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Some companies don't care. Maybe when you are dealing with a big chain, it can be that way.
However, I work part-time retail at a coin shop. If I lied to or deceived customers it would hurt the firm very much, and I would be the cause so I'd have to go. Yesterday a guy sold us a bunch of older silver, small stuff, and I'm pretty sure he figured us to ignore the fact that part of it had higher content (based on dates). Might have been a test; who knows. In any case, not happening. Even if he sold it to us at the time, surely he knows what he had, and could easily look up the truth later. Then he'd consider us ripoff artists who take advantage of those who have less knowledge--and he'd be right.
I read the article and I was very surprised by this statement from an employee:
We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned.
Can anyone who is more familiar with this industry explain to us why a used game would be almost double the price of a new one?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There are many jobs that push up-selling, even track it and use it against the employees at performance evaluation time. Most of us have heard "would you like fries with that?" or "would you like to open a charge account and get 10% off this purchase?" That's not telling lies, however. I have only experienced what are clearly lies from car dealer salesmen, door-to-door sales people, and telemarketers. Not in a retail store.
I read the article and I was very surprised by this statement from an employee:
We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned.
Can anyone who is more familiar with this industry explain to us why a used game would be almost double the price of a new one?
The video game industry frowns upon the used game market because they receive little to no revenue from it.
Selling trinkets and beads is going online like a commodity. How many buy gasoline because of he additive i na partifuclar brand? Few do. Same with most garden variety retail items. If it takes a high pressure sales person to make the sale it is not one I am interested in buying that way. If it is so complicated it has to be explained, I will read consumer reports for advice. I wish there were more consumer report independent reviewers. I also look to Costco or Amazon on complicated items with many iterations of models and slight differences. They will pick out the best choice for most of us. Also service to install or provide tech help from Costco is great.
I read the article and I was very surprised by this statement from an employee:
We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned.
Can anyone who is more familiar with this industry explain to us why a used game would be almost double the price of a new one?
GameStop sets its' own prices when it comes to used games, while the cost of a new game is set by the manufacturer. GS buys back games at a fraction of the retail price so their profit margin on used games is a lot bigger than on new games, even when the prices aren't jacked up like this example.
This sort of thing is not news to gamers. GameStop is well known for shady business practices and crap customer service. Like many times when you go in to buy a new game, they will try and sell you an opened copy (many times already played by store employees) as "new" and then put stickers all over it to "seal" the game, which can ruin the case. Or when you go in, they will heavily push their loyalty card, credit card, preorders, etc. I've had multiple GS employees tell me to open an account and just cancel it right away so they can keep their numbers up.
It's a big reason why their game sales are way down and now half of their stores are stuff for phones and nerd "collectibles" like Funko Pop figures.
I read the article and I was very surprised by this statement from an employee:
We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned.
Can anyone who is more familiar with this industry explain to us why a used game would be almost double the price of a new one?
a) franchise branch fulfills their difficult quota for shifting pre-owned games, b) get more money with inflated prices, and c) get full cut out of it (which they wouldn't get for selling new- they'd have to pay x% back to publisher). Simply say that new stock isn't available, inflate the price of pre-owned, and get great figures for your branch manager.
Basically, the company instituted a new program where the store employees are being asked to lie to customers so that the store can get more profit. Is something like this very common in retail business'? Is there any kind of organization that oversees business' for shady/unethical business practices, or are they allowed to pretty much do whatever they want for more profit even if it means employees are told to lie?
No, they aren't. Nothing in that asks employees to lie, and with proper management employees doing so should be terminated. Do objective measurements of performance often have unintended consequences? Absolutely. Look at Wells Fargo. Sometimes they go very high up (Wells Fargo). Sometimes they are shady/unethical (Wells Fargo). They often upsell even when it's not in the interest of the customers.
For a salesman though, lying isn't really shady or unethical. They frequently do do that and that isn't anything new. For example, if you're selling things where the price is negotiable you'll frequently be asked to give your best price. They always lie there every time. That's not even shady/unethical. It's just expected that salesman are often liars in business. Even something as simple as a fast food order where they just ask would you like a medium or large (omit regular) while maybe not a lie is definitely an attempt to deceive customers. They're omitting would you like small, medium, or large because they know they get more medium and large orders when they do so. That's not as bad as say a car dealer that just puts $10 of Scotchgard on everything they sell and then try and say you can't buy anything on the lot without the $100-200 interior protection package (such a great investment, blah blah blah). A few people walk away with a free bottle of Scotgard. It's more than made up by the number that just pay a 10-20x markup.
It really just goes back to measurable objectives not achieving what they're intended to achieve. They want to push used sales because they get more margin and pre-orders because they don't sit on the shelf taking up space. They don't actually want to have a higher percentage of used games sales not because they're selling more used games but because they're not selling new games. It sounds like, because of poor management, that is what in some cases is the result though. Sort of like Wells Fargo wants to get tellers to open accounts. They don't really want fake accounts that are opened and closed without the customer's knowledge though. That doesn't actually help Wells Fargo.
I only go to Game Stop when I want to buy used games. If I want to buy them new I buy elsewhere just because the prices on new are better elsewhere.
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