Many people go to their game store to peruse interesting games, gab with their local store owner or manager, and geek out talking about their favorite games. The game store guy (or gal) as gaming resource is an interesting model, one which many people don't quite understand. You, as the customer, probably know more about your game than the game store guy. This is normal and expected.
The game store guy, in his imparting of his business knowledge to you about your game, is usually hoping you will impart some knowledge back to him. In exchange for street dates, product overviews, and suggestions on where you should look next, the game store guy hopes to get your opinion on certain games, possibly inside news, and most importantly, what direction you're taking with your game. Are you interested in buying the next supplement? Are you getting into a certain type of game more than another? In other words, the game store guys knowledge and interests are business oriented. He does not want to know about you character, but he will listen anyway.
But wait a minute, you're thinking, isn't the job of the game store guy to know everything about my game? Actually no. The business of selling games and running a store is a full time job that precludes a lot of that gaming knowledge that you, the customer possess, as well as precluding actually playing games. People who work in game stores learn the intricacies of playing games on their own time and through the customer interactions mentioned above. That is why they are so interested in your experiences. You are the educator, not the game store guy. The game store guys job is to sell you stuff that you want.
Sales people who know games inside and out are actually not desirable employees from an employers perspective. Car dealerships don't hire car nuts and experienced game store owners don't go after gamers as employees. Sales skills are what everyone is after. Product knowledge can be taught later. In fact, "experts" on a product are not usually good sales people without the proper training. Experts tend to impart too much information, well beyond what is needed to close a sale and satisfy a customer. The expert tends to confuse people with too much information and actually impedes sales from happening. The ideal is that every customer leaves the store with exactly what they need, so we're not talking about hard sales, just getting customers what they need based on where they are in their game. The ideal employee, from the store perspective, is a gamer who is a great sales person.
If you happen to find a game store owner who is a font of information, you should consider them exceptional. They have given up their free time and are clearly gaming hobbyists. They have worked outside their job to gain this knowledge. However, in an age where a game store, like ours, has over 13,000 different items, you'll rarely find someone who is a font of knowledge on all things games. For example, my game of choice is Dungeons & Dragons. When the release cycle for D&D books is normal, with a book or two every month being released, I can spend my entire allotment of free time, just reading those books. Meanwhile, dozens of new products will have come out that I know nothing about. Nobody can have personal experience with every game. Point to me a store where they know everything about every game and I'll point out an aberrant business model.
Because of the slow turn, high margin nature of game stores, you'll find a much broader selection of products than most "mass market" stores. For example, a Costco has fewer different items (SKUs) than a good sized game store. The BMW dealership across the street from our store has 40 different car models. After a half hour of research, you'll probably know more about your dream car than the salesperson. Nobody expects a car salesperson to be an expert. Yet, many customers expect a game store guy to know the nuances of their game. Can I stack a shield bonus with the bonus from the Shield spell to enhance my armor class? Can I add a rat ogre to my Ogre Kingdoms army using the Dogs of War rules? How does Carcassonne play with 5 people?
The game store guy cannot possibly know the answers to all these questions, but a good one will attempt to find out for you. As a game store guy, that's all I ask of myself and of my customers. Impart information to me, and I will impart information to you. Ask me questions and I will attempt to answer them or find out the information for you. If you're not getting the information you need, hold your game store guy accountable. Ask them to find out. However, remember that with a modern game store, you are the font of knowledge, not the game store guy.
