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[Adam Prime]

I think 14 is old enough to play mature games. I mean GTA is the least troublesome thing kids we're doing when I was 14( kids were having sex, partying , roaming around the city Etc)
e

Again: "There are worse things than doing X, therefore Y is okay."

That's insanely childish.

Though it's not like I would of said anything if I was in that store when this went down. As it falls under my mantra of not my chair not my problem which is also why I disagree with what the clerk did.

Wrong. People raising children is everyone's concern, it's societies concern. Perhaps because my profession is teaching, and I am with middle schoolers all day... how you raise your child matters to EVERYONE in society. If you don't get that - step inside a middle school, even better, step inside a low income school.

Parenting is hard, it's tough. It's hard to know what to do and what not to do. The problem is every person with a child think they're alone and don't ask others for guidance or help and they leave themselves to "raise their child how they think is right" without any sort of "guiding light" and you have parents who think it's no big deal if their kids do certain things.

Raising kids is a fucking big deal. Parents need all the help they can get. If a retail person has a concern for a parent who is uninformed on something - I disagree with you entirely. It is every bit their concern for their own selfish concerns, to help another parent.

 

[Foffy]

LOL every thread about GTA and parenting has this response. I WAS /MY KIDS ARE SO MATURE FOR THEIR AGE.

My three old knows the difference between reality and fiction in what she sees on TV!! That is NOT an indication of maturity. You know what maturity is? Accepting NO for an answer from your parents because they know more than you, care for you, love you, and have more wisdom in this life than A CHILD WHO WANTS TO PLAY A VIDEO GAME.

That too. I never said that wasn't a part of it, so please do not put words into my mouth. My parents bought me the game because I thought it looked fun, I did play the previous entries (I actually played them 'realistically' by following traffic lights and only hurting those I had to hurt...suffice to say I did poorly in the games) they thought I wouldn't have an issue with it, and I didn't have an issue with it. I didn't demand that "I got to have this or else I'll be mad as fuck", as I grew out of that shit at an early age. End of story.

There's a grand difference between wanting and being flabby about it, and wanting to the point one creates sorrow and rage by not having it. While that may sound Buddhistic, too many people, child or otherwise, fall into the latter trap. And I won't even bother with the bit about a three year old knowing the difference between fantasy and reality, and someone a number of years older, already influenced and assimilated to society in bigger ways. That's an awful argument to even try to be making, friend. My parents asked me bluntly before getting the game if I can argue the difference between actual murder and fictional murder, and I suppose the answer I gave them sufficed. No need to play binary all or nothing semantics, queen.

 

[Northeastmonk]

My dad bought me GTAIII, Vice City, and State of Emergency. He even got me Code Veronica on DC. He was awesome about it. He would get all my M rated games. When I worked for GameStop I had these kids who'd bring in True Crime New York on XBox. They'd get like $1.40 for it and if they didn't find anything one of the kids would buy the same game for $4.99. Their parents would just drop them off and then they'd get whatever game they wanted when they returned. They trashed the Xbox trays. I'd always have to reorganize them when they left.

I had a few experiences. One guy wanted to play the GBA games on his GBA before he left. My manager stopped that after a while. I've been yelled at by a guy whose Pokemon game deleted all his metals, but the same guy also put a GameShark in his jean jacket. We asked him politely what it was. It was funny having customers come off the street asking if we sold board games. Now a days you could probably find a Monopoly set.

 

[Reset]

Man, that clerk who wouldn't let the kid buy gta v should have just minded his own business.

 

[Almighty]

Well I guess my brief responses have already shit the bed for me. Now I figure I might as well explain my stance a little better if to do nothing else but slightly clean up the mess.

I will admit that the clerk probably did the right thing as shown by the parents final decision on the matter. I just disagree that it was his place to do that. I can see some disagree and I respect that and can see that maybe my stance might be the wrong one. I guess I might be a little naive, but I operated under the assumption that parents know what was best for their kid(s) and would inform themselves about this stuff.(It is quite obvious that in this instance that wasn't the case.) So if a parent wanted to buy GTA 5 for their kid I as the clerk wouldn't of even thought twice about. I especially wouldn't of gone out of my way to show them a video after I told them the game was rated 18+(M since I am American). Mostly because if I went to a game store to buy my teenager a game and the clerk did that I would feel like they were questioning my ability to raise my child.

