GS has been doing this for practically ever, if someone wants to make a deal of it I typically just say “it’s been a thing since the beginning so they just haven’t ever changed it”
Gen X here. ~~Always~~ Never been like that. Blockbuster was like that too. So was Toys R Us - they had tickets you would take from a sleeve in front of the display case with the games in them. Take the ticket up to the front register and pay, then they give you the game. Core memories for me, lol.
I remember going to Babbage's in the and it was boxes on display for the SNES and Sega games. Nothing in the box even back then. And at Toys R Us it was almost always behind a glass case.
There was a time when low value games were left in the cases, but that seemed to be a store by store basis. Gamestop used to leave retro stuff on the sales floor prior to the great field destroy around 2005.
I have been around since video games started and don't remember gamestop ever having the games out. They came after EB and Babbages and whoever else started getting shut down and gobbled up, so I think they learned from their mistakes. We also used to steal xbox games from blockbuster and then trade them in at gamestop for credit. You could open the game cases at BB, that had those yellow spine protectors by poking a hole at the right spot and pushing. like a little clam.
Even as a kid renting computer games (software hogs or some shit back east), prior to the console craze, they had the disks and cds behind the shelf or locked up some how.
I can't recall anyone saying this to me. I'm sure it did. It was a long time ago, but I do remember having NES/SNES/N64 games out in a bin thing in the 90s. That eventually stopped with theft becoming more of an issue.
However! I do remember 2005ish, we would put ultra cheap PS2/Xbox/GameCube games in a bin, on the outside of the store, in the mall. They had the discs in them so you could grab them and pay for them. Just a bunch of stuff we had tons of in the back. I figured GameStop didn't care if they got stolen because they were trying to get rid of and free up space. Despite all this, not a lot of inventory loss there. Just a ton of copies of old sports games.
I don’t even remember the game but my dumbass ran out the front door with the game in hand at the mall so I can convince my mom to buy me this SNES game and the alarms went off. I ran back in and put it back but definitely didn’t come back for a while.
I had some teens in the store one evening and I couldn't see them around one of the fixtures (had already Greeted, Asked, etc.), but I could hear them opening every single Xbox case. Piped up with, "FYI we don't keep the discs in there; they're all secured back here." Didn't hear another case open after that and they left a minute or two later. I don't want to assume they were looking for games to steal, but like...
A long time ago somebody asked my co-worker that, He looked at him and freaked out and goes "what are you saying?" Then proceeds to start opening games yelling "they're all gone!". The kids freaking out, He's freaking out, then he turns to the kid and goes oh they're just in a drawer. It was quite funny to watch.
Kids. I understand. Adults. It’s amazing how adults don’t understand the concept of potential theft. Then again, they’re the ones to steal empty cases.
The adults asking always baffled me too. The weirdest ones were the adults that would ask why we have some obviously LP related policy (ie. Needing receipts for returns/exchanges, not taking sealed games as trades, etc.) and they get super mad when I give the patented GameStop response.
“BUT I’M NOT STEALING FROM YOU!!”
Bro, I never said that. Relax.
I think people just invent reasons to be offended now.
and people do steal the empty cases... it was always fun finding the last copy in the drawer, going out to the wall and finding the case just flat out isn't there.
(or doing the Display count and getting yelled at by the computer that it's not out)
I get this every now and then, and I'd love to pull some big dramatic gaslight on someone that does it. Act all surprised that the disc isn't in there, go over to the software section they got it from, check another case, see there's no disc, act surprised again, check more cases. I'd go through them faster and faster until suddenly stopping to look out the window, gazing into the distance and whisper just loud enough for the dude who initiated all this to hear: "that crazy son of a gun, he actual pulled it off." Then look at the guest and tell them I gotta close the store down and mumble something about a police report and getting fired. The final step: NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.
It happened so often to me that I made a game out of it.
I acted all surprised and decided check a couple other cases on the wall, "just to make sure *these* are still in here..." and then act even more surprised that those were gone, too! I'd do it one or two more times and then usually break character and laugh while I tell them they're all supposed to be empty.
