retail operations coordinator

GAME

Hold on tight, this is going to be a long one - 

When I first started at Game I was pretty excited. I really enjoy gaming, so I thought it would be a fun experience.
Don’t get me wrong, some aspects to the job were okay, but the majority of it was very boring, dull and mind crippling jobs that would send anybody insane after a few hours.
The management were absolutely useless. Nice enough people, so I thought, until they showed their true colours, but we will get to that soon.
The branch I was at made a new starter an assistant manager within 2 months of them being there with no experience, for this new manager to turn around to me as his new job role and say ‘you have to do as I say now’, which instantly led me to have absolutely no respect for them as it was a very unprofessional thing to say.
In total there were around 13 assistant managers, it got very messy on shift sometimes.
I remember specially on a Tuesday (one of our quietest days, there were 7 assistant managers on shift, 1 store manager and 2 floor staff. It got very messy and very unorganised, VERY quickly, with so little jobs to do due to the high volume of staff that were on that morning.
As I wasn’t experienced enough in one of the sections in the store, I did not go into that section without a manager shadowing me and talking me through the process of the tills system as it’s a slight bit different to the standard tills they have. This one time I was told to go into the specific section and a hoard of customers came up to the till whilst I was alone. With me being inexperienced in this section of the store, I went and asked an assistant manager for some help in case I got something wrong, only to be met with the response ‘figure it out for yourself’. This was extremely unprofessional and could have caused consequences for the business profit, if I had proceeded with the transaction, in which I didn’t.
As Christmas hit, it got extremely busy, as you would imagine with it being in a busy shopping centre.
Over the festive period they would have around 10 people on shift at a time, they would have usually around 5 people on tills, 2 people on the shop floor and 2 managers on shift just floating about a sea of people whilst myself and another new Christmas temp was left to pick up the chaos on the shop floor with no extra help.
They only seemed to care about getting the money through the tills.
I was once in the toilet for a few minutes and recently prior to this whilst I was there, they had gotten rid of a member of staff and I overheard whilst I was in the toilet an area manager referring to the recently sacked employee as a loser and a waste.

I was originally taken on as a permanent member of staff with a contract. This soon changed after the festive period.
During the festive period I was on the shop floor for the whole of December which meant I wouldn’t be on tills, which also meant I had no chance of gaining any forms of KPI in which they strive for you to try and sell for a measly 50p commission.

After Christmas, I was in for a few days and then I was off for a couple of days and then back in on New Year’s Eve.
When I went in for my shift on New Year’s Eve, I clocked in and my manager asked me if he could have a word with me. I obliged, like you would, thinking nothing of it.
He took me into the break room and told me that there would be no hours for me the following week, even though the rota had already been done and I had shifts allocated to me that week. He said they have had to cut down on hours due to the insane amount of hours they had given out over Christmas.
I told him I would see him the week after and it was at that point he told me that they were disengaging me from the company. I asked why and he told me that my performance hadn’t been up to scratch over the festive period and that my performance in KPI’s was down, bearing in mind that I hadn’t been put on tills throughout the whole of December, so I couldn’t have possibly made any form of KPI’s as you can only do that through the tills.
I explained this to him but he didn’t seem to grasp the concept of it and he had said that him and a few other managers had come to the agreement to let me go, despite me catching 2 shop lifters and coercing customers into buying overpriced items. This was overseen by management.
They kept on a few Christmas temps but decided to let go a member of staff who had a contract with them before the Christmas temps had started (me).

All in all
If you’re a young person looking for a bit of pocket money, this is the job for you.
If you are looking to make some serious money and to feel respected in your job roll, this IS NOT the job for you. Steer clear.


Working in an environment where you have knowledge of -and an interest in- the product should help make a standard low paid retail position more interesting and less depressing - and I'm sure it would be were it not for the fact that some customers were allowed to openly verbally harass staff behind the tills without any challenge from the supposed shift leader or assistant manager.

One shift leader took to hiding with his back against the display cabinet behind the till as three teenage male customers made hideous personal comments about a female member of staff behind the till next to mine, much to her embarrassment as she tried to serve other customers (the males in question were not even in the line waiting to be served - she had not engaged with them in any way, they had simply began to humiliate her for their own amusement).

I'll never forget when she turned to look at the shift manager for assistance and he simply said 'just ignore them'.  No - no one should have to tolerate such abuse from hideous members of the public just because they think they can treat retail workers with no respect and get away with it.  These poor people already work harder than many other people for far less pay, the least they should expect is to be treated like human beings in exchange for doing low paid work most people would never want to do.


