The "salesman" in the OP just sounds like a jerk who didn't really care what system would be best for lady. He's bias.

On the other hand, I run a retail music store, and I teach my guys to sell what they love, if it fills the customers needs. So the guys who play Fender guitars will normally steer their customers to Fender. That's just having enthusiasm for a brand, and is part of sales. But I also let my guys know they are NEVER allowed to talk bad or lie about other brands, that's just being a jerk.

When I worked in gaming retail, I let people know I loved Nintendo, but if they wanted to play sports and shooters, I didn't try to push an Gamecube, I sold them an Xbox, cause it's what served them best.

I once heard a clerk at GameStop tell someone, at the height of the RROD problem, that the failure rate on Xbox 360 was 2%.  Me and the rest of the employees told the guy the truth then spend about 15 minutes making fun of the guy, who was wearing a Halo t-shirt with Halo buttons on it.

Exactly most "core" gamers would be horrible sales people.

I like alot of the members of Vgchartz but I sure as hell wouldn't be hiring most of them in my stores.  Sure they may know everything about blu-ray, cell processors, and multiplayer online shooters.  But they couldn't tell you exactly how Nintendogs plays, which Beyblade games are the best, or name 5 Spongebob games off the top of their head.

In other words sales is much more about what the common consumer want and not which system is the "TEH MOZT HARDCORZ"

oh that's who it was, thanks and good memory.  I didn't recall that about him so maybe you're right and he didn't actually take his bias that far.  I honestly hope that's the case.

They definitely have their preferences, but they're all pretty fair. I usually shop at Gamestop and sometimes Best Buy.

:(...now you guys made me feel bad...

@rolstoppable, we did talk about some games for the PS3.360 but niether me or the clerk knew how old her children were, for the PS3 I suggested LBP, U2, and Rachet & Clank,(just some broad and safe level games for all ages..although U2 may be a stretch) for the 360 I didn't give any recommendation because most of the game i own are rated M and I didn't want to risk it and RPG's; pretty much a niche genre this gen.

Wow people actually go into game stores and ask what to buy?

If I were to blow £200-300 on a new console, I think I would do my own research rather than ask some random store clerk, who may or may not be concerned/know about my preferences (or even be relaying absolutely true info like in this case with PS3). I guess thats me though, but being a parent, there's still no excuse for not paying attention to what you buy for your children.

I am willing to bet, this is the same parent who will later buy their kid Duke Nukem forever (ignoring the 18 rating) thinking all video games are meant for children and then subsequently complaining about all the gore/sexual content in games *facepalm*

Yes, I've been having trouble with my local EB store, which is sad because it's literally a 3 minute drive from my house and it's easily accesible. The manager in the store is an asshole, when the store first opened, we made polite conversation (I'm nice like that) and I didn't think he was too bad, but then came the day I wanted to buy MW2 on the PS3. You'd think I slapped the guy or something, but he was baffled, kept trying to push the 360 version on me, saying how we'll be Live friends, how I should join Live and he did this for about three weeks and by that time I'd already decided to buy the game off of a back of the truck dealer I knew (I'm guessing that's what he does, won't tell me) for less than half the price.

Then Splinter Cell: Conviction was about to come out , he kept trying to make me pre-order, I kept saying no, he then did the same with Battlefield and started the whole Live thing again. Ugh, it was so annoying and at that point he would start to throw insults at PSN and the PS3, which I really don't care about, but I don't need to put up with that bullshit when I'm trying to look for games. He also has a thing about informing me on what he thinks or he has heard about any game I bring to the counter, all the games I like are apparently bad (Lost Planet 2, Fracture, WET, Dark Sector and etc) and he wants to tell me how bad they are while buying them.

The incident that annoyed me the most was when he put down PSN when a guy was just asking about a PS3 headset. Some 36 year old guy comes in, he looks like one of those cool dads that know whats up, must have been a gamer in his younger years and so he asks the manager about the PS3 headset. He explained that he wanted to play online and that his friends had headsets and he'd like to join in, my god the manager went off, he went on and on about how he shouldn't even bother, how he should just buy a 360 and get Live, all while the customer stood there uncomfortabley. I don't mind as much when it's happening to me, mainly because I know better and I can ignore him, but this guy wasn't a frequent gamer and was being made to feel inadequate in the middle of the store.

Not all EB stores are like this though, I've started driving the extra 15 minutes to a different store and eveyone in there is perfect, they inform me enough to help my decision, they leave me alone when I'm just looking, they compliment me on my purchases when buying, they help me out when it comes to price matches and low stock and because they're doing a good job, I give them repeate business. I'd also like to point out that this store is much busier than my local store and it's easy to see why. GAME are also awesome, they are the perfect balance of being nice, helpful and they leave you alone when your just browsing. JB are good as well, but way too many 'I'm a cool guy working in an elextronics store, look at my cool new T-Shirt that my friend designed' and that becomes annoying when I need to ask questions about prices, stock and pre-orders.

Ok, who do people expect to work spotty hours and for minimum wage at a video game store?  You get fanboys with agendas, like the one you mentioned.  Individuals who have religious devotion in an area, work for slave wages for corporate interests.  Heck, if there was no minimum wage, Gamestop would be able to get these kinds to work for free actually.

At my gamestop theres one guy how is really cool and I could talk to him all day about game but theres another guy how works there how is a complete ass he tryed to make me cancel my ps3 pre-order telling me final fantasy XIII and MGS4 was exclusive to 360 and just a week ago a mother asked him which would be better for her son ps3 or 360 he of course said 360, saying the 360 was overall cheaper claiming there used 360 games are cheaper at 5euro(not true ps3 had games at 5euro aswell) and not saying she had to pay to play online ect... I dont care that she got the 360 but she was lied to that makes it wrong