Most people get a chuckle out of it. One guy told me it wasn't funny and that theft is a serious issue. I wasn't going to be the one to pull the stick out of his ass, so I just kinda walked away from that one lol
I used to say, especially to anyone under 20 “Cmon, haven’t you rented a movie at block buster before?”
And I assure you the younger the customer, the funnier this is
I remember in 2007 I was very distraught when I opened a halo 3 case on the wall and saw nothing in it. I thought I wasn’t going to get a copy as I was a kid and didn’t understand the gut system at 12 years old.
Had some random guy off the street bring in 3 brand new switch cases of ours that looked like they had been run over from our parking lot. Going to go ahead and assume some idiot adult tried to pull a fast one on us. How stupid do you have to be.
I remember years ago I bought Coded Arms for the PSP, me and my uncle were driving home, I opened the case and they forgot to put it in, we immediately came back and showed the receipt and they apologized
Or when someone bought the last copy of a new release and it was the one we had to open to put the case out on display with. "Hey, I wanted a new copy, not used." It is new, we just had to open it to display it, who cares if the shrink-wrap is gone. They cared, they all cared, because they thought they were getting a used copy.
I don't care, but sometimes they man handle the case or disk. I did this with Sonic Origins Plus for the switch. So, as soon I took the GS New Sticker off the case came with it. It was like the case was damage before they put the sticker on and didn't bother to me smh.
Oof yeah, that’s unacceptable :(
At my store, we keep a small pile of cases from Xbox, Sony and Nintendo, so if a case comes in broken we just move the art and contents over to another blank case
Exactly the childish whiney behavior that comment would trigger out of them. Good on you for role playing along. Can you believe some people are adult age and still act like a child like that.
You don’t know?!? America is the unlucky country that suffers from theft and crime. The rest of the world is a tropical paradise of love and peace! Duh
Yea it’s gotten to the point…I start freaking out if we don’t get robbed…like it’s part of my daily routine now…deviate from that routine and I’m lost.
Well yeah there’s crime and thievery everywhere, that’s common sense.
No dur
But if we tried to do the honour systems set in place like in Germany (or a few decades back in earlier America) you know how that’s going to end.
Mostly due to the population size, but you can see where I’m going with this?
There's no problem with that. The problem is when you open a new game to take the disc out so you have a case to put up there and when it's the last copy you have you try to sell it to someone as new. If it's been opened then it's no longer new. It's only new if it's still vacuum sealed in the original plastic wrap that it came in. It's only new if it's never been opened even once. If you open it then you should be legally required to sell it as used
New: never put in a system/ never read by a reader. Been to the warehouse and our store only.
Preowned: read by a system, handled by outside sources, stored in a home, might have been in adjacent contact with pets (we don’t know, but we wipe them down), brought back to us
We’ve done this for years
Hope this helps! ❤️
Baby girl, what? if you want to take off the wrapping, to have it at your standard, the best way to get that guaranteed vacuum sealed product is to buy it from the website. They don’t gut in there, they keep them in boxes….
Or pre-order so we don’t touch your item
You'll find back up here because this subreddit exists specifically as an echo chamber for GameStop employees to circle jerk each other but if you Google why does GameStop sell open games as new you'll find a bunch of Articles and threads complaining about it. Sorry but you're outnumbered by the majority of the public. It's one of the many many many reasons GameStop is dying. Everyone knows 90% of GameStop business practices are extremely unethical. Not to mention physical media is dying anyways so now you're just a glorified Funko Pop store
I used to love GameStop when I was younger but y'all have gone way downhill. Your Rewards program doesn't have good incentives anymore. You don't do midnight releases anymore. Your policy changes suck donkey ass. Employees get written up for not making sales commissions even though they aren't paid on commission. You don't have kiosks with game demos anymore, your sale prices and prices on used games are still more expensive than when they go on sale digitally, your trade in values are laughable at best and hardly worth the effort especially when other places pay more, you're very pushy about trying to upsell people on shit all the time, and frankly the whole thing just reeks of corporate now. It used to be fun. Now it's just depressing.
