I worked at Suncoast too back in 2003. It was absolutely horrible. Worst 2 weeks u can imagine. Zero training, they just threw you out on the floor and expected you to know what to do. I was 19. If i hadnt worked in a grocery store and a Target before that, i wouldve probably had a meltdown. And Pat, the 3 manager thing must have been somehow a Suncoast thing. I had 3 breathing down my neck too.
I worked at FYE (called Camelot at that time) in 2000. Suncoast was our main rival, and was right next door at that particular mall. Customers would frequently try to return things at the wrong store. Fun times.
Ugh, I had to do one of those psych tests when I applied at Speedway/Super America. They try to trip you up by asking certain questions multiple times. I remember being questioned about some of my answers during the second interview. Dude was apprehensive about hiring me because I said I had friends that smoked marijuana. Still managed to land the job, although it turned out to be a bad place to work. Not sure how it worked at Suncoast, but I know a lot of these retail places give managers bonuses for performing well with cards or other things. Of course, the actual people pushing the cards never see a dime of this money, because that would make too much sense.
I remember my Toys R Us personality quiz. Nooooooo.... I've never stolen from my employer. That was an awesome job. N64 in the breakroom. Extra long Goldeneye breaks with my manager.
OMG Pat, same crap when I worked at 'Tower Records' when that existed. They sold DVD's too. My entire working experience there mirrored yours...almost exactly... Between the stocking, the hours, the low pay, the membership, the store credit, the teenager manager-types, you name it. Misery loves company.
You make fun of the Suncoast video membership club, but I’m still a proud member raking in all those membership benefits... while y’all are missing out on all the perks... fools... mindless fools I say!!!
I'm a librarian so I'll chime in, I find it a pretty cool career! Also, I'm in charge of teen programs, so I get to do the fun stuff like Smash Bros tournaments! Man I used to love Suncoast, but just from the customer side of things. I spent so much on anime dvds back then!
Praying for y'all Pat and Ian and y'alls parents, families and friends. I hope y'all feel better, heal and recover soon. I hope things improve for y'all soon. I hope all goes well for y'all in y'alls futures. I wish y'all the very best of luck in y'alls futures. God bless y'all my friends. God loves y'all.
Pat, you're making a huge deal out of this. You're describing basically most retail jobs anywhere on earth. You got people working there getting paid next to nothing, working long hours, not giving a shit and being mostly miserable. You got burned out managers who worked in that god forsaken place for years and worked their way up to manager (or bullshitting their way there) breathing down everyones neck, wanting you to push sales of X because they themselves have district managers breathing down their necks and have quotas to reach of X. It's the same no matter where you go.
I work as a Team Lead for an Edwards Theatre. If you work at a small theatre it's okay. If you work at a large Muti-Plex theatre, with more then 20 auditoriums, you have more stress and problems. It's hard to run the floor or concession at a big theatre. It might seem fun, but it's a lot of stress for an employee or manager on a night with a huge movie like the Avengers End Game. It's really terrible.
Because the distributors didn't have to worry about pirating quite yet and took advantage by absolutely ripping people off due to the monopoly they had over the distribution rights...
SexyMoFo Because there wasn't a way to put a ton of eps on discs yet, and licensing/dubbing was pretty expensive (it being DBZ), so 3-4 eps dubbed would be 30 and subbed would be 35-50. Rough times. -Matt
Pat, I love ya, but just described every low entry retail position at any chain store in America. They all suck. There was nothing different about that job than working at Gamestop, Sam Goody's, Spencer's Gifts, etc.
@@PatTheNESpunk I get ya. I'm just saying comparatively speaking, that job didn't sound all that bad, but walk a mile in another man's shoes and all that.
For a second I thought this had 2 MILLION views and was holy crap! Love these stories man. I am disabled due to an illegal firework one of my friends thought would be funny to aim at my face. I don't make much money so I can't join that patreon as much as I would want to. That being said I watch your stuff religious, try to comment where I can (constructively) and always like the videos. Hope that helps. Trying to get more into youtube myself but it's tough figuring out what people want to see. You probably know more than I do about how random peoples fame seems to be. Anyway thanks again for the videos! See you guys next time.
I worked at an On Cue which was part of the same company as Suncoast they were both part of the Musicland company and the we had to do all of the same meaningless tasks on a daily basis we alphabetized everything. I on the otherhand I didn't have the same issues with my management team but I understand what Pat is talking about completely.
I visited the USA in 2004 and went to a Suncoast (in Seattle). This was the time when iPods were only new and not remotely in my price range so I was carrying a messenger bag full of CD's as listening material. When I walked in to the store the alarm went off, the poor sap behind the counter had to swipe my small mountain of CD's over their alarm deactivator as we had no idea which one was setting it off. Still, it did have a great selection of Anime DVD's that simply weren't available in Europe, so I loaded up on those.
