an agonizing gamestop moment episode 69: the lovelorn

[The Fake Shemp]

It does eat at your soul. I'm so close to celebrating my one-year anniversary of no retail!

[Van Cruncheon]

uh, eel has worked retail

LISTEN TO THE BORECAST you pale things

[The Fake Shemp]

Hey, don't yell at me! I'm an active subscriber and I just said retail sucks! I know Eel worked retail, we talked about it before!

[Eel O'Brian]

dude i know retail seems at times like a pit of despair, but working at a gamestore where you occasionally have to deal with smelly inbreeds, work a midnight launch, and be hit on every now and then (btw, this chick is in NOOooooo danger of that) is like a fucking slice of nirvana compared to scraping dog diarrhea off the walls of a junkie's abandoned hovel

[Ichirou]

Your job sounds like it builds character!

[Eel O'Brian]

or infection

[Eel O'Brian]

anyway, back to this ginger weeaboo

what was the titty situation like

[Van Cruncheon]

she had pretty bigguns

bit of a butterface, though

i probably wouldn't have said no, though, after a beer or two

mighta even called her in the morning if she liked shitty c-list jrpgs

[Ichirou]

What type of piercings did she have?

[Van Cruncheon]

just an eyebrow ring and nose stud

i hate the nose studs because they look like glittery zits

[Great Rumbler]

Prole, MAF, and TVC hang out at Gamestop? That's so awesome it blows my mind.

[Eel O'Brian]

i could probably tolerate sitting and watching someone play final fantasy if that someone were a big-boobed redhead

[Van Cruncheon]

i wouldn't say "hang out"

but "shop there weekly" wouldn't be inaccurate :'(

[Ichirou]

Agreed.

[Van Cruncheon]

i could probably tolerate sitting and watching someone play final fantasy if that someone were a big-boobed redhead

her voice wasn't irritating, at least, and she seemed to have a good command of the english language

the same could not be said for her erstwhile suitor

[Eel O'Brian]

i have a fear of metal in women's faces

[Ichirou]

Prole, MAF, and TVC hang out at Gamestop? That's so awesome it blows my mind.

Imagine the three of them at the food court ripping open their DS games and flipping through the manuals with their Sbarro-stained fingers.

[Eel O'Brian]

mr. wok

[Van Cruncheon]

Prole, MAF, and TVC hang out at Gamestop? That's so awesome it blows my mind.

Imagine the three of them at the food courtDenny's ripping open their DSPSP games and flipping through the manuals with their SbarroGrand Slam-stained fingers.

fix'd

[Eel O'Brian]

i miss denny's

[Van Cruncheon]

come to washington, we can rock the glandgrand slams

[Ichirou]

Shit, man, Denny's...you know Denny's in Japan have a completely different menu?  No Grand Slams, no Super Birds, no waffles...  :'(

It's all jappacrap like salisbury steaks and ramen and pork cutlets.

[Van Cruncheon]

filthy shitmerica has abolished the moons over my hammy

[Eel O'Brian]

come to washington, we can rock the glandgrand slams

that would be awesome

have you ever gone on free grand slam day

[Van Cruncheon]

no, i know the manager there and i do not wish to +1 his torment

[Eel O'Brian]

i bet it is a lot like the line in a game store x1000

[Mandark]

i coined it just for you! i thought about "father mike'd up" but i realized that you actually TALK to girls

I don't think my shrink and mother count.

They do for the rest of us!

[BlueTsunami]

The whole hot girl cashier really is cash money. If I had to choose between two gamestops, one with an inattentive dude or one an inattentive chica, I'd rather bask in the Amber Lamps.

I like this guy.  Someday he's goi g to get a pity jerk in the backseat of a honda accord just for throwing it out there while the girl is telling him to be quiet or he'll wake the baby sleeping in the back seat between two piles of empty soda bottles.  We'll read it differnetly at GAF, of course, but it'll still be the happiest day of his life that didn't have to do with catching all the Pokemons.

[pilonv1]

I like this guy.  Someday he's goi g to get a pity jerk in the backseat of a honda accord just for throwing it out there while the girl is telling him to be quiet or he'll wake the baby sleeping in the back seat between two piles of empty soda bottles.  We'll read it differnetly at GAF, of course, but it'll still be the happiest day of his life that didn't have to do with catching all the Pokemons.

oh god

[Sho Nuff]

Hey Prole, which Gamestop was this?

Also: I had a scary pierced EB manager send me really creepy messages through okCupid. Mental note: next time don't say you work in the game industry

[Van Cruncheon]

bellevue crossroads gamestop. hey, if yer ever in the microsoft area, we should have lunch!

[bork]

Moved if only so that more people will see this thread. 

[Ichirou]

The idea of going into a Gamestop disgusts me so much.  I do all my video game shopping online.

[bork]

The idea of going into a Gamestop disgusts me so much.  I do all my video game shopping online.

