GameStop

This is not a grudge piece. It is absolutely true that I was employed by GameStop for over a year and quit with a negative impression of the management and practices. If you decide that these facts make me too subjective or motivated to reach uncomplimentary conclusions, so be it. I certainly could not have formulated these criticisms had I not worked for the company...and had I been very happy with the experience, I probably wouldn't be writing this anyway. So go ahead and read this with a grain of salt; as always, developing and using your own critical thinking skills will give you the best results.

I don't remember signing a non-disclosure agreement that prevents me from talking or writing about the company after the period of my employment. The company itself is pretty small-time in terms of organization and sophistication (despite the fact that it is pretty big-time in the area of sales, market penetration and brand recognition), so I would doubt that there are any legal restrictions in place prohibiting me from discussing the practices I witnessed while I was employed. They did not seem to be an overly litigious company, at least not on the level at which I worked, but I'm also assuming that they'd rather I didn't talk about these kinds of things...so you never know. In six months I could be embroiled in a silly legal battle. So it goes. I have the details and my own intellect on my side, plus the kind of patience and dedication that you only get when you have a little too much time on your hands.

One would assume that the profits of a store selling games would be determined by the amount of games they sell. The truth is that it makes up only a portion of the total revenue, and is one of the least important factors. On the store level, things like accessories and add-ons are far more lucrative, especially the GameStop brand stuff (which is manufactured by companies like Pelican and MadCatz, both infamous for poor quality). But even these sales are unimportant compared to the Big Three: gift cards, membership cards, and reservations on upcoming new releases.

I won't say too much about the first two. Gift cards are a favorite tactic among retailers, because they ensure that people will either come back and probably spend more than the card is worth, or at the very least forget about it- guaranteeing almost 100% profit (a solid strategy, which comes into play with my main point below).

The membership subscriptions serve many purposes: a year's worth of 10% discounts (only good on anything used, an easy concession since the profit on used games is in the 75-100% range to begin with), availability of special offers (usually the sort of buy 2 get 1 free deals that are regularly available to non-members much of the time), and a year's subscription to Game Informer magazine (a very dubious benefit. Despite a few official denials to the contrary, it is well know that the information and reviews in the magazine are paid for by the game companies...and even if they weren't, the quality of the magazine is almost ridiculously poor, with bad writing, lame humor, and innumerable desperate attempts at pop-cultural relevance. The only hope they could have is to hire much better writers and take a time machine to the mid-90s when rampant ironic pop-culture references still had a fashionable sort of nerd vogue novelty. Still, the time it takes to be put off by the content of the magazine is usually somewhat equal to the time it takes me to go to the bathroom, so it serves its only purpose to me).

No, the main point of my objection is the new release reservation process. Called a "reserve", it is one of the most important statistics in the company, and internally is largely responsible for who gets promoted and who gets fired. It works like this: you give money to GameStop for an upcoming release, and they hold a copy of the game for you when it comes out.

Except that's not how it really works. In fact, until you actually hold a copy in your hands, there is no "your game"; the store gets a certain number of units and what's done with them is basically up to the manager's discretion. Some managers will simply sell all their new copies to the first people who ask for them anyway (because a guaranteed sale is better than a potential sale, even when someone has already put money down). The better managers will set aside one copy for each of the reserves, and the best managers will give you a call when the game arrives (and if they're really admirable, keep trying for a day or two or until they actually get you on the phone).

Otherwise, notification is left to the automated system- and in my generous estimate, the system works, at best, with less than 2 out of every 3 new releases...and even then, it is often faulty; I've received calls so broken up with static and stuttering electronics that I could barely tell what they were. And like most automated systems, it varies wildly how it deals with answering machines and phones that do not answer. After all, it is only a courtesy call; GameStop is under no obligation to let you know that the game that you've paid money for is in...or even to sell it to you if it is.