How is it illegal to handle money at 16/17 years old? I know here (in Maine) you can't sell alcohol or pot unless you are 18 (with a 21 y/o manager) or 21 when working alone. But I don't see how "handling the money" would be illegal for such an age. If the business wanted to, they could have 5 year olds handle the "bank". Would be stupid, but not illegal. Then again, NJ is crazy; you can't even pump your own gas there...
Oh my god the personality survey asking if you’d steal, what’d you do if you witnessed a co worker stealing etc I remember having to answering something like for a job at future shop (a Canadian Best Buy essentially (who ended buying them))
Hey Pat did you work at a Grand Union? When I was a kid I worked at a Grand Union and had to run register when it got busy, stock the shelf’s fill the milk, wash and mop the floors do price changes and get shopping cart carriages and buggy’s( depending on who was working they all called them something different)
My first DVD was Fight Club also; with all the cool packaging and what not. Im still trying to figure out what the worm kids tv show was that Pat was talking about haha
I always liked to browse in Suncoast but I rarely ever bought from there. Too expensive. My friend worked there though and he liked, sometimes I'd come and hang around the store during his shift. That was fun.
Yea Pat Ian and I are about the same age, and I did the mall thing from 1997 to 2000 worked at a Now Defunct Waldeen Books, Hoyts Cinema, Electronic Boutique and these stories all hit close to home. Bought some of my first Anime on VHS there, good lord not more than 2 years later it all comes out on DVD.
It's kind of odd, I worked retail for over ten years of my life and Suncoast, even with the pushing of the membership cards and the busy work, was the BEST out of all of the different chains I worked for, both when they were Musicland and when they had been taken over by TransWorld, a.k.a. FYE (FYE itself was a different story when the second Suncoast location I worked for was shut down after a rent hike and I had to transfer). A lot of the difference in our experiences seems to really come down to the people in management and the coworkers at the individual store.
I had similar experiences for jobs that were like 7$ an hour, or only a few hours a day, long traveling, that didn't even appreciate you showing up just for gas money, then bitch and complain, just think about how many people are still stuck in those jobs, that's our revenge.
Just some random comments from someone who worked up from part-timer to Head Manager at Suncoast in the early to mid 90s. It's a shame that you didn't have a better experience - I worked alongside some phenomenal people in my Novi, MI store and wound up making some life-long friends that were customers as well as employees. I also started at $5.15/hour. As Assistant I made $7/hour basically, but they salaried you so they didn't have to pay you overtime. They called it $280 a week instead. If you went over 40 hours they gave you one-half time, so $3.50/hour and then your District Manager would complain to you for even using that, so we all avoided it. Starting manager's salary didn't even hit 20k, but you did get (ever decreasing) yearly bonuses based on incentives. So yeah, the pay wasn't great even for back then. You mentioned laws against kids under 18 not being legal to handle cash drawers? This is the first I've heard of it, maybe it was a thing in your state, I dunno. Back in the 80s and 90s teenagers in High School got hired in retail as cashiers/salespeople all the time. I worked at Kay-Bee Toys while in High School, counting down drawers at store open and close. For $3.50/hour. So there. ;) Anyway, it was no big deal then. P.S. I survived Christmas at Kay-Bee the year TMNT action figures were new. No, I'm sorry, we don't have April O'Neal. We only get one per 2 cases, just like Splinter. No, I'm not sure when the next shipment will be, but we get our next general replenishment Tuesday morning. No problem, thanks for calling. Hello? No, I'm sorry we have no April O'Neil...
I worked at Suncoast too! The worst part was trying to push those memberships, special orders, and pre orders. They tried to get us to push dish tv and it was horrible. The numbers were awful. They threatened to write me up over the membership stuff. Fun fact, the only time I ever used a microfiche was at Suncoast and I was working there around 2001. 😂
I work at a big chain Wal-mart like store and we have our own employees stock the produce. We have an outside company come at night at do the 3rds shift cleaning.
Pat, you still apply to grocery stores to stock. Night shift stocking is a bottom of the totem pole job until they like you enough to move you someplace else. Even though I am an introvert so I would like that job.
I have been working night stock at Kroger for about 3.5 years and while it may be "bottom of the totem pole" they sure as hell need our team to do well because they literally have no time or people during the day to work most of that stuff.
Used to hit the Gamestop, Suncoast store and the Barnes and Noble in the mall every payday in VA Beach mall when I was in the Army in the early 2000s. Games, Movies and Sci Fi fantasy books. Good memories. Glad I didn't have to work there.
