Having worked in a gaming store for years, I tried to make a point to get as much info as I could about the customer. I had no particular agenda, since I owned all the of the systems at the time. (Cube, Xbox, PS2) If they were on the fence about a system, I found out who it was for, first and foremost.
If they said it was for a teenager, I tended to point them towards either the PS2 or the Xbox, depending on what kinds of games they seemed to prefer. Sports, FPS, I tended to recommend the Xbox. Mainly RPG's, I would usually suggest PS2.
For the parents buying for a younger gamer, I tended towards recommending the Cube. There were a surprising number of parents who didn't even know about the Gamecube as an option. They came in asking the difference between a "PS2 or Xbox" and often left with a Cube when I explained to them the library being more geared towards family games, and the classics like Mario, Zelda, etc. (Most parents think Mario, Zelda, and all those come on any platform.)
While the vast majority of other stores I visited during district meetings and such were absolutely awful, I thought the store I ran was about as fair to all the systems as you can ask for. You always have asshole customers trying to stick their nose in, but if you have knowledgeable staff working, the customer with the question tends to gravitate away from the raving fanboy to the level headed "professional". (And I use that term very loosely, since our store's language when out of customer earshot would have made a longshoreman blush.)
The dedication you show to any particular console or company is inversely proportional to the number of times you have gotten laid. If you get laid enough, even if you prefer a certain brand, you just don't give enough of a shit to argue about it on the internet.
