Sales have not gone down in my business, simply because entertainment still fares pretty well in bad economies. GameStop in particular is doing well because we give desperate folks cash for games, which in turn gives us more used inventory that cash-strapped people will buy. I'm talking about seeing way more over qualified resumes, turmoil in the retail sector (Sears just laid off a bunch of folks who are flooding our company with resumes, several retail chains have cut hours so bad that folks are looking for retail work... in JANUARY), customer service trends (the data backs this up - we're dealing with more irate customers, especially in regards to returning open merchandise due to financial concerns) and a lot more people selling off their stuff than what is usual.
Most of it is good for me, because I get a better pool of workers to choose from and more product on my shelves, but the customer service aspect has become a real juggling act. People want their money back for $60 games that suck because they don't have that kind of money to buy another game. They won't take no for an answer. In general, you got a few of these customers in early and mid-2007. It increased with the holidays. It's hit like a fever pitch the past month. I pretty much only deal with these kind of customer complaints on weekends now - I don't even ring or help other folks.
Yesterday alone was pretty nuts. I had one guy want a refund for a gift card that he bought in December, but he lost the gift card and the receipt. I had no less than six folks who bought either new PS3 and Xbox 360 games at $59.99, open them and play them (and hate them), who wanted a full refund or exchange. I had several people try to return stuff they bought from December... in February (one drunk dude tried to return a new copy of Heavenly Sword he bought on like 12/10 that had smudges and scratches on it, and spat in an employee's face once they said no). And my favorite complaint yesterday was that I was accused of being a cheap, dirty fucking company because someone bought a 360 Premium in December and it "did not have a wire for the controller".
That happens a lot nowadays, though. We're even undergoing new coaching on how to handle new customer service experience and stuff, because some stores have kind of been hit hard with this stuff.
