Black Friday is an example of the worst that our beloved Gaming Industry has to offer. Staff treated poorly for the most menial of price drops.
Let's make this as short as possible, whilst triggering as many of you as possible. Black Friday is a terrible time of year for any retail workers, Amazon Warehouse workers, or basically anyone on the front line of the buying-selling industry. It doesn't just go for video games, of course, with furniture salesmen, those fellas who are still selling freakin' DVDs, anyone at all involved in tech, books, music, whatever, it's just an absolutely miserable time to be one of those poor folk we all rely on.
I understand that we all want to get some things for cheap. We all like a sale, and we're all completely unapologetic for that fact. In many cases, the saying "Go cheap or go home" comes to mind, with those legendary conversations with salespeople yielding one of two things: either you lose your mind, or they lose theirs. It's a lot of fun, and the outcome can be very beneficial for you. Even if it is less than ideal for the salespeople themselves, the whole "making deals" thing is in good fun, and generally harmless when done respectfully and by people who know what they're doing.
What's neither respectful nor harmless are events like Black Friday, which send thousands into online and retail environments, searching for the perfect deals, and driving those same sales assistants up the metaphysical wall. As someone who has worked on Black Friday, Boxing Day, and other similar sales, I can say one thing: the only thing worse than a sale like this is the day that a new FIFA comes out... those people are utterly insufferable... Seriously! You want to buy a PS4... only to play FIFA? What is wrong with you?
Wait, is it a sale? We didn't realize that EB Games had a sale! Are they sure?
It's our FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!Ask your local store if they're having a sale for your chance to win a $200 gift card EACH WEEK! https://t.co/6aORHv9YLJ pic.twitter.com/pu23gwmllS
— EB Games Australia (@EBGamesAus) May 29, 2019
When it comes to a Boxing Day, or some similar holiday day, it's generally okay because workers generally get paid at a higher rate than on any other day. On a day like Black Friday, though, no one gets paid more, the conditions are absolutely abhorrent, and customers seem to think that they own the bloody store. You are overrun with people, worked to the absolute edge of your ability and sanity, and not compensated for it. One thing I need to make abundantly clear to all the Karen's out there: there is no commission in selling video game products.
Seriously, there's absolutely no commission in selling gaming products, no matter what day or time of year it is. If you sell a PlayStation, you don't get some hefty bonus. If you sell twenty $60 video games to somebody, you get your hourly wage and nothing more. The only thing that you could possibly get a bit for are PC Accessories or Gaming Chairs, but even so, the commission on something like a $400 Gaming Keyboard is usually like $2-3, if that. It really isn't worth it, you really aren't doing sales assistants any favors by buying stuff. Nor are you making them money when you eventually buy something after harassing them about further discounts for like twenty freakin' minutes!
The purpose of Black Friday is to sell products at what I like to call "artificially low" prices. What that means, is that the products you buy are generally priced far higher than they actually cost for the retailer or seller to originally purchase from the manufacturer. By "artificially low", I mean that the retailer has partially cut the mark-up on the product so that it is cheaper, and they earn less per item, but more customers are incentivized to purchase said product. This is pretty basic stuff, so you probably already know that, but there's a point to it: video games already have very little mark-up, so those sales? Yeah, they're not generally that great.
This is partially why retail is going so out of style, why would you go somewhere that is insanely limited in the discounts they can offer, when you could purchase directly from the publisher, who will be able to mark down the price significantly? This is the crux of it: don't buy video games on Black Friday because you won't get a particularly good discount, and your purchase incentivizes those retail chains to continue to mistreat and underpay their staff. The same goes for Amazon on days like Black Friday, which is one of their biggest days of the year. That company is already known for basically abusing people, and on a day like Black Friday, that abuse gets intensified ten-fold. Trust me, it's not worth your five-bucks of Assassin's Creed. If you insist on a Black Friday discount, buy digitally, and directly from the publisher.
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