That’s exactly how GameStop was, I worked for them for two years and look what’s happening to them now. Don’t get too cocky as corporate because the consumers will notice and your business will collapse. Except for the big scary dudes part. GameStop expects you to take a bullet to protect their inventory.
I managed a Suncoast in 2002-2003, I enjoyed it actually, but my regional manager was worthless. One cool thing was we were owned by Best But at the time so I got a discount at Best Buy too!
I remember shopping at the one in Tallahassee FL back in the 90's. The movie selection was amazing for the time. That said, I do recall being told working there was less than enjoyable.
Sounds exactly like starbucks. Some manager that takes things way too seriously, a few supervisors looking over your shoulder making sure you upsell, and the person that has been there for 15 years that is grandfathered into benefits programs that have been long discontinued. Using people like batteries. When there energy is all used up, replace them. Crap pay and hours kept below 30 a week so they can avoid paying health benefits.
I worked at Suncoast as well for a couple of weeks as a second job back in 2003 or 2004as well and I agree it was not pleasant. One new thing they had now at this time is that you had to try to get the customer to buy other things with their DVD(blank cds, vhs, etc). If you fail to get them to buy something through the week, you get a warning. Three warnings and you're out. Seeing as I was only working there 2 or 3 days a week and was mostly on the late shift working only 4 hours(mostly right when I was getting off at the book store), I decided to not stay after the second week. I agree with you Pat on Suncoast not being a great place to work.
I used to work for Service Merchandise (I think it was like 99 or 2000) in the electronics dept rght before they closed it. It was pretty fun n easy. They went outta business not too longer after that.
I know a guy who's almost forty and still does the retail management. He's never risen above store manager anywhere because every chain where he works seems to run into trouble after a few years and many of them are now gone entirely. It's a shame that he didn't just start off at Target or some place like that. There's a good chance your old Suncoast manager is hopping around like that to this day.
I worked at a Suncoast in Washington state for 10 years, eventually becoming co-assistant manager. I loved most of the people I got to work with, but the upper management was a joke. The manager came and went as he pleased, and passed the difficult tasks on to others so he could watch videos in the back, deeming it "product knowledge". The district manager was buddies with the store manager, so there was absolutely no accountability for the laziness I observed. As an average employee, you were expected to dupe customers who were paying with credit cards in to signing up for trial magazine subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly while glossing over how they had to cancel it or continue to be charged. You also had to push needless reservations for titles that would be massively overstocked, trying to convince the customer that if they didn't reserve, there was a good chance they wouldn't be able to get it on Day One. You were expected to advertise that the reservation locked in a better price than a general customer would get. That was a wee bit misleading: the reservation price was exactly what you would get if you bought it during the first week of its release. Also, the Producer's Club card seemed to only benefit anime customers who bought ten to fifteen VHS or DVDs a week. Listening to Pat describe his experience reminds me that the mantra "the customer is always right" was in full effect at Suncoast. You were expected to let people lie to your face, cheat the store out of merchandise due to fraudulent returns, and generally let them be abusive to you. You also had absolutely no recourse for shoplifters once they left the store. The mall security didn't care what happened within the store, so you were just forced to eat the loss, or you could try to fool the thief in to believing that you had more power to have them arrested than you actually did. I do have fond memories of the relationships I formed with various staff members and a handful of customers, but there were far more aspects of the job that were frustrating. The last thing I'll add is that it was a dangerous place for me to work, as I'm addicted to collecting movies...
I remember about 2009 my dad took me too suncoast In our local mall and that was my first time being in a movie store and I was hooked instantly! I wouldn’t have my love for cinema if it weren’t for him taking me there when I was so young
Man stories like these take me back, and make me thankful I lived past that part of life too. Sorry you had to put up that bullshit, but thank you for sharing with us.
I worked at Funcoland, it was pretty rough at times. It was the budget store, so a kid would walk in with a $5 bill clenched in his fist, and I would have to make him leave with $50 worth of stuff. We had to push memberships and cleaning units. We had to sell certain games, we would get commission on them though, we would make a couple bucks for every item that we sold. The district manager had a rep for being a prick here and there, but he wasn't bad if you caught him on a good day.
Fantastic Four, Mister And Mrs. Smith and Forty Year Old Virgin are the last V.H.S. I purchased while they were still new from Suncoast in February 2006.
It's funny how much bullshit there seems to be in working retail in general. There are endless stories like these to be heard. I worked factory jobs in those years rather than retail, so I traded the drama and other weirdness for physical labor and some minor issues with management and only occasionally with a coworker.
I can relate to the super market job. I worked in one for 4 years and it made me miserable day in and day out lol bottom line is that retail just sucks. As the years pass, I realize maybe working in a video game store or just a video store isnt as great as I thoguht it would be. Oh and I've been to the Suncoast at Monmouth Mall in NJ. I was surprised it still existed after all this time.
