Introduction

I've written quite a bit, maybe too much, about my brief loser phase - the years working video game retail and going nowhere in life. That changed in 1996 when I decided to take things seriously and went back to college. Of course I still had to work and wasn't qualified to do much other than retail. So I took a job as a "2nd assistant manager" for a Super Crown bookstore. The job sucked but at least I had the right attitude this time.

When working at Electronics Boutique/Waldensoftware I mistook the job for being something important.. the horrible paying job with bad hours that anyone on the planet could do. Now I was liberated, I knew this bookstore job was joke and I'd quit the second I had a degree. I saw it as a four-year sentence. My goal was to just do the time and not cause any trouble. I wasn't going to do a bad job, but I wasn't giving it one extra second of thought or effort either. With good behavior I got out after only 18 months.

If you enjoyed reading "loser phase" then I have some marginally bad news: there is no video game content here. From 1996-2000 I basically gave-up games. I recognized them as a distraction that could sink my academics again. There'd be plenty of time for games when I was done with school.

Alright so then who is this article for anyway?

• People who take their lousy retail job seriously, I hope I can convince you otherwise (and maybe offer some advice for getting out).
• People who used to work lousy retail jobs that want to laugh about it.
• Weirdoes who think 1997 was a really interesting year for the book publishing industry.

The format for this article is chronological for the first and final two sections. The stuff in the middle contains general tales from working at Super Crown. Most, maybe all, of those occurred in 1997.