My very first job was at the Electronics Boutique (now GameStop) at the local mall. I was 15 (too young to be legally hired but corporate turned a blind eye) an

My very first job was at the Electronics Boutique (now GameStop) at the local mall. I was 15 (too young to be legally hired but corporate turned a blind eye) and worked there the summer of 1999, when Pokémon cards were at their apex, the Dreamcast was about to come out, and the PlayStation was truly at its peak. Aside from some sexual harassment from the cliental for being the only girl who worked there (I was the first female that store had ever even hired and it had been there for 7 or 8 years), it really was such a perfect first job. We had a policy at the time where people could returned open copies of most games (Microsoft productivity software or anything else with a license key was often an exception), provided it was still in sellable condition and employees got to “check stuff out” for a day or two to test/play at home. As a result, the recommendations we could make were much better and people trusted us and our opinions, which was important when gaming segments on TV were nascent, YouTube didn’t exist, and glossy magazines and the IGN websites were where you would get your game news/reviews. At least at our mall, we had regulars who lived closer to another location but came to our store because of the staff and because of our selection. I almost never buy games in retail stores these days — buying digitally or buying physical copies online is just more convenient — but it makes me sad that my favorite places as a kid/teenager: video/DVD stores, music stores, video games stores, and toy stores, have all basically gone extinct. At least Best Buy is still a thing, I guess. And the Apple Store. But as convenient as it is to buy stuff online, there is something special about getting to touch/feel/listen/play with stuff before you buy it and something cool about being amongst a community of people as passionate about your interests.