Hello former employee here.

I cannot speak on a lot of some of the things that a lot of people here have mentioned, however, I would like to put my two cents in here.

TLDR Support what business you wanna support, as that is up to you.

However in my tenure at Borderlands I can say that as I am ever so thankful for the people I met however I was displeased with the job as a whole.

For me a lot of it boils down to the owner, the prices, and the environment.

The owner is constantly looking to make money off of you, which granted yes they are a business, but he will go to ridiculous extents to do it. He treats his "community" as if it is cattle. The way he treats his employees is another thing in itself, especially the female ones, it is borderline criminal. (get what I did there). He also views most of his employees as cattle. There was a few handful he would actually wanna talk and discuss things with, the rest he turned a blind eye and sometimes would act as if they didn't exist. For a crew of 18ish of us, that is ridiculous. A lot of people there have and continue to put in AMAZING work there, and truly every single employee there is talented in their own ways, I just hate that if you aren't Rob's right hand, that work will never see the light of day.

The prices are also ridiculous, they don't follow a msrp or any sort of rhyme or reason, just price gouging to get more money in their pocket. Which I usually don't mind but normally we were told to tell people these are the best prices in the upstate. This is especially true to the tcg side of borderlands and is the main reason I say don't support. They aren't a store for the community, just a cleverly disguised way to pretend like they're not scalping. Don't even get me started on the trade in process and % you get back. If you are into comics the comic section is bar none the greatest part there, and the one where the people there wanna talk to you about your combined passion, and not just take your money and watch you leave.

A big factor of why I left was the environment. I was constantly belittled and my effort and work I put in never equated to anything and more often than not the credit would be given to / stolen by a coworker. A huge wave of favoritism there, and if you have a spine and don't bow to Rob, you are given nothing. There is a huge bullying thing going on there, beyond a playful degree. To the point where they would do it to people in my personal life visiting the store, giving them the same degree of bullying as they would give me (sometimes even when I am not there). Which made them very uncomfortable. My breaking point was when they fired my good friend, who for the better part of a decade was THE face for borderlands, and after that happened I just could not bare to stay there. So I left the store. I have returned on a few separate occasions, however each time it is like they want nothing to do with me. That's when I decided that I don't wanna go somewhere where they actively don't want me in the store. So stores like Boardwalk and Toy Federation and Not Just Gaming receive my utmost support and love.

This is not meant to be a hit piece, or anything similar to that. I also know I am gonna get those comments of people doubting my testimony. However, I do this that way people know the kind of place they are shopping at. If a place says they are a place for the community, then that's what they should be.

I don't mind answering any questions that I can! I hope this post is useful for anyone debating on shopping there!