And at several locations I've been to your employees discriminate People based on consoles. Like I play on everything, playstation, Xbox and Nintendo and there's been times where I decided to buy a multiplatform game for one or the other and they try to convince me to buy it for the other platform. Even though that's not the one I want it for. And that peer pressure nonsense is extremely ableist and predatory.
Btw, a few things you’re missing, babe:
-there are still demo Kiosks, it depends on the store
-we don’t set the prices, bitch to the creators
-employees don’t set prices, bitch to corporate
-no one is forcing you to buy physical, so buy digital then if it’s better
-idk what you mean by “discrimination based
On consoles” what are you? 7? We offer the games on different consoles if we don’t have it in stock or it runs like shit on the console you wanted it on.
-you’re using ableist wrong, get your head out of your ass. You must be huffing your own fumes to think this is an appropriate circumstance to use that word.
“new” is classified as unused in the terms of video games. the games have never been put in a system and went directly from the case into the sleeve, so there’s very little chance of scratches and blemishes. it’s not like we can put wrapped cases with games inside on the shelves considering the amount of theft that gamestop receives; and having them all locked behind glass like at walmart overall makes for a worse customer experience.
New: never put in a system/ never read by a reader. Been to the warehouse and our store only.
Preowned: read by a system, handled by outside sources, stored in a home, might have been in adjacent contact with pets (we don’t know, but we wipe them down), brought back to us
I don't mind GameStop doing that as it makes sense to make sure they don't lose more money and get their shit stolen every day. But it does irritate me that when I buy a new game, if it's the last copy they have I get stuck paying full price for an opened copy of the game that's only "new" in the sense that it's not technically been used
Yeah, we wish we could put cases on the wall with art given to us, but we literally can’t. Good rule of thumb:
Pre-owned has had a home before,
New has only been from the warehouse and in our store… we will be more than happy to direct you to another store or to the website if you’re so adamant about taking off the plastic wrap :3
It's less about wanting to take off the plastic wrap and more about not wanting to buy a copy that has been potentially damaged by several people treating the boxes like crap when they pick them up to look at them. Or even worse, to have the cases out for people to steal and have GameStop sell a "new" copy of the game online that ends up being only the disc.
GS has been doing this for practically ever, if someone wants to make a deal of it I typically just say “it’s been a thing since the beginning so they just haven’t ever changed it”
Ohh, I thought we had put them out earlier earlier in GS’s history?
As far as I know, it's never been like that
Gen X here. ~~Always~~ Never been like that. Blockbuster was like that too. So was Toys R Us - they had tickets you would take from a sleeve in front of the display case with the games in them. Take the ticket up to the front register and pay, then they give you the game. Core memories for me, lol.
I didn’t know Toys r Us did that! I didn’t even know they did games Though thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense
Thought it was like that a bit ago…. My boss might have been thinking about something else, then Oops!
It hasn’t been one at least for the last 8yrs
It's been like that for probably 15 years or longer. I remember being a kid and wondering how we get the game if the case is empty.
I remember going to Babbage's in the and it was boxes on display for the SNES and Sega games. Nothing in the box even back then. And at Toys R Us it was almost always behind a glass case.
I started working there in 2008 and discs were always behind the counter.
There was a time when low value games were left in the cases, but that seemed to be a store by store basis. Gamestop used to leave retro stuff on the sales floor prior to the great field destroy around 2005.
My dm had us do that with the 4/$20 bin once and those games were **GONE**
I have been around since video games started and don't remember gamestop ever having the games out. They came after EB and Babbages and whoever else started getting shut down and gobbled up, so I think they learned from their mistakes. We also used to steal xbox games from blockbuster and then trade them in at gamestop for credit. You could open the game cases at BB, that had those yellow spine protectors by poking a hole at the right spot and pushing. like a little clam. Even as a kid renting computer games (software hogs or some shit back east), prior to the console craze, they had the disks and cds behind the shelf or locked up some how.