Not to mention the other occasion when an irate father came up to a till and accused another member of staff of stealing his son's ten pound change that he'd ask the son to give to him when he'd come back from the till, even though the member of staff had seen the child put the note in his pocket.  Immediately the staff member had to endure the customer loudly calling them a thief in front of the whole store, rather than take them aside until the issue was dealt with (naturally no one listened to the staff member's explanation of what they saw the child do - they were pretty much ignored and the customer was allowed to keep shrieking at the poor person in front of the whole store for over ten minutes).

Overall it shows a total lack of support and respect for lowly paid staff from the management of GAME, who allow customers to treat them appallingly despite the signs they display stating they will not tolerate disrespectful or abusive behavior towards their staff - these notices mean nothing and are just a piece of paper displayed to give a better impression of the company than it deserves.

Not only would I never work their again no matter how desperate I am for work, I have never shopped their since either (which is their loss as I am a keen gamer and high street gaming stores need greater custom to keep up with the growth in online sales).

Before I jump in, I want to make this clear. GAME as a company is extremely supportive, with an amazing array of staff members. 
Now, however, it has officially changed hands into Sports Direct (in terms of hours, scheduling, and direct line manager). 

With that, let’s dive in:

I will say that when I first started in this company, it was the dream part time job. I had a strong team, wonderful customers, and a sense of purpose. 

Then everything changed when Sports Direct got involved. 

In the last year alone, we’ve only ever been on the losing side of a terrible battle. SD management look down on us, have a habit of using us as backup staff (even though we are still paid by GAME and not SD), and expected to spend half our day serving SD customers. 

In theory we now have the time to do it, because the company choices have costed us most of our regulars (many of which have shopped here since Electronic Boutique!). 

They removed the pre owned, trade ins, POSA gift cards, and send trashy toys in its place which nobody wants. Worst part, the removal of the reward system. Even I stopped shopping there since I received no bonus nor insensitive. Due to lack of footfall and revenue (which Frasers caused), they ended up cutting a lot of staff with redundancies.

Speaking of incentives, we are now pressured to advertised Frasers Plus, a new credit-based form of payment. The SD I was in pushed this method heavily and disgustingly on its customers, without the transparency of telling customers that it involves a credit check, and can fall heavily into financial dept if misused. I often hear the words from staff members, “this item is cheaper with Frasers Plus!” and shove a QR code in the customers face. I’ve been on the receiving end of customers not understanding what they’ve just signed up for, they were under the impression that they joined a rewards program. I say “incentive”, there isn’t a commission system for it, only for Bags of Life and other menial items. 

The only positive I can take from this: my first 2 years, and my team. My team have been the greatest colleagues and employees I’ve ever had the fortune to work alongside. My manager as well is incredibly supportive, and has only ever wanted the best for me, and is one of the reasons why I cannot work there when he’s no longer my manager. (One of the many reasons I left: I refused to become a sports direct employee and being micromanaged by their “team”). 

I wouldn’t recommended this company. I’m pretty sure once all GAME staff leave, it’ll be “run” by SD staff, who cannot offer the service we were trained to do. We’ve always cared for our customers, and go the extra mile. Once the staff go, the customers will stop coming, and it’ll just be a little gift shop next to the tills, a shadow of its former self. 

A typical day at work consisted of: Talking to customers, Helping customers and other members of staff, Explaining the details about a product/products or even console bundle to a customer whome was looking at purchasing said content, Helping customers find their product if they could not find it on the shop floor and suggesting alternative options if we did not have the product in store, Friendly and helpfull attitude and work ethnic.

I learned how to deal with a fast paced work enviroment certainly nearer the time to Christmas when the shop would have had a booming intake of customers, taught me how to really think on my feet and be more approachable in the aspect that it was easier to talk to the customer more like a friend than a stranger and thus caused easier transactions. 

Management - Very friendly and helpfull they would always insure that the hours worked were flexible and certainly made sure to inform you of any changes on the shop floor i.e if we were out of a certain stock or if a bundle had been changed for the consoles. Management also made sure to insure you were okay and if you needed any help with anything if you were struggling to provide information to a customer on something you may not actually have any knowledge about if anything had been changed.

Co Workers - Extreamly friendly and helpfull the co workers were able to provide the excellent service that you would expect from a retail store as well as maintain a personal level of friendship so that you did not feel like you were just there, they would offer help and support and would show and treat you with respect.

The Hardest Part Of The Job - This would have been around Christmas time during the busy parts as expected with the influx of customers it became very hard to move around the shop, it was enjoyable being able to talk to the customers and help them when required but sadly the speed of work ground to a halt as it would take time to find a product or check or scan an item through to do a price check, although at the same time I would have said I enjoyed the Christmas work more enjoyable due to the fact you could get so much more done in a day and insure the sales for the store as well as seeing customers get what they wanted.

