Before I start this I would like to point out that I mayself used to work at a GAME in my local shopping centre, and I loved it. I am not trying to knock everything single person working at those type of stores, but rather the company policy to hiring, so with that in mind here we go!
Last night I took Guitar Hero: World Tour back to the store. I played it for about an hour with my girlfriend and nephew, and discovered that one of the cymbals dosent work and there is something rattling in the guitar. So I walked in, dropped it down and said it dont work can I have my money back?
Happily they agreed and it was refunded to a gift card. I then proceeded to trade in my launch day PSP, so I could get a PSP3000. I spoke to a different sales advisor behind the counter and got a bundle that included Lego Batman and Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters. She disappeared for a good five min looking for a Ratchet and Clank box, which I found on the shelf behind me. Needless to say I got a little worried, but that wasnt the killer, that could have happened to anyone.
The killer came when she sorted everything else out and was ready to start processing the sale. Here is the conversation that followed:
"Can I also get a copy of Gears of War 2 please?"
"For the psp?"
"What?"
"For the psp?"
"Gears of War 2?"
"yeah for the psp?"
"no the 360..."
"Oh ok"
Now unless I have completely mis-read things, isnt Gears 2 the biggest game of the holiday season?!? and certainly the last 2 weeks, surely she should know what format its on, especially since there is only 1 version?
It's this that sums up the hiring policy for games retailers such as GAME. The employee's dont have to play games, or be interested in them at all, hell, I manged to get my future sister in law a job there by saying you dont need to know about games. I have had managers there give out wrong info on games and hardware to customers, and the customers believed them. I have actually taken over from a sales assistant while they were helping a customer before now, and done a better job, and I wasnt even working there!!!!
While I did work at that very same store, the assistant manager told me in not so many words I was bad at my job. I was the only one reading games magazines on my lunch for every format at the time and the only one with every console at the time. My knowledge was unsurpassed in that store, with several of the staff not even knowing the different genres of games, despite them being quite broad.
My point is shouldn't being a gamer be a pre-requiste for a job at a games store? maybe I am being idealistic but they constantly bombast us with signs saying 'Ask for assistance' but what good is that when the assistance knows less than the customer? If stores like GAME want to survive, they have to be the 'Go to' for people who want to purchase games.
And that means having staff who are gamers, who read the magazines, who look at the websites, prehaps even a dedicated team of games journalists who update an intranet site on a regular basis. Again this may be me being idealistic, and its a vision that can never come to pass, but surely this would make GAME and its ilk better places to shop, increasing the number of people who go there and, in turn, increase profits.
What do you think good people? a vision of a beautiful tomorrow? or the mad rantings of a bitter idealogist? discuss.
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