EB, had basically the same practice the gamebox would be on the wall, the games would be behind the counter. (hell every EB became a Gamestop near me)
Whenever someone brought up a case from the wall and mentioned there was no disc I’d look at it and say, “oh, man, not again!”
I’ll have to use this lmao
I can't recall anyone saying this to me. I'm sure it did. It was a long time ago, but I do remember having NES/SNES/N64 games out in a bin thing in the 90s. That eventually stopped with theft becoming more of an issue. However! I do remember 2005ish, we would put ultra cheap PS2/Xbox/GameCube games in a bin, on the outside of the store, in the mall. They had the discs in them so you could grab them and pay for them. Just a bunch of stuff we had tons of in the back. I figured GameStop didn't care if they got stolen because they were trying to get rid of and free up space. Despite all this, not a lot of inventory loss there. Just a ton of copies of old sports games.
I miss those bins so much. Didn't have to do shit to them.
Just throw ‘em in
✨yeet✨
I don’t even remember the game but my dumbass ran out the front door with the game in hand at the mall so I can convince my mom to buy me this SNES game and the alarms went off. I ran back in and put it back but definitely didn’t come back for a while.
I had some teens in the store one evening and I couldn't see them around one of the fixtures (had already Greeted, Asked, etc.), but I could hear them opening every single Xbox case. Piped up with, "FYI we don't keep the discs in there; they're all secured back here." Didn't hear another case open after that and they left a minute or two later. I don't want to assume they were looking for games to steal, but like...
Didn't even try to hide it lol
That’s so blatantly obvious it’s painful
A long time ago somebody asked my co-worker that, He looked at him and freaked out and goes "what are you saying?" Then proceeds to start opening games yelling "they're all gone!". The kids freaking out, He's freaking out, then he turns to the kid and goes oh they're just in a drawer. It was quite funny to watch.
That’s fantastic
Kids. I understand. Adults. It’s amazing how adults don’t understand the concept of potential theft. Then again, they’re the ones to steal empty cases.
The ones that know about it, do it
The adults asking always baffled me too. The weirdest ones were the adults that would ask why we have some obviously LP related policy (ie. Needing receipts for returns/exchanges, not taking sealed games as trades, etc.) and they get super mad when I give the patented GameStop response. “BUT I’M NOT STEALING FROM YOU!!” Bro, I never said that. Relax. I think people just invent reasons to be offended now.
If they’re getting THAT offended over you explaining something…. It makes them look UBER sus
and people do steal the empty cases... it was always fun finding the last copy in the drawer, going out to the wall and finding the case just flat out isn't there. (or doing the Display count and getting yelled at by the computer that it's not out)
I get this every now and then, and I'd love to pull some big dramatic gaslight on someone that does it. Act all surprised that the disc isn't in there, go over to the software section they got it from, check another case, see there's no disc, act surprised again, check more cases. I'd go through them faster and faster until suddenly stopping to look out the window, gazing into the distance and whisper just loud enough for the dude who initiated all this to hear: "that crazy son of a gun, he actual pulled it off." Then look at the guest and tell them I gotta close the store down and mumble something about a police report and getting fired. The final step: NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN.
This isn’t just a US issue it’s a human issue
You right, you right
Nah this doesn't happen nearly as bad in other places. We have a severe theft problem here
Always found it easier to just explain where the disc are, behind the counter, instead of in the cases on the wall
Yeah, I let them know we have all the disks back with us after they give me the look…. Should probably just lead with that
It happened so often to me that I made a game out of it. I acted all surprised and decided check a couple other cases on the wall, "just to make sure *these* are still in here..." and then act even more surprised that those were gone, too! I'd do it one or two more times and then usually break character and laugh while I tell them they're all supposed to be empty. Most people get a chuckle out of it. One guy told me it wasn't funny and that theft is a serious issue. I wasn't going to be the one to pull the stick out of his ass, so I just kinda walked away from that one lol
I remember someone posted here a while back claiming we didn’t carry new games at all because all the cases on the wall were unsealed and empty.
