I had a year of college knocked down and things were going great. Well, not financially great. Christmas was approaching
and I needed to be able to afford a few gifts for my girlfriend (future wife). Since the semester ended early in December I
knew I could pick-up a temporary retail job. An EBGames store was the perfect fit. I applied for a seasonal post and was hired in a second.
They were happy to have someone that not only didn't require training but could actually train the other Christmas help.
In 15 months a lot had changed, more than just the name. The first thing I noticed was a new register system. The new system
ran on top of Windows 95 and had a game reservation system built-in. This was a nice change from the amber screen terminals
and giant reservation binder. The game selection had obviously evolved too. Genesis and Super Nintendo were relegated
to a preowned bin, the Saturn was nearly invisible. The Playstation and Nintendo 64 were duking it out for system dominance
and Sony had the upper hand.
Earlier in 1997 EBGames introduced a "preferred buyers card".
For $30 a year you'd get 5% off all purchases (hardware excluded). In
case you can't do the math, it would take $600 of games to break even.
When we tried to sell it we used the phrase "one $50 game a
month" because it sounded better. Kinda like how infomercials
will say "four easy payments of $70" instead of "this
piece of crap costs $280". These cards were only the second
item we were offered a commission on. EBGames knew the average buyer
wouldn't come near the $600 mark so they wanted to sell as many as
possible.
The one thing that didn't change was the customers. The thing I remember
best about this time was a parent looking for "Residential
Evil", classic.
Something about this Christmas season felt off. There was no "must have" game out. GoldenEye
for the Nintendo 64 was the top seller of the season but there wasn't a "buzz" around gaming this year. The store
was busy of course but not like previous years. There wasn't a mega-smash-hit game or epic battle of gaming platforms.
It just felt, well, average.
Even the highly anticipated Quake II launch seemed bland.
For about two days it sold like crazy but then dropped off.
Maybe a nearby competitor was selling it cheaper, maybe it was being pirated left
& right, whatever the case its sales flattened shortly after the release.
In January of 1998 I started working as a Visual Basic programmer, signaling my exit from retail. I wasn't even finished
with college yet but had a pseudo-real job. Software companies were so desperate
for help that they didn't care
if prospects had a degree or real experience. I knew VB well enough to breeze though a technical interview, although
in hindsight I wasn't yet fully qualified for the type of work thrown at me. A company
desperate enough to hire an under qualified programmer also didn't care if that programmer worked 2:00-10:00 PM. There was another guy in the same situation as me, going to
college full-time and coming in to crank out VB code at odd hours. We got a lot of work done so nobody really cared. There was
a very reckless mindset across most of IT in that brief era. Needless to say, this company is no longer in business.
In 2005 I attended a Microsoft sponsored ASP.NET/SQL Server security event in the Milwaukee area. On the way home I stopped
by
Bayshore Mall to check out the old place. Apparently it's undergoing some kind of renovation now but clearly wasn't at the
time. The Waldensoftware was long gone, replaced by an EBGames in a small location off the food court. Instead of being
filled with toxic nail salon fumes it had the lingering aroma of many fast food items mashed together. That gag-inducing blend
of burgers, fries, pizza, imitation Chinese cuisine, and overflowing garbage
cans. I shivered at the thought that I could
still be working there.
I still visit the
EBGames at
Gurnee Mills often but rarely buy games anymore. Most of my free time is
occupied by (slightly) more productive hobbies. There's a
GameStop in
the mall so I wonder if the recent merger will result in one or the other closing. Although it's not the largest mall in the
country anymore, it's still big enough to support both.
Some readers may think I was a tad harsh on retail employees in this little article, that was not the intention.
I do poke fun at the "career" employees, which are different than a true career retailer.
What's the difference?
Being a regional or district manager, managing a Home Depot, or owning your own store are all examples of having a retail career.
These all require a college degree and actual management skills.
A 20-something college dropout who calls their mall job a "career" to make it sound like they're doing something with their life is, well, a loser.
I've met many, many more of the latter.
Retail is fine as a part-time job under the right circumstances.
You're guaranteed to work indoors with minimal manual labor, there's probably an employee discount. It's not a bad gig.
If you have a real job and want to earn a few extra bucks for a big purchase, go ahead and work retail a couple evenings.
If your spouse has a real job and you want to be home in the afternoon for your kids, take a job at the mall from 8:00-3:00.
If you're in college full-time, a retail job will fit nicely around your class schedule.
The target of my criticism is the above mentioned 20-something.
While I criticize, I also genuinely hope they have an epiphany of their own that guides them on to better places.
Here are a few common misconceptions about video game retail that didn't fit
anywhere else:
Misconception: Items that are featured prominently in a store are the highest-sellers.
Reality: Retail stores lease prominent shelf space (end-caps, front of the store displays) to vendors.
The first I remember Elbo doing this was in 1993 or 1994. By 1996 nearly all
the high-profile space was reserved. If you walked into an
electronics store in late 2005 or early 2006 you might think that UMD movies were selling like
hotcakes.
