Brandon Scott
No good deed goes unpunished. At least if you’re GameStop.
GameStop manager Brandon Scott, of a Dallas, Texas GameStop, has been suspended for his “unconventional policy” of only selling video games to kids with good grades. Public service is what he had in mind, but it looks like it might have cost him his job.
“GameStop is learning about and evaluating Mr. Scott’s concept. As always, GameStop maintains its corporate commitment to assisting parents and other consumers in making informed choices…”
– blah, blah, blah.
At publication time, it wasn’t clear whether Scott was being fired.
Even though the policy was a bit hypocritical, at least it was some incentive for kids to try harder in school. Cant say I’m surprised that GameStop was pissed about him turning away kids money
This guy should be fired. When I was young I was not allowed to play games on school night. Admittedly this was on the old atari system but the principal was the same. My parents said no. It is not up to the store to do this sort of thing. It shouldn’t be all that surprising that this is texas though. No personal responsibility here at all. Why should the parents discipline their little angel when they can pass the buck to the video game industry or the school system or whomever is in their sites that day.
I’ve actually been to that GameStop. Interesting.
Does it require good grades to land a job as a full-time sales clerk in a Game Stop?
Or was the guy trying to show kids the example – by washing out in school, you end up with a minimum wage job.
Had he been really smart about this, he would have made a Good Grades 5% discount policy – Per Kid / Per Game – and kept track.
These places also accept trade-ins – there again – good grades – more $ to spend in the store.
Golly gee, he’d been promoted to Regional Sales by now!
$4, Mark Derail,
Exactamundo! Darn, you beat me to it…
Extra bucks for good grades instead of losing sales for bad grades makes sense to me. I suppose the guy’s got a good heart, but isn’t the shiniest CD in the store…
This is stupid – It’s not the store’s responsibility, or place, to police kids report cards, it’s their parents’. Although, I’ll give #4 that he might be on to something.
What next? Is the grocery store not going to sell me beer because I didn’t get a good annual review at work?
# 6 not only is it stupid, I’m wondering if there wouldn’t be some sort of legal implications.
Just imagine, what if he decided to do this based on race or religion.
Sorry but leave parenting up to, oh I don’t know, the fucking parents maybe.
“GameStop maintains its corporate commitment to assisting parents and other consumers in making informed choices…”
The other consumers referred to are the kids looking for the most violent and sex-laced videos possible.
As if any parent can patrol or influence 2 or more kids 24 hours a day. To think so is living in a fantasy world.
RBG
When I was a kid, I seem to remember several stores that had programs where if you brought in your report card and you’d get some sort of discount for every A on it. Or something like that.
#4 – Does it require good grades to land a job as a full-time sales clerk in a Game Stop?
Or was the guy trying to show kids the example – by washing out in school, you end up with a minimum wage job.
OH JESUS H FUCKING CHRIST!
The guy has (or had maybe) a job managing a store. It ain’t like being an astronaut, but he isn’t panhandling either, and while it ain’t the best paying gig in town, it ain’t minimum wage.
As a writer I’ve had some pretty high paying jobs, but I spent a few years running a specialty computer store and frankly, it was one of the best jobs I ever had despite making half what prior gigs paid. I loved building and repairing custom PCs, helping small businesses set up networks, supplying IT staff in large companies, hosting LAN parties for the gaming community, guerrilla marketing, working with the Chamber of Commerce, and all the other fun that went along with it…
Now, I have a technically better job… but I don’t like it half as much as running that store.
What a smug and fucked up attitude to come down on this guy for his job. Working people in the country get shit on enough without having to endure elitist crap about how his job is so menial and unworthy of respect. Any man or woman who works for the food on their table and the roof over their head is worthy of respect.
…and when you consider how often the privileged class on this forum bitch and moan about the legions of slackers, welfare bums, illegal immigrants, single moms, and other so called undesirables, one wound think that one might choose not to chastise a guy for having a job.
This story about grades and games aside, is there anything else you’d like the often humiliated, over-worked, and under-paid service class to do for you?
Frankly Mark (and you too Bubba), I’m pretty surprised that that comment came from you, who I typically expect better of.
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ok… I’m done ranting about that…
Saw this story on digg and I not supriced at what has happened
#10, I worked Radio Shack for years, they were setting me up for full-time assistant manager, then manager of my own store a year later.
Instead I want to a technical college, computer programming, exactly 12 months, and landed Day 1 a job that paid 3x as much. I was 19.
So I don’t have a smug attitude, and stand by what I said.
GameStop are total douche bags for firing him for that though – honest managers are a rare find.
The only reason he’s manager is his age, ability to keep stock, and do the bank deposit. It’s a high-school-only career job.
Just a teeny-bit more education, he’d land an office job, not have to work weekends, not have to close the store and do a night deposit.
OhForTheLoveOf you should CageMatch a bit. 🙂
This guy was a complete idiot for doing this. I wonder what the hell his through process was? mebbe something like this:
” Lets see… I manage a store that sells videogames, the customer base is primarily children… so… save teh childrens!! ”
That dumbass deserved to get fired. dunno who he thinks he is.