From the reactions in this thread maybe I am the odd one out on that.

 

[Reallink]

Just playing through the story of GTA5, I don't remember anything dramatically more objectionable than prime time network TV or PG13 movies. I mean tonights episode of The Following had a True Lies strip scene and 5 or 10 graphic murders. Actually, I'd say GTA5's not even as bad as stuff you'll find on Network TV since it's all played off as humor, cartoon humor.

 

[Oogedei]

Well, I would be pretty pissed at that guy convincing my parents not to buy GTA. I'm glad my parents were not that conservative. They talked with me about the violence in these games (btw that's what good parenting is about) but agreed at some point, that it's not logical to literally wait until 18 to buy rated M games.
So I got to play GTA, MoH, Call of Duty 2 and so on. And guess what? Nothing bad happened. I passed my A levels with a good grade and started to study at a university. I can't even believe that people would see a connection between playing rated M games in early ages and failing exams. I mean, seriously?
Furthermore what's wrong with a teenager first coming in touch with his own sexuality in GTA? What do you expect them to do? Wait until 18 to discover that there is something like prostitution and strip clubs? Yeah, there was no GTA 20 years ago , but nobody can deny that those little porn magazines were not a thing for a 14 years old back then.
I wouldn't let a 8 years old kid touch GTA, but come on. 13-14 is pretty okay.

 

[Foffy]

Just playing through the story of GTA5, I don't remember anything dramatically more objectionable than prime time network TV or PG13 movies. Tonights episode of The Following had a True Lies strip scene and 5 or 10 graphic murders. Actually, I'd say GTA5's not even as bad as stuff you'll find on Network TV since it's all played off a humor, cartoon humor.

That's all well and good, but the key is for people playing it to see the "maya" about it, to see the illusion and fictional nature of it. There's a great problem of people getting too influenced by things at any age, but it is probably more prone for the younger generation, for they have more avenues of influence than many of us a decade ago. How many of us had instant access to the internet anywhere in society, in our pocket? That's where the concern should be rising, and it's more a systemic situation of our society, not a fault or issue or one thing. We have lots of influences in front of us today.

The only thing that bothered me in GTA V was

Spoiler

the cutscene where you see someone's head busted open from a bullet, but that was probably because the game did not establish that level of gore before or even after that scene. I was probably bothered by the sudden shock value more than anything else. I had zero issues with the torture segment either, and that appears to be the point most people had qualms with.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

In some of these stories, the customers have clearly erred, but the management or employees definitely don't help.

We had a midnight release at Best Buy for the PS4. I was in charge of running everything since the manager had never run, organized, or even attended a midnight release before. I handed out tickets and instructed the employees working that night about attachments like accessories and extended warranties. We made it very clear to every customer in line that there was a limit of ONE CONSOLE PER HOUSEHOLD.

This wasn’t a problem until we had a couple come in and try to walk out with four consoles. The manager stopped them and asked how that had happened. They had purchased all of them “legitimately.” Apparently they’d stood in line for two—they stood in line separately—and each ordered one online to be picked up in our store.

Our manager, an admittedly hard-headed man who knew there wasn’t a legitimate way to keep them from leaving with all four consoles, called the police. The police came, and the manager said that they “stole” the consoles, not meaning it literally. The police chased them down, found out they actually bought the consoles legitimately, and came back to yell at the manager. Meanwhile myself and all the other employees just sort of shook our head out of all the ridiculousness.

Yeah, they subverted the rules. That manager was a dumbass, though.

Second story I’ll share takes place on a Saturday, early in the morning. This ten-year-old came in wanting to buy a used Nintendo DS. He opens his backpack and I see a wallet full of cash. I’m not the police; I can’t question and assume that this wallet was stolen. I sell him the used Nintendo DS and forget about the whole thing. That Monday night I’m working again and the ten-year-old comes in with his father. I come to find out that his son stole his wallet and they’d like to return the used Nintendo DS. Unfortunately GameStop’s policy is no returns on used game systems other than exchanges for the same item. This only caused the father to become angry and upset with me. He started shouting and demanded to speak to a manager. I was young at the time and had been watching Chappelle’s Show, so for some reason I thought it would be wise to say “one moment please,” do a 360 spin, look at him in the eyes and say “I am the manager!”

