Today was going to be such an awesome day. The plan was pop on over to Peterborough get the Imperial Assault expansions, hopefully also get an Android:Netrunner data pack I wanted (if they had it in stock). Then pick up a power cable from a friend, followed by shooting off to another part of Peterborough to play Android:Netrunner with Jamie and possibly some Star Realms.
But hey on the drive over (I'll try not to over share here too much) I ended up getting sick on me in several spots! That kind of put a dampener on the plans, I couldn't really spend the rest of day smelling of sick. So I rearranged the gaming for tomorrow.
Smelling of sick I picked up the power cable and ended up at the LGS. I managed to find all the expansions that had been released but no sign of the extra dice you can buy. I asked the young lad looking after the shop if they had them but he had no clue. He was equally clueless when asked if there was any Netrunner data packs.
I was becoming a bit frustrated with this shop assistant. He seemed more interested in wanting to get back to his magic deck building with his friend than help the only customer in the shop. There was no “I can't see any on the shelves, let me check out back for you.” There wasn't either a “we don't have it in, but would you like us to order it for you?” Nothing you would consider good customer service.
It puzzles me why stores employ people like this. This sort of person is representing a small business that relies on regular customers, and trying to compete with online retailers. To me this is the small business equivalent of the owner shooting themselves in the foot.
I really did resent spending my money today. I don't like being made to feel like an inconvience, and when the thing that is meant to distinguish your brick and mortar business from those that operate on line is that personal touch, along with instant gratification and ability to browse. You soon think why should I bother?
Maybe I should of just walked out not buying anything. I could of got everything online and with me tomorrow.
I like to support local when I can. But this relationship is a two way street. And today it didn't feel that way.
As you can see from the pictures above I walked away with a copy of the Batman Love Letter. So counting the original Love Letter this will be my third copy of the game, and come the Summer there will be a fourth in the form of The Hobbit Love Letter. I know there are tweaks to the game for each of the IP they represent, but Love Letter has nailed the rebranding the original game to all these other franchises. Althought Munchkin is fastly catching them up on this front (and ironically they are one of the IP with Love Letter). So how many times can I buy at its heart the same game with different branding? When will enough be enough? Obviously the answer is at least once more. But seriously I think they have nearly flogged this horse to death. Mind you it's not stopped all the rebranding of Monopoly.
Just to tie me over until the gravity feed arrives I also got five packs of D&D Dicemasters. The photo below shows the cards I pulled from the five packs.
Posted by me using my iPad and the Blogsy app