Fine, don't acknowledge me... you'll be closed soon enough.

[Mystic]

So a new game shop opened up about an hour and a half from my house. Where I live, I'm between two "cities". I use the term loosely because one "city" has about 50,000 and the other 100,000 people living in it, which compared to my little town of 1,000 people, it's the big city.

I usually go to the one of 50,000 every week for weekly shopping and getting out of the house. Plus, believe it or not, this town has better shops and a better mall. The other is a university town... one of the largest universities in the world, actually. Over the years I've grown to hate the students there as they walk out into oncoming traffic listening to their ipods and staring at their phones without a care in the world... I mean, why should they? If they get hit, it's my fault, right?

Anyway, I wanted to check this new game shop out since I had some spare time between work.

So I park my car and walk in. The store wasn't all that impressive, but I wasn't expecting too much since they just opened up about 5ish months ago. The shopkeep, obviously the owner, was going over rules for a boardgame with two kids that were also obviously his. There was a mother and her child at one of the tables in the back, two guys behind them sorting cards, and another girl at another table doing the same.

The owner asks if I'm looking for anything and I tell him I'm just looking around. He says to let him know if I need anything and goes back to going over rules with his kids.

So I'm in there for about 10 minutes browsing the Magic cards, looking for things to add to my deck when I spot a card I need (parallel lives) but he had no price on it. I walk back up to the counter and start looking through the packs. He had boxes from the current block and the last block, but I notice he also has some from an older block (Eldrazi), but the price on the box was covered by the rack.

Now in the 10 minutes I was doing this, the kid who was with his mother had asked the owner an obvious puzzling question about a sports card, so the owner is now on the computer and looking through his books looking for information. Being that I already felt awkward from the time I walked in the shop (you ever get that feeling when you meet someone for the first time that they simply don't like you because they have never seen you before? That's how I felt when I walked in. They gave me that vibe that I was an outsider and not welcome.) I was not really in the mood to interrupt him. So I wait at the counter... and wait... and wait... and wait... I move over to the side rack where the single cards were, obviously waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

All in all, I waited for 20 minutes. Owner never got up to help me, never asked if I needed anything, never bothered to look to make sure he didn't have a customer (at first I was standing by his register, and then 5 feet from him at the singles). The kicker is that I know one of the guys at the other table works at that shop by the questions he was asking owner, yet he too never bothered getting up to help me.

These cards were not that important to me, so I just left and I will not be returning. At the normal game shop I go to, the owner does everything he can to make his guests feel welcome, has a great stock, a big store, and fiercely loyal customers because of his awesome service.

I doubt this new shop will last over a year.

[mikoyan29]

The University town you describe almost sounds like Ann Arbor. I don't mind driving through it but I try to go carefully because of the general obliviousness of the population there. Game stores are notorious for not lasting around here though....

[Beki710]

Y'know just 2 days ago me and my boyfriend were having a discussion about being in those types of shops before and feeling like our presence was unwelcome.
My boyfriend is very into the figurines you can buy and paint (literally he has thousands) and I decided to buy him a new set, I knew vaguely which ones I wanted but I have never felt so patronised by someone when they realised that I wasn't "one of them" for a better way to put it.
I think it's a shame because although I've never really got into that side of gaming there is part of me that I think would quite enjoy it, but if that the kind of way that I'm going to get treated in there then I'd rather leave it.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

I second the Ann Arbor comment. That place is a pain to get through. I love me some Bubble Island though, so I deal with it.

[Ironclad Alibi]

The owner asks if I'm looking for anything and I tell him I'm just looking around. He says to let him know if I need anything and goes back to going over rules with his kids.

I was not really in the mood to interrupt him. So I wait at the counter... and wait... and wait... and wait... I move over to the side rack where the single cards were, obviously waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

All in all, I waited for 20 minutes. Owner never got up to help me, never asked if I needed anything, never bothered to look to make sure he didn't have a customer (at first I was standing by his register, and then 5 feet from him at the singles).

Something is amiss here. Did you ask him for assistance, as he requested in your first conversation?

[PepperElf]

I was wondering that myself. I know that where I work I have to make a serious point of looking at the counter because with my ADD I tend to hyper-focus on whatever task I'm doing, to the exclusion of everything else.

My coworker Paul likes to take advantage of it and stand next to me making funny faces until I notice him and gasp in surprise. and then laugh at me of course

[Mystic]

I said nothing because I already felt unwelcome from being in there, however this person and his employee did glance at me once or twice standing at the cases, quite obviously waiting patiently. It's one of those things where you already feel like they don't want you there, so bothering him for something I may or may not have bought depending on price would have been a bad move.

