Why I don't support my LGS

[carmachu]

You know, honestly. . . adhering to posted store hours sounds neither rude nor crazy. That happens to be standard retail procedure. Sure, some stores stay open a bit later to accommodate customers but that is the exception. I think that you may have been spoiled a bit elsewhere.

The exceptions are the ones that reap the rewards. Speaking as a store owner(not in a gaming realted business) I am willing to stay late if necessary AND willing to open if I have a firm appointment on days the store isnt open.

You get back what you give. It wouldnt have killed him to stay a couple minutes later.

He would have gotten some good will, rather than the "why bother driving over to you, screw it" attitude.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Now that would be a shot. Or a Gnome Warlock.



God I hate gnomes...

They are the most fun to kill, no doubt about it...and I play Alliance.

Blood elves are a close second, though; I can grind for hours on them.


Trying to stay on topic (and failing), the guys at my FLGS are generally polite, and fun to talk to. I hate it when the owner answers the phone, as said owner really doesn't know much of anything, like what's in stock or not. I keep wanting to say "Look on the first cabinet, you know, the new releases? Heck, just give the phone to one of the guys!"

Brad

 

[Kahuna Burger]

They are the most fun to kill, no doubt about it...and I play Alliance.

Blood elves are a close second, though; I can grind for hours on them.


Trying to stay on topic (and failing), the guys at my FLGS are generally polite, and fun to talk to. I hate it when the owner answers the phone, as said owner really doesn't know much of anything, like what's in stock or not. I keep wanting to say "Look on the first cabinet, you know, the new releases? Heck, just give the phone to one of the guys!"

Brad

Friend of a friend went to check out a new grooming shop with her German Shepherd in tow. Owner said "what a nice golden!"

 

[Imperialus]

Try not to let one lousy clerk completely turn you off. Maby he was having a crappy day, perhaps he just delt with a some kid trying to pocket MtG boosters, or some guy ranting at him for half an hour claiming that it was the LGS's responsability to keep Dungon and Dragon from being canceled (yes that happened to a guy I know who works at an LGS). Maby it was just the end of the day and he had to get to his mother in laws birthday by 6:30, hell maby Blackleaf died in his D&D game last night and he's still traumatized. Retail drones are allowed to have crappy days too, I'm sure there are days at your work where you arn't on your A-game.

Like someone else said your avarage retail drone makes maby 8 bucks an hour. That's pretty poor returns for something that lets face it, can be a fairly difficult, high stress job with little reward. Clerks get very little respect, they're really just a short step up the employment food chain from fry cooks and yet they're still expected to stay open for as long as nessesary?

I work in a bookstore. We close at 10 PM, last tuesday we had a half dozen people sitting in easychairs by our fireplace until 10:20. When my manager finally kicked them out one of the ladies got pissy and told him that if this was the kind of customer service she could expect she wasn't going to be coming back. They proceeded to leave a hip high stack of books and magazines, empty coffee cups, and two damaged magazines that someone had spilled coffee on. That's the sense of entitlement that I think people are refering to in the thread, and although the OP didn't even approach that level of inconsideration perhaps it is a regular problem at the LGS so they feel it is nessesary to take a firm hand.

Oh, as for my orriginal point: Like I said, I'd give the store a second chance. You never know, their service could normally be really good. Try a different time of day or different day of the week, if the service still sucks, then you're probably more justified in writing them off completely.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

To The OP...

Seriously, the best thing to do is not to go back to the store.

You vented here and hopefully got it out of your system and personally I agree with you.

If I walk into a store and I feel like I'm being rushed out or treated rudely, I dont make a stink about it, I'd just leave and never go back. If someone needs a suggestion as to a store, I'll tell them of my experience there and let them decide whether or not they want to patronize it.

I still patronize my LGS for small things like Paizo's Critical hit Deck, thier Item Cards and Dungeon. For WOTC books however, I get them from Borders (coupons) or Amazon (fat discount). Alot of the time the discounted prices of Amazon allows me to spend a little extra money and get two books where I would have only been able to get one had I bought it from the LGS.

So, YAY Amazon !

