Rant about local retailer
Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:51 pm
I live in a fairly small town in New Hampshire, were most towns are small. There is a locally owned and operated gaming retailer in my town, it has been open for the better part of 15 years I would say. I have been going to this place off and on since it opened, trading games, buying games and just browsing. It has lots of great games, for every system, all the accessories and hookups and other things to go with a system you could ever want. Since I have been back over winter break I have gone in a few times, a bought a few games, traded in some DS games and looked around a few times, clearly they had seen me in there a bunch.
Now to my issue. Every time I go into the store I am treated like a thief or crook or something, the guy comes out from the back, follows me around, never lets me out of his sight. Every game I touch he stares at me like I am going to walk out with it. I am 23 years old, I do not look like a little kid who might come in a break everything or steal anything, I have been in many times before, yet I get the same treatment every time. Like I said, I have been going since the place opened, and from what I can remember, whoever has been in the store working ,usually one of two guys that owns it, has treated me, or anyone else who walks in the same way.
I continue to go back, because I hope the service gets better, or I get treated better, but I never do. They also have good prices on some things, and tend to give fair trade in values, so that keeps me coming back as well. Although, there are many items that I feel are way overpriced, such as a Nomad for $190, or Saturns for $90 and so on. There is also the brand new PS3 60gig they are selling for $800. I asked the guy about it, and mentioned that Best Buys and Gamestops in the area have them for retail, $699, and in stock. He claims they didn't and that $800 is a fair price for it.
I know some of you guys frequent these types of places, the locally owned gaming retailer, and I have to ask, are all owners of these types of shops like this? Do they treat everyone this poorly? Do they all act like you are out to get them, and rip them off when in reality it is them who are ripping you off? It really bothers me when I am treated like this by a retailer, but more importantly it bugs me that they have such high prices on some of these things. A mom or dad that comes into the store, because it's one of the only gaming retailers within 30 minutes, will see the PS3 and get talked into paying the $200 markup by the guy claiming that you can't get it anywhere else. These just seem like horrible business practices to me.
Kind of a long rant, sorry, but I wanted to get this off my chest, they really bug me. Hope it all makes sense, I kind of typed it in anger. If it doesn't just ask I will clarify.
Now to my issue. Every time I go into the store I am treated like a thief or crook or something, the guy comes out from the back, follows me around, never lets me out of his sight. Every game I touch he stares at me like I am going to walk out with it. I am 23 years old, I do not look like a little kid who might come in a break everything or steal anything, I have been in many times before, yet I get the same treatment every time. Like I said, I have been going since the place opened, and from what I can remember, whoever has been in the store working ,usually one of two guys that owns it, has treated me, or anyone else who walks in the same way.
I continue to go back, because I hope the service gets better, or I get treated better, but I never do. They also have good prices on some things, and tend to give fair trade in values, so that keeps me coming back as well. Although, there are many items that I feel are way overpriced, such as a Nomad for $190, or Saturns for $90 and so on. There is also the brand new PS3 60gig they are selling for $800. I asked the guy about it, and mentioned that Best Buys and Gamestops in the area have them for retail, $699, and in stock. He claims they didn't and that $800 is a fair price for it.
I know some of you guys frequent these types of places, the locally owned gaming retailer, and I have to ask, are all owners of these types of shops like this? Do they treat everyone this poorly? Do they all act like you are out to get them, and rip them off when in reality it is them who are ripping you off? It really bothers me when I am treated like this by a retailer, but more importantly it bugs me that they have such high prices on some of these things. A mom or dad that comes into the store, because it's one of the only gaming retailers within 30 minutes, will see the PS3 and get talked into paying the $200 markup by the guy claiming that you can't get it anywhere else. These just seem like horrible business practices to me.
Kind of a long rant, sorry, but I wanted to get this off my chest, they really bug me. Hope it all makes sense, I kind of typed it in anger. If it doesn't just ask I will clarify.