Idk, I've been calling the store near me for weeks and they always tell me they have no way of knowing what's coming. Maybe they just want to give everyone a fair shot at getting them, but that seems counterproductive. They can also hold a product aside for 3 hours if you call and promise to pick it up within that timeframe. Could just be that only managers get to see what's coming down the pipeline.
Edit: Btw, it was the first time I shopped there in about a decade. I can't believe how dreadful they can be with the upselling. Took 20 minutes at the store waiting in line because each customer took 5+ minutes to check out, just because they had to keep saying no to all the upselling stuff.
"Anything you want to pre-order with that?"
"No thanks"
"You sure? You know a new Red Dead is coming, right? It'll be hard to find at launch, and for just 5 bucks you can secure your copy"
"No I'm good"
"Your loss! But do make sure you protect this controller you just bought, lots of people are returning them for defects"
"I'm alright"
"You sure? For just 10 dollars you can extend the warranty from 90 days to a full year, and the manufacturer is bad at shipping back products"
"Yeah I'm good."
*Visibly annoyed* "Alright, your loss. Do know that we can only accept returns for 30 days."
Not going back there.
*shrug* EB is terrible because management always puts down tons of pressure for metrics and upsells. But I have yet to find another place aside from local VG retailers that consistently hires salespeople who are actually knowledgable about games and not just a joe shmo salesperson. EB is a specialty retailer (its right in the name, Electronics
Boutique), you have to compensate for the insider knowledge somehow (though god knows the staff don't get any of that compensation). When I went to Walmart last night to get Persona 5 at midnight I ended up having a chat with a guy who wanted some game recommendations and I ended up helping him get Doom. No way that would have happened with the two little old ladies running electronics that night. You have to put up with the upsell, but you also get probably the best informed and knowledgable salespeople in video game retailing, thats the tradeoff. Not saying ALL EB sales reps are good, but I think they are above the average kid running 3 sections at Bestbuy or Walmart.
Also its varies from store to store greatly, I find the poorly performing stores always have staff that have to keep the act up for longer because management is on their ass constantly, my old location was one of the best performing in the city so we had more leeway to lay off people we knew would just be annoyed vs keep it up on a gullible layperson. This is because store performance is hardly ever about how pushy the salespeople are and much more about the location and pursuant customers; the demographics, traffic volume, income level, accessibility etc.
I think most EB employees look at me and know I'm an expert on video games. I have that look.
Funny you say that, I was shopping the HMV clearance and I kept getting people asking me questions like when the location was closing and I kept having to tell them I didn't work there. I wasn't even wearing anything close to the store uniform. I always wonder what it is that retail workers subconsciously absorb that makes us all look like "person who works here."
