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Gamestop has always had a way of delivering the best deals, and discounts you can find in a retail location globally for gaming. But at what cost are they willing to pay in order to stay on top of the technological food chain?

I scoured forums, and even asked customers and associates how they feel about the retail giant to get more insight on the subject at hand.

The results were several mixed reviews—and even some blatant ones from Store Managers, and seasoned Game Advisors who have been with the company over several years.

As for customers, I’ve kept in close contact with many who still shop at Gamestop since I’ve left and received their findings as well.

I’ve put together the comments, and am presenting them to you for your consideration. For exclusive reasons I’ve redacted the identities of the interviewee’s, and only put their professional titles under their quotes.

“Power to the players” huh?

“I’ve worked for the company, for over 6 years as a Store Manager. I won’t go into too much detail but I will just say as with all places, if you can sell that’s No. 1. Don’t think for a second that game knowledge matters. It helps to a degree, but if you’re not a salesman, it doesn’t matter if you know more about games than every other store employee combined.”

– Gamestop Store Manager

“After I worked for Gamestop I ended up hating video games. But more than that I hated every day that I worked for that company. You could be having the best day and then you get to work and it goes straight to hell. I’m back in journalism now and I’m thankful every single day that I was able to get back into this field.”

– Gamestop Game Advisor

“I can see asking if you know about a season pass, but several pre-orders and credit cards even? Does corporate really think they can sell you on a credit card? Then again, maybe it does work, seeing as sometimes the customer isn’t always the brightest person.”

– Gamestop Customer

“That annoys me any store that I go to. Honestly I hate trying to up sell to customers my thing is if a customer wants it they will ask for it. The only other thing I hate worst is when they try to get you to sign up for a store credit card. If I want a freakin’ credit card I would be at my bank not a store.”

– Gamestop Customer

“This drives me crazy when they pitch to me. When I go there 9 times out of 10 I know what I want before I get there. I want to go in grab it, pay, and leave. Then I have to stand there for 15 minutes while they try to get me to pre-order every game coming out for the next year. They even tried to slip me a used copy of a brand new game I wanted without asking me! I know they are forced to do this but after I say not interested a few times they should take a hint…Thank God for Amazon.”

– Gamestop Customer

The boldness that Gamestop display’s towards their customers is ever-present in their business practices. At one point when I was employed I had my DM tell us through an email to “rip the pockets off of the customers.”

And “Take all their money—they’ll make more.” I remembered a time when it was cool to browse for games and feel welcome at Gamestop as if we were friends.

It feels now as if instead of a hug when you visit you’re being frisked to see if you have trades, pre-orders, or even just money to purchase their wares. It’s completely understandable why Game Advisors don’t last very long at the retail life.

As many of them are young kids living their dream thinking Gamestop will help them get into the gaming industry to begin their career.

This holds no water, especially because it only gives you context to fulfill the other side’s desires to build your resume slightly with their game one day.

Aspiring game developers shouldn’t look to Gamestop as a career starter—instead use it for what it’s intended for:

– Discounts on games for research

– Demographic research for your career

– Comic-Con access

– Exclusive knowledge of upcoming titles to build a portfolio

Perhaps Gamestop will stop playing to corporate greed and allow itself to become what it once was, but until that day comes we’ll view it for what it has become: The next Best Buy/ Target.

Kenay Peterson
The Gaming Ground