Yesterday afternoon I went out and had my head shorn. I needed it. At thirty-three I have very little hair on the top, and what I have on the sides and back grows long, shaggy, and ridiculously curly. Also, I have a lot<\/i> of grey; I started turning grey at sixteen. So, I handle my hair simply–I have it shorn down to stubble. It masks the thinness up top, and it masks the grey.<\/p>\n
It was about a forty minute wait on a Sunday afternoon for a haircut, though, so I decided I’d pop into the store next door and buy a magazine to pass the time. I’m sorry, but the reading material you usually find in a barber shop isn’t to my liking. And next door?<\/p>\n
An EB Games.<\/p>\n
Ah, yes, the company I worked for for seven years.<\/p>\n
Magazine choices at EB Games are ridiculously limited these days. Once upon a time we carried things like EGM<\/i>, PC Gamer<\/i>. A whole line of magazines, really. Now, there’s only one–Game Informer<\/i>. Selling other magazines would have EB and sister company GameStop competing against themselves; Game Informer<\/i> is the GameStop house organ\/propaganda magazine. And stores are graded on how well they sell yearly subscriptions to Game Informer<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I didn’t want a subscription. I just wanted one<\/i> issue. To pass the forty, fifty minute wait.<\/p>\n
Only, the two employees in Eldersburg couldn’t figure out how to ring up the magazine.<\/p>\n
The problem, as one explained to me, was that they only sell the subscriptions. Selling a single issue… well, that hadn’t come up in a very long time. So, they had no idea. “You could buy the subscription.” Umm… no<\/i>. The last video game I bought was one of those Burger King XBox 360 games in the fall. The last time I played<\/i> a video game? No. Sodding. Clue.<\/p>\n
They called their store manager. He didn’t answer his phone.<\/p>\n
Finally, I said, “Look, guys, I used to manage an EB. Here’s how you look up the SKU.” And I walked them through it, step by step. “It’s very simple. Look in the magazine department. Look all SKUs that are 5.99. You’ll get an alphabetical list. Find Game Informer<\/i> in that list. There’s your SKU.”<\/p>\n
Ten minutes this took. Ten minutes.<\/p>\n
Sheesh.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it surprises me how little I miss EB. Seven years of my life, and you’d think I’d feel like I’d amputated a limb, but the reality is that I don’t feel anything<\/i> unless I actually go<\/i> in one of the stores. Then my manager mode kicks in and I find myself critiquing the store. Do I like this display? Does this layout make sense? What are they trying to push with this? But then I leave the store, and it’s just a store<\/i>. Probably because the company I worked for ended with the Wednesday Morning Massacre, and the company after that was GameStop albeit with a different name.<\/p>\n
Funny how just wanting to buy a magazine to pass the time will make one muse.<\/p>\n
At least my head is shorn. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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