Little Johnny wants to buy a copy of acclaimed and excessively popular (some might say cultish) Lovecraftian multiplayer FPS Call of Cthuty: Black Arts and heads down to his local GAME. There, he attempts to procure a copy of said game—which has a big shiny red BBFC “18” certificate on it—with the pocket money he’s saved up. Little Johnny is eleven years old and doesn’t have any ID, fake or otherwise. The cashier at GAME refuses to serve him. Little Johnny goes home and cries, and Xbox LIVE is safe from another squeaky-voiced pipsqueak for another day.
Well done, GAME, correct response.
Little Johnny returns to GAME with his mother, who doesn’t know much about video games. He has convinced her that he “needs” this game in order to fit in with all the cool kids, who are all playing it for 37 hours a day, some of whom have already Ascended and are going around the levelling system again, only this time with brand new Elder Powers to choose from. His mother picks up the game, barely gives it a second glance, asks the cashier for it with Little Johnny standing right there, and the cashier doesn’t question this at all. Little Johnny’s mother hands him his shiny new game, he shouts “FUCK YEAH!” and runs out of the shop giggling.
No, GAME. Bad GAME. Incorrect response.
Bigger Johnny (no relation) wants to buy a copy of acclaimed and excessively popular (some might say cultish) Lovecraftian multiplayer FPS Call of Cthuty: Black Arts and heads down to his local GAME. There, he attempts to procure a copy of said game—which has a big shiny red BBFC 18 certificate on it—with his credit card. He is 19, after all. He gives the “If you’re lucky enough to look under 21…” sign on the counter a brief glance but decides that the bum-fluff he’s managed to grow on his chin will ensure he won’t have to worry about ID—which is good, because he’s forgotten to bring it. He is incorrect in his assumption, as the cashier asks him for ID and he is unable to provide it. He leaves the shop empty-handed, but with his bank account forty quid better off than it would have been.
Well done, GAME, correct response.
Bigger Johnny’s mum just happens to be Mary “Queen of Shops” Porta, supposed shopping “guru” who is on the tellybox frequently whingeing at shop-owners about how rubbish they are. She is outraged at the way GAME have treated her darling son and tells him all sorts of things about how he should have demanded to see the manager, then promptly gets on the phone, shouts at them, gets hung up on and then demands to speak to the CEO of the entire company. In public. On Twitter. CEO promptly deflects her with his PR human shield… and the matter is still ongoing at the time of writing.
This latter part actually happened today, albeit with a 15-rated game and a 17-year old son who attempted to use his 16+ Oyster Card as valid ID for GAME staff to check his age. They refused—and good on them, frankly, for upholding a law which is all too often flouted by retailers more concerned with making a quick buck than actually ensuring inappropriate content doesn’t get into the hands of kids. Mary Queen of Shops, however, was furious, though it’s not entirely clear what grounds she has to complain. Here are some of her tweets on the subject:
You’ll notice her casual dismissal of the ratings system as “we are not talking drink”. Apparently some retail laws really are worth more than others to our Mary. She is also heavily focused on the ID issue, though implies that there was some non-specific “rotten attitude” from the store in question. When asked about this by one Twitter user, however, her only response was this:
No mention of what the “more to it than that” was. She hasn’t said anything since, at the time of writing.
Now, I’ve talked about this topic a number of times. Censorship is a bad thing; but the refusal to sell age-restricted products to minors is not censorship. It’s ensuring that people have access to age-appropriate material—a law which would mostly work were it not for the stupid loophole most retailers use to avoid difficult conversations where they’ll happily sell the game to a parent even if it is very, very obviously on behalf of a child who is standing right there.
I don’t for a second believe Fox News’ nonsense that games cause rape, violence and AIDS. But I do believe that “mature” content should be kept out of the hands of minors until they’re old enough to deal with it appropriately and not run around shouting “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” in the middle of the street. (Which they genuinely used to do in sunny Southampton.) Foot-stamping and attitude from people like Mary here doesn’t achieve anything except devalue the law every time it’s circumvented. If her son wanted to buy the game—which he was quite entitled to do if he had one of the forms of ID that everywhere else in the world accepts and not an Oyster card which no-one has ever* accepted as valid ID—then he should have gone prepared. And when he got turned away, his initial reaction should not be to speak to the manager as Mary seems to think it should be. It should be to shrug, accept the fact that he done messed up, like, go home, get his ID and then try again.
But no; the customer is always right, after all. Even when they’re clearly wrong. You have my sympathies, retail types. I remember all too well what it was like.
* And if they did, they shouldn’t have. FACT.
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That is bloody retarded, what a stupid woman for bitching and moaning about this stuff, it’s the law and showing an oyster card is just like trying to show a bus card as a form of ID, it’s not valid and people should know this by now.
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.
You know most of my feelings having ranted on Twitter about it earlier!
I’ve been on both sides of this issue (it shouldn’t be an issue considering it’s law but it seems it is for some people).
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!
Portas’ attitude here is shocking. Despite being a supposed ‘shopping guru’ she clearly has little idea about the actual laws and procedures involved in retail. Sadly her type is all too common.
As I recall from Mallrats (of all things)… “The customer is always a FUCKING ASSHOLE!”
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…
Hopefully this will bring up the issue with kids not having ID and some way of getting kids ID in the first place.
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.
Portas attitude on this is pathetic and seems that’s she’s trying the ‘do you know who I am’ routine by calling out Games’ CEO and Head of PR on Twitter
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
There may or may not have been ‘attitude’ from the staff member the kid was buying the game from. I suspect, given that Mary is taking his word for it, that this ‘attitude’ was along the lines of ‘I’m sorry, an Oyster card is not valid ID, no matter what you say, I’m afraid I can’t sell you this without either a valid Passport, Drivers License or ID card,’ (as it is in our shop).
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. 🙂