What if 8-bit Theatre… [ COMIC ]
Today’s comic is inspired by 8-bit Theatre done by Brian Clevinger. Brian’s been doing 8-bit Theatre for over six years and can still constantly delight. I had the honor of working “with” Brian back in January when I created the vector versions of Scott Ramsoomair character art for the 8-bit Theater Shot Glasses. Regardless, 8-bit Theatre is an awesome webcomic and if you’ve never read it before I recommend spending some quality time over the weekend and checking it out. You won’t be disappointed. Sword-chucks, yo!
Real quick, before I go on a very long winded diatribe I did an interview with Paul Semel of Riottt.com. So head on over there and check it out.
And now: Having Reservations… Part II
I recieved some many emails about the previous comic, that I was unable to respond to them all personally. So I decided to continue the discussion here.
The entity we know as GameStop is a consolidated merger of many different companies… Babbage’s, Software Etc., FuncoLand, Electronics Boutique and a few others. Now with all of these companies combined together, one of them has to be the originator of their heavy pressure policies GameStop is infamous for, right? Well, one of them was. Do you know which one? FuncoLand. Do you know how I know? I used to work at FuncoLand. Hell, I used to be a friggin’ FuncoLand store manager.
A lot of you emailed me and told me I didn’t understand the pressure you were under from your managers. Let me tell you I worked under the single worst ball busting district manager in the history of FuncoLand. The infamy of this man’s tyrannical rule was so well known, that to this very day the very mention his name to GameStop managers can still bring a chill to the air. He fired my best friend, who was a full-time FuncoLand employee, after only one month of employment because his sales numbers were only “okay”. He demoted managers if they didn’t meet their goals. And if for some reason he was “working” in your store, any transaction that would help his stats he’d rang under his number and if it hurt it, then he’d ring it under yours. Oh, and the best part was that the district store was my store. So I got to see him on almost a daily basis.
With GameStop the number of reservations, trades, warranties and Edge memberships/Game Informer subscriptions one can obtain is how employees are judged. In my day it was FunClub memberships/Game Informer subscriptions, game cleaners (which gave you one year warranties on games and systems you purchased), items per transaction and selling cheap FuncoLand licensed controllers.
I was under pressure just like you guys. But unlike a regular employee, I was responsible for not only my numbers, but my employees’ numbers and the store as a whole… plus I always had him breathing down my neck. Fun, fun, fun…
But I always kept my numbers up and I did it without harassing the customers. My signature pitch was “So, would you like to spend more money?” It actually worked. Plus I only asked once, if I even asked, and only once did I ever push it beyond that single number and that was because the guy was buying $200 of used games and wouldn’t sign up for the FunClub… let’s see you can either not sign up and pay full price or sign up, get a one year subscription to Game Informer and save an additional $10 (10% discount = $20 – $10 membership fee). Needless to say, he finally saw the light.
Now, I’m not saying the grunt level GameStop employees are actively trying to annoy customers. I’m just saying there’s a difference between asking and harassing. I understand you have to ask, I just ask that you understand what “no” means the first time I say it and of course to buy my shirt.