This only caused the father to shout uncontrollably at me, refusing to leave while changing darker and darker shades of red. I said I would call the police if he didn’t leave, and the man left the store. Next day I found out he called corporate, so we ended up giving him a full refund and a $50 gift card for his inconvenience. It amazed me at the time what people got away with if they just screamed high enough on the corporate chain.

I understand policy, but trying to make a joke you know is going to piss the guy off more is dumb. He shouldn't have been yelling, the employee escalated that situation unnecessarily. The "It's crazy what people can get away with!" statement at the end seems dumb. Corporate probably would have overturned that sale even without yelling, the employee just ended up making it worse for everyone.

 

[Tinfoilhatsron]

You can immediately tell who is childless (or themselves a child) in this thread.

"Snarky" and passive aggressive comeback at imagined audience. Check.

Hopefully that kid will learn to be more evasive in his procedures like I was at his age. Buy steam cards and bam, bypass everything. Or bypass the password mechanics using other methods. Trying to keep me from materials just made me use better methods to achieve my goals.

Weirdly enough my dad let me watch Robocop at like 10. Huh.

 

[DrForester]

Can you imagine that you've convinced your parents to get the new GTA and some gamestop employee cockblocks your purchase? Man that sucks.

I don't think I've ever seen a happier employee than one who has just cockblocked a kid from getting a game like GTA or Farcry. It's really a magical thing to see.

 

[paragonpro]

When I worked at GameStop a Jamaican kid and his mom
Came in to the store, the kid was looking to trade a few games in and As I was going through the games he gave me (just a few shovel ware ps2 games) his mom
Started screaming at him and hitting him in the middle of the store for trading in his games out of no where. My manager had to call mall security.

 

[Almighty]

Wrong. People raising children is everyone's concern, it's societies concern. Perhaps because my profession is teaching, and I am with middle schoolers all day... how you raise your child matters to EVERYONE in society. If you don't get that - step inside a middle school, even better, step inside a low income school.

Parenting is hard, it's tough. It's hard to know what to do and what not to do. The problem is every person with a child think they're alone and don't ask others for guidance or help and they leave themselves to "raise their child how they think is right" without any sort of "guiding light" and you have parents who think it's no big deal if their kids do certain things.

Raising kids is a fucking big deal. Parents need all the help they can get. If a retail person has a concern for a parent who is uninformed on something - I disagree with you entirely. It is every bit their concern for their own selfish concerns, to help another parent.

I don't disagree with the whole it takes a village stuff, but for me personally little Timmy playing GTA5 doesn't fall high on my priority list. Mostly because as I said I don't think that 13-14 is too young for GTAV and that is what I would of told the parents if they asked me. I of course would of told them everything the game contained as well and let them make their own decision. I just wouldn't of gone out of my way to give advice I wasn't asked for besides maybe reminding them the games rating. As i have said I think the clerk was being a busybody, but he might of made the right call in this instance.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I bet the next person who asked to use the bathroom, got to use the bathroom.

 

[Nose Master]

Still a busy body in my book since they didn't ask his opinion he just volunteered it.

I can't imagine his bosses were too thrilled about him going so far out of his way to lose a sale for the store, either.

 

[Daemul]

The kids reaction makes it clear that he wasn't mature enough to handle the game, good on that employee.

 

[Northeastmonk]

What's worse than all that is seeing someone come in wanting to trade in their spouses console or their ex. They always want cash and they always get mad that you're only giving them $50 (2007 prices) for used.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Man, that clerk who wouldn't let the kid buy gta v should have just minded his own business.

It literally is his business. It is a transaction which he's directly involved with. All he did was actually show the parents what they're buying.

 

[exmachina64]

When I was a youngin (probably around 12 or 13), my uncle and I went to gamestop so he could buy me Manhunt on PC. The cashier saw me in the cut and wouldn't sell him the game because he figured it was for me. Suffice it to say I was kinda pissed but to this day I still can't figure out if the dude was being a dickhead or actually did a good thing

He did a good thing.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I think trying to convince his parents not to buy the game is pretty scumbag imo. Okay, let them know it is meant for adults and do that sort of minimum diligence, but actually trying to persuade them... that is too far to me. I certainly would not have gone that far.