The Most Enjoyable Part Of The Job - Meeting new people either customer or staff, I certainly enjoyed working in this enviroment it taught me new things as well as it taught me how to work in a faster work enviroment then some, if I was given the chance to have worked there full time I would have been inclined to have taken the position.

Working at GAME was a great experience. As someone who used to be a shy kid with no knowledge of how to work a till I was dreading working in this environment at first, but working with customers helped a lot and was rewarding to help those in need. Apart from helping customers with games, a typical day usually included sorting and stacking products in the right places, applying stickers and other necessities to those products when it's slow, working behind the till when it's not, and helping clean up shop and hoover at the end of the day.  

Management was very useful, the two who took command of the store I worked in helped out a lot and were quick to lend a hand or show me how it's done if I was stuck working the tills or finding the right game. But they werent afraid to give me a stern talking-to if I truly screwed up.

 The hardest part of the job was probably the tills. They were ancient and the software they run on feels it hasn't been updated since the 90s. Some games have to be inputted through a code that's on a poorly written sticker attached to the side of the screen, plus over the few weeks a served there, the tills have failed to function a few times. Resulting in us only using one or two out of the three tills on a busy day close to Christmas. But being a small store we were able to stay on top of things. However once I got my head around how the old tills work and the hoops I have to jump through to use it, It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

 The most enjoyable part of the job surprisingly was working with customers. With the 'vast knowledge' I had on video games, I found it very pleasing to help customers who were unsure about buying certain games or choosing between two. Especially as it was weeks before Christmas, old grandmas or parents out of the video game loop buying something for their children was common, and being able to help those and be thanked for that help felt really nice. I felt really happy when I was told by one of my managers that an old lady I had helped came up to him to tell him I was very helpful.
The only feelings on parts of the job I haven't mentioned are game organizing, stacking, sticker placement, and cleaning. This is because these parts of the job aren't particularly hard or enjoyable, just work that needs to be done. It's tedious at first but it's easy to get into a rhythm and you'll have all the tasks done and not realize you've already worked through several hours.

Game is a very interesting Company to work for and truth be told, will give you an incredibly wide skill base and a lot of transferable skills. From a pay perspective, it pays quite well for retail and there are a lot of perks and benefits (though some come with a lot of 'small print' so always read the terms and conditions).
Hours are long and the work intense. Staff levels over the years have been cut to the bone, and policy, procedure and compliance increased. So expect a lot of work and a culture of long shifts and short breaks.
Game is very much about passion for the product and it is the product that attracts many people to work for them... but this is a tough job and you are fighting the constant battle of your enthusiasm for the product being drained out of you, by the relentless work load and intense company politics.
Game live and breathes Company Politics... learn to play the game if you want to survive and especially if you want to progress. Knowing which people and which departments control the power at H/O is helpful. Making sure your face fits is important.
Regional Managers will either be your best friend or actively trying to work you out of the business... and get used to the constantly changing faces of these. I saw 8 RM's come and go with my time with Game.
There are a lot of KPI's... more than any I have ever seen in any retail company. Success will depend on your ability to juggle and keep all these balls in the air at once, while making sure you say the right things to the right people. Regions can very much descend into a bit of a popularity contest... if your face fits with the RM, then you should be fine.
Overall... this is a tough Company to work for and to survive and do well, you need to build your power base, keep the right people on side and learn what you can say, and who you can say it to. Freedom of speech here comes with high risk... on the plus side... if you can work at Game, what you will learn will make working anywhere else a breeze.

Everyone was focused on the job at all times. It didn't feel like an inviting work environment. I entered the job under the impression that I could share my knowledge with customers and co-workers in a relaxed environment. I also believed that they would assign me to the sections I was strongest in since I specified my strong suits in the job interview. However, management did not listen to my needs or concerns, my co-workers did not make me feel welcome, and I was not once assigned to the sections I would be most suited to. 

Furthermore, I was called in for one 4 hour shift every week (sometimes every 2 weeks), meaning I earned very little pay. I was not provided any reasoning for this. I was specifically told that, despite my contract saying 0 hours, I was expected to work a minimum of 4 hours per week. I failed to meet this criteria as they did not assign me the appropriate hours. This was never acknowledged by any other member of staff. The training provided was also poor in certain areas, such as teaching us how to use the tills. They gave a basic rundown of common functions, but did not specify how to access certain functions of it that were required for the job due to the busy time of the year, where products were constantly changing price due to winter sales.

