Gamestop’s model is the standard for trade and buy media stores. I worked at Suncoast that has the Replay card, for which every 50 dollars spent yields a 5dollar gift certificate, and the tier increases by price… of course its only used in Suncoast stores. The 6 month subscription is 14.99 while the 1 year is 29.99.
I used to rack up sales by convincing anime fans that buying 1 volume that cost 29.99 each to join the club, so they can technically save money in the long run (I always said, “there are 6 volumes in a standard anime series and with this card, one would be fully paid for.” The saps fell for it; It is not cost effective when I can simply go to best buy, walmart, or a mom-pop place that sells anime on the cheap. Hell torrents and dvd rips are the best alternative… I just hope when I die, Saint Peter won’t send me to hell for raping these guys without lube.
One funny story was a disgruntled otaku complaining to me about the high price on his Full metal Panic dvd. I told him in generic fashion that “We are not a big company like Wal Mart and would have to raise the upkeep in order to stay profitable. Plus, How many cashiers do you know LOVE movies and can keep giving you recommendations on the hot and latest in japanese animation?”
This is complete bullshit, because at the time, I assumed Full metal panic to be a sequel of full metal alchemist, and didn’t fucking know until years later.
Same Gamestop model for reservations. We were monitored weekly for reservation sales, so it became important to “make sure the customer had a copy of a big release.” Of course, more bullshit, because the supposed “rare” movies available on the store floor had “twenty” or so copies in the backroom. They did this when anime blew up, and again, new gen anime fans were lubed up for the eventual plowrapetrain. Considering I am an anime fan, I was able to con these suckers easily for putting a 5.00-full price deposit for dvd titles that cost 29.99 when in fact, you can get them on amazon or ebay for 9 bucks. A more fucked up tactic was when guys wanted to reserve hentai titles… They did this more discreetly.
Of course, I wouldn’t buy that shit, so I would do my usual sales pitch for a replay card OUTLOUD while there was a line forming, drop a few titles like, “you can use that extra money for tentacle fantasies V or something, they would be so red in the face that they basically signed for anything to shut me up.”
You’ll be surprised how many people forget their subscriptions. Some people can get big releases cheaper from Walmart or a large chain store (LOTR for 14.99 vs. Suncoast 19.99), so months ahead, customers would go to the retail store, grab their copy and forget about their deposit in our store. Eventually, when I look back and see old fucking reservations like Star Wars or Jingle all the way on VHS, they take the old reservations, count them as being picked up, and the credit would go towards our own purchases.
You’ll be surprised how some people pay full price for scarface and months later never come back to retrieve it. Do we remind them? Hell no, our commodore 64 computer cannot handle simple list-style databases and besides, their 19.99 credit went towards my copy of Aliens on DVD.
The subscriptions were painful. I felt like selling my soul to Satan everytime I pushed this piece of crap magazine like Entertainment tonight. Basically, we scan the credit card along with the purchase for 14 “free” issues. Of course, the customer has to cancel after the 14th issue otherwise they would be charged for another 14 issues at 19.99 / month. Of course, people would come in the store, call us crooks because we didn’t tell them this tidbit (we were trained not to). A more underhanded scheme is to basically scan the subscription card even though the customer did not want it (wait till they left), and if they had any qualms about it (which is everytime), corporate could handle it.
Thats why, people, use a debit card or cash to pay for stuff in the mall. Because the seller will have to ask for a credit card in order for them to link their “subscriptiondoken” and the last thing you want is getting a bill for 19.99 because some kid was forced to use underhanded tactics. At that time, subscriptions = your place in employment. You can sell a billion replay cards but it wouldn’t mean dick unless you had a steady stream of magazine revenue. The reason is the company gets a good finders fee for ahem “new subscribers.”
Used movies? Wiped my ass with it. Sure we are a little higher up than GS by giving back people cash… but what little cash it is. Majority of dvds are 1-5 dollars. Some went for .75. The used stuff we sell people, prices range to 14.99. The same price as the new copy at Wal Mart. I couldn’t use a DVD doctor correctly to save my life and these were the quality discs we put on store sleves. I can’t believe customers ate this up, and the main reason was regulars chatted with me and my co-workers over related interests like anime, martial arts movies, and other stuff. They didn’t know very slowly, after pretending to give a shit about Goku power levels and who would win in a Vash vs Spike dream match and didn’t notice the corporate cock that slowly penetrated their orifices.
My lasting redemption was when I quit, I actually went back to the store and told the regular customers I screwed over the years a list of torrent sites to download episodes for free. It was the least I can do for torturing their wallet ala Ichi the Killer style.
Gamestop is the same way; all that shit is old news to me, read this and read it well: THIS IS STANDARD PRACTICE. It is no longer just gamestop; any specialty media chain will follow this model of operations.
Sonichuman: I agree that people are the biggest asset, however when you are constantly being told by management that “your job is on the line” for not following their orders, being watched over like a hawk, and its ninja corporate customers, all employees will eventually not give a shit. And if you still offer 'great customer service" and want to help out and such, you probably haven’t worked retail that long because the veterans in this field all have their souls sucked out.