 

[oxacillin]

I feel like people don't understand that whether you like it or not, children are raised by a community. You may feel like, "It isn't anyone else's business," but if you are wanting your child to be a member of society you are going to have to accept the fact that others will also go out of their way to try make sure that the child will not have access to things they shouldn't have. It is the societally responsible thing to do. Especially, if I'm going to have to endure your spoiled brats once they reach 18.

And to those saying GTA 3 was fine for them, GTA III and GTA V are two very different games.

 

[Shaanyboi]

I think trying to convince his parents not to buy the game is pretty scumbag imo. Okay, let them know it is meant for adults and do that sort of minimum diligence, but actually trying to persuade them... that is too far to me. I certainly would not have gone that far.

His "persuasion" was literally showing them footage of the game, making sure they knew what they were actually buying for their kid. This isn't like he was trying to get them to buy another system because of console war bullshit or based off of his tastes. It's literally just giving them information about their purchase.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

His "persuasion" was literally showing them footage of the game, making sure they knew what they were actually buying for their kid. This isn't like he was trying to get them to buy another system because of console war bullshit or based off of his tastes. It's literally just giving them information about their purchase.

Yeah I am sure he was totally and completely a neutral explanation with complete unbiased video showing the content of the game. I am also sure he explained how no link between gaming and violence has ever been proven too. The parent's decision wasn't based on a knee jerk reaction to seeing a single video either. It was a well informed decision after carefully understanding the positives and negatives of all possible options.

Plus we both know all he did was borrow his friend's copy or played his friend's copy at his house, being exposed to the content regardless. And the kid only openly cried in public. No harm done over a video game transaction.

 

[Almighty]

He didn't have to tell them anything. He literally just showed them a video of the game they were buying for their kid.

His "persuasion" was literally showing them footage of the game, making sure they knew what they were actually buying for their kid. This isn't like he was trying to get them to buy another system because of console war bullshit or based off of his tastes. It's literally just giving them information about their purchase.

It feels like you are arguing semantics here.

 

[Industrialist]

Used to love the customers who would come in and swear that they'd preordered something AFTER we had sold out of it. Same people who were in the week before talking about how they were going to buy the game that was coming out, but who then refused to preorder it. They'd complain to head office and get a discount voucher for lying through their teeth.

Then there's the fact that my regional manager was a greaseball. Every manager in his area was a woman who had never played a video game before. Every deputy was a man who loved games. Strangely enough, the men did all the work and were never promoted. Even if you had 10 years service as DM and your manager left, he'd hire a woman with NO experience (in retail, let alone in games) as manager. Happened dozens of times. Used to have a "daily message" that the area manager would record the night before and we had to call his voicemail for at 9am each day. If you hadn't called up by 10am, he'd phone up and give everyone in the store a verbal warning. Every morning, starting the day listening to that douchebag telling us to push preorders. "If you don't get 100 preorders of Goldeneye on N64 today, there will be trouble. MY WORD IS MY BOND HO HO HO HO HO."

Asshole.

Then there's the old man who rented his spare room out to Malaysian exchange students. Always tried to pull a member of staff to one side to offer them "the latest games" for cash. Always a plastic sleeve with a CD-R in it, complete with a crappy black-and-white photocopy of a game cover. "I can't give you anything for that. It's worthless." "Come on now son, don't f**k me about. These import games go for £80 each..."

Or the guy who was obsessed with Tomcat Alley on the Mega CD. I worked in game retail for 3 years. Literally EVERY SINGLE WEEK (including my very first day) he would come in on a Friday and ask if any games had been released that were like Tomcat Alley, then start going on about how nothing has ever been as immersive since that game, then start acting out the lines from the game, in the middle of the store. For about 45 minutes.

Rant over. Feel better now.

 

[exmachina64]

I think trying to convince his parents not to buy the game is pretty scumbag imo. Okay, let them know it is meant for adults and do that sort of minimum diligence, but actually trying to persuade them... that is too far to me. I certainly would not have gone that far.

The general population, i.e. most parents, don't pay any serious attention to video games. In case the previous sentence was unclear: they have no deep understanding of games or their rating system.

The clerk in that story knew this, as most enthusiast gamers know this. I don't know if you have children, but they're not ready to handle more realistic depictions of violence and sexuality in their early teenage years. Most of us who were teenagers in the 2000s didn't have parents that understood games and manipulated our parents and the info they possessed about the M-rated game that we wanted them to buy for us.

