Mystery Shopper Results Not Definitive, But Encouraging
Earlier this summer, the newly formed ESRB Retail Council (ERC) announced its Commitment to Parents, an initiative designed to enhance retail compliance with restrictions on M- and AO-rated video game sales to minors. Additionally, ERC members (which account for approximately 80% of all U.S. game sales) must participate in two mystery shopper audits each year.
While the first official audit is planned for September, the Rocky Mountain News decided to conduct its own secret shopper investigation. Reporter Brian Crecente (you may know him better as editor of Kotaku - the Rocky gig is his day job) sent a 15-year-old boy into five major retailers (GameStop, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and Circuit City) to attempt a purchase of - you guessed it - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
The results? Crecente's undercover operative was barred from buying the game in all five stores. In fact, he didn't even make it to the checkout line in four of them, having been stopped by store personnel and informed that he was too young to make the purchase.
"I'm not surprised by that at all," said ESRB president Patricia Vance (pictured at left). "When you look at the issue of how kids are getting games that are treated as being perhaps unsuitable for them, in a vast percentage, it's the parents who have purchased the game. It all boils down to parental responsibility."
Encouraging as these results are, a sample size of five does not a scientifically valid study make. Much like Jack Thompson's self-conducted Warriors sting, it's important not to lend much credence to informal surveys, even when the results are as encouraging as this one.
Kudos to Pat Vance for admitting there's still room for improvement when she says, "We are being proactive, trying to take a couple of additional steps. Not because anyone is asking us to but because we think it's the right thing to do."
-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen