You supposedly run a BUSINESS, Mr. Game Store Owner. Answer your phone.

The BBQ Pit
1

Yes, another game/comic store rant from me. Isn’t the first, won’t be the last.

So I’m calling my local game store to see if they’ve got something in stock before I head over there. It’s 3:45 on a weekday, and he’s not answering his phone. Is he there? Who knows? Sometimes he just closes the shop for the hell of it. Sometimes he’s too busy painting miniatures to pick up the phone. I don’t think I need to point out that this is the only game store in this town.

So Mr. Game Store Owner, in a year, when your business is going under, please don’t scratch your pointy head and wonder why. It’s not because of the internet. It’s not because of the economy. It’s not because of evil pixies. It’s because you treat this alleged business like a hobby. Like so many other game store owners. You can’t be bothered to get stuff in, you don’t know how to take care of customers, you keep whatever hours you feel like, your store looks like a basement, it smells of geek reek, and you’ve no concept of a sale. That’s why you fail. That’s why so many game stores fail. You don’t take it seriously and yet you expect me to.

Game store owners will piss and moan about “Oh, everyone buys online and it’s killing us little guys! How can we compete?” You can compete by actually giving a fuck. Pretend like you want to make money doing this. Act like you care if I buy from you or not. I’m trying to give you some of my money, and you won’t pick up the damn phone.

“Support your local game store.” What if it doesn’t DESERVE support?

2

I suppose it would be absurd to think that Mr. GSO was assisting a customer at the time of your untimely phone call.

Mini-Rant (so don’t reply): Why on Earth did I have to register to use the search function? I don’t have a lot to say; I’m only interested in reading. Least-convenient-search-ever (for unregistered users at least).

3

You know what pisses me off when I’m in a store. It’s when I’m trying to get help from the guy and he brushes me off to answer the damn phone. It’s just rude.

“Hello! I’m standing right the fuck here, numbnuts. If I take the time to actually come down here I expect at least some semblence of service, not to stand and watch while some register monkey yaks away on the god damn telephone. Now hang the fuck up and answer the questions of the guy who can pay you now.”

But that’s just me.

4

Can’t win for losing, eh?
Daniel

5

Wow, you guys have GSOs that help you? In the store?

Damn, what’s that like?

6

There are two local gaming stores. One is mostly comics and action figures; it’s located downtown, and its motto is “Where ELSE are you going to go?”

Well, I’ll tell you where else I’m going to go, Mr. Vaguely-surly-who’s-always-watching-TV: I’ll go to the cool gaming store about five miles outside of town, where the folks that work there are always cool and the shop is brightly lit and you can buy classical music as well as comics and gaming books.

The worst thing you’ll encounter there is the enthusiastically geeky employee who loves telling you about the – get this – eighth-level barbarian KOBOLDS he sicced on his party, heeheeheeheehee! He’s so cute it’s impossible to be annoyed at him.

I love having choices.

Daniel

7

We have a new store in a REAL, going concern type mall. I sat out front watching the manager invite in every vaguely cute female who walked by. I was going to tell him how pathetically needy it made him look when two took him up on it.

8

why did you have to register in order to search? well, the search engine makes the boards go slower (or so I’ve been told), and so, one of the ways they’ve attempted to make us all happier, is to allow only registered folks to run searches.

As to the OP:

I don’t run a game store, but I do run a small business, as does my boyfriend, as did my father who art in Florida, Herbert be his name. and frankly, when there’s only one of ya, there’s times when you’re dragging some big ass box from point a to point b, going to the bathroom, helping another customer, or doing one of a thousand other things that means you’re not right by the phone.

And the ‘closing the shop whenever’, well, my dad used to close his store to follow my brother to his games through the Little LEague circuit (They got to the semi finals world series :smiley: )
and whenever I’m have to be elsewhere (at the doctor, getting my car repaired, sick, my son sick, school conference, consultation w/other agencies, shopping for office supplies, meetings etc.) there’s no one at my place either. And when my boyfriend’s sick, or running late, or car broke down, or has a dentist appointment, well, his shop is closed, too.

Sorry you’re having trouble finding stuff you want.

9

Jeez Louise, is this the pit? Here I am, having a nice little rant and suddenly I’m surrounded by all these frickin bleeding hearts “Oh maybe the store owner had a vewy awful tummy ache and had to go home! You should be more considerate of his feewings!”

Fuck that noise. It’s a goddamn rant. It’s supposed to be completely fucking irrational. Have you no concept of what a rant is?

