GameStop: The Coffee Shop for Nerds

Sorry for the short break between posts. I guess with it being Christmas season, that the rage is subsiding in RoadRage, and he's learning to enjoy the idiosyncrasies of his fellow man -- that he's starting to appreciate why people use their shopping cart to block the path of other shoppers trying to make their way around a store; that he enjoys going 30 miles an hour in a 55-mph zone thank to an 18-year-old who is more interested in using her smart phone than watching the road ahead.

Yeah, right. I still can't stand a single one of you.

My latest run-in with one of you nitwits was yesterday during my first day of vacation. Mrs. RoadRage and I went out to get some early Christmas shopping done.

I went to checkout video games, and what to my wondering eyes should be in the store? A man in his thirties debating the cultural significance of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Now, I admit that I am a big fan of video games -- mainly sports games like Madden, NHL and MLB: The Show. And, I enjoy going to video game stores; taking my son and/or daughter to pick out games for themselves.

But, I think I'm going to have to start shopping for games online, if the trend I've witnessed lately picks up steam. It's as if today's video game store is now a coffee shop for geeks and nerds. (Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds would be pissed.) Every time you go into GameStop or EB Games, you are sure to find that there's usually one or two customers holding court with the store clerks, critiquing every game they have ever played, and going into great detail about how Zelda: Twilight Princess has changed their life.

It's bad enough that you have to put up with their mind-numbingly inane conversation, but what's worse is that none of the store employees break away to help you find the game you want to buy. And, to top it all off, it makes regular folk like RoadRage feel like complete doofuses for still liking video games.

So, rather than wait a half hour for the conversation to evolve to a conclusion, or butt in and face the possibility of the group trying to draw me in to their confab, I decided to leave and do my shopping on www.gamestop.com. Online shopping doesn't have the immediacy of the brick and mortar stores, but at least I don't have to lose my dignity buying Smurf Racer.

RoadRage