Best Buy Opens in Montreal — Without Violence

Best Buy Canada Ltd. (Burnaby, B.C.) opened its first store in Montreal last week, as hundreds reportedly visited the store at the Marché Central.

“We’re excited to be opening our first Quebec store here in the heart of Montreal,” said Richard Laniel, Best Buy district manager for Quebec.

Best Buy Inc. (Richfield, Minn.) and its Canadian subsidiary also announced they would be toughening their policy on “violent video games” following a shareholder resolution filed with Best Buy by Christian Brothers Investment Services (New York), a financial manager of funds for the Catholic church and church-related enterprises. The consumer electronics retailer said it has agreed to publicly outline a tougher policy restricting the sale of mature-rated video games to children and teens.

Among the key provisions of the recently published Best Buy policy on violent video games are: a new “mystery shopper program” that audits cashiers to make sure they are asking for ID from any customer who appears to be under 21 years of age and is attempting to buy M-rated video games; a signed agreement by Best Buy employees stating that they have read and agree to implement Best Buy’s policy; and disciplinary actions against employees who fail to follow the policy and are found selling violent video games to minors.

Best Buy’s policy also calls for displaying signs about age requirements, programming cash registers to issue a prompt that reminds salespeople selling video games to ask for ID, and holding training sessions for all employees on how and when to check IDs.

“Christian Brothers Investment Services is encouraged by this important first step at Best Buy,” said a CBIS spokesperson. “We are pleased with the progress to date at the company and commend Best Buy for improving its business practices in this area. We believe that Best Buy’s work here will diminish reputation risk and protect shareholder value. The emphasis on this kind of work at CBIS reflects the input provided to us in our 2004 client survey, which expressed concerns over the prevalence of violence in media entertainment.”

CBIS and its co-filers are calling on retailers to assume greater responsibility in ensuring that violent video games are not accessible to children and youth. The groups maintain that retailers must make a genuine commitment to keep video games with graphic violence, strong sexual content, and racist themes from minors. Research on violent media that is interactive – – such as video and computer games — suggests that it has a stronger and more lasting effect on violent behavior of youths.