 

[norm9]

I've never been more annoyed (first world problem) then when I'm carded for buying an M rated game.

 

[Adam Prime]

"Snarky" and passive aggressive comeback at imagined audience. Check.

Hopefully that kid will learn to be more evasive in his procedures like I was at his age. Buy steam cards and bam, bypass everything. Or bypass the password mechanics using other methods. Trying to keep me from materials just made me use better methods to achieve my goals.

So you hope that children will "learn to be more evasive" when it comes to circumventing their parents? It is the parents responsibility to look out for and teach their children in the way that they should go, and you hope that a child would "learn to use better methods to achieve their goals" when it undermines their parent's goals to have love and concern for the well being of their child? Because when a parent denies a child something they want, like a video game or extra dessert, they do it because they want to see a child suffer and they take pleasure in seeing a person they love not get what they want?

.... Have children someday and lets see how you feel on the subject of children being sneaky to get what they want (feel is best for them).

 

[blame space]

I mean there's something to be said for a kid showing some initiative and putting in some work in order to kill some hookers rather than have their parents hand it to them on a silver platter.

 

[Roto13]

Yeah I am sure he was totally and completely a neutral explanation with complete unbiased video showing the content of the game.

What the fuck does this even mean? What's an unbiased video of GTAV? "Sure, there's a disturbing torture scene, and you can murder people, and hire prostitutes, but there are also puppies and kittens so it evens out"

 

[Kriken]

One time a mom came in with her two boys, who were around elementary age, and then she just left. After about half an hour, the kids left the store. I didn’t think anything of it. Another hour goes by and I see mom strolling outside our windows with a huge heaping cart full of groceries. She opens the door, looks around and asks me where are her kids? I say I have no idea; they left about an hour ago. She freaks out and asks how I could allow children to leave the store. I ended up asking her the same thing. The mom left the store, never to return again. I’m assuming the children were found eventually.

Mother of the year, just leave your kids at another store and then be shocked when they aren't there because you weren't looking after them

 

[exmachina64]

So you hope that children will "learn to be more evasive" when it comes to circumventing their parents? It is the parents responsibility to look out for and teach their children in the way that they should go, and you hope that a child would "learn to use better methods to achieve their goals" when it undermines their parent's goals to have love and concern for the well being of their child? Because when a parent denies a child something they want, like a video game or extra dessert, they do it because they want to see a child suffer and they take pleasure in seeing a person they love not get what they want?

.... Have children someday and lets see how you feel on the subject of children being sneaky to get what they want (feel is best for them).

American culture hasn't promoted deference to one's parents on such matters in some time.

 

[nobodyshero]

Coming from someone who worked game retail, parents who treat the store as a daycare are the worst.

 

[Adam Prime]

I think trying to convince his parents not to buy the game is pretty scumbag imo. Okay, let them know it is meant for adults and do that sort of minimum diligence, but actually trying to persuade them... that is too far to me. I certainly would not have gone that far.

I think a child purchasing a game that he knows his parents would not approve of if they had all the information and details... is pretty scumbag. Yes, I called a 13~ year old child who tries to deceive his parents A SCUMBAG.

Look in the mirror, everyone one of us is a scumbag. We all tried to trick our parents by withholding information. That doesn't make it okay. Parents need to teach their children the WHY or else kids won't understand and will find a way around.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

What the fuck does this even mean? What's an unbiased video of GTAV? "Sure, there's a disturbing torture scene, and you can murder people, and hire prostitutes, but there are also puppies and kittens so it evens out"

Perhaps if you read the full post you'd understand it is about getting a full understanding and making an informed decision rather than one based on a knee jerk reaction to what was likely a biased video. If you only show the bad they get the impression that there is literally only bad and nothing remotely positive to be derived from the game.

 

[nicoga3000]

I love reading stories like this. I wish there were more out there.

On the topic of the employee telling the parents about the game...

If I were working at a Gamestop or whatever, I would of course warn the parents of the mature content, but I don't think I would have shown a video. I think the guy in that story WAS trying to be this "white knight" type based off of how it read, and that's his prerogative. In general, when working retail like that, my assumption is that you are totally expected to inform the parents when a purchase like that is being made, but it's not your job to do the research for them.

Arguments can be made one way or another, but my parents DID do their research when I was growing up. N64 games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were a hard sell on my father due to the gun violence and blood. And I was like, 13 or 14 at the time (I had an 8 year old brother, though). So I lived it I guess...

