Farewell to Games of Berkeley
Oct. 11th, 2004 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWhen I first moved to Berkeley in 1989 there was a game store on Shattuck Avenue, near University Avenue called Games of Berkeley. (There's a M.A.C. store now, which used to be on University Avenue up near Oxford ... where something else is located now, I'm not sure what.)
I never though Games of Berkeley was a great game store. I'd previously used to go to a chain game store up at Valley Fair Mall (in Campbell or therabouts) called Game Gallery which had been entirely adequate, and always had the new products and a fair depth of backstock. Games of Berkeley was much the same. They had a rack for the new games and a fair amount of space for backstock. They also had SF books and a fair amount of crap (puzzles, kites, etc). It did have deeper stock for some things I didn't really care about (miniatures in particular stand out). For my purposes however, as with that chain store at Valley Fair Mall, it was entirely adequate, but nothing more.
But, by the time I moved to Berkeley, the decline of Games of Berkeley had already begun. They'd been bought out by a chain (Game Keeper, Game Gallery, something) shortly before. The chain had absolutely asinine stocking policies that got worse and worse as time went on. The store was given limits on how much money they could spend on stock, and those limits weren't changed based on sales. In addition, they seemed to have zero restocking policies. They either didn't know or didn't care when they sold out on something.
In my last years of college, and my first years of work, from 1991-1995, I was increasingly buying Chaosium products, because I was editing my Chaosium Digest at the time and I always wanted to stay on top of what was new. I lived right around the corner from Games of Berkeley at the time, but it was still an exercise in frustration. Whenever a new Chaosium product came out, they'd just stock 1 or 2 of it. They always sold out within a couple of days, and often it would take months afterward for a reorder to come in. Stupid.
A couple of years later (1996-1998) I was working for Chaosium, and that's about when I gave up on GoB totally. I didn't have any money at that time (cf: working for Chaosium), and so I couldn't afford games anyway. For games that I really wanted I sometimes managed to get them as graft (e.g., trades for Chaosium products).
Some time around here Games of Berkeley moved to their current, brilliant location, right across from the BART station in downtown, right on the way to one of the campus' main entrances. At the same time, their stocking got worse and worse, to the point where they might have just one or two products to represent an entire line of back stock. Eric R. took to calling it Kites of Berkeley, and that wasn't far off.
It was 2002 when I started really buying games again. I never got back into the habit of buying RPGs after I left Chaosium, but in 2002 I started getting interested in the Catan games, and so started buying board games. GoB was, as usual, an exercise in frustration. It literally took three-four months before they were able to get the three main Catan games in, so that I could purchase them.
Shortly thereafter, I started making my purchases online at funagain.com (and later timewellspent.org), finally fed up with GoB's incompetent stocking policies. I'd tried to support my local businesses, but it had gotten to the point where I would have preferred them to go out of business, in the hope that something better would open up.
Ironically, that's about when GoB changed ownership one more time. This time it was purchased by an individual who wanted to turn it into the good game store that it used to be. He started increasing stocking levels, actually made backstock for games available, and generally changed the store into a place where you could buy things that you wanted, as shocking as it sounds. He also started having events, including board game demos and more.
I was torn. I'd started purchasing games much cheaper online, and money was really tight again, but at the same time I like to support local stores if they're actually good stores. In the end most of my purchases were made online, but I'd occasionally be willing to make a buy at GoB if I wanted something more quickly. I've probably spent $150 or $200 at GoB since it came under new ownership as a result.
The last couple of times I've gone to GoB, however, I've noticed a brand new problem: bad staff. The store seems to now have two configurations: either the staff are all standing around the cash register area, with their friends mobbing the surrounding area, and they're all talking at the top of their lungs; or the cash register area is empty and the staff is no where to be found.
I went to GoB on Friday, picked up a copy of Colossal Arena, and then walked up to the cash register. It was actually a bit hard to find the registers because there was a huge pile of games on the counter there. I shrugged my shoulders, looked around, and noted that there was no one around. Odd, but not unusual. I waited about 5 minutes and was about ready to give up and leave when an employee finally sauntered up.
"I was starting to wonder if anyone worked here," I said, caustic due to annoyance.
"There's supposed to be three of his working here," he said, looking around the store with that same lost look I'd had for the previous five minutes.
"Supposed to be being the operative word," I thought. "There's definitely no one working."
Then he picked up one of the huge pile of games on the counter and started to ring it.
"That's not mine I said," holding out my Colossal Arena box as I did. "It must have been left by the last customer who couldn't get any service here."
He looked at me rather sullenly after that and completed the transactions in monosyllables. In a minute more I'd paid $21.70 for my game and was out the door. It would have been $13.25 at timewellspent.org, plus some shipping cost which could have been amortized across a couple of games, and minus the bad service.
So that was, except in case of emergency or big changes at the store in the future, my last purchase at Games of Berkeley. I've given them enough last chances. Though I'm happy that they've resolved the old GoB's stocking issues, the new GoB's staff issues are almost as annoying. I don't understand that people who don't know how to run a business keep buying that store.
As I've written elsewhere, I'm going to try out EndGame in the near future. It's a $1.25 BART ride away now, which isn't bad at all. I expect I'm going to keep buying most of my games online*, but it would be nice to have a reasonable local store for my occasional local purchase.
