Eh, I'm just an employee. I see it like almost anyone should see their employer - the positives and the negatives. I don't agree that GameStop is a "blight upon the industry", but I do agree that what you're dealing with an entity that started as a specialty store and is struggling with its growth. I mean, we're what - a year or two removed from when the merger with EB Games, thus solidifying themselves as a huge nationwide retailer. The kind of transition and change that has taken place just months after the merger is pretty astonishing on a retail level.
Quite honestly, if I didn't think the company was making vast changes that I wanted as someone who did go to GameStop to buy videogames, I would not have taken this job. Yes, money was a huge motivation factor, but I was not going to sink my time into a company that alienates gamers (which is what was, and still is in some places, happening). But in the past 9 months, they have abandoned their draconian "write-up" system for employees, hired outside help to training store managers and associates (the kind of standardized training they're throwing at employees now never existed before), made employee retention 25% of a SMs bonus, weighted customer service experience heavily into store ranking (just 80% customer service experience can tank your store now), abandoned traditional "numbers first" format of ranking and are trying to court a lot of customers they lost back into the fold. That is a monumental amount of changes for a company to undertake right after a huge merger and this is just been since I've joined. That's insane.
... back to questions.
The coupon exists. I gave it to folks who pre-ordered the game. Every store got a limited number of coupons and it's up to the store to distribute them as they see fit. Considering that I like to thank folks who help our store in reservations, I gave it to those folks. It's just a straight $10 off. You can use it with anything, as far as I know. I have not tried to stack it.
Also, the "... you'll be sorry!" tactic blows and alienates more folks than it scares. I will tell folks from time to time that if they don't pre-order a certain game, then I will likely not have any copies for walk in customers on the day of release. Army of Two was one of those games recently, where I knew it was going to be a big sleeper hit (GameStop shut the reservation SKU off days before its release, an uncommon practice). Sure enough, folks had a difficult time getting the game. That said, I tried to help them get the game at other locations or gave them a day when we would receive some in store. Niche Japanese releases are one of the few times where I go, "If you want it, please pre-order it. Big box won't carry it and it'll ship limited quantities." I mean, I tell everyone that EA will restock Army of Two and unless you absolutely necessarily need it on release day, you can get it. But folks that want stuff like God Hand or Odin Sphere? Have fun going through used copies, because we won't get new ones.
The easiest way to get folks to understand where I'm coming from is just to let them know that the amount of copies of any particular game that is shipped to us is based on our reservation numbers. When you let a customer know that straight-up, I think it opens up a better dialogue than "... you'll be sorry!" I've had some SMs ridicule me, as if that is some kind of closely kept secret, but - fuck it! - it works.
