Living in "Their" World...Not a "Valid"

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I suppose my view is "colored" by the fact that i work in a 24 hour convenience store and my work hours are 7-3 monday through friday... and by 3, my patience with the public is just about shot so i dont shop during the week.

And im gonna warn you right now, my thoughts tend to wander once i get on a roll so bear with me.

Today, i was out looking for a new charger for my first gen. PSP. I looked at target, kmart and sears. Each place has reduced their PSP accessories to one endcap. Each place reffered me to Big Lots, the closeout store. Big Lots suggested Sears, Kmart, walmart(i refuse to go there), and target. I got to the mall, JC Penney, Sears, and Macys were all open (this was around 9 am) as were some of the mall stores. Gamestop and radioshack were my next stops in search of the charger. Nobody posts their hours! both places were closed. I waited around until about 945 and went to the information desk to inquire about store hours, she told me that the mall does not open until 10. Hmmm, half the store have been open for an hour, sears since 6am but the mall isnt open?

Confused, i went back to wait at gamestops gate. As much as i loathe gamestop i figured i should just swallow my pride and get in and out as quickly as possible (my goal when shopping is to be in and out in under ten minutes, regardless of the line at checkout, i dont cut the line or anything but if the line takes me 8 minutes, i should hve had the shopping done in less than two.)

So i get in and get my charger, and mention in passing that its been a real pain finding this. The clerk told me that "there is no consumer demand for PSP 1000 stuff anymore" As im paying for the charger, he tries to sell me a pre-order somethin or other, i respectfully decline, he then "suggests" i get this game or that game, i tell him again im not interested, he pushed it a third time and by now, im starting to lose my patience, i told him my UMD drive is broken, he suggests i buy a new PSP!

As an entry level service-slave i have a lot of patience for others in a similar position, but this guy was really testing me. What i learn from this experience is:

*I am not a "valid consumer": i "demand" products for the PSP, but consumers do not, therefore i am not a "consumer"

*I work to serve the public at their convenience, yet when its my turn, nobody is there to serve me at my convenience (stores in my area dont open until 10 or 11).

*I dont want to buy a particular product, i make that known, but my wishes are not respected, if they dont respect me, i must be of a "lower order", apparently below the status of "consumer" (see point one).

It takes alot for me to make it through a 40 hour week serving the ungrateful, rude public. If my patience were in a bank account of sorts, i would be overdrawn by wednesday. Saturday is when i make it out to do my shopping, i wish places were open earlier, i am blessed that the grocery store opens at 6am, and my ten minute rule still applies, whatever i dont get within the timeframe, i do without.

December is my greatest enemy.

I"m always grumbling ablut how nobody makes it
my way and always makes ie their stupid way.

I will not stop grumbling and I will not conform.

Yeah, if you buy older stuff, it's sometimes difficult to find things. It's a simple matter of profit.

If a company can't make money on something, they won't produce it. It takes a certain amount of money to set your factories to producing something; and if enough people don't buy that thing, then they won't get a return on their investment, and it'd be a bad financial decision to keep making it. So they stop selling things if people stop buying them, and people often stop buying things when something new and often only a little better comes out.

I had a heck of a time trying to find a PDA that was not also a smart phone, as I didn't want to buy a phone contract. I finally settled for a friend's four-year-old used PDA, which she let me have because she hadn't used it in forever. Finding that kind of thing can be ridiculously difficult, even when they stopped making them only a couple of years ago.

The typical world is a waste of my time. I live each day, for myself.

I can understand why you'd find this irritating, but if he came into your convenience store and asked you for an old product which had been discontinued, and which your store no longer carried because they only stocked the latest equivalent, the only explanation you would really be able to provide to him was the same one that he gave you.

You probably already know this, but saying "there is a lack of consumer demand" simply means that there are no longer enough people buying these old things (in comparison to the amount of people who buy the new ones) to make it worth a company's time and resources to manufacture the old items, when instead they could be spending their energy and resources producing the newer version which is in higher demand, is more likely to earn a profit, and won't lose them any money. It's not a personal attack, or saying that your own wants and needs are less important than any other individual's, it's just that your demand for that product doesn't compare to the increased demand for the newer product. There are more people with more money "demanding" that the companies make the new cable.

There's also the consideration that a store can only really afford to stock things which are likely to sell a certain amount each year, since most stores have to pay rent for their premises, and it is the products which are taking up space on those premises which will have to pay the bill. If a product doesn't bring in enough cash to "earn its keep", and pay for the space which it takes up, it has to be replaced with a product which will. This is why the best place to buy things like that is from an online store, since they don't have to pay the same high rents which stores in a popular shopping district have to pay, generally they only need to have a cheap warehouse somewhere and pay their almost insignificant bandwidth fees, so they can afford to stock a greater variety of products which are known to sell far less often.

Of course the extra little sales pitches are annoying though. Very annoying. But they're part of his duty as an "entry level service slave" as you put it. Maybe you should be glad that it's not part of your job description too, rather than annoyed about it being part of his.

Yeah, good point. You can often find older stuff online. I buy games online, because you can get ten-year-old used ones that cost very little and will run on my old computer; and I have just as much fun with them as if I were buying new games.

You're misinterpreting the "consumer demand" comment. It's an economic concept, part of the whole supply and demand concept, not a personal judgement. Since most people have moved on to other game consoles, stores that have the older materials in stock don't sell them quickly. They just sit on the shelves, taking up room that could be used for things that more customers want to buy. It doesn't mean you personally are not a valid consumer, just that you were looking for something unusual. That's what he was trying to explain.

As for the opening times, aside from the larger department stores, most stores open at 10 am. I remember a time when many stores opened at 9 am, but that was back when I was growing up. It confused and irritated me, too, when I started shopping on my own as an adult, so I can sympathize with you, there.

Now, the sales clerk should have stopped when you said no the first time and that's annoying, but suggested sales are standard training for sales associates, no matter where they work. I used to do that myself when I worked in sales, because with many people it works. The more of an associate's paycheck that comes from commission, the harder they're going to work to make a larger sale. They should have enough people skills to tell when to back off from a customer, but it takes time to learn when to give some space.

I was going to mention this too. Online makes this stuff easier - I would've called each of the stores using the number on their web page to see if they had it. Usually the page also shows their hours. (worst case scenario, you could call them and ask for their hours). If they don't pick up then they probably aren't open. I'm not keen on phone calling myself, but quick calls like that aren't so hard. It's just:

"Hey, do you guys have ___________?"

"Yes/No"

"Alright thanks! Bye"

"Bye"

It's not always going to be that simple, but I find most of the time, it is. It saves a lot of gas money and driving time, as well.

Worst case scenario, or possibly best case scenario, you can shop online. Finding rare stuff is invaluably easier shopping online. Most of my music CD's I've bought online. Some of them are rare, and some of them are earlier versions (as opposed to remastered versions; I don't like remasters), and these are things you're very likely not to find at CD/Record stores at all. Applying this to video games, I've ordered a few games online when I can't find them at any stores anymore - Gamecube games, for example, since stores predominantly carry Wii games now. Games prior to the last generation (Nintendo 64, Playstation 1, Super Nintendo, etc...) are also nearly impossible to find elsewhere since no one carries them anymore. They're easy to find online, such as through eBay. I may even go as far as to say that in cases like these, you can only find them online.

So... yeah. Taking advantage of the internet's possibilities is useful.