 

[rogueattorney]

Just to give a counter-example to the OP's post, as the way things are supposed to be done.

I was in Belleville, Illinois on business. I had ten minutes to kill at about 9 AM and noticed a comic/game shop down the street. I drove by it, but couldn't see the posted hours on the front. So I parked in the lot and ran around to the front to see if they were open. Unfortunately, they didn't open until 10. Disappointed, I walked back to my car.

As it turns out, one of the owners was there, expecting a shipment of product. He saw me, and CAME OUT OF THE STORE and asked me if I was looking for anything. I told him I was from out of town and just wanted to take a look around before I had to get back on the road. Even though it was an hour before they were opening, he invited me in the store.

Of course, I had to buy something. I got a book for me and a comic for my daughter. Without me even pointing it out, and over my objection, the owner gave me discount on the book because of some minor shelf-wear.

That's how you run a business and generate customer loyalty. If the owner hadn't taken the initiative, he wouldn't have gotten a sale. I also wouldn't be telling you all that if you have a chance, please go to:

Fantasy Books, Inc.
1113 E. Main St.
Belleville, Illinois 62220
(618) 235-0844
www.fantasybooksinc.com

 

[bodhi]

You get back what you give. It wouldnt have killed him to stay a couple minutes later.

I agree that if he had the time, and certainly if he was the owner (and not just an employee), he should've stayed open a little longer, and maybe racked another sale. For a retailer, especially a small retailer, little things like that go a long way to keeping customers happy. And happy customers spend money.

That being said, expecting your local retailer to stay late just for you, and bend over backwards just for you, is, as jdrakeh called it, bad consumerism. You're shopping at a store, but you're being helped by a person. And yes, your money (assuming you're a buying customer, and not just a looking customer) is worth the store's time. But what makes your time more important than the person's time?

 

[jdrakeh]

Yep. Can you? I think you can't.

I don't think that I can, either, given that your're dismissing pages of complaints about game stores not catering to personal desires as immaterial. You know, when they illustrate my stance perfectly.

That is correct, and I see a lot of people saying they won't return to a place that has treated them poorly. I don't seeing anyone demanding pyres.

Some people are demanding, not that they be treated well (in a general sense), but that certain specific conditions be met by retailers. Specific instances are cited. The whole first post is one such instance. There are a few others, with anecdotes attached on the first page of this thread alone. I don't need to quote them for you, just click to the first page of this thread.

Anyway, who said anything about power over the store owner?

Everybody complaining -- "If X store won't do Y, then I won't shop there!" is a specific demand with an ultimatum attached.

I just saw people saying that they wouldn't shop there.

Which is their prerogative. All I'm saying is that retailers don't have a responsibility to satisfy personal demands of consumers (they probably should, as it will win them more customers, but they don't have any responsibility to do so).

And, of course, that the ultimatum of "Me, myself, and I will shop elsewhere if you don't do things the way that I wnat them done!" isn't much of threat. If a bunch of people say that, sure, it poses a threat -- but one guy (or couple) with a flippant attitude delivering such an ultimatum has ZERO impact on the vast majority of retailers.

You hear people threaten to vote with their wallets enmasse all of the time. It very rarely happens.

 

[jdrakeh]

Been starting to wonder if you are the "fatbeard" in question, given your persistent and somewhat offensive atttitude toward the issue.

I'm not the "fat beard", but like I said, I know that the idea that business owners have the right to operate their stores as they see fit is an unpopular one. Especially in hobby/special interest consumer communties. You honestly don't see a lot of threads like this one pop up on other consumer-oriented sites with the frequency that they appear on fan-oriented sites. It's an entitlement issue. Certain consumer groups think they're entitled to certain things from retailers, which they're not -- and when they find that out, they get a little pissy

Incidentally, this particular dance has been danced before by hundreds of publishers, business owners, and other folks on hundreds of fan forums, mailing lists, etc. Today, I just happened to draw the short straw

 

[jdrakeh]

You guys need to get unique avatars.

I had one, but people thought that it was a pig with lasers shooting out of its nose or a dog having sex with a pig. It was neither, but I figured that to be on the safe side, I'd go with Masque (sp?).