How and Why I Quit Gamestop | A Nightmare and a Warning

as you can see by this face intro today is a different type of video today is not an essay today we are talking about maybe my most requested video outside of these essays it's part two to my gamestop story and this is how we're going to get into how and why I quit Game Stop and why I don't think any of you if you're even thinking about it should work at Gamestop Game Stop is a place that a lot of us gamers a lot of us pop culture heads think Oh we'll go in there and we'll work and it'll be great and we'll talk about games and we'll be around games and that it'll somehow ingrain us in this culture of gaming even further or we'll get paid to be within this culture and that's just not how it works now a lot of people in the last video said that's just retail that's just retail Game Stop is not just retail there are quite a few idiosyncrasies that make Game Stop a much different and in a lot of ways worse place to work than Brookstone or Target or somewhere else a movie theater Game Stop is very very different so when I was working at Game Stop as most of you already know I was in college I was studying law I wanted to do more than just play games all day or play basketball I'll go to the beach or whatever I was doing so I was like I'm gonna get a job at Gamestop and I did I got that job for those of you interested in how I got it the last video talks about that a little bit but I just was persistent I went in there every day you know made it clear that I wanted to work there made it clear that I could I got the job I lasted a Gamestop for about a year I was promoted twice during that time a lot of still in college and ended up at about 40 hours a week at this job while being a full-time student not a big deal right the problem of gamestop is that you're not dealing with the people you think you're going to be dealing with and you're not doing what you think you're going to be doing right what you're actually doing at gamestop is not selling games to people it's not talking about games yes there's some of that but what you're really doing is hustling credit cards that's really what you're doing what you're really doing is being much more of a Salesman than you would in almost any other retail setting outside of a select few your job at Gamestop isn't to you know make game recommendations or any of that everything is skewed to me a sale and it's skewed to making a sale that you would not buy yourself that's the key to gamestop I enjoyed a lot of my time at Gamestop um for a while and then things started to change when you're an SGA or really when you're just a GA a game advisor when you're first hired you're working three to six hours a week that's it that's all you're working and you have to work your way up to get more hours and some never do and that sucks because it's not a sustainable job at three to six hours a week even nine hours a week but when you do you start to get more responsibility you start getting behind the register and what ends up happening is you end up becoming a used car salesman right so the people think that the circle of life has gone at Gamestop it's not gone it's very much so still there they just took away the name that's all they did and what the circle of life is is a little bit more complex than the way people made it sound it's not just sell some stuff or you're gonna get fired it's you are being pressured into manipulating people in a way that salesmen don't often do you're manipulating an audience that's easily manipulated in a way that you don't get in almost any other retail setting when you're selling a credit card and Target right you can only sell the rough sell you can only have someone sign up for those credit cards if they are 18 or older if they are an adult that's not how it works at Gamestop if you're selling I don't know a Rewards membership to Costco you have to be an adult to sign up for that you have to be 18 or older you have to show your ID and gamestop the people you're manipulating our children the people you're manipulating our teenagers people you're manipulating are a base of individuals that you don't that that don't have the cognizant or I guess maturity to differentiate what makes sense them do with their money or not and it sucks so a quick story is when I first got promoted to SGA just seeing your game advisor it's like one step below assistant manager I guess when I first got promoted is when the circle of life spar really started kicking in and every single transaction you had to be pushing towards you every single transaction you'd be pushing towards the power-up rewards card every transaction didn't matter if it made sense didn't matter if it was the right thing to do didn't matter if this person even knew what you were talking about you sell it so he's an example my district manager was in the store I was in the store a woman walked up to me who did not understand English very well she spoke Spanish and almost exclusively Spanish I google Florida by the way so that's very common she almost exclusively spoke Spanish and I she couldn't understand what I was saying she just wanted to get out of that store with BioShock Infinite for her son or whoever she was buying it for that's all she wanted to do that's it get out of the store with Bioshock giving it wonderful game by the way very underrated but different different story she wants to get out story we have trouble communicating but eventually I understand she wants BioShock Infinite she shows me a picture I get her the game my district manager pulls misogynous make sure you sell her this powerup rewards card she's gonna be a very easy target that's an exact quote that's an exact quote I'm like all right whatever I figured it myself I'll say it out loud she won't understand me we'll move on that's not what happened I tell her you know if you buy she's buying it use so if you buy this today you can get 10% off this product and the next time you buy the next time you buy it I gave her the whole power of rewards stick she had no idea what I was saying she'd no idea what I was saying and so finally manager said just ask her she wants it I was like do you want this knowing full well she refer I was referred she thought I was referred to BioShock Infinite yes yes and manager goes ask her again she was probably