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Well I started my new job today, at long last, at a certain competitor (though not locally) of Special Reserve who go by the singular of 'games'. Ok, ok, I have wont a large number of games from Special Reserve so really I shouldn't be working for the 'enemy', but how else am I going to fund my need for new games? Atleast whilst I'm earning from Game, I'll have the opportunity to feed my hard earned cash into the pockets of a certain Mr. Tony 'Special Reserve' um...person.
Anyway, I learnt a lot from my first day in the videogames trade! It was a great experience! I haven't been trained on the tills yet, but I could do everything else. Processing traded games, price checks, stock tidying (can't think of the posh name for it), eating my sandwhiches, advising customers, and the list goes on. Hopefully I'll be trained up on the tills tomorrow so I can serve customers without having to go into the stockroom to get someone.
Anyway, I started off pretty easy. It was quiet in store so I had a kind of introduction around the store so I know how each of the stands of games, hardware and PC software are shelved when it comes to me sorting stuff out. I priced up some Game Boy Advance deals and I have to say that the Platinum Game Boy Advance is the best looking colour yet! It really does look metalic and now I want one despite owning a white one (which after a year and a half, has developed a small scratch).
I also managed to find out how items are covered in that plastic stuff in the shops (not the kind officially used to package - but the kind you sometimes see around strategy guides and stuff). I saw the most amount of games I've ever seen in my life - well what do you expect in a videogames retailer's stockroom? And I also managed to work out how the shop is laid out, which, despite it not being that big, is still a difficult task to complete. No doubt that will be changed by tomorrow!
One kid asked me to show him the back of a Playstation 2 box as 'he' wanted to read the back of it. But he was around five and couldn't read too well and asked me to read it for him. Another kid about the same age couldn't figure out how to start 'This is Football 2003' on the Playstation 2 that was playable in the store, but eventually he got into the game - though he didn't know what he was doing and was just tapping the buttons madly! He would have probably been very good at the Mario Party games!
Another kid (again around the same age) was trying to talk his mum into buying him a Playstation One memory card. At first I just listened in thinking it was just another greedy child wanting more and more and more! But I soon learnt that he was trying to tell his mother, who knew nothing about videogames, or the Playstation 2 anyway, that he had Playstation One games, but only had a Playstation 2 memory card, so he couldn't save his original Playstation games at all. So I decided to jump in and explain to his mother in a simple way that she could understand, not being literate in videogaming terms, and she eventually got him a memory card. I did try to sell her an official one (in a pretty red colour too), but she opted for the cheaper own-brand version Game were selling. She probably thought I was trying to make some money out of her, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't care how much money people spend in the shop, as long as I still get my wage at the end of the...well whenever I get paid. So she went for the cheaper one instead of the reliable one, but I suppose it was worth it to shut her kid up, and to satisfy him. He seemed more than happy with his mother's purchase anyway. It's amazing how much joy a memory card can give to a small child...and how much joy a rumble pack can give to a...well I'll leave that to your imagination.
Although I didn't put any games through the till, so basically I didn't sell any, I still managed to witness many sales today, including the massive amount of sales of Hitman 2 and the strategy guide for it. A small load of consoles sold today, I think exactly the same amount of Playstation 2s as GameCubes, but the X-box sold as many units today as Microsoft Train Simulator did...zilch. It makes me wonder why Microsoft went into the videogame business. I'm not going to say anything bad about the console (as I'm thinking of getting one myself), but with PC games such as Microsoft Train Simulator and other Microsoft PC games that are of similar content, it makes me wonder why they bother. Super Mario Sunshine was another big seller of the day, though was strategically placed so everyone could see the game cases as soon as they enter the store - yet they all asked where Super Mario Sunshine was.
Some kids came back to the store about four or five times, though not to buy games...but to play them. They came back each time and spent ages playing the game This is Football 2003 on the Playstation 2. I wouldn't be suprised if the only times they left the Playstation 2 was so that they could 'powder their noses'. Anyway, they kept coming back, though looked rather suspicious near the empty pre-owned cases as they crouched down next to them, looked up at the till, and looked back at what they were doing many a time.