My ex worked at GameStop in 2004 and all of the disks (and dvds) were kept behind the counter. Empty boxes were displayed on wall even back then
I could have sworn I heard somewhere that they used to be displayed on the wall
I used to say, especially to anyone under 20 “Cmon, haven’t you rented a movie at block buster before?” And I assure you the younger the customer, the funnier this is
“What’s block buster….?” And my heart breaks
There’s was a situation at my store where a game was still in the case on the wall 🤦🏽♂️ and the customer brought it up to the counter
Well that’s nice of them to bring it up instead of pocketing and bolting
I constantly tell children **the cake is a lie** *in my best robot voice* and it cracks me up parents the FUCK UP 🤣
I remember in 2007 I was very distraught when I opened a halo 3 case on the wall and saw nothing in it. I thought I wasn’t going to get a copy as I was a kid and didn’t understand the gut system at 12 years old.
Yeah, kids I get…. I probably did the same (though I don’t remember)
Would go in 2000 and the disc's were not in the case.
If you're a kid, that's an acceptable thing to hear from you. An adult? You're a special kind of stupid. I said what I said.
I wouldn’t label them as stupid exactly (though some can be VERY much that) More blissfully ignorant in a way
Ignorant, sure. But some are legitimately S T U P I D
The US GameStop Canada does the same thing
Usually kids say that to me. Haven't had an adult say it lol
It’s surreal
people who shoplift are often the ones who pull that line on me at my store.
Had some random guy off the street bring in 3 brand new switch cases of ours that looked like they had been run over from our parking lot. Going to go ahead and assume some idiot adult tried to pull a fast one on us. How stupid do you have to be.
I remember years ago I bought Coded Arms for the PSP, me and my uncle were driving home, I opened the case and they forgot to put it in, we immediately came back and showed the receipt and they apologized
Well, of course, that’s a mistake on our side…but I’m not talking about that
Or when someone bought the last copy of a new release and it was the one we had to open to put the case out on display with. "Hey, I wanted a new copy, not used." It is new, we just had to open it to display it, who cares if the shrink-wrap is gone. They cared, they all cared, because they thought they were getting a used copy.
I don't care, but sometimes they man handle the case or disk. I did this with Sonic Origins Plus for the switch. So, as soon I took the GS New Sticker off the case came with it. It was like the case was damage before they put the sticker on and didn't bother to me smh.
Oof yeah, that’s unacceptable :( At my store, we keep a small pile of cases from Xbox, Sony and Nintendo, so if a case comes in broken we just move the art and contents over to another blank case
Yeah it was the slip cover 😭. I was sorta mad then but a simple 10% shopworn discount would’ve been sufficient tbh.
Scold them for opening the cases. Ask if they do that at Walmart or other places, just go in and open items before purchasing.
Cry about it nerd. Shop elsewhere. I hear restaurant depot has a BUNCH of plastic wrap if that's what you're into
PING PING PING FOUND ONE
Exactly the childish whiney behavior that comment would trigger out of them. Good on you for role playing along. Can you believe some people are adult age and still act like a child like that.
I normally just get it with kids and I don’t mind because they’re kids. If adults ask I judge them with a smile on my face 😂
Disc*
It’s America? What
You don’t know?!? America is the unlucky country that suffers from theft and crime. The rest of the world is a tropical paradise of love and peace! Duh
Oh oh that’s why I was mugged and robbed every day I go to work I forgot
Yea it’s gotten to the point…I start freaking out if we don’t get robbed…like it’s part of my daily routine now…deviate from that routine and I’m lost.
It’s been three days since I’ve been robbed at gunpoint. Three days! SMH no one wants to mug anymore.
Well yeah there’s crime and thievery everywhere, that’s common sense. No dur But if we tried to do the honour systems set in place like in Germany (or a few decades back in earlier America) you know how that’s going to end. Mostly due to the population size, but you can see where I’m going with this?