know do you want the powerup rewards card yes yes knowing full well she doesn't know what I'm saying I sign her up for it she walks out of there not even realise the price like of course ten minutes later ten minutes later this woman comes back in this woman comes back in and asked for my manager asked for my manager my manager comes in in a very similar story to the previous video apologizes for my behavior apologizes for me not recognizing the language barrier refunds her for the Power Pro Ward's card and says I will be reprimanded let that sink in ten minutes later same district manager same district manager that had me sell her the card in the first place and that's just icing on the cake that's that that's that's so common at Gamestop that's your reality at Gamestop and as not just those you're encouraged to sell this thing to 7 8 year-olds that come in there while their parents are shopping somewhere else in the complex that want to buy just one game and they only have money for one game and I have watched sales people talk them out of that one game too instead sign up for the powerup rewards card and have those kids walk out without a game because of an empty promise of them getting more games in the future it's it's dark it really is and that's what GameStop's entire business model is predicated on taking advantage of consumers and that's not typical retail because typical retail you're taking advantage of adults that's not what Game Stop is about I can't tell you how many times I saw an SGA or a GA tell someone we didn't have a brand new copy of a game that came out that day that came out that thing does not love a used copy of a different game instead I can't tell you how many times I saw employees sell people used copies of games when those people wanted new copies but told them we didn't have any new copies of games that that we stacked there on the shelves as new they're on the shelves granted those boxes are empty but if we don't have the game in stock we usually like to at least take it off the shelf over and over and over again just manipulating 15 16 17 year-olds but how and why I quit around Black Friday most of you know that in retail your work schedules are going to be a nightmare they are going to be terrible and mine was at this point I was an assistant manager I guess maybe I was still an SGA and I worked the night of Black Friday so I guess Thursday Thanksgiving night from 8 to about 4:00 in the morning was off from 4:00 to 7:00 and then showed back up at 8 a.m. so I guess I was off to 4 to 8 right I was miserable I was tired it was a nightmare on the same day this Black Friday day there was just a big shift in demeanor amongst employees it's obvious it's the way it is you know people are tired people are angry but it was around this time that I started to see a pattern at Gamestop which was a pattern of and this is a retail thing it's kind of using abuse where they would work their star employees or the employees that were selling stuff really really hard until they burnt out and then they toss him to the side and bring someone else and now that is a retail thing it was cyclical and it happened a lot especially a Gamestop and I saw it happened a lot and around this time I started to realize you know this isn't a career right I'm not you're not getting that's the thing that people think you know this is a college job do do something else because a Gamestop you're not developing a resume you're not no one cares that you were promoted twice at Gamestop they don't they don't you know who else cares you were pomerode tries a Gamestop a different game stop that that's who cares you know who else cares you were promoted twice a Gamestop eb games although they don't even exist in America anymore that that's that's kind of where it was and you start to see this pattern of this use and abuse of getting rid of these 18 19 year old employees and this happens to retail a lot but my GameStop a lot went down really quickly around the same time that's coming realization is what am i doing here you know it was this kind of period I'm trying to not use names and I'm trying to not use very specific instances but but my manager wasn't happy my assistant manager wasn't happy the power-up rewards thing had come down really really hard on everybody and the power per wards thing is is a nightmare all into itself but it was around this time that we saw employees start to genuinely lie not only about themselves but in-store you would see that this program puts so much pressure on employees that what you had were people fudging numbers lying about their numbers lying about what they were doing you know they they would bind to customers became the norm that's what you did that's seriously what you didn't it was the only thing you could do and if a manager was around they expected you to do it now not my manager my my main manager was a wonderful woman great lady but the district manager he was some of the 8 and even some of the ASMs that's what they wanted you to do was lie to manipulate to deceive that's what gamestop is built upon so eventually I got promoted again and my manager came to me and said you know are you sure you can do this are you sure you want to do this and I didn't want to tell her no because I loved her she was really great so I was like yes I can do this and so I started at this new managerial position for about two weeks and about two weeks in I had someone come into the store and the person came into the store and they brought back a return they wanted to return a ps3 right and this is a similar story this also happened in my other and this happened multiple times but it was in my other video well as well he brought this this ps3 into the store and I wanted to trade it in that's cool whatever ps3 was in terrible shape it was filled dirt I mean it look like there were bugs or something rattling around it's out of it but it turned on fine that this tray wouldn't open this is typical and I told him if this tray wouldn't open he looks at me and says it opened when I brought a broken before I brought it in here I said look man the distro doesn't open I let him try it himself of course what happens same thing that happen in the other story he says to me I broke it now there are cameras everywhere that can see what I did with this ps3 didn't matter I broke it