Why I shop online

I was 17 when I got my first full time job.
I was waitressing/bartending/room prepping at a relatively dodgey convention centre. Whose greatest claim to fame was, it was built next to the biggest man made lake in the North Island of this country.
(Whoop de doo)

The job was far from great.
I had the marvellous job of pouring other peoples drinks, relighting the candles on peoples tables. And scrubbing the vomit off the walls, after said people had drunk every drop of liquor they could get their hands on, and then thought how great an idea it would be to mince around the room like a contestant from Dancing with the stars.

But I digress.
The plus side of having such a crappy job was obviously the pay.
Getting a regular income meant I could officially take regular trips to The Warehouse ( I’m assuming it’s quite similar to Walmart) and spend my money on as many games as I liked.
The Warehouse staff were great they’d sell me anything I wanted with a smile.
Strangely I thought all stores operated like this…

This assumption would only make the following experience worse.

I moved cities a few years later.
This sparked a lot of changes in my life. The most important change (well the one that is best inline with this spiel) was that inevitably I changed where I brought my games. It wasn’t that there was no Warehouse where I’d moved to. It was just that I had spotted a proper gaming store in my local mall.

The first time I went to said store, I was after a copy of Kingdom Hearts.
I only worked part time and I needed a new game to help me while away my free time.
So off I went.

There were quite a few guys checking out stuff on the shelves.
They were from every walk of life. The guy in the suite, the skater guy and his buddy, the guy in the muscle tee and his son. The store itself wasn’t very big so we were all pretty close to one another. Amongst all of these people were the store boys. Easily singled out by their pinstripe shirts and gaming lanyards. Not to mention greasy hair and barely pre-pubescent moustaches. (Which was weird cause they all looked to be in their 30’s)

I went straight for my game.
The shop itself was to full to be loitering around in and the faster I got KH the faster I could get it home and play it.

To get the full effect of what happened next let me put it to you script style

Me: Heya, just this please
Guy behind counter: …..
Me: So how’s your day been?
Guy behind counter:… (eye roll) That’ll be $97
Me: Sweet (hands over cashflow card)
Guy behind counter:……..
Me: Great…..Thanks
Guy behind counter talking to male customer behind me: Hey mate how you going?
Male customer: Not to bad
Guy behind counter: What game are you getting?
Male Customer: Oh it’s just……

And so on and so fourth.
Needless to say I was pretty angry when I left.
However I decided that it must just be that guy.
Maybe he was having a bad day…or maybe he was just a dick.

The second time was more or less the same as the first time.
Difference being the guy behind the counter was different.

Me: Hey can I get this please
New guy behind counter:……
Me: (great here we go again)
New guy behind counter: That’ll be such and such dollars
Me: Great thank you
New guy behind counter: ……yeah

(Goodbye old dick, hello new dick)

So here I was fuming for a second time.
It got to the point where these guys would purposefully ignore me.
I’d walk into the shop and they would all go running for the customers with Y-chromosomes. Eyes lowered like I was the local Pariah.

And truth be told I was.
The only other females in that store (I can only vouch for the ones that were there when I was) were teenage girls spying on boys and girlfriends. I was an official freak.
This was my first bad experience with other gamers.
I was a girl and therefore not worth the effort.
It was enraging!

And then one day.
Like some wonderful kind of miracle….I walked into the mall and there it was.
A brand new Games Store right by the main doors.

I walked in, chin out ready for the usual indifference.

Ginger guy behind counter: Hey
Me: (in shock) Hi….
Ginger guy behind counter: How’s the day goin?
Me:….erm….wow…Great! It’s been great

The guys in that store were fantastic.
And they took me seriously as a gamer.

Because when push comes to shove I just wanted to be taken seriously by other gamers.
I didn’t demand the respect of my peers just because I was a gamer.

Cause I knew given the opportunity…I could earn it.
Just like every other Girl Gamer I know

I went back to the first store a couple of months later.
(My favourite store only lasted a year before the entire company closed down, freakin great sale though)

I was greeted by a new unfamiliar but enthusiastic guy behind the counter.
Old Dick and New Dick were very busy re-arranging the same two games on the shelf futherest from me.
After purchasing a new game he asked me a very interesting question.

Smiley guy behind the counter: Do you shop here often?
Me: No
Smiley guy behind the counter: Oh why not
Me (smiling): Cause this shop fucken blows

Childish I know….But it felt GREAT!