I went to Burger King in my lunch break and ate some of their fried crap - quite crispy too. But then went back to Game for the rest of my break and read some of Edge magazine. I don't care how informative that magazine is, it is the most boring piece of trash I have ever read! Reading it is like hearing more news on how Swalec are planning to build a gas pipeline from Merthyr to Swansea! I ended up flicking through it and just looking at the pictures of some retro-games, some of which are to feature on the new E-card reader for Game Boy Advance. But in the end I just went out onto the shop floor where it was empty for about twenty minutes. It was a lot more exciting than reading Edge though. If Edge had a little more humour involved, it would be a good read, but because it was more serious than a dead dingo in canada, it was boring.I want videogame magazines to make me excited about gaming, not put me off it all!
Anyway, I carried on advising customers, tidying the shelves, labelling, and all the other stuff sales assistants do, until the time came to close. Then I caught my bus home, walked the 2 minutes from the bus stop to my house, then ate some pork chops and chips - none of that fried Burger King crap. Although I enjoyed it all, I forgot how exhausting a day at work, stood up all day, serving people can be after not working for ten months. So I'll sleep well tonight anyway, recuperating my energy (I hope I got the right words there!) for my shift tomorrow. Still, if it means I'm going to finally have some money to fund my 'Game Boy Advance Trust Fund' (all donations welcome) that I unoffically founded before June 2001, then I'll be happy.
Roll on tomorrow, that's all I can say.
Anyway, I learnt a lot from my first day in the videogames trade! It was a great experience! I haven't been trained on the tills yet, but I could do everything else. Processing traded games, price checks, stock tidying (can't think of the posh name for it), eating my sandwhiches, advising customers, and the list goes on. Hopefully I'll be trained up on the tills tomorrow so I can serve customers without having to go into the stockroom to get someone.
Anyway, I started off pretty easy. It was quiet in store so I had a kind of introduction around the store so I know how each of the stands of games, hardware and PC software are shelved when it comes to me sorting stuff out. I priced up some Game Boy Advance deals and I have to say that the Platinum Game Boy Advance is the best looking colour yet! It really does look metalic and now I want one despite owning a white one (which after a year and a half, has developed a small scratch).
I also managed to find out how items are covered in that plastic stuff in the shops (not the kind officially used to package - but the kind you sometimes see around strategy guides and stuff). I saw the most amount of games I've ever seen in my life - well what do you expect in a videogames retailer's stockroom? And I also managed to work out how the shop is laid out, which, despite it not being that big, is still a difficult task to complete. No doubt that will be changed by tomorrow!
One kid asked me to show him the back of a Playstation 2 box as 'he' wanted to read the back of it. But he was around five and couldn't read too well and asked me to read it for him. Another kid about the same age couldn't figure out how to start 'This is Football 2003' on the Playstation 2 that was playable in the store, but eventually he got into the game - though he didn't know what he was doing and was just tapping the buttons madly! He would have probably been very good at the Mario Party games!
Another kid (again around the same age) was trying to talk his mum into buying him a Playstation One memory card. At first I just listened in thinking it was just another greedy child wanting more and more and more! But I soon learnt that he was trying to tell his mother, who knew nothing about videogames, or the Playstation 2 anyway, that he had Playstation One games, but only had a Playstation 2 memory card, so he couldn't save his original Playstation games at all. So I decided to jump in and explain to his mother in a simple way that she could understand, not being literate in videogaming terms, and she eventually got him a memory card. I did try to sell her an official one (in a pretty red colour too), but she opted for the cheaper own-brand version Game were selling. She probably thought I was trying to make some money out of her, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't care how much money people spend in the shop, as long as I still get my wage at the end of the...well whenever I get paid. So she went for the cheaper one instead of the reliable one, but I suppose it was worth it to shut her kid up, and to satisfy him. He seemed more than happy with his mother's purchase anyway. It's amazing how much joy a memory card can give to a small child...and how much joy a rumble pack can give to a...well I'll leave that to your imagination.
