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Awesome Game Store Owners
mmooneybsa
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
For those of us who buy from a person.
The recent comics prompted me to post this, hope it hasn't been done already (I did search some).
I know of 2 very Awesome Game Store Owners, in Virginia. While there are other awesome stores, their owners are not so much, and are very well represented by the recent comics.
One Eyed Jacques
Richmond, VA
Joe knows the business, has excellent customer service, and often better prices than you will find online. He orders a pallet of 'scratch & dent' games monthly and sells them for 1/2 off or better.
The Game Vault
Fredericksburg, VA
Kathy is so good the store is profitable :shock:, and if you don't know how uncommon that is, you need to support your local stores better. Kathy provides 15+ tables to play on, shelves upon shelves of terrain to use at the store, and allowed me to run an Anime club out of her store.
The recent comics prompted me to post this, hope it hasn't been done already (I did search some).
I know of 2 very Awesome Game Store Owners, in Virginia. While there are other awesome stores, their owners are not so much, and are very well represented by the recent comics.
One Eyed Jacques
Richmond, VA
Joe knows the business, has excellent customer service, and often better prices than you will find online. He orders a pallet of 'scratch & dent' games monthly and sells them for 1/2 off or better.
The Game Vault
Fredericksburg, VA
Kathy is so good the store is profitable :shock:, and if you don't know how uncommon that is, you need to support your local stores better. Kathy provides 15+ tables to play on, shelves upon shelves of terrain to use at the store, and allowed me to run an Anime club out of her store.
mmooneybsa on
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The last time I went in I got the strange scary feeling that I would be like them destined to argue about things that don't matter with people who care too much and smelling horrible for no damn good reason. That's not for me.
Instead I post here!
The owner would often consult his customers on what games were the best to put out front, and would give out extra freebie promo's to regulars in exchange for reviews of new games when they came back in, so as to ensure his advertised stock was as appealing as possible to casual and hardcore gamers alike. If a game was screwed up, or defective, or just outright blatantly lying about it's features, he'd go out of his way to make it right for you, too.
He would also give you a heads up if a game wasn't up your alley, and he knew what sort of games you liked (And he made an effort to find out and suggest some any time you showed up, rather then just spouting off a list of new releases coming up and suggesting a pre-order.). His employees really loved the guy too. Apparently he made working as part of a cog in a giant, uncaring machine, fun.
As a result of that guy, I would often buy boxed copies over electronic copies of games, since I knew I was guaranteed good service if I bought from there.
Sadly, that guy moved on to better things, and the store is now populated by over-worked, greasy nerds with a minimum capacity for understanding how to run a business, bring in customers, and actually socialize with them.
The last time I went there, I got into an argument over buying a PS3. The guy working the register "assured" me, that the Xbox was superior, and I should get one of them instead (I already owned one at the time. This did nothing to deter him.).
This was on the month the PS3's were released, mind you. There were well over fifty people behind me waiting in line. This guy would not shut up about how much he hated the PS3 for overly graphic and technical reasons. It took me getting rather threatening to actually get him to shut the hell up and process my order.
They also hate PC games, as most of the stock is kept in the back. That space has been reserved for the usual upcoming FPS's and console games.
The only other Gamestop in the area tends to have employees who put people down for pre-orders without telling them. Bringing this up with the manager there tends to lead to him getting very confrontational with you.
Mostly, I buy electronic copies now.
Ironically, from what I understand, that Gamestop was so wildly successful while he was there because he went against some of the company policies.
It was regularly pulling in way more income then anyone expected, and noone could figure out why. Apparently Gamestop doesn't get the idea of good customer service being important to customers.
Nothing's forgotten, nothing is ever forgotten
Love that place
I'm sure GameStop realizes this, but the benefit of hiring white glove retail talent is likely outweighed by the cost recruiting/retaining quality talent.
The retail employee you remember is about as rare as a unicorn.
He may have meant that the employee would add a $5 preorder to a sale without the customer's consent. I had a guy try to do that to me with one of their disc insurance deals. Got half way out the door before I checked the receipt because the total sounded funny.
Critical Hit Games in Iowa City, my local store, is definitely one of the best. Just not having the owner looming over everything, running it shoddily or favoring 'friends' and promoting a great atmosphere.
So yeah, good game stores are awesome.
Of course then he moved the store to a new loaction and two months later the city tore up the street for blocks in front of his store making it a giant pain in the ass to get to.
He ended up moving back to the old location after six months and closed for good shortly after that and now there's basically no dedicated hobby/gaming store in the city
I was one of those managers at Gamestop... spent almost 12 years there. I had no problem telling customers what games were good or bad, what would be up their alley and what wouldn't. Hell, some of them are still on my XBL friends list.
One of the times my DM was visiting my store, a customer came in and I talked him out of buying a new game... 25 to Life, I think. Fucking awful game, and Gamestop got behind it in a big way. My DM was unhappy when I talked the customer out of it, but he bought $300 worth, and $100 of that was suggestions I made when he put that shitpile back. Afterwards our conversation went something like this:
DM: You should have let him buy that, you don't know whether he would have liked it or not.
Me: Actually, I do know, because it's terrible.
DM: But you don't know all of your customers and their tastes.
Me: I know that's Brian, that he lives in St. Johnsbury (2.5 hours away), has a 16 year old son on the track team and a 13 year old daughter not playing any sports, and that he comes down to this area every three months to shop. His first stop every trip is here, and that's because he's not just a customer to us.
My DM seriously could not get through his head that we got to know our customers personally and that actually helped our sales. Until he saw our comp numbers after the first year open and realized we were making way more than the company ever could have predicted.
They're right beside the Columbia skytrain station for those in the Vancouver area...
Also across the plaza from that particular GW is a comic store that I've only ever been to once (the day before I left for Japan), but the guys there are all cool. My friends and I are all really manga guys at heart, but they had the patience to explain to us just how comics work. Universe resets, book value, awesome current series, etc. Sure, the staff are almost intimidatingly neckbeardy, but unlike the Comic Book Guy in the Simpsons, it's a rather friendly and sociable neckbeardiness. They've probably been running the shop for years.
Presumably he's still in Korea?
(I assume no responsibility if you lose 4 hours reading the entire site)
See how many books I've read so far in 2010
Gamestop DMs, at least in my NY/NJ region, were dumb as posts. They were really fucking stupid and terrible and my manager was openly hostile to them all. He was a 50+ year old ex-cop, too, which made it even more awesome. Those squirts would come in and try to bully him into affecting THIS change or THAT change and he said "no" all the time and they never managed to force his hand, somehow.
Sorry, I should say "EB DMs" - I worked at an Electronics Boutique before they merged with Gamestop.
There is however a comic book store, that also deals in D&D books and card games (Magic type card games) and a little bit in miniatures, and they seem like pretty cool guys, too bad I'm not into any of that stuff any more.