A friend of my brother worked at Suncoast back when 'The Crow' soudtrack was out right after I saw it in theatres and she let me take a tape out of the store. Still remember that new cassette smell 😏
Even when you have had multiple shitty jobs one always stands above the others, the last job I worked before I joined the military was unloading trucks at Wal Mart and it sucked, it was hard work, the hours were 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. 4 days a week, my immediate supervisor was verbally abusive and just a shitty human being. I left for basic training on December 2nd and figured I'd take a few weeks to just chill before I left so I scheduled my last day of working at Wal Mart to be November 15th, after working there for months my discount card finally showed up in the mail on the day of my final shift and I had to turn it in on my first break of the day. I clock out of my final shift and everyone tells me good luck in the military and all that bullshit, then those fuckers called me on Thanksgiving and asked if I would work Black Friday, I told them I no longer worked for them and hung up.
Игры
I worked at Suncoast too back in 2003. It was absolutely horrible. Worst 2 weeks u can imagine. Zero training, they just threw you out on the floor and expected you to know what to do. I was 19. If i hadnt worked in a grocery store and a Target before that, i wouldve probably had a meltdown. And Pat, the 3 manager thing must have been somehow a Suncoast thing. I had 3 breathing down my neck too.
5:00 Ian and Pat broke the first rule of the Fight Club DVD.
I dig these work stories from you two
eastofthebigchicken More please
The best part about working in the produce section is that you're still dealing with fewer vegetables than when you're working in retail!
hey, that's a pretty good one!
I think I was trying to think of The Wiggles! Almost worms!
Pat the NES Punk 🎶 fruit salad...
it's the busy world of Richard Scarry
@@dankhill6851 Exactly.
Man collecting anime back then was rough. Wasn't Bebop like $30-$40 a dvd and six volumes? So expensive. That and Trigun were my first anime DVDs.
How about collecting in the 80s when it was all done through snail-mail bootleg VHS trading clubs
take a drink every time Pat says "$5.15 an hour"
I worked at FYE (called Camelot at that time) in 2000. Suncoast was our main rival, and was right next door at that particular mall. Customers would frequently try to return things at the wrong store. Fun times.
And funny thing is FYE is still around. Ive seen a few in California recently
Currently working night stock at Kroger. So, technically, yes what Pat said is true. Certain parts of the store did stock.
Anime at suncoast back in those days was so expensive. A vhs with one episode of whatever show you were into was like 40-50 bucks.
Lowly Worm is a fictional character created by Richard Scarry
from "The Busy World of Richard Scarry" I believe.
I loved richard scarry first books that introduced me to animal people
Ugh, I had to do one of those psych tests when I applied at Speedway/Super America. They try to trip you up by asking certain questions multiple times. I remember being questioned about some of my answers during the second interview. Dude was apprehensive about hiring me because I said I had friends that smoked marijuana. Still managed to land the job, although it turned out to be a bad place to work.
Not sure how it worked at Suncoast, but I know a lot of these retail places give managers bonuses for performing well with cards or other things. Of course, the actual people pushing the cards never see a dime of this money, because that would make too much sense.
Waited for this longer than Starcraft:Ghost
I remember my Toys R Us personality quiz. Nooooooo.... I've never stolen from my employer. That was an awesome job. N64 in the breakroom. Extra long Goldeneye breaks with my manager.
Nice.
Lol it sounds like any old mall job
Pat sounds a little uptight for retail lol
OMG Pat, same crap when I worked at 'Tower Records' when that existed. They sold DVD's too. My entire working experience there mirrored yours...almost exactly...
Between the stocking, the hours, the low pay, the membership, the store credit, the teenager manager-types, you name it. Misery loves company.
You make fun of the Suncoast video membership club, but I’m still a proud member raking in all those membership benefits... while y’all are missing out on all the perks... fools... mindless fools I say!!!
I'm a librarian so I'll chime in, I find it a pretty cool career! Also, I'm in charge of teen programs, so I get to do the fun stuff like Smash Bros tournaments!
Man I used to love Suncoast, but just from the customer side of things. I spent so much on anime dvds back then!
The Golden Girls reference just made my day
Praying for y'all Pat and Ian and y'alls parents, families and friends. I hope y'all feel better, heal and recover soon. I hope things improve for y'all soon. I hope all goes well for y'all in y'alls futures. I wish y'all the very best of luck in y'alls futures. God bless y'all my friends. God loves y'all.
