinking your career. Your choice, of course.

I know, I know I'm harshing your mellow or some shit but I used to suffer from anxiety attacks back in the day and it led me to a situation much like your's. Of course I only let it affect me for about a year and a half but I got fuckin sick of letting something like that run my life. It WILL run your life, btw, Dave. You can avoid responsibility hoping it will go away but it'll still be there when you are 45, living with your parents, and bagging groceries. Anyway years ago I made the decision I'd rather have an anxiety attack every freakin 5 min then let it have another say in my life...and then one day I noticed the anxiety had skipped town

[Ed Oscuro]

It was still uncalled for and you were a twat for making those comments, even given what you said earlier. Of course, everybody makes mistakes, so I'd be happy to forget about it, if you would stop pressing this (offensive) point (for what reason I can't discern).

"I beat it without help, so can everybody else because all people are the same" seems to be the message of the first post, which I also take issue with. You shouldn't be saying that Dave is ignoring his anxiety because by visiting a shrink he's taking measures to deal with it.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I just do not want a job where I will backtrack from all of the progress that I've made with my Psychotherapist, and other doctor.

Psychotherapists aren't gods, no need to capitalize the title.

p.s. get out of GameStop, it's a dead-end job in a market with an uncertain future at retail

I know they aren't gods, I capitilized it because it's a job title. A market with an uncertain future??? Video games rake in more then Hollywood; Grand Theft Auto IV was the biggest entertainment launch in history, and the GameStop has over 5,000 stores and growing. The company is just run by a guy about as generous as Robert Mugabe. And yeah, I know the little guy get's the shaft at most companies, but at least most get more then 20 hours/week. I got more hours then that working at Safeway, back in 1994, which was my first job-and I was getting paid $5.20/hour.

I don't think it's wise to quit one job before you find another. Although I won't stay much past September (assuming I don't find something better before then). It's just a job that is providing more stress then the income is worth.

If you stick with a union-paid job like with Safeway long enough, your salary payrate will be higher...go figure. Not to mention senority status, paid vacation, union benefits, 401K benefits, etc. Working in the grocery business ain't for everyone though...that is a given. ^_~

Getting paid $5.25 an hour, that was how much Wal-Mart was paying their employees back in 1993 when the national mininum wage was locked in at $4.25 an hour (the summer of 1988, it was locked in at $3.35 an hour and was bumped up to the then current $4.25 category). Went through three different interviews with Wal-Mart and still wasn't hired...am glad that I didn't get hired by them, anyways. Wal-Mart used a multiple choice test to see if their potential employees were reliable/honest/etc. and was invited back for the third interview with them to discuss as to why I chose those answers...I guess the interviewer didn't like my reasoning. Why waste my time for three fucking interviews with Wal-Mart?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[SuperGrafx]

I've always disliked Gamestop/EB/Funcoland ever since the PS/Saturn era hit. Nowadays it's even worse with all these emo-kid wannabes who work in the stores with their failure friends.

Back in the day these stores were staffed with actual knowledgeable people who cared and had the technical skills to tell you which games were good and if so and so computer game would work in your setup. The Playstation lovers who GS employs are only good for selling you a magazine subscription and asking you if you've pre-ordered the latest Madden football game.

Target and Best Buy are your best bets when it comes to buying games in a brick and mortar store these days.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I've always disliked Gamestop/EB/Funcoland ever since the PS/Saturn era hit. Nowadays it's even worse with all these emo-kid wannabes who work in the stores with their failure friends.

Back in the day these stores were staffed with actual knowledgeable people who cared and had the technical skills to tell you which games were good and if so and so computer game would work in your setup. The Playstation lovers who GS employs are only good for selling you a magazine subscription and asking you if you've pre-ordered the latest Madden football game.

Target and Best Buy are your best bets when it comes to buying games in a brick and mortar store these days.

