Jeebus... I've been shopping in gaming stores for twenty-plus years and I've never had to deal with someone pulling the shit that appears to happen regularly according to these threads...

Not to say the clerks at various stores haven't been one shade of moron or other... but the basics of actually RINGING UP a customer without saying something so ignorant as to make them leave their shit on teh counter and shop elsewhere...

Now, I've heard plenty of stupid shit from the mouth breathers that seem to live in game stores, but I generally ignore it, so unfortunately I have very few examples.

Probably the dumbest thing I ever heard at a gaming store is the owner of Warp 1 Comics in Edmonton trying to explain that its really for the customers benefit that he charge $2-3 above cover price on every gaming book, and keep them shrink-wrapped so no one can browse.

RPGPundit

Actually that reminds me of a now defunct 'stupid action' by a LGS owner. All, and I do mean ALL the gaming products were locked away behind the counter. You actually 'shopped'... if that is the word for it... by looking at laminated printouts of the covers of the books in stock.

No browsing the books, obviously.

I can't speak to the impact that this had on the store, as it went out of business shortly after for reasons that apparently have nothing to do with the business model (the owner didn't want to give half of it to his soon to be ex wife... or so the story goes).

That store had an excuse for shitty clerks, since all the employees were, to my knowledge, paid under the table, far below market value for Geek Cred... but the owner was the one with bad interpersonal habits... sexual harassment of female customers stands out.

Which is odd, because aside from the 'antishoplifting measure' that started this post, he had otherwise very canny, if somewhat shady, business sense and was putting the hurt on the older, more established game store he set up to challenge for geek dominance.

That store, ironically, survives and has stolen at least one of his excellent decisions about 'play space'.

Quote from: RPGPundit;434850Probably the dumbest thing I ever heard at a gaming store is the owner of Warp 1 Comics in Edmonton trying to explain that its really for the customers benefit that he charge $2-3 above cover price on every gaming book, and keep them shrink-wrapped so no one can browse.

RPGPundit

Oh you can't do this to us; let's hear the full argument or whatever you remember of it.  I've GOT to hear the moon logic behind this.

Quote from: RPGPundit;434850Probably the dumbest thing I ever heard at a gaming store is the owner of Warp 1 Comics in Edmonton trying to explain that its really for the customers benefit that he charge $2-3 above cover price on every gaming book, and keep them shrink-wrapped so no one can browse.

RPGPundit

It this store in Edmonton Mall? If so, I may have stumbled upon the dude last summer.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;434651Stupid thing I heard in a game-store:

Customer, to shopkeep: "Can I borrow a sheet of paper and a pen?"
Shopkeep: "Sure...what do you need them for?"
Customer: "I want to jot down some stats in Sword & Fist so I don't have to buy it."

I worked in a bookstore for several years and this was not an uncommon situation.

"Do you sell sand?" That's perhaps the stupidest thing I've allowed myself to remember.

Quote from: Xanador;434925"Do you sell sand?" That's perhaps the stupidest thing I've allowed myself to remember.

I have seen quite a lot of sand for sale in game stores, and less often in knick-knack shops... though more frequently if there is a beach nearby.

Methinks you have not pondered the actual value of sand.

Quote from: Reckall;434894It this store in Edmonton Mall? If so, I may have stumbled upon the dude last summer.

No, its always been in the Whyte Ave. area.

RPGPundit

Quote from: thedungeondelver;434861Oh you can't do this to us; let's hear the full argument or whatever you remember of it.  I've GOT to hear the moon logic behind this.

Well, as best as I can recall the arguments amounted to "we have an excellent selection and so you won't have to order stuff in or wait for it to arrive, so you're paying extra for our selection" and "the shrinkwrapping prevents people from wrecking the books so that you don't have to buy a book that is already worn".
Some shit like that, anyways.

Oh yes, also, at one point it was "the canadian dollar is weaker than the US dollar, and even the books with canadian cover prices don't accurately reflect that, so we just have to raise the prices to compensate". I noticed on my last visit that despite the Canadian dollar basically being at parity with the US dollar, the books were all still at inflated prices, so I'd guess they're not using that particular argument anymore.

