To take the word of your 17 YEAR OLD son about what exactly transpired is Doting Parent Syndrome. To then pitch your own fullscale hissy fit, especially in such a public manner, is just embarrassing yourself. I'd compare it to the advert where the woman stops the toddler from throwing a tantrum in the store by throwing one herself to make a point – but she does it FOR THE SAME REASONS.

Tl;dr: Some parents need to grow up and stop acting like they're the kids too. Fame and attitude will get you so far, but they still won't get you served if the store is doing it right. 🙂

Part of me wonders if this is some sort of stunt as part of her awful Secret Shopper series

Hopefully Shepherd and Co will support the staff who did their jobs correctly and send Mary packing

I don't carry my passport around with me and I don't drive so I have no ID… something needs to be done about that really.

Ahem.

I'm starting to think that every day we inch closer and closer to making Idiocracy a documentary. People's inability to properly parent is appalling and borderline offensive to those of us who are capable of making proper judgement on what our children consume. I could write gobs of stuff in regards to that; but at the end of the day, the argument shouldn't be at this twat's inability to rear children, rather her incapability to understanding what a law is.

Good on GAME for upholding their rules and laws to ward off fines for obviously negligent behavior, especially in lieu of them being berated on Twitter by a shopping televangelist. It's slightly humorous how apparently these things are rocket science. Maybe we should start hailing Luke Wilson as president now…

When I worked in retail, I had many youths who I'd ask for ID and they'd get arsey if they didn't have any. I'd also watch far too many parents allow their kids to rent all manners of inappropriate titles because they're 'only' games. The amount of kids who must have been under 10 yet their parents would rent Dead Rising 2 or the latest Call of Duty, was depressing. I'd mention it whenever possible but the fact was, I had to let them have it if the parent was the one who produced it. So, so awkward and frustrating!

(Some) Parents desperately need educating.

Last year when I went to buy Fallout: New Vegas and Vanquish, I was IDed in HMV. And admittedly my initial reaction was pure WTF considering I was 25 at the time and I'm 99% sure the Christmas temp who asked me for ID was much younger than that. It's an odd thing but I think instinctively it is mildly irritating. In my case my Mum was happy to swap with me and buy the games for me (albeit with my money of course!) but eventually I found a student ID card which they accepted. I don't begrudge the bloke though, he was doing his job.

My experience in retail has taught me that the fines and threat of trading standards is bloody scary. There's just no point risking it for the sake of an irate parent/young person/lunatic.

Well done Game. Your staff are always crap with me treating me as patronisingly as possible, but you've done a good job here. You should be congratulated and Mary Portas needs to learn a few things!

Altho I will point out that I worked in GAME for 3 years and I would always explain what was in the game when a little kid was getting their mum to buy it for them, sometimes they decided maybe it was best their kid didn't have the game 🙂

I also love that she says

"We are not talking drink, but a 15plus video!"

Nice that it seems she doesn't really know what it is (unless it was a bd-rom or umd, and if that's the case then everyone should know the rules on films) .

Ugh, can't believe that woman.