It’s no surprise that kids love video games and can be easily distracted after entering a GameStop. Unfortunately, some parents use this to their advantage and park their kids at a mall GameStop while they go shopping elsewhere.
The practice is called "GameStop Daycare," and a new report from Kotaku shows how GameStop employees are fed up with taking care of kids for free.
"Yeah, a lot of us are getting tired of parents thinking that they can basically just dump their kids into our care while they go shopping," one current employee told the publication. "Like, if you’re going to leave your kid somewhere while you shop, then leave them at home with a babysitter. Your kids are not our problem. We already have enough to deal with."
The concept of GameStop Daycare has been around for quite a while, with posts on the GameStop subreddit dating back to 2016 (one even started charging parents for dumping their kids). Just last month, a GameStop employee asked, "So what do you guys do when kids randomly walk in while their parents are shopping elsewhere?" Several users said they usually contact mall security to report an abandoned child. One even said they "called the cops when someone legit dropped off a toddler in my store and left to go down to the nail salon at the other end of the shopping center."
GameStop employees certainly have more than enough to deal with already. If it's not low pay, long hours, or poor work conditions, it's fear that they're just moments away from being fired to make way for a new NFT venture. All this has left GameStop workers with a short fuse when it comes to children.
"There was one instance in particular in which a woman came by and asked me if she could leave her kids here while she went to get her hair done," said another GameStop employee. "I told her that not only could she not leave her kids at the store because it is a retail space, but that it’s illegal to knowingly leave your children unattended. She didn’t take too kindly to my answer, and I was a bit more aggressive with my wording at the time if I’m honest."