It has pretty much gotten to the point where there really is no reason to go to Gamestop anymore, although I do still go from time to time since one is less than five minutes down the road, and the current staff just sell me what I want without any dumb shit.  When there are annoying clerks in stores, I stop going to them for a while.  Customers, well...can't do anything about that.  Gotta say, living in Japan spoils you.  Game stores are always nice and clean, nobody bothers you and the service is really fast.

It's nowhere near as good as Prole's story, but here's what happened a week ago:

We were at the Mall of Georgia. I see there's a Gamestop there and while waiting for my wife to finish up lunch, I check to see if they have the game on my iPhone. It says they have it in stock. So we go into the store and I see one clerk busting her ass helping everyone, and the other talking to a girl that used to work there but quit/was fired/whatever and seems to just hang out there anyway. Yeah. This clerk finally decides to stop chatting and helping people, and I get him when it's my turn in line.

Me: Do you have Dynasty Warriors Strike Force on PS3?
Clerk: Strike Force? Never heard of that. We have Dynasty Warriors Gundam...
Former Clerk: Check the computer under new listings. It probably just came out.
Me: Yeah, it did.
Clerk: No, sorry. I don't see anything. Are you sure it's out?
Me: Yeah, it's definitely out.
Clerk: Well, I've never heard of it and I can't even find a listing for it.
Me: You guys have it for 360.
Clerk: I don't think we do.
Me: The box is over there.
Clerk: Show me where. (Note- all the games in the store are displayed in alphabetical order)
Me: Right here. Guess you don't have it on PS3.
Clerk: Oh. Yeah, I guess not. They must have not made it for PS3.

I thought about asking him to check behind the counter or in their new game case behind him, but I didn't want to waste any more of his time macking on the former employee, so after we left the mall I went and purchased it elsewhere.

Depends on the location. Sometimes there will be two stores in the same mall or within walking distance from one another, so the company will trick consumers into thinking they are separate stores with the different names. There was still a Babbage's in California before I left (because a GameStop was in the same mall).

The same Gamestop I go to used to be EB Games.  For a couple of years, they had two stores in the same mall, at opposite ends of each other.  Never saw that anywhere else.  The newer one (which closed) was never busy...I don't think people even knew it was there since the other location has been at that mall for forever.  Occasionally I'd go there to purchase games that the busier store was sold out of, and the one clerk that worked there would always be playing games from behind the counter.   

[Ichirou]

Back home, they have THREE stores in one mall.  Babbage's, EB, and EB Kids.

[bork]

What's "EB Kids?"

[Ichirou]

It's an Electronics Boutique but allegedly geared towards the younger set.  They seem to have the exact same stuff every other gamestop/EB does, though.

[cool breeze]

The EB Kids (for some reason I keep thinking it turned into an EBX eventually) at a mall I frequented had a lot of kid stuff.  Learning software for mac and PC, that leapfrog stuff, and other things of that sort.

Back home, they have THREE stores in one mall.  Babbage's, EB, and EB Kids.

oh yeah, babbages.  That was the other one.

[bork]

Are there any Software Etc. and Waldensoftware stores still around?

[ManaByte]

The GS near me is evil with pushing preorders.

I was picking up ME2 and I had some store credit left over:

Manager: You have some credit left over so I'll go head and put that on God of War 3 for you.
Me: No thanks I don't have a PS3.
Manager: You sure that games going to be sick? How about MAG that's out real soon and is a shooter like Mass Effect?
Me: I don't have a PS3.

The guy went into a PS3 sales pitch before I was able to have him put the rest of my credit in a card.

[ManaByte]

Are there any Software Etc. and Waldensoftware stores still around?

IIRC they were converted over to Babbages.

[cool breeze]

Are there any Software Etc. and Waldensoftware stores still around?

I think every game store is now gamestop.  I remember before half were gamestop owned and half were electronic boutiques owned.

[ManaByte]

Are there any Software Etc. and Waldensoftware stores still around?

I think every game store is now gamestop.  I remember before half were gamestop owned and half were electronic boutiques owned.

The way it was:

EB and Waldengames were one company.

Babbages, Software ETC, and Funcoland were another.

The two companies merged and became Gamestop.

I used to work at an EB before going to the Software Etc in the same mall and the competition between the two was vicious. I remember once UPS accidentally delivered Software ETCs shipment of NBA Live 96 to EB and the manager held it in the back room for a week just to fuck over the other store.

[ManaByte]

I also remember the day I started at Software ETC because that day the manager, assistant manager, and third key were all dragged out of the store in handcuffs for theft leaving me as the only employee at that location. That store went through two more managers for the same reason before I finally got out of there and was helping to run the DMs store.

[bork]

The best part was the chick pretending to get a phone call.  During my game shop days, one of the guys I worked with would use his cell to call the store (or vice-versa) when a particularly-annoying lady would come in and talk to him non-stop.  It was awesome; you'd never know he was having a conversation with himself.  Sometimes I'd go in the back room and call him too.    These types of people were also great for racing to see who could get out the door first to go on a food or drink run.