Pat, you're making a huge deal out of this. You're describing basically most retail jobs anywhere on earth. You got people working there getting paid next to nothing, working long hours, not giving a shit and being mostly miserable. You got burned out managers who worked in that god forsaken place for years and worked their way up to manager (or bullshitting their way there) breathing down everyones neck, wanting you to push sales of X because they themselves have district managers breathing down their necks and have quotas to reach of X. It's the same no matter where you go.
A Golden Girl's reference? Respect.
You should get me on the phone to talk about Blockbuster Video AND Blockbuster MUSIC. That was a clusterfuck of an experience.
I wanna know.
I work as a Team Lead for an Edwards Theatre. If you work at a small theatre it's okay. If you work at a large Muti-Plex theatre, with more then 20 auditoriums, you have more stress and problems. It's hard to run the floor or concession at a big theatre. It might seem fun, but it's a lot of stress for an employee or manager on a night with a huge movie like the Avengers End Game. It's really terrible.
I have waited so long for this.
I miss Suncoast, they still exist but they're owned by FYE now. Personally I'd love to work at a movie/music only store.
DVD debuted in 97'.
It looks like F.Y.E. is going to be nonexistent soon. All of the ones around my way are closed and the ones that are still open are pretty damn far.
@@deezy81 They wasted money on redesigning their stores and selling funko pops.
@@Clay3613 Yeah and selling Booty O's cereal for fifteen dollars..
There were barely any titles until mid to late 98/99.
DVDs replaced VHS in 2001-2002.
In 2000 there were maybe 75-100 DVD titles available at the store when I started.
"They wanted me to give two weeks notice but it's like 'fuck you i'm making $5.15 an hour at a mall job i"ll give you a day's notice'"
Why did a 3 episode VHS of Dragon Ball Z cost 29.99 at Suncoast?
Because the distributors didn't have to worry about pirating quite yet and took advantage by absolutely ripping people off due to the monopoly they had over the distribution rights...
Tenchi Muyo! 1 episode/ 30 minutes $39.99. 🙄 Went to eBay and never went back.
SexyMoFo Because there wasn't a way to put a ton of eps on discs yet, and licensing/dubbing was pretty expensive (it being DBZ), so 3-4 eps dubbed would be 30 and subbed would be 35-50. Rough times. -Matt
Because people would pay it.
@@shaneg9081 Bingo! Lol at people trying to legitimately explain why to me.
What suncost location did you work at? There's one by me and I want to know if it's hollowed ground
My ex gf Used to work there and we used to scam the shit out of that place
Pat, I love ya, but just described every low entry retail position at any chain store in America. They all suck. There was nothing different about that job than working at Gamestop, Sam Goody's, Spencer's Gifts, etc.
And? I was requested to talk about my experience and I gave it.
@@PatTheNESpunk I get ya. I'm just saying comparatively speaking, that job didn't sound all that bad, but walk a mile in another man's shoes and all that.
@@CraziBastid anything is bad compared to talking about Nintendo tapes all day.
Holy shit I forgot about Sam Goodys. I remember buying Linkin Parks Meteora when it first came out there
Suncoast video at Menlo Mall i am assuming ?? I had the pleasure of working at Kay Bee toys at Woodbridge mall.
For a second I thought this had 2 MILLION views and was holy crap! Love these stories man. I am disabled due to an illegal firework one of my friends thought would be funny to aim at my face. I don't make much money so I can't join that patreon as much as I would want to. That being said I watch your stuff religious, try to comment where I can (constructively) and always like the videos. Hope that helps. Trying to get more into youtube myself but it's tough figuring out what people want to see. You probably know more than I do about how random peoples fame seems to be. Anyway thanks again for the videos! See you guys next time.
I worked at an On Cue which was part of the same company as Suncoast they were both part of the Musicland company and the we had to do all of the same meaningless tasks on a daily basis we alphabetized everything. I on the otherhand I didn't have the same issues with my management team but I understand what Pat is talking about completely.
First two jobs I had were not good so I can relate to Pat on having a shitty job at one point.
I visited the USA in 2004 and went to a Suncoast (in Seattle). This was the time when iPods were only new and not remotely in my price range so I was carrying a messenger bag full of CD's as listening material. When I walked in to the store the alarm went off, the poor sap behind the counter had to swipe my small mountain of CD's over their alarm deactivator as we had no idea which one was setting it off.
Still, it did have a great selection of Anime DVD's that simply weren't available in Europe, so I loaded up on those.
How is it illegal to handle money at 16/17 years old? I know here (in Maine) you can't sell alcohol or pot unless you are 18 (with a 21 y/o manager) or 21 when working alone. But I don't see how "handling the money" would be illegal for such an age. If the business wanted to, they could have 5 year olds handle the "bank". Would be stupid, but not illegal. Then again, NJ is crazy; you can't even pump your own gas there...
This confused the hell out of me as well. It must be a NJ thing.