A significant portion of the time, the store is sent fewer copies than are spoken for. I hesitate to estimate, but I can be fairly sure that quantity is insufficient for at least half of the major releases; the shipments are often staggered so that while enough copies of the the game come in eventually (within a few weeks), on release day there are far too few. Some of the biggest games of last year arrived either late or in insufficient quantities...frequently and worryingly enough that we were twice instructed by the regional manager to offer incentives to the reserve customers who'd been screwed. These incentives typically amounted to just getting yet another reserve (for 'free', essentially just transferring the five bucks or whatever they'd already put down for the original game).

This was a significant strategy in the huge mass of blunders surrounding the Gears of War release. What should have been a slam-dunk sales and marketing situation for one of the most anticipated titles of the year became a non-stop embarrassment as hordes of customers were turned away for days following the release date. This game alone probably contributed hundreds of dollars per store to the "silent profit" fund discussed below.

The only time I ever saw any attempt at all to call people after the new release period was one instance when 'numbers' were dropping and the execs decided it would be a good way to get people to come in and sign up for more reserves. Many of the people had completely forgotten that they'd reserved anything, and had often picked up the specific game somewhere else...which was probably a good thing; after a few days, the store frees up their copy to sell to whoever. Yes, your reserve is only 'guaranteed' for 48 hours (assuming that there are in fact sufficient copies of the game available at all during that 48 hour period, which is not something to stake your life on, and also assuming that 'your copy' wasn't sold to someone else because you didn't come to pick it up the morning it arrived).

What bothers me most about the system is that it leads to GameStop making a significant profit if they just stay as quiet as possible. Any reserve money that isn't redeemed is eventually handed over to the district manager. Where it goes from there I have no clue...but you can bet that the company does not waste time tracking down the original owners. I have absolutely no hard numbers on this, but having worked at four separate stores, I cautiously estimate that the company makes from several hundred to thousands of dollars per store (and there are well over four thousand stores) just from customers forgetting to pick up their reserves.

I must stress that I was never blatantly instructed to make it harder for people to claim their reserves. Nobody ever told me anything like "don't call them, and don't remind them if they come into the store". However, I was specifically instructed to refuse to return customers' money on reserves. Once you put that deposit down, the store will hang on to it with every trick they can come up with. They will tell you that they can't just give you your money back- you have to apply it to another game that is coming out. Using it as credit to buy something in the store seems like it would be a reasonable compromise, but in my experience the store managers will refuse even that much, a majority of the time. They would rather keep the money than let you use it in the store, which makes perfect sense to maximize profits at the risk of losing customers (over which, for various reasons, the company doesn't lose too much sleep).

You can't blame the managers too much- after all, they are judged by their reserve numbers, and most store managers will do anything to get those numbers up. That's the exact reason why I, a GameStop employee, had a few reserves in my name in the first place. The numbers weren't good, so I helped out by giving the manager a few reserves for games I thought I would be buying eventually anyway. After I left the job, I returned to one of the stores and attempted to cash in those reserves toward the purchase of another game, and the manager refused. I could have pressed the issue, but a friend was working in the store at the time and I didn't want to make his job any harder. Now that he's been fired, I will press it as far as it will go...let's see what happens. I'm almost certain that they have no legal grounds to refuse me my money without giving me anything in return, but possession is 9/10ths of the law, after all, and the company can be very, very slimy when numbers and money are on the line. The bedfellows of capitalism and government create a grey area where illegal (or at least unethical) practices are given free reign unless someone is willing and able to invest insane amounts of money and time to contest them. I guess it all boils down to how dirty GameStop is willing to play it...

My advice is to avoid GameStop completely, but there's really nothing wrong with the reserve process as long as you take it upon yourself to remember that you have a reservation, and don't mind having to wait a few extra days if the store doesn't actually have it on hand when they said they would. Then again, every penny that you give the company is more support for existing practices, so you'll have to decide if that's really how you want stores to behave. Personally, I find myself moving away from console games, and since GameStop offers a limited selection of PC games (and good luck finding a store that has even one associate with PC-gaming knowledge), even if I was totally happy with them I'd still probably go elsewhere.