While the store is a dedicated business that regularly gets customers, I did not feel welcome working there. Instead, I felt my skills were poorly utilized, I was not adequately prepared for my role and my co-workers were actively searching for reasons to be rid of me as a result of that. This was my first time working at a job, and despite their promise to accept those who have never been employed and prepare them for the job, I believe they failed to do that for me. They're a dedicated business, but do not have respect or concern for their employees.

I worked as a Sales Assistant for a year and it is easily the best job I ever had and that's strongly due to the people. 
All of my coworkers and managers were amazing and we had a lovely work environment, and naturally, very nice to be involved with video games (given you enjoy that, and if you don't, there's no point working here.)
Even the customers were largely very pleasant to interact with. 
My only complaints are with the business at large, and for the following reasons:
1. The pay for what you do is poor, in my opinion. College-leaving age, you receive just over 6£ per hour. But, even 20+ is quite appalling.
2. A major part of your role is up-sales. You can make thousands in up-sales for the company, and your only reward will be a letter and a silver badge at best. All of the extra work it takes to sell insurance and product protection to each customer, and then to receive no decent reward from the higher-ups feels like a punch in the face. (This excludes on-site management, etc, as they often do the best they can to show their appreciation with what they've got.)
3. Little discount for buying some of the products. It got reduced whilst I was there. Quite disappointing, given the other things I'd listed. 
4. Work schedule changes every week, which I didn't like personally, as I like having consistency. But, that's just a complaint for me, particularly. 

However, it's not all bad. During lockdown, we were paid very well. And that's for no work at all. I'm still very grateful for that.
The people I'd met within the company are all quite pleasant, from my perspective. 
I'd seen several opportunities for rising in positions, that I saw my coworkers take. Again, very nice to see. 

So, overall, there are pros and cons, as for every company, and honestly, my largest complaint is the pay, as you'll need to work many hours to have a true living wage if you're having to pay rent etc. 
Probably ideal for people still living with parents. 

I enjoyed all of my shifts when i was working at GAME. All the staff were very supportive of one an other and we always helped each other with any personal or work related problems. The management at GAME were very understanding of any issues I had in or out of the workplace that could have effected my performance on a shift.

A typical day at work included making sure the customers had a great experience and they were always told of what could enhance their gaming experience. This included the sales of extras along side game sales such as: Headsets, spare battery packs, season passes or extra controllers. My duty was to cover both the shop floor, this included making sure each customer knew what they were looking for and to give advice if they weren't sure on which product to get or what they were looking for. Many came in asking for recommendations on games for themselves, friends or family members so it was important to have a wide range of knowledge on different game titles and it was important to also keep up to date on which series or titles were popular at any given time.

From my experience of working at GAME I was able to learn how to read different types of people and know their tastes, this made it easier when it came to recommending products for different people. I was also able to work on my communication skills.

I couldn't have asked for better Co workers, all the temporary staff and the fixed staff were friends straight away and we all supported each other on shift and outside of work we were all still really good friends.

The hardest part of the job would have been trying to tell a customer a product was out of stock this was due to how disappointed the customers would look and sometimes the person would be confused and complain that we were still displaying that product - we had to for advertisement purposes.

Having worked for the company for a long time, in a few different stores I am confident in saying that the company does not treat its staff well. Since leaving for another job I have had less stress, more pay and less people shouting at me (customers and management.)

As the years went by hours given to each store dropped further and further, in some stores they barely passed the contracted hours of staff. The managers that work in the store do not get full time hours averaging around 24 per week, and earn only between 20p and 60p more than sales assistants per hour.

Expectations are a little insane, from receiving 3 pages of prices to change alongside a full store rejig, a visit from your cluster manager, 3 new game releases and 26 boxes of delivery with between 20 and 180 items in each, all requiring prices, security tags and seals and then somewhere to go (usually in the back as stores are vastly overstocked with items that nobody wants such as barbies, toys and old consoles), and all this must be done with only 3 members of staff in one day, a total of 20 hours of work, all while serving customers, running social media and answering calls.

I had a lot of love for the job when I first joined, having moved up to management over nearly 11 years, and working in 4 or so different stores I've seen a lot there, but as time went on the business got more tight, began treating staff as disposable, and giving more thought about saving money by cutting hours than looking at fixing their poor choices in what they invest in (there are many MANY occasions of certain ranges stock being instore for over 2 years, dropping from hundreds of pounds down to 99p, then finally selling, or consoles being traded in for £45, then being sold for £50 with a free £5 game)

Working at GAME: company overview and reviews

GAME

GAME ratings

Popular jobs at GAME

Salary satisfaction

Jobseeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected