Why I don't support my LGS

[Zimri]

See now I *KNOW* my run ins to my FLGS ,where I really only like the management the regular clerks make me feel icky, will ALWAYS take more than 20 minutes. They regularly close at 10pm so I rarely venture in past 7pm and NEVER after 9pm.

I have worked retail and I know that
1) Stores take time "close" I've seen it go from 15 minutes to over an hour.

2) I know people will loiter past and even try to enter past closing time (try working at a video store that puts new releases out on Tuesday at closing time on Monday or for that matter first thing Tuesday morning when you come in an hour early to make sure prep was done properly).

The rest is just "feeling"

1) I as a person feel badly when I do something to make someone else's life/job more difficult so I try to avoid doing it I of course can't and don't expect anyone else to do the same but wouldn't the planet be a better place if they did.

2) I don't know what factory you all are digging up your minimum wage slave robots from, or what make of cot you have out back for them, but odds are just like you and me they have lives, friends, SOs, children, commitments to get to.

That said as a consumer I do vote with my wallet. There was one take out restaurant locaation (KFC) I refused to go back to when they refused to serve me 30 minutes before closing time. There have also been many times I have tipped upwards of 50% at a medium priced sit down restaurant when my wife and I and a couple we treat had EXCEPTIONAL service (we also always speak with a manager on these occasions).

Employees are done when the schedule says they are. Any place I have worked has scheduled no more than 30 minutes after close.

 

[thalmin]

True, he is there at the store to sell you something, but he may have needed to close quickly, too. Before I had my own store, I frequented another game store a couple towns over. The manager there needed to get out by a definite time because he had a train to catch to get home. Missing that train meant waiting another two hours for the next one!
Sometimes there is a good reason for needing to close on time. If you have EVER needed to dash out of work at quitting time, or maybe even a little early, you can appreciate this. And a small store doesn't always have someone else available to cover.

We try our best to remain open for the customers, but once in a while our own lives have to take priority. But there is never an excuse to be rude to the customer, though some people have a different definition of "rude".

It is best if everyone remembers that the one you are dealing with, whether customer or sales person, is still actually a real person. Try to respect each other.

 

[EditorBFG]

Self-absorbed? Yes, but it's definitely part of the "Me first!" Western consumer culture typified by individuals who think the world revolves only around their personal desires or, at the very least, should. Unfair? No.

Well, you may find it self-absorbed, but the fact is when a person is rude to me (stranger or otherwise), it creates the impression that they do not like me. I am less likely to return to a place where I think someone dislikes me. I do not wish to encounter that again.

People talk about hiring gamers to work at a game store, and say they often do not have great social skills. And though having game knowledge is important, a store is certainly better off hiring a less hardcore gamer who can be polite than an ubergamer who can't.

But this goes for customers too, which makes having the right employees even more important: Many customers have social anxiety issues, and anything that makes them uncomfortable drives them away, often having never made an actual purchase.

End of the day, and you need to go home? Fair enough. But there is a way to be polite about it and encourage people to come again. Apologetic tone, offering to help them find what they're looking for quickly, explaining when a good time might be to come back, etc.

I worked in a game store for a year, and we were never so ahead of the game financially that we could afford to be rude to customers. I also worked at Barnes & Noble for two years, which was in no danger whatsoever of going out of business-- and politeness was just as crucial to success.

 

[Mercule]

Would you really want gaming stores to hire people good at retail but doesn't know anything about gaming?

A general rule of business is that it's easier and better to hire someone with people skills and teach them the "nuts and bolts" than it is to do the opposite. There are a few niche fields where that isn't the case (basically, back room science and engineering), or a few extremely talented individuals who can afford to be jerks, but those are the exception.

 

[Janx]

Again, your friend is the exeption. Seriously.



More correctly, the problem seems to be how you perceived it

Actually, at my wife's job (retail at art supply store), the manager stayed til 9PM to finish up with a customer who came in right at close (that was at least 2 hours over closing time). The customer spent $1500+ dollars, and helped meet the store's sales goal for the day (slow day otherwise).

In business, the customer is always right. At least until you convince him to buy a different product that you sell.