Man I never thought I would hear "Suncoast" again. It's where I bought WWF VHS tapes and spongebob themed candy bars lol
There used to be one at the Florence Mall in Boone County Kentucky where I lived. Bought my Gundam tapes from them.
Reminds me of some of my early jobs. Having to work for jumped up junior managers who get their kicks bossing school leavers around.
Hmm. I think I bought a vhs tape while Pat was working at suncoast. Not sure. I always went to record and video stores whenever I was in another town.
I loved Suncoast and The Warehouse. Those 2 killed my paychecks when I was in my early 20s.
Oh my god the personality survey asking if you’d steal, what’d you do if you witnessed a co worker stealing etc I remember having to answering something like for a job at future shop (a Canadian Best Buy essentially (who ended buying them))
Hey Pat did you work at a Grand Union? When I was a kid I worked at a Grand Union and had to run register when it got busy, stock the shelf’s fill the milk, wash and mop the floors do price changes and get shopping cart carriages and buggy’s( depending on who was working they all called them something different)
I remember shelling out 232.96 for ronin warriors series set dvds and vampire hunter D vhs. Good times. 🍺
That was my mall growing up we used to have two out there but the second one closed
As a manager, I cringed. Pat just sounds like he didn't really wanna do the work.
@@jkemp6791 Even I am not that anal. That was going too far, for sure.
THERE'S NO WORK TO DO IN A SUNCOAST. You bring out new stock and put it out. You check out people at the register. THAT'S IT.
@@PatTheNESpunk It's mostly your attitude, dude. There's always something to do.
My first DVD was Fight Club also; with all the cool packaging and what not. Im still trying to figure out what the worm kids tv show was that Pat was talking about haha
I always liked to browse in Suncoast but I rarely ever bought from there. Too expensive. My friend worked there though and he liked, sometimes I'd come and hang around the store during his shift. That was fun.
I bought Final Fantasy anime 2-VHS box set from Suncoast at Freehold mall in the very early 2000s. Still have it.
The descriptions of all of these people are almost exactly the same as the people I worked with at a Camelot Music in 1997... ALMOST EXACTLY.
According to Google, they are now known as FYE and have 206 locations in the US.
Yea Pat Ian and I are about the same age, and I did the mall thing from 1997 to 2000 worked at a Now Defunct Waldeen Books, Hoyts Cinema, Electronic Boutique and these stories all hit close to home.
Bought some of my first Anime on VHS there, good lord not more than 2 years later it all comes out on DVD.
It's kind of odd, I worked retail for over ten years of my life and Suncoast, even with the pushing of the membership cards and the busy work, was the BEST out of all of the different chains I worked for, both when they were Musicland and when they had been taken over by TransWorld, a.k.a. FYE (FYE itself was a different story when the second Suncoast location I worked for was shut down after a rent hike and I had to transfer). A lot of the difference in our experiences seems to really come down to the people in management and the coworkers at the individual store.
I had similar experiences for jobs that were like 7$ an hour, or only a few hours a day, long traveling, that didn't even appreciate you showing up just for gas money, then bitch and complain, just think about how many people are still stuck in those jobs, that's our revenge.
Just some random comments from someone who worked up from part-timer to Head Manager at Suncoast in the early to mid 90s.
It's a shame that you didn't have a better experience - I worked alongside some phenomenal people in my Novi, MI store and wound up making some life-long friends that were customers as well as employees. I also started at $5.15/hour. As Assistant I made $7/hour basically, but they salaried you so they didn't have to pay you overtime. They called it $280 a week instead. If you went over 40 hours they gave you one-half time, so $3.50/hour and then your District Manager would complain to you for even using that, so we all avoided it. Starting manager's salary didn't even hit 20k, but you did get (ever decreasing) yearly bonuses based on incentives. So yeah, the pay wasn't great even for back then.
You mentioned laws against kids under 18 not being legal to handle cash drawers? This is the first I've heard of it, maybe it was a thing in your state, I dunno. Back in the 80s and 90s teenagers in High School got hired in retail as cashiers/salespeople all the time. I worked at Kay-Bee Toys while in High School, counting down drawers at store open and close. For $3.50/hour. So there. ;) Anyway, it was no big deal then. P.S. I survived Christmas at Kay-Bee the year TMNT action figures were new. No, I'm sorry, we don't have April O'Neal. We only get one per 2 cases, just like Splinter. No, I'm not sure when the next shipment will be, but we get our next general replenishment Tuesday morning. No problem, thanks for calling. Hello? No, I'm sorry we have no April O'Neil...