Although I didn't put any games through the till, so basically I didn't sell any, I still managed to witness many sales today, including the massive amount of sales of Hitman 2 and the strategy guide for it. A small load of consoles sold today, I think exactly the same amount of Playstation 2s as GameCubes, but the X-box sold as many units today as Microsoft Train Simulator did...zilch. It makes me wonder why Microsoft went into the videogame business. I'm not going to say anything bad about the console (as I'm thinking of getting one myself), but with PC games such as Microsoft Train Simulator and other Microsoft PC games that are of similar content, it makes me wonder why they bother. Super Mario Sunshine was another big seller of the day, though was strategically placed so everyone could see the game cases as soon as they enter the store - yet they all asked where Super Mario Sunshine was.
Some kids came back to the store about four or five times, though not to buy games...but to play them. They came back each time and spent ages playing the game This is Football 2003 on the Playstation 2. I wouldn't be suprised if the only times they left the Playstation 2 was so that they could 'powder their noses'. Anyway, they kept coming back, though looked rather suspicious near the empty pre-owned cases as they crouched down next to them, looked up at the till, and looked back at what they were doing many a time.
I went to Burger King in my lunch break and ate some of their fried crap - quite crispy too. But then went back to Game for the rest of my break and read some of Edge magazine. I don't care how informative that magazine is, it is the most boring piece of trash I have ever read! Reading it is like hearing more news on how Swalec are planning to build a gas pipeline from Merthyr to Swansea! I ended up flicking through it and just looking at the pictures of some retro-games, some of which are to feature on the new E-card reader for Game Boy Advance. But in the end I just went out onto the shop floor where it was empty for about twenty minutes. It was a lot more exciting than reading Edge though. If Edge had a little more humour involved, it would be a good read, but because it was more serious than a dead dingo in canada, it was boring.I want videogame magazines to make me excited about gaming, not put me off it all!
Anyway, I carried on advising customers, tidying the shelves, labelling, and all the other stuff sales assistants do, until the time came to close. Then I caught my bus home, walked the 2 minutes from the bus stop to my house, then ate some pork chops and chips - none of that fried Burger King crap. Although I enjoyed it all, I forgot how exhausting a day at work, stood up all day, serving people can be after not working for ten months. So I'll sleep well tonight anyway, recuperating my energy (I hope I got the right words there!) for my shift tomorrow. Still, if it means I'm going to finally have some money to fund my 'Game Boy Advance Trust Fund' (all donations welcome) that I unoffically founded before June 2001, then I'll be happy.
Roll on tomorrow, that's all I can say.
My hours depend on what's available as I'm only there as a temporary worker. So some weeks I could be doing 40 hours, others 10. Today I worked for 7 hours (add another for my break).
The pay is pretty good, though I'm only going to say it's more than I got from Marks and Spencers as different Game stores may (I dunno, I just work there :D) employ different people at different rates, but I don't know, I ain't got a clue.
I do get discounts, again I'm not going to say what, and in most cases Game does beat Special Reserve - for example Game are selling the PC game Star Trek Bridge Commander for £19.99 whereas Special Reserve are roughly £6 more. But there are other cases where SR does beat Game (unless I use my discount that is :D)
It does get a little tiring stood up all day - but I'm getting used to it - and talking to customers isn't a problem for me - it's putting up with the smelly ones I'm not too keen on. Most of the time, I'm chatting to customers for a minute at most and then they go away to play on their new games/consoles.
The pay is pretty good, though I'm only going to say it's more than I got from Marks and Spencers as different Game stores may (I dunno, I just work there :D) employ different people at different rates, but I don't know, I ain't got a clue.
I do get discounts, again I'm not going to say what, and in most cases Game does beat Special Reserve - for example Game are selling the PC game Star Trek Bridge Commander for £19.99 whereas Special Reserve are roughly £6 more. But there are other cases where SR does beat Game (unless I use my discount that is :D)
It does get a little tiring stood up all day - but I'm getting used to it - and talking to customers isn't a problem for me - it's putting up with the smelly ones I'm not too keen on. Most of the time, I'm chatting to customers for a minute at most and then they go away to play on their new games/consoles.
Good to see a Games Shop with someone working there who actually knows about games! :)
I remember going into SR last year and asking if they had any N64 Memory Cards in-stock...
He replied: "Er.... 4mb Expansion pack!??"
Heh! :D
Sorry. :(
It is tiring having to stand-up all-day in your job.
Just out-of-interest, how many hours do you work per-day?