#4. I’m agree with your idea Mark. Because I had the same one as I read this. But it should be the “employee discount rate”, which is generally 10%, not a measely 5%. If this guy had put a little more thought into this, he wouldn’t be in so much hot water. Reducing a sale price is one thing, refusing a sale, is a whole nuther deal. And really dumb! I’m not against why he was doing this, just how he tried to do it. Leave it up to a Texan to take the most drastic approach. I’m surprise he didn’t fire brand those kids that failed to prove they had good grades.
#10, OFTLO, I make less than anyone posting on this blog. How can I possibly be an “elitist” with a name like Bubba? I just thought I’d point out that, as a store manager, the man—
1) Doesn’t have a right to police sales in that manner — mgt. of the chain does. The article doesn’t say he owns the store – if he does, than he may do as he pleases.
2) IMHO should’ve used the “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” old saw to increase sales rather than decrease them.
3) I’m no salesman, but it seems that the “discount for good grades” is a much better tactic, and I doubt upper mgt. would have too much a problem with that.
No offense taken, rants are part of the fun of being here.
#14, Not all Texans are jerks. Head for the nearest mall where you live, I’ll bet you can find plenty. No offense taken from your comment, either.
#15 1) Doesn’t have a right to police sales in that manner — mgt. of the chain does.
Damn straight.
Nothing scares corporate more than being held responsible for independent-minded actions of the workers who are in direct-contact with customers.
Recent case in point, at the store my wife works at:
Corporate policy is – check driver’s license if signature is not on credit card.
One of my wife’s co-workers [white, female] decides that corporate policy is inadequate to detect fraudulent use of credit cards, and decides she will ask to see a driver’s license if the signature on the credit-slip doesn’t look similar-enough – in her opinion – to the signature on the credit card.
No problems at all… until a customer [black, female] notices that she is asked to show a driver’s license, when the white customers in the checkout line ahead of her weren’t…
Ohhh, yes… bend over, corporate, here it comes. 🙁
The now-suspicious customer stays in the store, after her purchase is completed, and sees that the white customers who were behind her in line are also able to make credit card purchases without being asked to show a driver’s license.
Offended customer, in tears, is now loudly demanding to speak to the manager – to complain about racial-based treatment – and later calls the corporate consumer hotline to file a formal complaint.
Corporate is blind-sided by an employee not following policy, makes profuse apologies to the offended customer, and places black-marks in the employment records of the clerk and the store’s Manager & Asst Manager.
Of course, neither the Manager nor Asst. Manager knew the clerk was on “Independent Ops” – but they get “dinged” for it, just the same.
Only happy ending to this is that the offended customer accepted the apologies & explanation, and is once again shopping regularly at the store.
He should be fired. It is not the job of a store manager to judge the customers worthiness in making a purchase. All he has to do is sell product and follow the law in the sale of those products.
A child’s performance in school is not governed by video games. If a child is failing, in school, there is usually a more deep rooted problem. Did Mr. social experiment even think for a moment that maybe those are the kids that need to escape into a game world even more? Besides wouldn’t you rather they play video games instead of causing trouble in the neighborhood? Children are not going to spend every waking moment studying and doing book learning. They need a release too just like adults.
As far as the GameStop corp. I agree 100% with their decision. He refuses sales to a child that doesn’t meet his standards then he is not doing what he was hired to do. Sell products to anyone who has the money to buy them and is under the law allowed to purchase them!
He may also have put GameStop in a legal jeopardy. Aptitude testing is not an allowable discrimination in the employment process unless it is directly related to the jobs performed. Why then would he think it is ok to use it to discriminate in the sale of a product?
It is a parents job to make decisions for their child. If they do a bad job then perhaps society should consider why that happens and maybe include child raising in the HS curriculum.
#15 – sorry BubbaRay. Didn’t mean to diss all Texans in general. But I guess that’s how it came out. How I should have phrased it was, some Texans have a tendency to employ more puritan correctional measures, than those in other states do. However I’ll bet there are wishy-washy liberals there as well. Too bad the rich there seem to get a different standard of justice, compare to the rest of people. Hmm…. who am I thinking of? Oh yeah, the Robert Durst trial of 2003. But I’m sure that California will let Phil Spectre off real soon, too.
I got burned once by a Texas based Life Insurer, that my former boss picked for us. They used questionable business tactics to sell their policies (pretty ladies and phony facts). And they didn’t fully refund my money when I got laid off within a year of signing (as stated in the
contract they were supposed to). The phony facts were how much the policy would be worth, when I reached 65. It turns out that the quoted amount was for when the policy itself reached 65 years. Being 32 at the time, I’d have to live to my late 90s to see those big bucks. But the ex-Texas beauty queen, turned sales rep didn’t explain that. And I know what I read in their literature was wrong. I didn’t get a copy of the contract for 6 months! Just after that I got let go. But since it was only a few hundred $$$, I figured legal action would be fruitless for that small amount.