 

[Roto13]

The parent is the customer, not the shitty kid. Helping customers be informed about what they're buying is part of a salesperson's job.

Perhaps if you read the full post you'd understand it is about getting a full understanding and making an informed decision rather than one based on a knee jerk reaction to what was likely a biased video. If you only show the bad they get the impression that there is literally only bad and nothing remotely positive to be derived from the game.

You are a ridiculous person.

 

[Mobius and pet octopus]

I think a child purchasing a game that he knows his parents would not approve of if they had all the information and details... is pretty scumbag. Yes, I called a 13~ year old child who tries to deceive his parents A SCUMBAG.

Look in the mirror, everyone one of us is a scumbag. That doesn't make it okay. Parents need to teach their children the WHY or else kids won't understand and will find a way around.

Okay and that is your opinion. That is fine.

I disagree with some of what you said. I don't think the kid is a scumbag for literally just acting the way most kids would act in that circumstance.

I agree parent's need to teach their children, more than just about video games and video game violence. To do so they need to, on their own prerogative, educate themselves. They should do that.

But the employee should not have gone to the extent he did, in my opinion. And I would not have done the same. And I think that was wrong for him to do.

You are a ridiculous person.

And I'm sure you're just a swell person who just happened to make a flame bait post by mistake.

 

[Merc_]

There's a whole lot of shitthatdidnthappen.txt in that comment section.

 

[nobodyshero]

Any parent in 2015 that needs to be shown a video of Grand Theft Auto to know it's bad for a 10 (or whatever) year old is severely lacking. It's fucking Grand Theft Auto, it's literally the one game that even dumb parents know their kids shouldn't play.

 

[NateDrake]

I think the highlight of working at GameStop for me was when we had to take ID from people who wanted to play the Wii demo station. We had the power and the people had to obey. Plus, I could play the fishing game from Twilight Princess from behind the register when the store was slow.

 

[Foffy]

I think a child purchasing a game that he knows his parents would not approve of if they had all the information and details... is pretty scumbag. Yes, I called a 13~ year old child who tries to deceive his parents A SCUMBAG.

Look in the mirror, everyone one of us is a scumbag. We all tried to trick our parents by withholding information. That doesn't make it okay. Parents need to teach their children the WHY or else kids won't understand and will find a way around.

There's really bigger fish to fry if you think circumventing parents to play games or watch things they don't allow is really worthy of being a 'scumbag'. If you really want to pull the withholding information is shady, parents do this to their children all of the time too. I don't think that's scumbaggy behavior outright, but depends far more on why and what are the means for this trickery. Many parents stop at "because I said so", which if we're to be honest, is a fucking awful reason to do or not do anything. This is played further with those in ascribed positions like teachers or policeman. The emphasis on the why would be needed, otherwise it's authoritative dick waggling, which will only work if you can hook someone in to your spin and ego, and for children, they either buy it or reject it wholesale. Saying one must do or follow something without a good reason why creates a double bind, which is a terrible thing to impose, and should rightfully be ignored or avoided if presented. Spit in the face of those who play that game.

 

[MMarston]

Any parent in 2015 that needs to be shown a video of Grand Theft Auto to know it's bad for a 10 (or whatever) year old is severely lacking. It's fucking Grand Theft Auto, it's literally the one game that even dumb parents know their kids shouldn't play.

You'd be surprised.

 

[Hylian7]

I have one.

I used to work at a mom n' pop video game store, and one day this lady and her son that looked no older than ten came in, looked around the store a few minutes. Then they bring up the box for BMX XXX on the Gamecube. I tell the mother the standard "Ma'am, do you understand that this game is rated M for Mature for X, X, X and X? Are you sure you want to buy this for him?" She says she'll think about it, we put the box behind the counter.

The mom and her son are walking around the store a bit longer, and then my manager comes out of the back and sees the BMX XXX box sitting there. He looks at it and starts laughing. He picks up the box, opens it, and shows us the other side of the cover.

Well this is what we saw (NSFW WARNING)
Left side: http://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1325570033-00.jpg
Right side: http://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1325570035-00.jpg

We had a good laugh about this, and a few minutes later, the lady and her son come back. The mother says they are going to go ahead and buy it. I say "Ma'am, come here for a second." and just show her the reverse side of the cover. "Are you sure about this?" Needless to say they didn't buy it.