RPGPundit

I can remember a lot of dumb stuff said at game stores.

Most recently, a store-workers friend (the worker MAY have been the owner) who was standing behind the counter, hanging out. I am buying a copy of Nightspawn (the Original Nightbane game, with the original title...in MINT condition).

Dude: I Can't believe someones buying a Palladium book with them getting sued out of business.

Me: They haven't been sued out of business. I just ordered a Christmas surprise package as a gift over the weekend.

Dude: Wow, considering how awful their games are...I'm surprised to hear that. I had fun with Rifts and all, but I look at it now and I'm all like 'What is this shit?!' y'know?

Me:...

Dude: *continues to talk about shit he doesn't know about and insulting my purchases.*



That was a good one.

Also,  Back when NWoD was announced, but not much had been revealed about it...I heard a lot of funny rumors about that game.

* It's going to be D20
* It's going to be Post-Apocalypse
* They fired everyone and got a lot of D&D designers to work on it
* It's going to be LARP only

Funny thing was, a lot of those rumors were accurate for McWoD when that came out. The rumors themselves aren't dumb, just that people would be spreading them.

Fun things said directly to me in a game store:

(incredibly greasy spaz): "HEYCANILOOKATTHIS?" (while picking up a large piece of Dwarven Forge)

(ibid): "When your campaign finishes I'll join your new game.  I recommend Dragonlance for 3.5." (I'd never given this terrible person the least notion that I was going to let him join my (still ongoing since 2005) game, nor that I was switching rules, nor that the switch would be to 3.5, nor that my new game would be set in Dragonlance)

(Incredibly greasy spaz girl): "I'm going to get a job at the Circle-K up there and work for a couple of weeks so I can buy the Colossal Red Dragon!" (then quit, she announced)

(ibid): "Can I borrow this for just a second?" (while picking up one of my painted minis, on her way out of the game room into the store proper)

A few years back I went to an out of the way gamestore for a free convention. I showed up late and the store owner assigned me to a party of ten waiting for one more. They had already finished with their characters, so all eyes were on me.
 
One of the players noticed my signature written in my best penmanship on the inside cover of my PHB. "Thanks" I told him, but nooo! He hams it up like it's some sort of artistic masterpiece, so of course everyone else wants to see it too.
 
Then everyone else shows off their PHB signatures or lack there of. One guy, suddenly shouts "Oh my god I hate myself!" and shows us his signature in his PHB. It's honestly the dumbest looking signature I've ever seen. The scale of the letters shrink from left to right and the line of his signature curves up and inward on itself. His large childish signature was written in a fine tipped pen that recorded every shake of his maladroit hand. And to make matters worse, the end of the signature is crowded between the edge of the book and the scratched out signature above.
 
The wellwishers amongst the group fall silent as we struggle to think of something nice to say. A few recomend "This book belongs to" stickers to cover up the mess and give him a second chance. But he was undeterred. "No guys, look I bought this book used at GenCon. And I shoulda known better because I've ALWAYS played D&D. Look here!"
 
And then he pointed at the signature above his own. A bold signature obscured with ten thousand fine tipped pen scratches. A signature that read "Dave Arneson."

Quote from: thedungeondelver;434988(ibid): "Can I borrow this for just a second?" (while picking up one of my painted minis, on her way out of the game room into the store proper)

Did you get your mini back?

Quote from: Malleus Arianorum;435002And then he pointed at the signature above his own. A bold signature obscured with ten thousand fine tipped pen scratches. A signature that read "Dave Arneson."

:banghead:

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;435031Did you get your mini back?

I was between her and the door out of the game room, my response was "Absolutely not."

Seriously, the employees at the game store told me/us that the nights that my group (youngest person was in their late 20s) were the best nights because we "kept an eye" on the other, younger gamers and they "behaved" when we were back there (I cannot fathom how bad they must have been on the alternate weeks).  One of the many reasons I quit gaming up there: if you're going to task me with babysitting, pay me.  I have two (well, one at the time) children of my own to tend to.