I'd have to agree with your statement about both Target & Best Buy are alright in terms of game selection...was able to find the rare PS2 game of The Red Star at my local Best Buy. My local GameStop didn't even have any copies of it in stock...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[SuperGrafx]

I'd have to agree with your statement about both Target & Best Buy are alright in terms of game selection...was able to find the rare PS2 game of The Red Star at my local Best Buy. My local GameStop didn't even have any copies of it in stock...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Lol, go figure!
I sometimes wonder why they even bother to call themselves GAMEstop when they can't even get enough copies of niche titles in stock...or some of the new mainstream releases like Gears of War and GTA4.

[kccttzj]

I worked for GS for a few weeks when I was between jobs a while back. I hated it.

As a customer, they always make assumptions about what games I would want, or talk to me like I'm stupid, and know nothing about games. It usually makes me laugh, and I just don't say anything, but there have been times when it's been really annoying. I'm buying a PS2 game, why are you asking me if I own one?

As an employee, I hated the "salesman" attitude they have, but that's the business I guess. It's just not for me. I hated the people I worked with too. They liked to talk about how cool they were all the time, and barely paid any attention to anything else besides telling me what I was doing wrong. Some of the customers were cool though.

I give Dave a lot of credit for staying as long as he has. I don't even have anxiety and I couldn't do it. I say keep looking, but in the meantime try to stick it out as long as you can. You can't blame someone for wanting to do better.

[BulletMagnet]

As a customer, they always make assumptions about what games I would want, or talk to me like I'm stupid, and know nothing about games.

To be fair, a lot of the people they get really don't know anything about games, they're just there to pick up a birthday gift for their nephew or something. "Uh, I'm looking for a game...I forget the title, and what system it's for, but I know it has cars in it."

As for the personalities of the workers, I find it varies by store...some places, the people behind the counter obviously don't care, but others are pretty friendly and knowledgeable. The staff at one place near me will actually let me just stand around and chat with them about old games if they're not helping anyone - I've even extended an offer to have them over to check out some of the import stuff I'm always babbling on about, and they said they'd be up for it if they could find some time to take off (it's a small store, the same people are almost always there). So even in a soulless empire like GS, you never know who you might find.

[Ed Oscuro]

Getting paid $5.25 an hour, that was how much Wal-Mart was paying their employees back in 1993 when the national mininum wage was locked in at $4.25 an hour (the summer of 1988, it was locked in at $3.35 an hour and was bumped up to the then current $4.25 category).

Incidentally, that's about the time Sam Walton died (1992)...I wonder if he was responsible for the low wage originally ;)

His name is forever immortalized in his own brand of low-cost soda (personally, Sam Thompson's, out of Pennsylvania, is probably better...read Report of the County Chairman for that story)

[kccttzj]

As a customer, they always make assumptions about what games I would want, or talk to me like I'm stupid, and know nothing about games.

To be fair, a lot of the people they get really don't know anything about games, they're just there to pick up a birthday gift for their nephew or something. "Uh, I'm looking for a game...I forget the title, and what system it's for, but I know it has cars in it."

As for the personalities of the workers, I find it varies by store...some places, the people behind the counter obviously don't care, but others are pretty friendly and knowledgeable. The staff at one place near me will actually let me just stand around and chat with them about old games if they're not helping anyone - I've even extended an offer to have them over to check out some of the import stuff I'm always babbling on about, and they said they'd be up for it if they could find some time to take off (it's a small store, the same people are almost always there). So even in a soulless empire like GS, you never know who you might find.

Yeah, you're right. I'm not saying that they're all bad. A lot of the people that do go in there don't know a whole lot, so it's understandable. It's just irritating at times. I do know some cool people that work at GS. I guess it's mostly the one store.

Where I work there are a lot of times where we sit around and talk about games, etc as well. Someone actually came in not that long ago talking about this game he just discovered called "Dodonpachi"

[Ex-Cyber]

Getting paid $5.25 an hour, that was how much Wal-Mart was paying their employees back in 1993 when the national mininum wage was locked in at $4.25 an hour (the summer of 1988, it was locked in at $3.35 an hour and was bumped up to the then current $4.25 category).

Incidentally, that's about the time Sam Walton died (1992)...I wonder if he was responsible for the low wage originally

I heard a rumor that he once personally asked some legislators for a special exemption from minimum wage for Wal-Mart and/or Five & Dime; never saw it really substantiated though.