Note: The only reason I did that is basically was because our manager was like "If they buy that and go home with it, this won't end well."

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Good that there are employees who care about the customers. The pegi rating is not a decision-making aid but should prevent children from being overwhelmed.

The kid was obviously not ready for this kind of media. Very few kids at his age would be.

 

[Rekki-Maru]

That employee is a damn hero, one less squeaker on gtao.

 

[Simo]

Here in town where I live there used to be a locally owned small chain movie and game rental store that I used to help out and work for since my wife was the manager at the time. One of the big things was that customers would leave notes or special instructions on their account about how their kids could rent R or Mature rated films and games mainly because we used to always call the parents when they tried to rent these items and really rather than us bother them they would let their kids rent anything.

I remember when GTA: San Andreas came out and surprised at the amount of kids (9-12 years old) were always calling to check to see if it was in or had been returned. There was the time when it was in and a young kid with his mom went to rent it one day and I made some small talk with them them while bringing up the mom's account asking her if the game was for her son since it's rated Mature. She asked me why it was rated Mature and I laid out it pretty much the ESRB description "Strong violence, blood, gore, sexual content and nudity". She then looks concerned and asks me what kind of "sexual content" and I tell her the game features prostitutes and strip clubs you can go to. She then gives her son "the look" like he was trying to pull something over her but she just turns back to me rolling her eyes and says "its ok. It's just a video game. It can't be that bad."

An hour later the game gets returned in our drop box. lol

Honestly there were quite a few situations like that but mostly involving R movies. Of course being a small town rental store you're usually dealing with other shit like old men whacking off in the adult room and then coming out wanting some paper towels or them being in the adult room for so long that they're still in there when we close...and we forget about them so when they finally emerge they set off all the alarms and the cops show up. LOL

 

[Pejo]

Yup, that's retail all right. I really think everyone should have to work a retail job in their life just to see how bad it sucks, and the depths of human depravity. Bonus depravity if it's a store with hot deals/items on Black Friday.

None of those stories really surprise me. Even the pooping one. I remember a similar situation when I was running the register working at Goodwill. We had no public restroom so a lady got a set of pans from the housewares section and let loose into them in the fitting room. Good times!

 

[Stencil]

Man, if a store employee had persuaded my parents not to allow me to purchase San Andreas when I was 13 I would have flipped my shit.

As it was, I lived in Belgium at the time and they don't really observe age limits there. I bought it myself and distinctly remember the cashier telling me "you seem to know what you're doing" when I demanded they give me the last English copy in stock which was in the display cabinet.

Obviously my parents had no idea about the hookers and drugs. They thought it was just stealing cars which, although violent, isn't particularly lewd. I was allowed to play GoldenEye at 7 so was introduced to shooting people in the face at a young age. The hooker stuff, though, fortunately went under the radar as that would have definitely been a point of contention.

You sound like you were a pleasant child.

Anyways, sort of on topic, I was working in a record store (more of a media store, think of Amoeba Records but in the midwest; we had games, too) and this couple (around 18-19 years old) came in. It was a rainy day and it seemed they on a first date or something. It was pretty obvious, given the body language. It was a slow day and me and my buddy working the registers were analyzing customers for fun. From the registers you can see the whole store, too.
About 30 minutes pass and eventually they come up to the register. The male hands me a blu-ray copy of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist with a knowing smirk on his face. I kind of raise my eyebrows in disbelief but try to keep to myself. In the downtime waiting for their credit card to go through I ask the female if she'd ever seen it. She shook her head and says "No, but he insists we watch it. I don't know what it's about."
I look at him blankly as I hand him the receipt. Never saw that couple again.

 

[MMarston]

About 30 minutes pass and eventually they come up to the register. The male hands me a blu-ray copy of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist with a knowing smirk on his face. I kind of raise my eyebrows in disbelief but try to keep to myself. In the downtime waiting for their credit card to go through I ask the female if she'd ever seen it. She shook her head and says "No, but he insists we watch it. I don't know what it's about."
I look at him blankly as I hand him the receipt. Never saw that couple again.

I sure hope this isn't because the guy has a very, very specific kinky preference and this is his idea of getting things in the mood, considering the kind of fuckery within that film.