Hesus Kristi, next thing I know we’re gonna have people in here bitching about how we’re all practicing hate speech that may be discriminatory to our brethren who actually DO felch goats.

Okay, folks, let’s set some shit straight. This is not an isolated incident, nor has it been isolated to this town. Since I moved here there’s been (pause for caculation) FIVE (and a half) game stores. There is now one. And how did they all go down? The same way - they treated their business like an after-school project. Keeping weird hours, closing on a whim, not giving a fuck abotu the customers.

Now if it’s your business and you want to run it that way, hey, more power to you. Hang up the “Gone Fishin” sign and head to the little league game, the movies, the goat felchatorium, whatever you want. It’s your biz, don’t let The Man keep you down. BUT - don’t fucking bitch and whine when The Man quits coming to your store because he can’t count on you actually opening it up to do business, okay? And don’t be pissed off if The Man finds a different place that WILL happily take his money in exchange for goods and services. You want to close because you got a hangnail, that’s fine, but the world doesn’t frickin stop turning when you hang up that closed sign.

As for the telephone, an answering machine costs twenty fucking dollars. You can use it to have a message saying you can’t come to the phone because you’re with a customer, but your store hours are from whenever you roll out of bed until when Oprah’s on, and then people can know if there’s at least a chance you’re open. And if you do decide to take the day off for the Pokemon marathon, you can leave a message to that effect as well, so that I know you don’t want any of my money that day. Is that so fucking hard? Did I need a goddamn MBA to figure out that little secret of business success? No, just alittle frickin common sense, something altogether missing in the business of game stores.

Comprende?

Now run along, folks, I think there’s someone in another thread who needs to be more tolerant because maybe the guy blasting his stereo at 4am has a hearing disorder or is from a culture that doesn’t understand that people sleep.

10

sorry, next time, be sure to hang the ‘I’m only interested in opinions similar to mine’ shingle on top of the thread.

11

[Simpsons comic book guy voice]

Worst…rant…ever…

I will now retire to the sanctuary of my own thread where I dispense the insults instead of recieveing them.

[/Simpsons comic book guy voice]

12

Well the original rant was pretty mediocre but the follow-up was fucking brilliant. The best rant I’ve read in quite some time.

Haj

13

I think this is one of the reasons why your little stores are folding to the big chains like Home Depot. When I have a DIY project around the house, I have lots of trouble picking up supplies at the local hardware store, since they’re often closed by the time I get home, and they’re also closed on Sundays (or have limited hours)

Making the trip and finding the place closed up is a major inconvenience, and makes me think “Home Depot is ALWAYS open, dammit!”

My dad has his own little business, and it is a very rare occasion when the phone isn’t answered by a worker or answering machine. Letting the phone ring and ring is NOT an option, I don’t care how small the business is, get an answering machine, and leave it on. If you’re busy and can’t get to it after 4 rings, it picks up and you might just get a message from a paying customer.

14

…

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA…

And, yeah. Fuck game store owners. All the ones around here not only act like they don’t give a fuck about customers, but also that they don’t like to game anymore.

Excuse me, but why, when you theoretically are into games and trying to get people to play, would you scoff at my purchases and refuse my questions about the next release, etc. Right, make me feel stupid for playing this game. I don’t get enough of that from the fucking jocks.

FUCK!

15

You know what the sad part is? There are really good people trying to open role-playing/video game/comics stores, and having trouble getting business. A friend of mine has just opened one in Hartford, and isn’t making enough yet to continue to stay open.

You’d think, since so many owners are complete jerks, that a nice guy who’ll order anything you want and offer non-snotty advice would be able to grab the market…

16

When will you learn that comics come from my disposable income, and that, if you give me shitty service, I’ll take my disposable income somewhere else.

When I moved from Baltimore to Charlotte, N.C., years ago, I naturally sought out the local store to continue my subscriptions. I go in there, fill out the form, and wait for the next installments.

Next week, I go in. No books. OK, they’re not on a regular schedule, I’ll look around . . .

. . . and find the new titles already on the shelves. Take books to clerk, point out I’m going to be a regular customer. Assurance it’ll be taken care of.

Week later, same shit. Week later, same shit after that.

After a couple months, I get the message and pulled my business. Yes, they were “alternative” comics: no DC, no Marvels, but some of them were big-book reprints (e.g., “Prince Valiant”), but they couldn’t be bothered.

Fuck 'em.

17

Geez, now my reaction level to you just dropped from Friendly to Hostile. Roll for initiative, bitch.