[dave4shmups]

Gamestop treats their employees like shit.


Get away while you can man. Its a soul crushing job with shit pay and no payoff, ever.


Seriously, I got a 50% sub ratio and some upper 20s% reserve ratio one week and I got jackshit for it. After that I just quit giving a shit.

Yeah, it's the same on Edge card subscriptions-they just don't matter to me.

But, I'm sorry for being so harsh in this thread. The main problem with GS-at least the one I work at-is a job that is a job in name only, due to poor hours. I've never had a job before where I've gone a single week, much less several weeks, without even being on the schedule.

And my boss, who is the most competent that I've ever worked under, has made it clear that it's not due to any poor performance on my part. The company just gives him so many hours-waaay to few. Heck, most weeks, he doesn't even have time to make out the schedule for the next week until late Saturday afternoon! GS is making BANK, while everyone else seems to be (understandibly) peeing their pants over oil prices, so there's simply no excuse for the lack of hours.

This is the best job I've had in terms of the people I work with, and the products-obviously I love games. But even though I don't have the desire to move up in the company, I don't think it's wise to leave a job before you've found another one. Unfortunately, I burnt too many bridges in the past, and I need the longevity on my resume-the references aren't a problem; I know that everyone I've worked with would give me a good reference, including my boss.

As far as shopping for games, the only other alternatives in Denver are Game Force and GameCrazy, neither of which are anywhere near as well -stocked as any GS I've been in-and that is the main criteria for me as to where I buy my games.

Again, sorry for getting so pissy. Vocational Rehab. is willing to help through a 3-week skills evaluation-through these guys: http://www.bayaudindustries.org/

and I'm going to take it. But until I have another job offer on the table, I don't think I should leave GS.

[jp]

Yeah, Gamestop will fuck you over on hours. Though I used to sneak in hours here and there by coming in an hour or two early, hahaha, thankfully no one at my store really gave a shit.

I'm actually doing a brief stint back at my old store right now. Its lame, and I have a much better job, but eh... the people I worked with were cool, so I figured I might as well help out since they're really short on people at the moment. *shrugs*

[dave4shmups]

Yeah, Gamestop will fuck you over on hours. Though I used to sneak in hours here and there by coming in an hour or two early, hahaha, thankfully no one at my store really gave a shit.

I'm actually doing a brief stint back at my old store right now. Its lame, and I have a much better job, but eh... the people I worked with were cool, so I figured I might as well help out since they're really short on people at the moment. *shrugs*

Well, unfortunately our District Manager will complain about my boss going over on any hours. Once, she complained that the windows (we're in a strip mall) weren't clean, and he responded, "That's because the guy who usually does them isn't here!". Ridiculous.

Oh, and we're having a store meeting tonight, for two hours. That should be a hoot. At least I'll get paid. The DM will be there, and I will be polite but firm if she asks any questions about complaints. If she tries to transfer me to another store, which I don't think will happen, then I'll put in my 2 weeks notice. There's no way, with gas prices being what they are, that I can justify driving any further then I'm driving now. Last fall, I was willing to drive around to different because I was desperate for extra hours, but no GS store should have staffing issues in the first place.

I will stay there, unless I find something better, for a year-which would be late this September, but that's it. I need something more professional, with a better salary, and health care benefits, as many prescriptions as I have. And I'm sick of retail.

EDIT: So I go to the meeting last night, and my boss said that the DM had made a recent visit which went terribly. He complained that he was not getting enough hours from her, at which point she pointed to a security tape showing myself, and my assistant manager, standing around behind the counter. I apologized to my boss, although he wasn't even angry.

But I'm too hard on myself, and this has gotten me even more depressed about working there. On the list of the DM's complaints were not enough sales-easy to fix if we just ask someone if they want a used copy of a game when we ring up a new one. But we've got this stupid "Game Days" sale going on for the entire month of June.

