Grumpy Bob's Emporium — Local services in Maryville

There's a lot of love here, just a few sticking points that, if corrected, would make this a destination location.

When you walk in, you're greeted with a layout that's very similar to an actual Japanese retro game shop. An old house turned into a wall to wall store filled with games, movies, collectibles and some artifacts of interest. The demo kiosks are awesome. The layout is both efficient and accessible. The game organization maximizes their space and I appreciate sticking the billion copies of sports games and other common titles to the periphery to browse without skimming past three shelves of Madden 2004.

I don't think there wasn't a system that wasn't represented. The slimmest collection was some of the obscure retro systems and a few modern ones like the PS Vita, but they certainly have something for everyone.

The staff was busy helping customers, doing admin work, and generally agreeable. One individual even doubled checked to make sure I know the 3 for 1 deal was goings-on. Thanks for that!

There's two significant negatives, however, that hold back from this being a five star location, one that I'd recommended to out of state folks to visit.

First, is the disingenuous pricing. Yes, they post EVERYWHERE that prices are subject to change. No, that doesn't make it okay. A customer shouldn't have to have their phone out checking the shop's website for pricing. That's without the commentary on generally higher than average pricing on most titles.

I believe a store like this is sustained due to being the only major retro store in the general East St. Louis region, and likely owns their location, greatly reducing overhead. Otherwise, I wouldn't understand how they stay in business using either practice.

Why is this a problem? It creates confusion and frustration for a customer. If they accept a used item in trade and offered 50% market value (percentage is made up), then as long as they sell at current market value, they'll make their margin and profit.

By constantly raising prices as the market it does, it's just excessive profit seeking, attempting to make double or triple margin on the same product.

Additionally, it means games on the shelf will likely have different prices on them. Same titles, all different pricing. That's not great. More so when they don't honor sticker pricing.

Another negative is they do not price their products based on condition. A game missing it's artwork, case, and/or manual will be priced exactly the same a complete product. Most retro stores do not do this. Lesser products should be a less price.

Lastly, the owner is extremely litigious in the comments. They're not open to critical feedback and doesn't seem to want to grow. Their business model works today in a captive audience, but in time, the collectors market who buys bigger and more will know to stay away.

Why listen to me? I've lived around the world and been to game stores in several countries, let alone a majority of states in the USA. This location has a great layout and inventory but fails on the product pricing policy standpoint. I've shopped at other remote stores with amazing inventory and most owners are friggin rad and will work with you or honor pricing on the product (unless it's an egregious mistake). This is the first store I've ever seen not do that in decades of collecting.

I hope the pricing policy changes so I can recommend this to my collecting friends, but for now, it's best to skip this store.

Lastly, this is not an indictment of the store's employees who don't set policy or pricing. They were all nice and helpful. Good job, folks!

Edit: As you can see the owner is calling me a liar below and wants the review removed simply because I said they likely own their location (it has extensive modifications from previously being a residence, as well). It was an education guess based on location and age.

Otherwise, they ignored my actual problems with their response, meaning they will not update their policies.

Suggested to take your business elsewhere. Another...

