Why are my FLGS completely ignorant?

[Charwoman Gene]

Here's the thing - do you expect an employee at any other retail store to be fully aware of what's going on in inventory? Do you call a clothing store expecting the person who works there to be able to find a particular sweater? You expect them to be able to point you to the Land's End merchandise, sure, but the individual style and color of sweater?

1) Clothing is not the same kind of merchandise. Hobby and bookstores are extremely specific in inventory. People are okay with glossing over the difference in "Red V-Neck Sweaters from X Brand in Y size". It is an equivalence class. Stormwrack does not equate to Army of Darkness RPG.

2) Game stores carry a piddly amount of merchandise compared to most retail stores.

3) I DO expect retail salespeople to be competent at their jobs. These aren't hard jobs. People are only bad at them through laziness. They only f*** you at the drive-thru if you let them, folks.

4) A retail employee who does the lazy, "We don't carry that/The website is wrong/try next week" thing should be fired.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

I really want to get the money and balls up to open a gaming store...

I know customer service really well...

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Apparently there's been a crusade to burn everyone's D&D 3.0 books...

:\ I guess they missed my house!

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

LGS quality

While I too prefer staff be knowlegable and enthusiastic about their RPG products... there is a dark side to this.

THE UBER-GEEK.

As you initially enter the store this employee appears to be a typical friendly worker... until you have the short-sightedness to ask a knowlegable question, or worse, thier opinion on something. As soon as your soft social-interaction underbelly has been exposed, this vile and repulsive creature stikes!

Suddenly you are innundated by an overwhelming torrent of logorrhea. In less than a minute, the Uber-Geek has not only completely briefed over the patron's query, they have "skillfully" segued into a tedious chronicle about a recent adventure. Of course this ponderous saga always seems to include several asides that detail the most irrelevant minutiae.

The only way to defeat this beast is by foregoing the "grin-and-bear-it" politeness the Uber-Geek relies on, and instead counter-attack. This can be with either a smooth bluntness ("Look man, I don't care about your half-ogre barbarian with a vampire template. I came here to shop.") or several non-Euclidian interjections ("My dad killed a dragon when I was two", "That's cool... I'm raising a gelatinous cube in my cellar", "Please stop talking, I fear your voice is going to activate my epilepsy"). A final tactic is to actually have that epileptic seizure... of course you might want to conveniently "recover" before anyone actually calls a paramedic.

 

[Steel_Wind]

These are unhappy tales.

It does make me thankful to live in a large city with a large number of Friendly Local Gaming Stores. The ones that survive know their product well.

In Stormwrack's case, I called on the Wednesday before release. The response:

"It will be in Friday between 11:00 am and noon." Same response at the other FLGS down the street (401 Games and Hairy Tarantula, respectively). And it's not a guess - they know their new products.

I'd have asked 401 Games to put aside a copy for me, but it's really not necessary. They order a LOT of books and always have a dozen or more of every Wotc book on hand.

Generally speaking, by the time you work in currency conversion, they are cheaper than I could get it online (let alone incl. shipping).

So while I feel for you guys who have to put up with indifference and ignorance at your FLGS - it isn't like that everywhere.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

But I much prefer Bizarro World, my FLGS (just to name-drop in case you're ever in Davis, CA)!

"What happens in Bizarro World, STAYS in Bizarro World."

--fje

 

[amethal]

My FLGS isn't really an RPG store. They sell jewellery, model cars, ornaments, souveniers, and also warhammer, magic cards and some (mainly D&D) RPG books.

The lady who runs it has never played an RPG in her life.

Last time I was in there, she mentioned that Stormwrack was out, but the shipment had been delayed by the weather (the down side of living on a small island), and did I want her to order one for me and add it to the next shipment.

If she knows what Stormwrack is (and I certainly had never mentioned it to her), then there's no reason why someone who works in a dedicated RPG shop can't.

She's mostly knows about WotC stuff, but she's ordered a copy of Iron Heroes on my suggestion. I hope it sells, otherwise I'm going to be too embarassed to go into the shop and see it on the shelf every time. Would probably end up having to buy it myself (I already have the pdf).

 

[Mystery Man]

So, Mystery Man. I understand you work in the IT department of a community college. Can you tell me the release date of Cocoon 2.2? You do know what Cocoon is, right?

Workin' in the IT department of a community college is where its at baby!

But I have not a clue as to what you're talking about.

<snip>

If she knows what Stormwrack is (and I certainly had never mentioned it to her), then there's no reason why someone who works in a dedicated RPG shop can't.

Simply amazingly true.

 

[diaglo]

So I call my FLGS to see if they have Stormwrack in. The first question is of course "What's that?". I wouldn't expect a gaming store that sells D20 material to know what it is. How stupid of me. Confirm it's a DnD book and he goes off to look on the shelf. Not there he says and looks to see if its in the order book. "What was it? Rack-something?" *sigh* STORMWRACK!
"Who publishes that?"
*oh my god*

So cut through a bunch of repeating myself and he says that its not out this month but he rattles of a few titles of things to come. But it's on WoTC's site as being shipped this month I say.

"Oh they're always wrong!" says he.



I thanked him and hung up the phone. Why can't I have a gaming store that actually is enthusiastic and follows DnD? Every single time I call with a question, nobody knows what the hell I'm talking about.

Or maybe I'm just having a bad day. :\

sounds like my experience at the WotC store (when they existed). the clerk didn't have a clue about the products and his company made them. :\

 

[Psychic Warrior]

I've had basically the same experience; if my Shackled City doesn't come out on Friday as promised, I will kill again. I mean boycott FLGSes forever.

I went into another FLGS in my town (London, Ontario) and said "I'm looking for any old or used 3.0 D&D material."

I mean, I said OLD or USED.

I got a :

"3.0?!!? 3.0 isn't out anymore. Never again. No more 3.0."

Apparently there's been a crusade to burn everyone's D&D 3.0 books...

WHich stores did you go to? I usually go to LA Mood's or World's Away for my games stuff. Both places are pretty good (although there is one clerk at LA Mood's who's a little weak on RPG knowledge) and I haven't had any complaints so far (12 years and counting of frequenting LA Mood's).

Imperial Hobbies is useless unless you are into spending 100's of dollars on Warhammer.