The owner is also a university professor I am told, which makes this even more comical to me.

[Aethian]

But how do you know the item would have been too much until you ask? I see this in the gaming store I go to. Someone new walks in and see's the activity. They then stand and stare at the item they want while the guys are straightening items. He gets asked if he needs anything and says no.

Someone else will come in and head straight to someone, ask for what they need and be helped. This other guy loudly complains about bad service and then wanders away muttering and thus becoming a SC.

While I'm not calling you a full on SC, I'm thinking your attitude to the new place was snobbish (cause its new and not the regular place), and stand off-Ish. You were asked if you needed anything and to let them know if you needed anything. Just because something is going on they have left the door open to be asked.

You never know, being in a large college town this store may become fuller and bigger over time. Wishing it's closing is mean and cruel.

[Mystic]

But how do you know the item would have been too much until you ask? I see this in the gaming store I go to. Someone new walks in and see's the activity. They then stand and stare at the item they want while the guys are straightening items. He gets asked if he needs anything and says no.

Someone else will come in and head straight to someone, ask for what they need and be helped. This other guy loudly complains about bad service and then wanders away muttering and thus becoming a SC.

While I'm not calling you a full on SC, I'm thinking your attitude to the new place was snobbish (cause its new and not the regular place), and stand off-Ish. You were asked if you needed anything and to let them know if you needed anything. Just because something is going on they have left the door open to be asked.

You never know, being in a large college town this store may become fuller and bigger over time. Wishing it's closing is mean and cruel.

Not quite. There was very little activity going on in this place. In fact, it was very quiet as far as game stores are concerned. Plus, we're talking about a 20 minute wait here, standing in one of two spots. No one else came in, either.

I also didn't have a snobbish attitude about it. If anything, I was pretty excited to check out a new place. My attitude towards it now is simply based on how I felt when I walked in and was greeted pretty coldly (owners tone of voice and body posture spoke mountains to me, which is more the reason I left it as is) then ignored for the following 30 minutes. There were a grand total of 8 people in the shop, two of which were his kids and 5 of which were sitting at back tables minding their own business apart from the kid looking at sports cards.

This shop is about 10 miles from the college town itself. Being that the college town has a very popular shop of its own, I can't see this place growing much. I've also found out that the other kid who works at the shop I mentioned is well known by a couple people I play with and is also known for being a complete elitist douchenozzle, so they weren't very surprised that I was snubbed at all.

[Draco]

So... They come over, ask if you need help. You say no, they say please feel free to ask if you do need help... You wander around, browsing... And expect them to come back to you to ask again?

If I tell someone I don't need help and they keep coming over, I'd be annoyed. I don't like being harassed by staff when I'm just looking. I've seen many others say similar.

Dunno, just seems like you dropped the ball to me. :/

[Ree]

I do believe we have a bit of FTSTS going on.

Cut it out.

None of us were there to see the way the clerk behaved nor to feel the overall atmosphere and tone, so we can't judge. It sounds like the onus was put on the OP to go back for help when ready, and Mystic chose not to interrupt, but waited for them to come back and ask again.
The OP has explained numerous times that there was an unwelcome vibe going on from the beginning.
That should be good enough.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I second the Ann Arbor comment. That place is a pain to get through. I love me some Bubble Island though, so I deal with it.

The University town you describe almost sounds like Ann Arbor. I don't mind driving through it but I try to go carefully because of the general obliviousness of the population there. Game stores are notorious for not lasting around here though....

Ah yes, Ann Arbor, home of (sc)UM.

[camjuniper]

My Local Comic/Game Store used to have the awful You Don't Belong vibe. *shudder* I totally know the feeling you mean. Also have a Local Book Store that has that, too. Luckily, I'd been to the LC/GS recently after having avoided it for forevers and it's completely improved. Better sale persons and a new layout muchly help with that. LBS still sucks monkey balls, but the owner's a douchebag (I have friends who used to work there, plus two personally experienced sucks). Thankfully, my town's got another (much better) LBS and a few used book stores, too!

Good think you've got another game store for you gaming needs!

Also? The owner/clerk should have looked up/looked around. Sales fail. Anti-theft fail (not you, of course--just in general--keep an eye on the merchandise and customers). All around fail.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

Ah yes, Ann Arbor, home of (sc)UM.

Hey now, proud U of M (Dearborn) graduate here.

[Andara Bledin]

The other is a university town... one of the largest universities in the world, actually.

This was actually a question on Mark & Brian's "No Apparent Reason" segment this morning. I still managed to not know the answer. >_<

As for the shop, I'd have made a point to ask questions. If the owner is going to act like I'm bothering him for being in the store, I might as well do some actual bothering while I'm there.

^-.-^