Grade-grubbing GameStop manager gets suspended

via Joystiq


Usually, we're all for retail policies that encourage good grades. What overachieving student doesn't love bringing their report card in for free tokens at Chuck E Cheese's or a slice of Sbarro's pizza? Still, we have to think that Dallas-area GameStop manager Brandon Scott took the concept a little too far when he started refusing to sell games to students who didn't have good grades.

Dallas/Fort Worth's WFAA reported last Thursday on Scott, who said he denied games to about two dozen children who didn't have a parent to vouch for their academic achievement. "He needs to be reading a book. He knows how to play Madden before he knows how to do his ABCs and 123s - that's backwards!" Scott told the reporter, adding that "I'm probably going to get in trouble for this."

Well, he was right on that last point, at least. By Friday, WFAA was reporting that Scott had been suspended by GameStop's corporate offices, though Scott said he wasn't sure if the punishment was for the policy or simply for talking about it to the media. GameStop, for its part, said in an e-mail to WFAA that they were "evaluating Mr. Scott's concept," and had a "corporate commitment to assisting parents and other consumers in making informed choices."

That's great, and we'd encourage GameStop to endorse Scott's policy of buying a game for anyone who brings in a report card with straight A's. But even stupid kids deserve entertainment, and keeping them from it isn't just a bad policy but bad business.