So about last month......

da da da daaaaaaaaaa

I'm sure multiple people were wondering what was going on with the state of this blog. I figured i would give you a somewhat detailed account of what i've been doing in the span of last month.





Skyrim and the Deathly Hallows..

So the big deal a few weeks back was the last release of  Deathly Hallows pt 2. The event was huge, and we had tons of customers coming into the store looking to get their copies of the movie. In between moving freight to the floor, and sorting out my area, I had to entertain a particular customer who waited since about eight that evening. So while our managers and vendor were putting together the display for Deathly Hallows, we have customers waiting for another title; A little known game called Skyrim. Yes, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You know, the game that people across the street at Gamestop were lined up around the store for?

I really hope you're worth all the trouble, Potter....

So I had started to head through Electronics to get to the break room, and i notice a crowd of people and various associates running around frantically. As it turns out, we couldn't find the copies of Skyrim, and the customers were getting restless. So I and another associate had to tear apart the backroom looking for the games, only to find out the boxes with the games were moved behind the counter since they were on the same cart and display as the potter DVDs.

Running around like chickens with our heads cut off for no reason....

God damn it.


ZELDAA!!!!!!

Okay so I had waited patiently for the release of Skyward Sword, like a good little boy....okay so I waited patiently for Skyward Sword (shut up). On the night of the release I had planned to work up until first break, which was midnight, and then make my way to the electronics department to claim my prize. I knew I had to be there before everyone else, because I know how Walmart usually does their releases (For the most part, it's a hundred copies of the standard releases and two to five of the special edition packages - retarded, I know).

When i actually got to the counter, my buddy, Ryan, who has been trying to get me trained and working electronics for months now (I've worked three days in electronics total ) had been cornered by customers about cell phones, His apprentice, had been working stationary, and My girlfriend was helping with the other new releases. So it's Spiracy to the rescue, jumping over the counter and opening the boxes of Skyward Sword games to find..... Only the standard releases?

What.. the.. eff?

Yes, there were only the standard releases, which were the game with just the soundtrack available, and some of the regular and special edition strategy guides. None of the special edition boxes with the gold Wii Remotes to be found. One of the customers came decked out in full on Zelda gear, like hat, hoodie, t-shirt. decked out. it was awesome (in hindsight I wish I would have gotten some pictures of him). We talked games for a bit. he dished about FPSes he wanted to get, and the state of Nintendo's current situation. It was a fun talk, and we concluded that we'd probably be best to run to the other stores to possibly look for special editions there.

GLORIOUSSSSS

So flash forward to that morning, I wound up actually going across the street to Target to get my copy, and low and behold who we run into, but Zelda guy, which was awesome. we got our games, and I had to grab some other things for a friend's birthday party I was attending later.

obligatory unboxing shot. 

Took it home, did the unboxing thing, and I actually enjoyed playing the game for the amount of time I stayed up to play it. (I was exhausted!!) Throughout the last week and a half I've really enjoyed what I've played so far. I'm completely blown away by the visual style, and the music used in the game. The enemies parry and dodge your attacks, and having to attack at multiple angles really does deepen the combat. If you're a fan of the Zelda series, or just want a really awesome Wii game to close out the year, then this is definitely for you. I may review it after I've beaten the game.

I have this growing irritation with whomever is in charge of ordering the electronics freight at our store. I think it's either someone who has little interest in doing so, or absolutely no idea about what sells. I've heard stories about how we didn't even have the WOW cataclysm collector edition sets, but we had a crap-ton of MW3 singles that sat out for days because we overestimated the amount of people who were interested in a niche shooter... (if you listen carefully you can hear my eyes rolling into the backs of their ocular cavities).

Friday Bloody Black Friday.... 

So after staying up to watch the Macy's day parade (of which i have paragraphs of twitter posts about, apparently) , I stayed up and cooked a non traditional thanksgiving dinner (we're rescheduling thanksgiving for this weekend), and got ready for a night of pain.

So instead of last year, I had to work the registers for this Black Friday, which meant that I got to see all the deals and price matching that people wound up getting. I could have gotten the same deals, but you can't really purchase anything while on the clock, so I got hosed. The most notable thing was that the Kinect bundles were 199 this year, which lead to a lot of people coming to the store for them. the amount of bundles we had were already sold before the sale even started. Yes, you heard correct; We had 40 Kinect bundles , which customers were lined up to get by 4am Thanksgiving day, meaning all of those bundles were already gone. Oddly enough our movies which were priced at 1.99 were thoroughly sacked, and yet we still had movies to get rid of days later. The general idea is that perhaps since every major media item has Netflix, maybe that cuts the amount of physical copies of movies being purchased recently? If that's the case then I wonder if streaming is actually becoming  the "new normal"?

 One interesting register story I can tell you guys, was that there was a couple trying to use an ad from a competing store to get buy two get one free offers on 360 games. The only problem with that was that the games featured in the add had to be priced at $13.99. They wanted the new Spider-Man game which was at 60 bucks. Serious no no. That's kind of what you would expect on BF, though; people trying to get over on others to get the best deals possible. I literally sat at the register about an hour with these customers who were price matching DVDs, toys and games. Almost thirty minutes over my lunch break just to get that sorted out. You say dedication, I say masochistic tendencies.

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But that was my November. Add in massive changes in my schedule, and other minor annoyances, and you pretty  much have my life to a tee. I'm back, though and I'll try to get back to a regular schedule, but working retail during the holidays makes that incredibly difficult.

Well, At least I can wind down from the craziness with some good games.