CALLING THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU!!!!! My husband and I were looking for a used game system on 12/29/2020. We were in town with my parents and wanted to get something nice for our son. We were really excited to find this place right in town. We walked up to the tiny building, it was really flashy outside (an orange cone, fifty fliers on the window, but one flier stuck out "Take off mask for and show your face before you walk in") I guess with all the fliers and craziness especially the troubling sign that wanted to see your face( I was wondering if people get robbed here all the time?) We went in, it was Very packed. Social distancing would actually only allow maybe 3 people in the store at a time, but here was about 12, with the workers. We decided on about 6 games and a Gameboy system. I really have no knowledge of these, but it looked ok after the young lady fixed the screen. We hurried out because of the mass amount of people and ended up spending right under 200.00. We left for my parents house excited! We were there in under 15 minutes. We grabbed some batteries to try it out and realized the screen barely worked. We then noticed the crack in the top of the equipment. This wasn't worth 80.00, so we went straight back up to the business and asked to return the game that didnt work and the game system that didnt seem right to us. The head cashier HAD A COMPLETE MELTDOWN! SHE WAS KICKING OVER DISPLAYS TELLING ME TO BE QUIET AND SAYING OVER AND OVER WE'RE GOING TO GET IN TROUBLE FOR THIS, IT'S FINAL SALE. Now, I worked in resale for over a decade, so I understand Final sale, but we didnt see that it wasn't working properly, because we had no batteries. They then told us we needed a light that plugged into the cracked area, but of course they didnt have one, so we couldn't test that! THE HEAD CASHIER ( PROBABLY THE OWNERS DAUGHTER BY THE WAY SHE WAS THROWING A FIT) THEN ACCUSED US OF SWITCHING IT OUT WITHIN LESS THAT 30 MINUTES! I CAN UNDERSTAND FINAL SALE, AS I SAID, BUT UNDER 30 MINUTES AND ALL THE OTHER ISSUES- PLUS I LET HER KNOW THAT THE CASHIERS SHOULD BE LETTING PEOPLE KNOW WHEN SOMETHING IS FINAL SALE OR HAVE IT POSTED NEXT TO THE REGISTER. SHE THEN STARTED YELLING AND GETTING IN OUR FACE SAYING IT'S ON OUR DOOR AND ON THE RECEIPT! They then had an older kind woman do the refund. I told her this is not a good place to shop and she assured me it was. While she was doing the refund the head cashier was making rude remarks and slouching in the chair huffing next to us. Now we had paid 150.00 in cash and 27 dollars charge. 150.00 was the cash my dad gave us to purchase our son's give and a little extra was from us. I wanted to return all the items because this woman was making me sick yelling how she was going to black list us and we could never come back to the store WE NEVER WANT TO COME BACK TO THIS STORE, YOU COULDNT PAY ME TO DEAL WITH HER! So the older woman was having trouble with our return because we paid partial cash, she was saying no, you paid with a card. So then while the cashier grumbled on, I said out of anxiety to put it all on the card, I don't care. She agreed and gave us a receipt and we were out the door. We then found another game boy - that was the newer model out in West County, Mo at Vintage stock for 99.00 and it came with 3 games. This was a way better deal and they assured us we could bring it back within 30 days. The cashier (The crazy Karen) kept saying they would get a bad review. I wasnt going to leave a bad review because everyone has a crazy moment, and we're all human. But, it's been 10 days since we did the return and we dont have a refund!!! THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST EXPERINCE I HAVE EVER HAD WITH ANY BUSINESS. I WILL BE FILING A COMPLAINT WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU, WITH A COPY OF MY RECEPIT ( ONE OF THE PURCHASE AND ONE OF THE FALSE REFUND) WITH A COPY OF THE BANK STATEMENTS AND A COMPLAINT FROM THE HARRASSMENT WE RECIEVED. I would have called to ask about what happened, but I cannot deal with any more mistreatment from...

I'll be changing my one star to a 5 star in a few days. I wanted you to see this because I think this matters. I read your reviews. And it looks like if I decide to leave an honest review. I'm going to get a pretty conservative answer. Even if I'm in the right with how I logically articulate my reason. So to me, I'll say this. I had a bad experience. My first experience, but I still will come back and patronize because you guys have things that I need, but it doesn't entice me to want to continue to patronize when I feel more like a number then a customer! YOUR STAFF SAVED YOU THERE SO NICE AND WELCOMING 🙏 If you ask me I'd be happy to tell you.... It's October 7th 2024..... follow-up. So the reason why I was upset was we cleaned some disks and unfortunately, there was a sale going on by 3 items get one free. I was told it was typical policy to have paid for buffs First! They did help me out with a free buff butt that game was traded to them an you buff your disks before resale ither way, which means i got nothing for free except 1 of my 3 buff because of the buy 3 get 1 free. However, it prevented me from getting A free item of a value of fifteen dollars and instead, I got one of five dollars, because the buffs were added onto my ticket which we kept open.I agreed to being a new customer, not understanding what I was doing to myself at the time. We later on stayed and unfortunately scrubbed one of my disks to death which I also agreed to I was also okay with, because I knew it was old. I purchased an extra copy and was very happy with the service. I will be returning today to purchase more items. As well as patronize, the store I thank you for getting back to me and I have changed my review as I said.! I also thank you for buffing one of my disks for free. But I also wound up selling you that same disk and paid for my other 3 disks except(promo). I hope that you are open to the idea that things happened differently after you left to which I was sentimental to your situation and understanding. I thank your staff and am returning today because the items I traded were left accidentally put in my bag. I got called the day after for a follow up about a game I was honest and told the young lady about the mistake and assured the young lady on the phone I will be returning with them with entint to purchase other items. And appreciate her willingness to work with me as my cumute to you is 55 mins with light traffic! See you...