I never really thought about working in a Games Shop before, the whole idea of talking to Customers just put me off. :S
But here I am with my job today, serving people in a Timber Yard...
How much discout do you get off of games at GAME?
I bet that even with the discount take-off, SR's prices still beat-them! :)
I remember going into SR last year and asking if they had any N64 Memory Cards in-stock...
He replied: "Er.... 4mb Expansion pack!??"
Heh! :D
Sorry. :(
It is tiring having to stand-up all-day in your job.
Just out-of-interest, how many hours do you work per-day?
I never really thought about working in a Games Shop before, the whole idea of talking to Customers just put me off. :S
But here I am with my job today, serving people in a Timber Yard...
How much discout do you get off of games at GAME?
I bet that even with the discount take-off, SR's prices still beat-them! :)
Pooey! Had a really smelly woman in yesterday - wasn't even after games but I felt sick when she tried to tell me something. I couldn't understand a word she said so I kept nodding and smiling til she left.
Comes to something when I try my best to avoid stating the name of the shop I work at, and two replies from different people stick it in capital letters.
As I said, don't take any offence SR, atleast when I buy my games from you, you'll be taking money straight from your competitors (well from my wages anyway).
As I said, don't take any offence SR, atleast when I buy my games from you, you'll be taking money straight from your competitors (well from my wages anyway).
Sounds like you had a very interesting (and amusing) first day. I just hope the head honchos at GAME find me suitable for the job after my fairly successful interview.
Well I shouldn't go giving away too much info on the company, but lets just say I get nearly £1 more (hourly) than I did when I worked at Marks & Spencers .
Excellent. I seem to be quite lucky at my local shop, the staff seem to know what they're talking about, but after hearing so much stuff about how all GAME employees are eedjuts, it's good to see an upstanding citizen like yourself reading to young children, and explaining the intricate details of Sony being tight-fisted b*stards.
How much are you getting paid, if you don't mind me asking?
How much are you getting paid, if you don't mind me asking?
Well I started my new job today, at long last, at a certain competitor (though not locally) of Special Reserve who go by the singular of 'games'. Ok, ok, I have wont a large number of games from Special Reserve so really I shouldn't be working for the 'enemy', but how else am I going to fund my need for new games? Atleast whilst I'm earning from Game, I'll have the opportunity to feed my hard earned cash into the pockets of a certain Mr. Tony 'Special Reserve' um...person.
Anyway, I learnt a lot from my first day in the videogames trade! It was a great experience! I haven't been trained on the tills yet, but I could do everything else. Processing traded games, price checks, stock tidying (can't think of the posh name for it), eating my sandwhiches, advising customers, and the list goes on. Hopefully I'll be trained up on the tills tomorrow so I can serve customers without having to go into the stockroom to get someone.
Anyway, I started off pretty easy. It was quiet in store so I had a kind of introduction around the store so I know how each of the stands of games, hardware and PC software are shelved when it comes to me sorting stuff out. I priced up some Game Boy Advance deals and I have to say that the Platinum Game Boy Advance is the best looking colour yet! It really does look metalic and now I want one despite owning a white one (which after a year and a half, has developed a small scratch).
I also managed to find out how items are covered in that plastic stuff in the shops (not the kind officially used to package - but the kind you sometimes see around strategy guides and stuff). I saw the most amount of games I've ever seen in my life - well what do you expect in a videogames retailer's stockroom? And I also managed to work out how the shop is laid out, which, despite it not being that big, is still a difficult task to complete. No doubt that will be changed by tomorrow!
One kid asked me to show him the back of a Playstation 2 box as 'he' wanted to read the back of it. But he was around five and couldn't read too well and asked me to read it for him. Another kid about the same age couldn't figure out how to start 'This is Football 2003' on the Playstation 2 that was playable in the store, but eventually he got into the game - though he didn't know what he was doing and was just tapping the buttons madly! He would have probably been very good at the Mario Party games!