So… as you can see… I’ve had my own bad experience with the Lone Star state’s denizens of finance. And they had to travel a 1000 miles to
do it. There’s got to be easier ways to fleecy the working man.
Again, sorry BubbaRay. Not all texans are bad people. Eva Longoria hails from there. You lucky devils.
#18, Glenn E,
No problem, as I said no offense taken. On the one hand, you’ve LBJ who dragged the Vietnam war out for his entire term, on the other you’ve his lovely bride Lady Bird who did more to beautify the state than almost anyone else.
Will Rogers never met BushCo. I’ve no problems at all with some all-inclusive TX statements when folks are boiling about that – many get cross-eyed, so I understand the bashing.
Isolated incidents like this salesman get the bad press, the big-hearted folks go completely unnoticed. Somehow I doubt the next headline will be “Bubba discovers obscure variable star.”
He is also breaking the law! Image Walmart not selling you food or other items because you have bad grades! Also this guy is not the parent of my child. If I tell my child that he can buy this game and then the manager says he needs to see my childs grades I would tell him it is none of his business and to suck my balls! (south park)
#12 – #15 –
My only beef was the idea of raggin’ on a working stiff for having a job.
I don’t disagree with anyone’s points about the error in this guy’s judgement…
Mark… The error in your post is that you think your career is better than his career. It may be true that your career is better for you than his career, but that doesn’t mean he’d trade spaces with you. Who knows? He might love managing a Game Stop.
Now I used to set up co-marketing deals with EB Games managers before Game Stop bought them out, and their’s is a turn key operation with little real power.
I loved managing my store. It was part of a small chain, but I had total control over it. It was as if I were the owner, and I treated it that way, and I loved that job. It was truly challenging to operate a business like that in ways that I doubt would be true for a Game Stop (or a Lane Bryant, or a Blockbuster, etc.,) but I’m not that guy so I shouldn’t judge.
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And for you guys who state that he should be fired… For what? Making a poor decision? He did so with good intent. He made a mistake. Why are so many so willing to dole out punishment to strangers for things that don’t affect you? That’s how that guy eats. Yet, despite not owning Game Stop or having any vested interest in Game Stop, you’d deny a total stranger his income?
That’s a pretty fucked up attitude to have. But I guess we live in a culture of blame and punishment…
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#20 – What law is he breaking? He may have run afoul of his company policy, but companies are under no obligation to sell to anyone. They can choose to be selective if they are privately owned and do not have public (government) contracts.
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There’s a lot of folks getting bent out of shape here over one guy in a game store having a well intended but ill conceived idea. There aren’t any civil liberties being violated… no public trust abuses… no criminal acts… and it isn’t like there isn’t a Game Stop in every other strip mall in America so it ain’t like D students couldn’t buy the game elsewhere…
Really… Let’s save up the anger so we’ll have it when real crimes against society happen.
#21, OFTLO, What law is he breaking? He may have run afoul of his company policy…,
You know I rarely disagree with you, but isn’t this some form of discrimination? Let’s not have all the acronyms out trying some holy war against this man. As I said, maybe his head wasn’t in the right place, but I think his heart certainly was.
Good Grief, let’s not let the doggone lawyers get into it, too!
Just my 2 cents (2 new gold dollars) worth…
#21 OhForTheLoveOf
“He did so with good intent.”
So that makes it ok? I suppose it would be ok if he gave you kids vitamins too right because it would be for their health and that is a good intent. That is a stupid argument and you should know better.
“Why are so many so willing to dole out punishment to strangers for things that don’t affect you?”
“Yet, despite not owning Game Stop or having any vested interest in Game Stop, you’d deny a total stranger his income?”
How do you know whether or not I have a vested interest in Gamestop?
It just so happens I have allot of vested interest. 1.) I own stock in GME. 2.) I own stock in a few game companies too. So I guess it does affect me. Grated this incident does not seem to have affected them much but that isn’t the point. It could in the long run if people start to think that GME doesn’t have control over their local outlets.
“He may have run afoul of his company policy, but companies are under no obligation to sell to anyone. They can choose to be selective if they are privately owned and do not have public (government) contracts.”
That is just a plain false! If you are a public retail store you can not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, age, aptitude, family status, or disability. It is the LAW!
A retail store is not the place for some yahoo to set up his own social experiment!
“Really… Let’s save up the anger so we’ll have it when real crimes against society happen.”
Oh so it is ok to let the small things go? That’s the attitude. How do you think the bigger crimes and criminals start out?
Hey BubbaRay. I completely forgot to mention that I’m a big fan of Joe Bob Briggs (aka John Bloom). I sure to miss hearing and seeing him on TNT. After they dropped him, there wasn’t that much I wanted to see on cable anymore. So I dropped them. Even TechTv had scaled down the ScreenSavers show by then, and later cancelled it.
My favorite Monstervision show was when he and the late Col. David Hackworth were cohosting, and Hackworth explained the all of the fallacies and propaganda value of “Red Dawn” and “Wargames”, that
night. At least I knew that I wasn’t alone when these intelligent guys had similar reservations with these two movies.