While it is unreasonable to expect a store to stay open after close, how the store handles it WILL affect their customer's opinion. In the OP, hassling customers who don't look like kids with no money about store closing in 20 minutes is a bad idea. Personally, I might have collected up a pile of stuff, and when the shopkeep mentioned store close again, I'd just say. "oh, well in that case, let me put this stuff I was obviously going to buy back on the shelf and let you get back to closing up."

Only a moron rushes shoppers with wallets to hurry up and get out of there. The longer they take, the more stuff they're likely to buy.

IF the shopkeep did indeed have an urgent timetable to maintain, there are polite ways of dealing with it. I agree with the OP. Let the LGS fail.

 

[bodhi]

Well, you may find it self-absorbed, but the fact is when a person is rude to me (stranger or otherwise), it creates the impression that they do not like me. I am less likely to return to a place where I think someone dislikes me. I do not wish to encounter that again.

When an employee is rude to a customer, it drives the customer away, and is bad for business. And I'd agree that there's never a reason to be rude to a customer.

That being said, I think there's also a certain obligation on the part of the customer not to be rude to the employee. When the customer is rude to the employee, it creates the impression that they don't respect the employee. The employee is less likely to want to see the customer again.

In my personal experience, when I've been kept late by someone who's apologetic about it, and says thank you, it's a little annoying, but no big deal. And nice if it's a big purchase. And maybe even nicer if they tip.

But then there are those who behave as if no one else exists except to serve them. They stay late, and when they finally do make a purchase, it's chump change. Then they complain about how expensive it's gotten, and talk about how they need to find somewhere else to spend their money.

I once worked tech support at an ISP. There were a small number of users, a tiny percentage of the overall user base, that every single tech knew. Because we had each talked to them. Multiple times. Often for the same things they broke, repeatedly, in the same way. For the vast majority of our users, we were glad to take their money, and glad to help them get connecting. But for that tiny minority, they cost the company way, way more in support hours than they were paying. If those customers had left, they would've actually improved the bottom line.

So I guess my point is, if you're a business, don't be a butthead. More flies with honey, yadda yadda. But if you're a customer, don't be one of those customers, because you make it worse for everyone else. And if you're a good customer, don't defend those customers, either. Because they make it worse for you.

 

[bodhi]

See, while I completely agree with this:

IF the shopkeep did indeed have an urgent timetable to maintain, there are polite ways of dealing with it.

I completely disagree with this:

Only a moron rushes shoppers with wallets to hurry up and get out of there.

Or someone who has some place to be. Are you going to make excuses to his parole officer? Or patch things up with his spouse? Or pick up his kid from soccer? Or go visit his mom before she goes into surgery? Or, hell, go level his night elf?

Mind you, I'm not condoning rudeness. I'm just asking why a customer (yes, a spending customer) is inherently more important than where the employee needs to be after hours?

and this:

The longer they take, the more stuff they're likely to buy.

Sometimes. And sometimes they take forever because they don't know what they want. Or what they want more. Or because they don't have to be anywhere. Or because the movie doesn't start for another 45 minutes. Or Heroes isn't on until 9, and it's only 7.

 

[Fishbone]

Talk about a blunder in the original post. Brick-and-mortar services only have three things going for them:
1.Service
2.Service
3.Service
They cannot possibly hope to compete with Amazon, Ebay, and all the thousands of other outfits selling items online in both selection and cost. They need to make it up with a clean, gamer-friendly store and workers who will kiss ass all day and all night to make sales.
That is the only way they can get me to pay, 30, 40, 50+ percent more than what can be had online, even after shipping and handling.

 

[Franky]

When I am financially secure and retire from my crappy retail job.

I'm gonna open a LGS !

I'm gonna grow a Goatee
I'm gonna drink cheap beer till my gut overflows past my belt ..
I'm gonna open late
I'm gonna close early
I'm gonna kid kids out that I don't like (pretty much all of 'em)
I'm gonna game with my mates with the door locked and the open sign on !
I'm gonna set a smoke bomb off in the back for atmosphere and play death metal / thrash.

but most of all .. Most of all ... I'm gonna have a ing laugh, cuz retail Blows .. Hard ! and u gotta get ur kicks !

 

[TheYeti1775]

Well just went and bought minis for me and the Little Yeti at ours. Same great service as always.