[Ichirou]

Worship the Willcock!!!

[brawndolicious]

Depends on the location. Sometimes there will be two stores in the same mall or within walking distance from one another, so the company will trick consumers into thinking they are separate stores with the different names. There was still a Babbage's in California before I left (because a GameStop was in the same mall).

The same Gamestop I go to used to be EB Games.  For a couple of years, they had two stores in the same mall, at opposite ends of each other.  Never saw that anywhere else.  The newer one (which closed) was never busy...I don't think people even knew it was there since the other location has been at that mall for forever.  Occasionally I'd go there to purchase games that the busier store was sold out of, and the one clerk that worked there would always be playing games from behind the counter.   

In Westfield mall in San Jose, there was a gamestop on the second floor that was about 20 yards from an escalator.  At the bottom of that escalator, there was an eb games about 20 yards in the same direction (they were essentially on top of each other).  yeah, I think that whole situation lasted about a year after the merger.

[bork]

What I was talking about was that there two EB Games stores.  No differences in the names or anything.  I heard it was due to some loophole where the mall only allowed two video games stores maximum, but didn't say that they couldn't be the same, so after the Babbage's there closed, they rushed to open up another store to block Gamestop from coming in.

[The Fake Shemp]

There was a mall in Hayward that had a Funcoland and EB Games in the same mall, and right outside across the parking lot (still within the confines of the "mall") was a GameStop. Then literally two blocks away was another GameStop.

And during the holidays, they opened a GameStop kiosk inside the middle of the mall.

I imagine we'll look back at that kind of expansion as one of the reasons the company is dead, along with the fact that most consumers buy their games digitally.

[Kestastrophe]

I love the creepy stories of incidental ( ) brushes with fleshy female parts and Will's stories of exploitive hiring practices

You're right tho. The gamestop in Grand Rapids had this smokin hot tatted up girl and was the busiest one I've seen, at least when I lived there. In contrast, the local store here is full of dicks and there's never more than a handful of peeps

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[The Fake Shemp]

 

One manager hired a bunch of his Magic tourney buddies and his store was always empty, save for some really skeevy-looking dudes. He asked me for advice, and I had to tell him that not only was his store a sausage factory, but it was mouth breather central - thus scaring anyone away with the slightest sense of worth.

[Don Flamenco]

I had a female gamestop clerk beg me for pre-orders once...I still remember her because she's one of the ugliest people I've seen in my life, which probably had some effect on her quotas    All this business about girl clerks is funny though...the busiest stores I've lived around all had at least one decent looking chick.  They're usually pretty self-confident and deal with shmucks all day, so it's fun to catch them off guard by flirting with them well. 


My favorite gamestop character is the guy who gets too excited when a girl asks him about a game, so he goes into way too much detail explaining it to her, thus revealing his complete inner nerd.

[The Fake Shemp]

I've seen that happen a lot. It's embarrassing to see a grown man know so much about Pokemon.

[Bloodwake]

My worst GameStop story: your typical supergeek came into the store one day so excited about Fable II that he decided to spoil the entire game for me during work

The worst part: HE WORKED THERE AND KNEW I WAS PLAYING THE FUCKING GAME.

 

[Don Flamenco]

I've seen that happen a lot. It's embarrassing to see a grown man know so much about Pokemon.

or they go completely overboard...like "no, you shouldn't get your 5 year old son Disney Basketball, it's just licensed shovelware made by unknown devs.  If he wants to have fun, get him the Steel Batallion kit, which comes with a huge controller that's like the cockpit of a real bipedal mech!" 

these are the same kinds of people who build super rigs that can run crysis maxed at 60fps with led mods and alien head stickers when their grandma asks them to build an AOL machine. 

[Kestastrophe]

My worst GameStop story: your typical supergeek came into the store one day so excited about Fable II that he decided to spoil the entire game for me during work

The worst part: HE WORKED THERE AND KNEW I WAS PLAYING THE FUCKING GAME.

>implying Fable 2 is a game and that it had a story worth spoiling

[Don Flamenco]

My worst GameStop story: your typical supergeek came into the store one day so excited about Fable II that he decided to spoil the entire game for me during work

The worst part: HE WORKED THERE AND KNEW I WAS PLAYING THE FUCKING GAME.

>implying Fable 2 is a game and that it had a story worth spoiling

press left on d-pad to be evil

[Brehvolution]

On Thursday, the gamestop dude wanted me to justify moving my pre-order of Bad Company 2 to GOW3. I ignored him and got Red Faction off the shelf, checked my receipt that the move was made, and left without saying another word.

[The Fake Shemp]

I am with that clerk. So disappointed in you.

[Brehvolution]

Sorry to let the Boresquad down.  :'(

Blame Sony and their amazing MLB franchise which releases the same day as BC2. I don't even watch MLB. Don't even have a favorite team. Road to the Show is like sticking your penis into the thumb hole of a freshly oiled catchers glove.