Today, my entire family went out together to catch some killer post-holiday deals. Once again I am reminded that I hate crowds...especially ones hunting for deals. Before long, the hundreds of people scurrying past me, elbowing my ribs, and nearly pushing me over for a mere 20% on the leftovers from people who got there at 8 AM had me fuming. I quickly grew tired of waiting for the girls to try on clothes, before deciding that none of them looked any good. Methinks, the clothes looked fine; rather the problem was too many pies over the holiday season.

To get some solace I decided to duck in to a games store to wait out the nonsense. I usually wouldn’t have bothered, but I recently heard that PS3 discs are region free, and the prospect of bringing back some European exclusive to California lured me in.

Aside from flirting with the idea of picking up the Saboteur or Midnight Club LA, there was nothing of interest. Plenty of 2009 Sports games going for as little as 98p. Oh sports games, I wish that I could find a copy of Resident Evil 5 going for a buck fifty when Resident Evil 6 comes out.



I stuck around just to pass the time, even with the store packed shoulder to shoulder, probably dozens past fire capacity. I looked through the shelves only to be pushed aside rudely by ignorant people suckered in by the cover art. I recall hearing something along the lines of: “Hulk Hogan’s in it, mate. This game must be right wicked, so let’s buy it and head off to Mickey D’s and then JJB Sports to pick up some tracky bottoms.”

Before leaving the store, I was once again reminded that the people that work in these stores are largely inept. Sometimes, I feel like any regular reader on Destructoid could do a better job. A man, who apparently had received a new PS3 for Christmas, asked an employee about GTA. The employee asked which one he was interested in 3 or 4. They didn’t even have a PS2 games section, or bargain bin and the employee was trying to sweeten the guy up to buying a ten year old game that the store didn’t even carry.

The man clarified that he didn’t know, but was interested in a game with cars in it. Plenty of good titles on the rack to choose from, I had just looked through the racers and had considered buying Midnight Club LA, mostly to see the reproduction of the city, but the employee pulls down Fuel and GTI Club. It’s like he was purposefully going out of his way to give the guy the worst of the bunch.

I would have stuck around to help the guy out but after getting shoved out of the way while looking carefully through the shelves for the umpteenth time I just had to get out of there. I’ll never understand the kind of people that can brave the stores at 5 AM on Black Friday.