I'm beginning to doubt going through that 3-week vocational and skills evaluation will do any good. I know what my skills are, I know, for example, that I could write for a living, although I don't have a journalism degree.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

I cannot tell you how many times that damn company has put me on hold while looking for a game. It is usually 9+ minutes if they ever bother to answer the phone again.

[bay]

I cannot tell you how many times that damn company has put me on hold while looking for a game. It is usually 9+ minutes if they ever bother to answer the phone again.

in my most recent email interaction with gamestop online support, it took 5 emails for me to figure out why they didn't send me a preorder item. it was annoying when the entire conversation was highlighted in the quoted text of the email, and i get a cookie cutter response as if i just wrote them initially. so pissed.

[Lordstar]

But I'm too hard on myself, and this has gotten me even more depressed about working there. On the list of the DM's complaints were not enough sales-easy to fix if we just ask someone if they want a used copy of a game when we ring up a new one. But we've got this stupid "Game Days" sale going on for the entire month of June.

Yeah I was in GAME (here in the UK its the biggest games chain store) a guy in front of me was buying a new Guitar hero 3 wireless bundle which was 50GBP and the guy behind the counter asks him if he would like a 2nd hand one and save some cash (which there forced to ask) the guy seemed pretty happy about the idea until I stuck my beak in and pointed out that there was a sale and the 2nd hand ones are 65GBP right now.

I dont blame the guy behind the counter he cant know the rates for all the games but its bad that they have to meet 2nd hand games quotas and they insist on having sales on new stock which makes the newer games cheaer than the 2nd hand equivlent.

I used to get slammed for not getting enough people to sign up for reward cards back in the day before EB bought out game (in the UK) still I like game over gamestop, despuite them being the same company. they have a much lower ratio of scene/emo kids to actualy people with knolege.

Some kids were arguing about which came to the UK first Pokemon or Digimon. I politley stuck my beak in again to tell them that Digimon had a tamagotchi type thing out in the UK before the USA even had the first gameboy game. Only for a fucking retarded Emo kid working at gamestop with more Side ways swooshy (yeah I said fucking swooshy) to chirp in

NU-UH! You RETARD! pokemon was on TV waaaaaaaaaaaay before digimon!

The kids laughed, and i just smiled to myslef thinking, well if the kids cant even recall what they were arguing about in the first place and not feel the urge to verbally bitch slap an emo just because they work in a game shop there not really worth giving an my insight to.

Just because you work where they sell games and anime products does not make you knowledgeable about Games or anime, FACT!

[dave4shmups]

I cannot tell you how many times that damn company has put me on hold while looking for a game. It is usually 9+ minutes if they ever bother to answer the phone again.

That stinks. I can tell you, though, that at our store we just look for the game disc, instead of plowing through the PS2 and XBOX $9.99 and under bins, which are always a mess. That makes it a lot quicker for the customer waiting on the phone. But we can't look up stuff at other stores because (are you ready for this?) we are still on dial up! Even our customers laugh at us, when they hear it dialing!

Well, last night, my boss called me in for an evaluation-the first I've gotten since I started there, and I got a raise! Only 10 cents, but it's better then nothing. The biggest thing that he said that I need to work on is confidence, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone here.

[RackGaki]

Since you are soliciting advice, be a custodian for the state. I'm being completely serious.

You get paid twice what a normal custodian would in the free market. You get a union to back you up. If you do your job, you've exceeded management expectations. Zero stress, unless you gossip. Any workplace will have gossip for you to ignore.

If your local government doesn't have unionized support staff, then I suggest you continue to look elsewhere.

[dave4shmups]

Since you are soliciting advice, be a custodian for the state. I'm being completely serious.

You get paid twice what a normal custodian would in the free market. You get a union to back you up. If you do your job, you've exceeded management expectations. Zero stress, unless you gossip. Any workplace will have gossip for you to ignore.

If your local government doesn't have unionized support staff, then I suggest you continue to look elsewhere.

Good suggestion, except that I cannot work graveyard shifts because of my anxiety.