Another kid (again around the same age) was trying to talk his mum into buying him a Playstation One memory card. At first I just listened in thinking it was just another greedy child wanting more and more and more! But I soon learnt that he was trying to tell his mother, who knew nothing about videogames, or the Playstation 2 anyway, that he had Playstation One games, but only had a Playstation 2 memory card, so he couldn't save his original Playstation games at all. So I decided to jump in and explain to his mother in a simple way that she could understand, not being literate in videogaming terms, and she eventually got him a memory card. I did try to sell her an official one (in a pretty red colour too), but she opted for the cheaper own-brand version Game were selling. She probably thought I was trying to make some money out of her, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't care how much money people spend in the shop, as long as I still get my wage at the end of the...well whenever I get paid. So she went for the cheaper one instead of the reliable one, but I suppose it was worth it to shut her kid up, and to satisfy him. He seemed more than happy with his mother's purchase anyway. It's amazing how much joy a memory card can give to a small child...and how much joy a rumble pack can give to a...well I'll leave that to your imagination.
Although I didn't put any games through the till, so basically I didn't sell any, I still managed to witness many sales today, including the massive amount of sales of Hitman 2 and the strategy guide for it. A small load of consoles sold today, I think exactly the same amount of Playstation 2s as GameCubes, but the X-box sold as many units today as Microsoft Train Simulator did...zilch. It makes me wonder why Microsoft went into the videogame business. I'm not going to say anything bad about the console (as I'm thinking of getting one myself), but with PC games such as Microsoft Train Simulator and other Microsoft PC games that are of similar content, it makes me wonder why they bother. Super Mario Sunshine was another big seller of the day, though was strategically placed so everyone could see the game cases as soon as they enter the store - yet they all asked where Super Mario Sunshine was.
Some kids came back to the store about four or five times, though not to buy games...but to play them. They came back each time and spent ages playing the game This is Football 2003 on the Playstation 2. I wouldn't be suprised if the only times they left the Playstation 2 was so that they could 'powder their noses'. Anyway, they kept coming back, though looked rather suspicious near the empty pre-owned cases as they crouched down next to them, looked up at the till, and looked back at what they were doing many a time.
I went to Burger King in my lunch break and ate some of their fried crap - quite crispy too. But then went back to Game for the rest of my break and read some of Edge magazine. I don't care how informative that magazine is, it is the most boring piece of trash I have ever read! Reading it is like hearing more news on how Swalec are planning to build a gas pipeline from Merthyr to Swansea! I ended up flicking through it and just looking at the pictures of some retro-games, some of which are to feature on the new E-card reader for Game Boy Advance. But in the end I just went out onto the shop floor where it was empty for about twenty minutes. It was a lot more exciting than reading Edge though. If Edge had a little more humour involved, it would be a good read, but because it was more serious than a dead dingo in canada, it was boring.I want videogame magazines to make me excited about gaming, not put me off it all!
Anyway, I carried on advising customers, tidying the shelves, labelling, and all the other stuff sales assistants do, until the time came to close. Then I caught my bus home, walked the 2 minutes from the bus stop to my house, then ate some pork chops and chips - none of that fried Burger King crap. Although I enjoyed it all, I forgot how exhausting a day at work, stood up all day, serving people can be after not working for ten months. So I'll sleep well tonight anyway, recuperating my energy (I hope I got the right words there!) for my shift tomorrow. Still, if it means I'm going to finally have some money to fund my 'Game Boy Advance Trust Fund' (all donations welcome) that I unoffically founded before June 2001, then I'll be happy.
Roll on tomorrow, that's all I can say.
Anyway, I learnt a lot from my first day in the videogames trade! It was a great experience! I haven't been trained on the tills yet, but I could do everything else. Processing traded games, price checks, stock tidying (can't think of the posh name for it), eating my sandwhiches, advising customers, and the list goes on. Hopefully I'll be trained up on the tills tomorrow so I can serve customers without having to go into the stockroom to get someone.
Anyway, I started off pretty easy. It was quiet in store so I had a kind of introduction around the store so I know how each of the stands of games, hardware and PC software are shelved when it comes to me sorting stuff out. I priced up some Game Boy Advance deals and I have to say that the Platinum Game Boy Advance is the best looking colour yet! It really does look metalic and now I want one despite owning a white one (which after a year and a half, has developed a small scratch).