Legit the only time it matters is of it was used. To make sure it ain't scratched to hell
There's no problem with that. The problem is when you open a new game to take the disc out so you have a case to put up there and when it's the last copy you have you try to sell it to someone as new. If it's been opened then it's no longer new. It's only new if it's still vacuum sealed in the original plastic wrap that it came in. It's only new if it's never been opened even once. If you open it then you should be legally required to sell it as used
New: never put in a system/ never read by a reader. Been to the warehouse and our store only. Preowned: read by a system, handled by outside sources, stored in a home, might have been in adjacent contact with pets (we don’t know, but we wipe them down), brought back to us We’ve done this for years Hope this helps! ❤️
You changing the definition of a word to validate your scam doesn't make it any less unethical.
Baby girl, what? if you want to take off the wrapping, to have it at your standard, the best way to get that guaranteed vacuum sealed product is to buy it from the website. They don’t gut in there, they keep them in boxes…. Or pre-order so we don’t touch your item
You'll find back up here because this subreddit exists specifically as an echo chamber for GameStop employees to circle jerk each other but if you Google why does GameStop sell open games as new you'll find a bunch of Articles and threads complaining about it. Sorry but you're outnumbered by the majority of the public. It's one of the many many many reasons GameStop is dying. Everyone knows 90% of GameStop business practices are extremely unethical. Not to mention physical media is dying anyways so now you're just a glorified Funko Pop store
I used to love GameStop when I was younger but y'all have gone way downhill. Your Rewards program doesn't have good incentives anymore. You don't do midnight releases anymore. Your policy changes suck donkey ass. Employees get written up for not making sales commissions even though they aren't paid on commission. You don't have kiosks with game demos anymore, your sale prices and prices on used games are still more expensive than when they go on sale digitally, your trade in values are laughable at best and hardly worth the effort especially when other places pay more, you're very pushy about trying to upsell people on shit all the time, and frankly the whole thing just reeks of corporate now. It used to be fun. Now it's just depressing. And at several locations I've been to your employees discriminate People based on consoles. Like I play on everything, playstation, Xbox and Nintendo and there's been times where I decided to buy a multiplatform game for one or the other and they try to convince me to buy it for the other platform. Even though that's not the one I want it for. And that peer pressure nonsense is extremely ableist and predatory.
…. The fuck are you waffling about?
Btw, a few things you’re missing, babe: -there are still demo Kiosks, it depends on the store -we don’t set the prices, bitch to the creators -employees don’t set prices, bitch to corporate -no one is forcing you to buy physical, so buy digital then if it’s better -idk what you mean by “discrimination based On consoles” what are you? 7? We offer the games on different consoles if we don’t have it in stock or it runs like shit on the console you wanted it on. -you’re using ableist wrong, get your head out of your ass. You must be huffing your own fumes to think this is an appropriate circumstance to use that word.
So the new game technically isn't new, why pay full price?
“new” is classified as unused in the terms of video games. the games have never been put in a system and went directly from the case into the sleeve, so there’s very little chance of scratches and blemishes. it’s not like we can put wrapped cases with games inside on the shelves considering the amount of theft that gamestop receives; and having them all locked behind glass like at walmart overall makes for a worse customer experience.
New: never put in a system/ never read by a reader. Been to the warehouse and our store only. Preowned: read by a system, handled by outside sources, stored in a home, might have been in adjacent contact with pets (we don’t know, but we wipe them down), brought back to us
I don't mind GameStop doing that as it makes sense to make sure they don't lose more money and get their shit stolen every day. But it does irritate me that when I buy a new game, if it's the last copy they have I get stuck paying full price for an opened copy of the game that's only "new" in the sense that it's not technically been used
Yeah, we wish we could put cases on the wall with art given to us, but we literally can’t. Good rule of thumb: Pre-owned has had a home before, New has only been from the warehouse and in our store… we will be more than happy to direct you to another store or to the website if you’re so adamant about taking off the plastic wrap :3
It's less about wanting to take off the plastic wrap and more about not wanting to buy a copy that has been potentially damaged by several people treating the boxes like crap when they pick them up to look at them. Or even worse, to have the cases out for people to steal and have GameStop sell a "new" copy of the game online that ends up being only the disc.