Well, I went down to this Bayaud Center and I'm pretty unimpressed. I told my DVR counselor that I'm not interested. To start with, you have to work several days, out of this 3-week evaluation, in this filthy paper shredding room, doing exactly that. In another building, one of the tests they have you go through is a box, that looks like it was made for kids, with a bunch of screws and holds in it, and you have to figure out what bolts fit where to test your "mechanical aptitude" . Now this place is a non-profit organization, so of course it wasn't anything fancy, but it's not for me-I'm pretty sure that between past experiences, job sites on the internet, that I'm a better judge of what my skills are, and what jobs I should be looking for.

[The n00b]

Since you are soliciting advice, be a custodian for the state. I'm being completely serious.

You get paid twice what a normal custodian would in the free market. You get a union to back you up. If you do your job, you've exceeded management expectations. Zero stress, unless you gossip. Any workplace will have gossip for you to ignore.

If your local government doesn't have unionized support staff, then I suggest you continue to look elsewhere.

Good suggestion, except that I cannot work graveyard shifts because of my anxiety.

Well, I went down to this Bayaud Center and I'm pretty unimpressed. I told my DVR counselor that I'm not interested. To start with, you have to work several days, out of this 3-week evaluation, in this filthy paper shredding room, doing exactly that. In another building, one of the tests they have you go through is a box, that looks like it was made for kids, with a bunch of screws and holds in it, and you have to figure out what bolts fit where to test your "mechanical aptitude" . Now this place is a non-profit organization, so of course it wasn't anything fancy, but it's not for me-I'm pretty sure that between past experiences, job sites on the internet, that I'm a better judge of what my skills are, and what jobs I should be looking for.

You know dave, you could be the world's most awesome car mechanic and not even know it... Trades people also get treated a whole lot better than retail guys.

[dave4shmups]

Has anyone on here worked for Target or Best Buy? Any thoughts, experiences? I'm really getting fed up with being scheduled like 8 hours/week, and I have far too much time to think anxious thoughts.

[Necronopticous]

Do not take a job at Target, unless you'd like suicide encouragement.

[Zebra Airforce]

Do not take a job at Target,

[dave4shmups]

Do not take a job at Target, unless you'd like suicide encouragement.

What's wrong with them, specifically? They offer benefits and everyone at the Target we shop at seems pretty happy.

At this point in time, I could (if I were living by myself) make more money sitting on my butt collecting welfare then I am at GameStop. I'm not kidding. Part of the problem is that my boss, who gave me a raise in June, and told us that he wishes he could give all of us 20-30 hours a week, then proceeded to hire another Game Adviser. (I smell a rat.) So that's just another person on the schedule and less hours for me. I think there are two people who are no longer working for us, but that doesn't help much, because it takes the company forever to get people like that off of the schedule, even after they're gone.

What about Best Buy? There are two of them that are pretty close to where I live. There's also a Costco that's hiring.

I could stay with GS through the holiday season, but there aren't too many companies, retail or otherwise, that hire right after the new year. And I have little reason to believe that I'll get any more hours this fall then I did last fall. The most I got then was about 40, one week, helping GS set up a new store. Even on Christmas week, I only got one day.

[Koa Zo]

At this point in time, I could (if I were living by myself) make more money sitting on my butt collecting welfare then I am at GameStop. I'm not kidding.

If this thought even crossed your mind, then there is absolutely no reason you should not have already filed for unemployment benefits.

If an employer cuts your hours, you are entitled to file for unemployment benefits that will make up the difference of the hours you no longer recieve.
If you were making an average of $300 a week previously, but you are only making $100 now, you should be entitled to collect nearly $200 a week through unemployment, if you had been employed with GameStop long enough, which it sounds like you have been.

[RackGaki]

Costco pays decent, respects their employees, and just engage in good business practices in general. No reason for any able-bodied person to pass up a job opportunity there.

I'd sign up for Costco yesterday if I didn't already have a job.

[Ed Oscuro]

ding ding, Koa Zo is da winner

in before closet republicans try to shame Dave for keeping his spine from touching his ribs

Also going to second the LEARN A TRADE approach...see if there aren't any programs locally that will let you learn some kind of trade. Anything but retail.