There's still one here in Jersey at the Monmouth Mall I just went there today haha. I go there often it's still fantastic 👍
I worked at Suncoast too! The worst part was trying to push those memberships, special orders, and pre orders. They tried to get us to push dish tv and it was horrible. The numbers were awful. They threatened to write me up over the membership stuff. Fun fact, the only time I ever used a microfiche was at Suncoast and I was working there around 2001. 😂
I interviewed with them in 2002 or so, never got a call back, apparently I lucked out. Ended up working as a mall cop in the same mall instead.
I work at a big chain Wal-mart like store and we have our own employees stock the produce. We have an outside company come at night at do the 3rds shift cleaning.
Pat, you still apply to grocery stores to stock. Night shift stocking is a bottom of the totem pole job until they like you enough to move you someplace else. Even though I am an introvert so I would like that job.
I have been working night stock at Kroger for about 3.5 years and while it may be "bottom of the totem pole" they sure as hell need our team to do well because they literally have no time or people during the day to work most of that stuff.
@@SnipingIsFun I agree. But it takes a specific type to want to do that long term. I have seen cart boys work, they work their asses off.
We have a Suncoast in Omaha, only time I ever visited on was when I was out visiting a friend in Cali years and years ago
I work at local grocery store and all the stock is done by our employees. People are heired on as grocery people but they're still the same company.
I still remember dvds used to be kinda pricey during the time Suncoast was around.
Used to hit the Gamestop, Suncoast store and the Barnes and Noble in the mall every payday in VA Beach mall when I was in the Army in the early 2000s. Games, Movies and Sci Fi fantasy books. Good memories. Glad I didn't have to work there.
Had a suncoast in my hometown. Never bought a thing because of the ridiculous prices
That’s exactly how GameStop was, I worked for them for two years and look what’s happening to them now. Don’t get too cocky as corporate because the consumers will notice and your business will collapse. Except for the big scary dudes part. GameStop expects you to take a bullet to protect their inventory.
I managed a Suncoast in 2002-2003, I enjoyed it actually, but my regional manager was worthless. One cool thing was we were owned by Best But at the time so I got a discount at Best Buy too!
I remember shopping at the one in Tallahassee FL back in the 90's. The movie selection was amazing for the time. That said, I do recall being told working there was less than enjoyable.
Sounds exactly like starbucks. Some manager that takes things way too seriously, a few supervisors looking over your shoulder making sure you upsell, and the person that has been there for 15 years that is grandfathered into benefits programs that have been long discontinued. Using people like batteries. When there energy is all used up, replace them. Crap pay and hours kept below 30 a week so they can avoid paying health benefits.
I worked at Suncoast as well for a couple of weeks as a second job back in 2003 or 2004as well and I agree it was not pleasant. One new thing they had now at this time is that you had to try to get the customer to buy other things with their DVD(blank cds, vhs, etc). If you fail to get them to buy something through the week, you get a warning. Three warnings and you're out. Seeing as I was only working there 2 or 3 days a week and was mostly on the late shift working only 4 hours(mostly right when I was getting off at the book store), I decided to not stay after the second week. I agree with you Pat on Suncoast not being a great place to work.
worked at a movie theatre for 8 years. If i didn't have to get a real job I would have never left. Best time of my life.
Tell me about it.
Most people will never “get it”
That would make Pat 39ish? Years old
I used to work for Service Merchandise (I think it was like 99 or 2000) in the electronics dept rght before they closed it. It was pretty fun n easy. They went outta business not too longer after that.
I know a guy who's almost forty and still does the retail management. He's never risen above store manager anywhere because every chain where he works seems to run into trouble after a few years and many of them are now gone entirely. It's a shame that he didn't just start off at Target or some place like that. There's a good chance your old Suncoast manager is hopping around like that to this day.
I miss suncoast, it’s where I bought all my dbz videos
$14.99 a pop baby. Sometimes $17.99
I forget how many episodes for each. Was it 3 ep for each tape.?
I worked at a Suncoast in Washington state for 10 years, eventually becoming co-assistant manager. I loved most of the people I got to work with, but the upper management was a joke. The manager came and went as he pleased, and passed the difficult tasks on to others so he could watch videos in the back, deeming it "product knowledge". The district manager was buddies with the store manager, so there was absolutely no accountability for the laziness I observed. As an average employee, you were expected to dupe customers who were paying with credit cards in to signing up for trial magazine subscriptions to Entertainment Weekly while glossing over how they had to cancel it or continue to be charged. You also had to push needless reservations for titles that would be massively overstocked, trying to convince the customer that if they didn't reserve, there was a good chance they wouldn't be able to get it on Day One. You were expected to advertise that the reservation locked in a better price than a general customer would get. That was a wee bit misleading: the reservation price was exactly what you would get if you bought it during the first week of its release. Also, the Producer's Club card seemed to only benefit anime customers who bought ten to fifteen VHS or DVDs a week. Listening to Pat describe his experience reminds me that the mantra "the customer is always right" was in full effect at Suncoast. You were expected to let people lie to your face, cheat the store out of merchandise due to fraudulent returns, and generally let them be abusive to you. You also had absolutely no recourse for shoplifters once they left the store. The mall security didn't care what happened within the store, so you were just forced to eat the loss, or you could try to fool the thief in to believing that you had more power to have them arrested than you actually did. I do have fond memories of the relationships I formed with various staff members and a handful of customers, but there were far more aspects of the job that were frustrating. The last thing I'll add is that it was a dangerous place for me to work, as I'm addicted to collecting movies...