It would later come out that the format was struggling.
Misconception: An individual retail store has direct control of their inventory.
Reality: The inventory for chain retail stores is controlled by a home office distribution system.
The home office may adjust a particular store's inventory to meet local market conditions but the store staff has little to no input on the matter.
Vendors themselves also control the supply of their products; stores can't sell more than what a manufacturer produces.
The crappy bookstore I worked at from late 1996-1997 was the opposite case,
but that company is out of business now.
Misconception: The staff at a video game store knows some secret information about release dates that's being kept from the public.
Reality: This was the most painful misconception I encountered at Elbo.
We received 10-20 phone calls a day from customers looking for release dates.
At least half of those ended with the caller challenging the answer we gave, as though we were hiding something from them.
The worst phone call I ever had ended with the caller asking "
do you
not know the release date or are you not telling me because I'm black?",
I simply replied "
how do I know what color you are over the phone?"
The information that came down from home office was based on the same sources that magazines and web sites used.
There was no secret channel of communication from the vendors telling us when their games were arriving.
Release dates were always subject to change anyway. Calling the store is a waste of both your time and
theirs.
Misconception: Employees at a video game store have played every game on the shelf and have comprehensive knowledge about every product there.
Reality: Employees have played under 10% of the games at the store.
Let's face it, on $7-$15 an hour you're not buying a lot of games.
The answer to "
have you played [insert game title]?" is always "
yes" but that's the result of wanting to seem l33t or make a sale.
Misconception: Employees at a video game store make a commission on sales.
Reality: Usually false. Commissions are typically earned on extended warranty sales but not on merchandise.
The retail markup on new video games is actually quite low, zero on hardware, so it's not economical to pay commissions.
I can't speak for every store on this though.
Misconception: If you nag enough, the guy behind the counter can hook you up with a discount.
Reality: Nope. At a corporate owned store the employees can not negotiate prices. Giving an unauthorized discount is grounds for termination. No amount of begging, or even yelling, will earn you a special deal of any kind.
Once or twice we had organizations that wanted to make extremely large
purchases, like for a new rec center, and asked for a volume discount. Those
sales had to go through the home office.
Misconception: Buying an item at a store obligates them to provide
technical support.
Reality: This was a huge problem from 1992-1995 when Elbo sold more
computer hardware (by 1996 it was only a few items). Many customers that had
problems would call us for help based on the "
you sold this to me so
you have to help me" premise. If the dude working at Elbo knew how
to configure IRQ/DMA, install Windows, or recover data from a fried hard
drive he wouldn't be working at Elbo.
The article "
28 Confessions of a
GameStop Shift Supervisor" shares, and expands, on a number of
these misconceptions. It's a good read if you liked this piece.
This article was authored from 10-14 year-old personal recollections.
The content of this article was verified to the best of my abilities.
Nothing in this article is deliberately false or exaggerated. I’m not nearly creative enough to make this kind of stuff
up. Any confirmed inaccuracies will be corrected immediately.
The following sources were used to fact check this article:
I turned 21 in 1996. As a result there's a lot of missing time that year.
Luckily, I had an old CD laying around labeled "EB Spring '96".
It was a disc we gave away at stores (sponsored by Prodigy) that contained a mail-order catalog of every item we stocked.
I used this CD as a reference for the
1996 page.
I have mixed feelings about Wikipedia.
On one hand, it provides an incredibly powerful means to quickly find a piece of information.
I rarely question the accuracy of anything published there so I have no reservations about consulting it.
On the other hand, I'd never use it as a reference for a formal publication.
The articles there are usually assembled from a variety of sources.
Although Wikipedia has authoring standards, the sources for articles may not.
For example, many of the video game articles cite an FAQ that has no sources.
This would not pass an academic or professional review.
Being a recreational article, Wikipedia is an acceptable source though.
The following Wikipedia articles were used to verify facts and release
dates:
See
http://www.wageaccess.com/ncs/retail.asp
for information on retail wages.
The numbers I quote are based off a mix of personal experience and the statistics on that site.
The ranges they quote don't breakdown salary by store size, type, or required level of education.
For example, someone managing a Wal-Mart or Sears makes substantially more than someone managing a
GameStop or Hot Topic.
Since the skills required to manage a large store are harder to find than for a smaller store it's only logical.
Conversations in this article are obviously not the exact exchange that occurred.
They are based on actual events and reflect the demeanor to the best of my recollection.
I intentionally refrained from using real names because of this.
Thanks to thomas80 for the correction on how many disks shipped in the
Windows 95 package.
Thanks to Claudio for the correction on which countries in South America use PAL vs. NTSC.
Thanks to Chris F. for links to the YouTube videos of the Jennifer Aniston & Matthew Perry Windows 95 Guide.
Thanks to Dereck W. for a DriveSpace/DoubleSpace correction.
Please feel free to
contact me if you
believe something in this article is not accurate, or if you just want to pass along some feedback (which is
always appreciated).
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