Extra: Video Game Retail Misconceptions

Here are a few common misconceptions about video game retail that didn't fit anywhere else:

Misconception: Items that are featured prominently in a store are the highest-sellers.
Reality: Retail stores lease prominent shelf space (end-caps, front of the store displays) to vendors. The first I remember Elbo doing this was in 1993 or 1994. By 1996 nearly all the high-profile space was reserved. If you walked into an electronics store in late 2005 or early 2006 you might think that UMD movies were selling like hotcakes.

Misconception: An individual retail store has direct control of their inventory.
Reality: The inventory for chain retail stores is controlled by a home office distribution system. The home office may adjust a particular store's inventory to meet local market conditions but the store staff has little to no input on the matter. Vendors themselves also control the supply of their products; stores can't sell more than what a manufacturer produces. The crappy bookstore I worked at from late 1996-1997 was the opposite case, but that company is out of business now.

Misconception: The staff at a video game store knows some secret information about release dates that's being kept from the public.
Reality: This was the most painful misconception I encountered at Elbo. We received 10-20 phone calls a day from customers looking for release dates. At least half of those ended with the caller challenging the answer we gave, as though we were hiding something from them. The worst phone call I ever had ended with the caller asking "do you not know the release date or are you not telling me because I'm black?", I simply replied "how do I know what color you are over the phone?" The information that came down from home office was based on the same sources that magazines and web sites used. There was no secret channel of communication from the vendors telling us when their games were arriving. Release dates were always subject to change anyway. Calling the store is a waste of both your time and theirs.

Misconception: Employees at a video game store have played every game on the shelf and have comprehensive knowledge about every product there.
Reality: Employees have played under 10% of the games at the store. Let's face it, on $7-$15 an hour you're not buying a lot of games. The answer to "have you played [insert game title]?" is always "yes" but that's the result of wanting to seem l33t or make a sale.

Misconception: Employees at a video game store make a commission on sales.
Reality: Usually false. Commissions are typically earned on extended warranty sales but not on merchandise. The retail markup on new video games is actually quite low, zero on hardware, so it's not economical to pay commissions. I can't speak for every store on this though.

Misconception: If you nag enough, the guy behind the counter can hook you up with a discount.
Reality: Nope. At a corporate owned store the employees can not negotiate prices. Giving an unauthorized discount is grounds for termination. No amount of begging, or even yelling, will earn you a special deal of any kind. Once or twice we had organizations that wanted to make extremely large purchases, like for a new rec center, and asked for a volume discount. Those sales had to go through the home office.

Misconception: Buying an item at a store obligates them to provide technical support.
Reality: This was a huge problem from 1992-1995 when Elbo sold more computer hardware (by 1996 it was only a few items). Many customers that had problems would call us for help based on the "you sold this to me so you have to help me" premise. If the dude working at Elbo knew how to configure IRQ/DMA, install Windows, or recover data from a fried hard drive he wouldn't be working at Elbo.

The article "28 Confessions of a GameStop Shift Supervisor" (not mobile-friendly) shares, and expands, on a number of these misconceptions. It's a good read if you liked this piece.