ask from the manager manager comes out says I broke it says I broke it says I broke this ps3 sides of the customer this guy rips us off gets away with it and I get told next time just say you broke it does it I was done because not only are we taking advantage of them but they take advantage of us and there's no it's not just retail I've worked in other places where the managers had my back where it wasn't so easy to throw people under the bus and it's just not the case here and that was it and I looked at my manager and I was I was like I mean I'm not on a few well I need to go home I went home and I never came back I didn't give it two weeks I didn't show back up that was it I didn't feel like I made any resume experience that was worth keeping and so it didn't bother me to burn a bridge that I was never gonna utilize again anyways now here's the moral of the story and here's what I wanted to do this part - despite the request this wasn't a funny story like the last one this is very real I want to warn you guys GameStop is on a downward slope and it's a downward slope that I don't want to I'm trying to use this in layman's terms it's just I studied gamestop in my MBA not because I wanted to but because it was a case that's given to me and they they have no sustainable business model for the future despite these plans that they keep implementing despite these things that they keep trying there is no future for gamestop they're publishing arm is not going to do nearly enough to keep them live as a business if you are thinking even a little about going to work at Gamestop part time for this being your college out for this being your high school school job think about something think about something this company is very close they are on the brink of possibly going under you do not want resume experience from a company that will no longer be able to be used as a reference do not want resume experience from a company that you will not be able to put on a resume and have anyone take seriously because they can't verify you do not want that you don't want that a perfect example this is target expanding to Canada and having to shut down all their stores a month after the expansion because it just didn't make any sense that's where gamestop is at you are not going to go in there and talk about games you're not it doesn't work like that sure you'll have conversations about games will be around games what you're going to deal with our angry parents angry kids manipulative kids people that want to take advantage of you people that don't support you when you're being taken advantage of and just heartbreaking moments of you having to take advantage of others that's what Game Stop is Game Stop is a used-car lot I have worked other retail places so don't tell me it's retail I've worked at Target I've worked at a movie theater I worked in Brookstone when I was in high school never ever experienced a a clientele like that or be an experience like that being put a position of manipulation not only for my own well-being but for the well-being of the consumer and the customer so if you want to work he came stop just think twice I know you probably walk in there and you have great conversations with your employee the employees that work there but I have news for you so did I so did I and then you become an employee and it's not about to your coworkers because they'll be there for five minutes before they burn out and get thrown into the wind think about what you want to do forever and working at Gamestop is not something you want to do forever it's not at least work at a company where you know that somebody's gonna have your back and you know you know that there's a future with that company in terms of you having resume experience and you're moving forward now if you want to move there as a go there as a manager an ASM that's a different story but if this is your part-time pursuit think twice well guys that is it I know this was a bit more serious kind of warning type of video as opposed to my first gamestop story which is just some of the ridiculousness of working there but I really do want to get some message across so I get asked a lot you know what was it really like we're gonna gamestop you know why did you quit how did you quit I quit because it was terrible just point-blank but if you did enjoy this video or it helped you or brought some insight hit that like button if you're not yet a member this team this is not my normal video I normally make video essays Nora sometimes twice three times a week I just wanted to get this video out because so many of you asked for it so yeah if you are interested in those video essays check them out maybe hit that subscribe button and as always guys I have my Twitter handle and the pink comment down below you can follow me there to find out what games I'm playing what essays might be coming next as well as you know talk about things in our games maybe movies other stuff and it's always a huge thank you huge thank you for supporting me a huge thank you to camera guy right here Assistant Lorenzo for having my back on this video a huge thank you for the support for being able to make videos like this that aren't video asses every once in a while to kind of give you guys some insight into my life that's only possible because of your guys amazing support and how phenomenal you guys are as a community I'm so happy with this community we've built here so genuinely thank you from the bottom of my heart if you did enjoy this well I don't normally do this so maybe I'll catch another one maybe you'll like it but if not thank you for giving me a shot and it's the next time guys I'm out [Music]

Channel: Cleanprincegaming

Views: 2,938,756

Rating: 4.793663 out of 5

Keywords: gamestop, gamestop story, working at gamestop, working for gamestop, gamestop gift card, quitting story, quitting stories, gamestop employee, quitting gamestop, gamestop stories, cleanprincegaming

Id: E5ZBm7VXKYY

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Kodiologist]

The topic is interesting, but the video would be better if about three-quarters of it were cut, or it were just written up instead of spoken. Some people are too redundant for their own good.

[u/Alius4156]

"I want to work as [insert dream job here]." Someone on the internet: Don't. Here are logical reasons why.