Ugh, I used to buy al my dragonball tapes from suncoast for absurd prices the moment they were released.
Times have not changed. Anime is still ridiculously expensive to buy. You'll pay like 60 bucks for a blu-ray containing maybe 9 episodes.
I remember about 2009 my dad took me too suncoast In our local mall and that was my first time being in a movie store and I was hooked instantly! I wouldn’t have my love for cinema if it weren’t for him taking me there when I was so young
Ian needs to get the Cowboy Bebop bluray set. All 26 episodes on 3 discs and a 4th disc with all the bonus features. It's to die for.
Yup I just got that. Super awesome
I’m assuming Pat worked at the Menlo Park Mall, which is hilarious since I probably bought a Goodfellas dvd from him.
Ian must have filled his adderall this episode he was wound up like a tuna can
Man stories like these take me back, and make me thankful I lived past that part of life too. Sorry you had to put up that bullshit, but thank you for sharing with us.
Hey Pat, did this Suncoast happen to be at the Burlington Center Mall??
Monmouth mall is certral more jersey shore and is right down the street from me on hwy 36.
Was the “worm” show The Busy World of Richard Scarry?
Maybe Ahhh!!! Real Monsters?
i figure he might be remembering rollie pollie ollie
Sounds like Richard Scary's stuff to me
I'm thinking he means The Wiggles.
I worked at Funcoland, it was pretty rough at times. It was the budget store, so a kid would walk in with a $5 bill clenched in his fist, and I would have to make him leave with $50 worth of stuff. We had to push memberships and cleaning units. We had to sell certain games, we would get commission on them though, we would make a couple bucks for every item that we sold. The district manager had a rep for being a prick here and there, but he wasn't bad if you caught him on a good day.
the horror! THE HORROR!
"I'm orphan Annie hon see you tomorrow, tomorrow"
I've got a sun coast 15 mins from me here in central pa in a mall
Fantastic Four, Mister And Mrs. Smith and Forty Year Old Virgin are the last V.H.S. I purchased while they were still new from Suncoast in February 2006.
I was also hired at 5.15 an hour but that was in 1997 with Cinemark. I'm still working at Cinemark.
Thanks for the shout out Ian.
Their is a suncoast in my town, beavercreek ohio, had 0 clue that there is only 7 left damn
I loved Suncoast at the Caselton Square Mall in Indianapolis back in the day.
i remember when pat used to work at suncoast with us and he would play the knee card constantly to not do the work and that car was amazing
It's funny how much bullshit there seems to be in working retail in general. There are endless stories like these to be heard. I worked factory jobs in those years rather than retail, so I traded the drama and other weirdness for physical labor and some minor issues with management and only occasionally with a coworker.
I can relate to the super market job. I worked in one for 4 years and it made me miserable day in and day out lol bottom line is that retail just sucks. As the years pass, I realize maybe working in a video game store or just a video store isnt as great as I thoguht it would be. Oh and I've been to the Suncoast at Monmouth Mall in NJ. I was surprised it still existed after all this time.
A friend of my brother worked at Suncoast back when 'The Crow' soudtrack was out right after I saw it in theatres and she let me take a tape out of the store. Still remember that new cassette smell 😏
Even when you have had multiple shitty jobs one always stands above the others, the last job I worked before I joined the military was unloading trucks at Wal Mart and it sucked, it was hard work, the hours were 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. 4 days a week, my immediate supervisor was verbally abusive and just a shitty human being. I left for basic training on December 2nd and figured I'd take a few weeks to just chill before I left so I scheduled my last day of working at Wal Mart to be November 15th, after working there for months my discount card finally showed up in the mail on the day of my final shift and I had to turn it in on my first break of the day. I clock out of my final shift and everyone tells me good luck in the military and all that bullshit, then those fuckers called me on Thanksgiving and asked if I would work Black Friday, I told them I no longer worked for them and hung up.
For the record, different departments do the stocking for their grocery stores
Awesome "Golden Girls" reference at the Beginning Pat. Damn we are gettin' OLD!