I also managed to find out how items are covered in that plastic stuff in the shops (not the kind officially used to package - but the kind you sometimes see around strategy guides and stuff). I saw the most amount of games I've ever seen in my life - well what do you expect in a videogames retailer's stockroom? And I also managed to work out how the shop is laid out, which, despite it not being that big, is still a difficult task to complete. No doubt that will be changed by tomorrow!
One kid asked me to show him the back of a Playstation 2 box as 'he' wanted to read the back of it. But he was around five and couldn't read too well and asked me to read it for him. Another kid about the same age couldn't figure out how to start 'This is Football 2003' on the Playstation 2 that was playable in the store, but eventually he got into the game - though he didn't know what he was doing and was just tapping the buttons madly! He would have probably been very good at the Mario Party games!
Another kid (again around the same age) was trying to talk his mum into buying him a Playstation One memory card. At first I just listened in thinking it was just another greedy child wanting more and more and more! But I soon learnt that he was trying to tell his mother, who knew nothing about videogames, or the Playstation 2 anyway, that he had Playstation One games, but only had a Playstation 2 memory card, so he couldn't save his original Playstation games at all. So I decided to jump in and explain to his mother in a simple way that she could understand, not being literate in videogaming terms, and she eventually got him a memory card. I did try to sell her an official one (in a pretty red colour too), but she opted for the cheaper own-brand version Game were selling. She probably thought I was trying to make some money out of her, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't care how much money people spend in the shop, as long as I still get my wage at the end of the...well whenever I get paid. So she went for the cheaper one instead of the reliable one, but I suppose it was worth it to shut her kid up, and to satisfy him. He seemed more than happy with his mother's purchase anyway. It's amazing how much joy a memory card can give to a small child...and how much joy a rumble pack can give to a...well I'll leave that to your imagination.
Although I didn't put any games through the till, so basically I didn't sell any, I still managed to witness many sales today, including the massive amount of sales of Hitman 2 and the strategy guide for it. A small load of consoles sold today, I think exactly the same amount of Playstation 2s as GameCubes, but the X-box sold as many units today as Microsoft Train Simulator did...zilch. It makes me wonder why Microsoft went into the videogame business. I'm not going to say anything bad about the console (as I'm thinking of getting one myself), but with PC games such as Microsoft Train Simulator and other Microsoft PC games that are of similar content, it makes me wonder why they bother. Super Mario Sunshine was another big seller of the day, though was strategically placed so everyone could see the game cases as soon as they enter the store - yet they all asked where Super Mario Sunshine was.
Some kids came back to the store about four or five times, though not to buy games...but to play them. They came back each time and spent ages playing the game This is Football 2003 on the Playstation 2. I wouldn't be suprised if the only times they left the Playstation 2 was so that they could 'powder their noses'. Anyway, they kept coming back, though looked rather suspicious near the empty pre-owned cases as they crouched down next to them, looked up at the till, and looked back at what they were doing many a time.
I went to Burger King in my lunch break and ate some of their fried crap - quite crispy too. But then went back to Game for the rest of my break and read some of Edge magazine. I don't care how informative that magazine is, it is the most boring piece of trash I have ever read! Reading it is like hearing more news on how Swalec are planning to build a gas pipeline from Merthyr to Swansea! I ended up flicking through it and just looking at the pictures of some retro-games, some of which are to feature on the new E-card reader for Game Boy Advance. But in the end I just went out onto the shop floor where it was empty for about twenty minutes. It was a lot more exciting than reading Edge though. If Edge had a little more humour involved, it would be a good read, but because it was more serious than a dead dingo in canada, it was boring.I want videogame magazines to make me excited about gaming, not put me off it all!
Anyway, I carried on advising customers, tidying the shelves, labelling, and all the other stuff sales assistants do, until the time came to close. Then I caught my bus home, walked the 2 minutes from the bus stop to my house, then ate some pork chops and chips - none of that fried Burger King crap. Although I enjoyed it all, I forgot how exhausting a day at work, stood up all day, serving people can be after not working for ten months. So I'll sleep well tonight anyway, recuperating my energy (I hope I got the right words there!) for my shift tomorrow. Still, if it means I'm going to finally have some money to fund my 'Game Boy Advance Trust Fund' (all donations welcome) that I unoffically founded before June 2001, then I'll be happy.
Roll on tomorrow, that's all I can say.