(* At this point, comics, or really trade paperbacks, are about the only item that I refuse to buy online, and that's because there's been a superb comic store in Berkeley [Comic Relief] for the entire time I've lived here. They've never lost my business, and they're going to keep that loyalty as long as they remain a top rate store.)
I never though Games of Berkeley was a great game store. I'd previously used to go to a chain game store up at Valley Fair Mall (in Campbell or therabouts) called Game Gallery which had been entirely adequate, and always had the new products and a fair depth of backstock. Games of Berkeley was much the same. They had a rack for the new games and a fair amount of space for backstock. They also had SF books and a fair amount of crap (puzzles, kites, etc). It did have deeper stock for some things I didn't really care about (miniatures in particular stand out). For my purposes however, as with that chain store at Valley Fair Mall, it was entirely adequate, but nothing more.
But, by the time I moved to Berkeley, the decline of Games of Berkeley had already begun. They'd been bought out by a chain (Game Keeper, Game Gallery, something) shortly before. The chain had absolutely asinine stocking policies that got worse and worse as time went on. The store was given limits on how much money they could spend on stock, and those limits weren't changed based on sales. In addition, they seemed to have zero restocking policies. They either didn't know or didn't care when they sold out on something.
In my last years of college, and my first years of work, from 1991-1995, I was increasingly buying Chaosium products, because I was editing my Chaosium Digest at the time and I always wanted to stay on top of what was new. I lived right around the corner from Games of Berkeley at the time, but it was still an exercise in frustration. Whenever a new Chaosium product came out, they'd just stock 1 or 2 of it. They always sold out within a couple of days, and often it would take months afterward for a reorder to come in. Stupid.
A couple of years later (1996-1998) I was working for Chaosium, and that's about when I gave up on GoB totally. I didn't have any money at that time (cf: working for Chaosium), and so I couldn't afford games anyway. For games that I really wanted I sometimes managed to get them as graft (e.g., trades for Chaosium products).
Some time around here Games of Berkeley moved to their current, brilliant location, right across from the BART station in downtown, right on the way to one of the campus' main entrances. At the same time, their stocking got worse and worse, to the point where they might have just one or two products to represent an entire line of back stock. Eric R. took to calling it Kites of Berkeley, and that wasn't far off.
It was 2002 when I started really buying games again. I never got back into the habit of buying RPGs after I left Chaosium, but in 2002 I started getting interested in the Catan games, and so started buying board games. GoB was, as usual, an exercise in frustration. It literally took three-four months before they were able to get the three main Catan games in, so that I could purchase them.
Shortly thereafter, I started making my purchases online at funagain.com (and later timewellspent.org), finally fed up with GoB's incompetent stocking policies. I'd tried to support my local businesses, but it had gotten to the point where I would have preferred them to go out of business, in the hope that something better would open up.
Ironically, that's about when GoB changed ownership one more time. This time it was purchased by an individual who wanted to turn it into the good game store that it used to be. He started increasing stocking levels, actually made backstock for games available, and generally changed the store into a place where you could buy things that you wanted, as shocking as it sounds. He also started having events, including board game demos and more.
I was torn. I'd started purchasing games much cheaper online, and money was really tight again, but at the same time I like to support local stores if they're actually good stores. In the end most of my purchases were made online, but I'd occasionally be willing to make a buy at GoB if I wanted something more quickly. I've probably spent $150 or $200 at GoB since it came under new ownership as a result.
The last couple of times I've gone to GoB, however, I've noticed a brand new problem: bad staff. The store seems to now have two configurations: either the staff are all standing around the cash register area, with their friends mobbing the surrounding area, and they're all talking at the top of their lungs; or the cash register area is empty and the staff is no where to be found.
I went to GoB on Friday, picked up a copy of Colossal Arena, and then walked up to the cash register. It was actually a bit hard to find the registers because there was a huge pile of games on the counter there. I shrugged my shoulders, looked around, and noted that there was no one around. Odd, but not unusual. I waited about 5 minutes and was about ready to give up and leave when an employee finally sauntered up.
"I was starting to wonder if anyone worked here," I said, caustic due to annoyance.
"There's supposed to be three of his working here," he said, looking around the store with that same lost look I'd had for the previous five minutes.
"Supposed to be being the operative word," I thought. "There's definitely no one working."
Then he picked up one of the huge pile of games on the counter and started to ring it.
"That's not mine I said," holding out my Colossal Arena box as I did. "It must have been left by the last customer who couldn't get any service here."
He looked at me rather sullenly after that and completed the transactions in monosyllables. In a minute more I'd paid $21.70 for my game and was out the door. It would have been $13.25 at timewellspent.org, plus some shipping cost which could have been amortized across a couple of games, and minus the bad service.
So that was, except in case of emergency or big changes at the store in the future, my last purchase at Games of Berkeley. I've given them enough last chances. Though I'm happy that they've resolved the old GoB's stocking issues, the new GoB's staff issues are almost as annoying. I don't understand that people who don't know how to run a business keep buying that store.
As I've written elsewhere, I'm going to try out EndGame in the near future. It's a $1.25 BART ride away now, which isn't bad at all. I expect I'm going to keep buying most of my games online*, but it would be nice to have a reasonable local store for my occasional local purchase.
(* At this point, comics, or really trade paperbacks, are about the only item that I refuse to buy online, and that's because there's been a superb comic store in Berkeley [Comic Relief] for the entire time I've lived here. They've never lost my business, and they're going to keep that loyalty as long as they remain a top rate store.)