Somerfield managers attitude

WestieFan

Seems like a whole new argument going on now!

grannygrunt wrote:

I got the wine and queued up but the till had something wrong with it and the checkout girl couldnt fix it.The manager had to be sent for and he came out in a terrible temper. He fixed the machine and I presented my bottle of wine. He took it from me and then glared at me.
"have you been drinking?" he shouted?

IMHO, something or somebody had annoyed this guy and he decided to take it out on the first person who crossed his path. Unacceptable :shocked:

UKTigerlily

Actually, yes the colleague selling to anyone who buys for someone under 18 can be & will be if caught by TS/police fined lol i'm so careful selling & it's worrying nowdays that one might get thru

carrie483

Bristolfarmer wrote:

And to the poster talking about buying for others, it's so hard working in shops now when adults blatantly buy for underage kids who are standing outside their shop asking for drink or fags. Again I would rather the shop was careful and refused the sale, the manager of course can handle it better but it should have been sorted in the shop, not at a head office level, where the night manager was only trying to be both legally and morally correct. That's just from an ex convienance store worker!

I agree (i used to work in a convienience store too), it is hard when it is blatant but the kids standing outside were not asking people to buy stuff from them and it was a literal hello as he walked past them. The reason it was taken to head office level was because the night manager was rude and the next time we went in there the staff were whispering and pointing at us :mad: which was extremly embarrasing.

mistyarthur

There was a bit on the tv a while back about selling to intoxicated people, some woman got drunk and tried to get served and everyone served her.

I work in a supermarket and they don't mention serving drunk people in your training believe it or not. The manager was most definately just taking it out on you I would complain. For starters the chance of trading standards investigating this is so small because they would have to pay someone to get drunk!!! and then they have the problem of defining being drunk. I'm not saying he should sell to drunk people what I'm saying is if you aren't acting anti-socially or loud then there is no problem unless you can't actually count the money to pay or something! but most nightclubs would still serve you.lol

chika

I used to work in a supermarket as a checkout supervisor and it was drummed into us that we weren't to serve alchohol to anyone who had been drinking. The people who had attempted to purchse the alchohol would then take great offence to this and make it into an incident! No doubt feeling bold because of the alchohol they had just consumed.

Many a time I had to be called over and refuse to serve people of all ages. It's not the nicest part of the job and as alchohol as different effects on people it was hard to judge. If this gentleman smelled of alchohol or appeared intoxicated I too would have refused to serve him.

If a store is caught selling alchohol to somone who is judged to be drunk they can lose their licence - 40% of all sales came from alchohol where worked. The staff who serve them can also be taken to court and fined up to £1000 - a hell of a lot of money on checkout wages.

If the manager really was as rude as you say, then it isn't really on, but you really ought to consider his point of view.

Chika

hollydays

Aw come on !, surely its dead simple to tell if a persons drunk.Police officers used to have to say in court "his eyes were glazed,his speech was slurred-he was,in fact,drunk" .The original poster said they were not drunk.Does this mean ever office worker who has a swift half in their lunch hour is going to be humiliated-use your common sense and dont abuse your authority.Been drinking is not necessarily being drunk and i am not on the side of drunks here.Surely your own integrity is what counts here-treat others fairly,if you cant make a good accurate descision,let someone else do the job.The law does not require you to refuse everyone who has been drinking.Neither can a sales assistant or store be fined for unwittingly selling alcohol to someone buying it for kids.If you work in a store and you serve someone with alcohol then look out of the window and see them handing it over to kids,you could inform the Police,take the alcohol off the kids,if feasible, or refuse to serve that person with alcohol again,or ban them from your store and do your local community a favour.My earlier point on fake id is this-if you work in a store ,there should be only certain types of id that are accepted like a british driving licence,or the official proof of age card-many staff will accept anything such as the infamous international driving licence routinely used by kids and bought ofF the internet or a student union card with the wrong dob on.Many staff have no idea what proper id is.This is the reason so many kids are able to buy the stuff.Staff turnaround is high and staff given little or no training.Anyone having problems with drunk kids in their area may want to check this out.

mistyarthur

The fine for selling alcohol to underaged and the rest has gone up with the new laws to £5000 max now and £80 on the spot still.
You can get into trouble for serving to someone that you know for sure was buying for someone underaged but that is more to do with the fact that they are stood next to the person and gave them money or whatever, one thats hard to get into trouble on again.
All the big supermarkets will only take the main ID's.
I work in a big supermarket and got the training and stuff but not until recently did I get told I cannot serve a police officer in uniform!!!! I never knew that and apparently it''s the most common test at my store!

IvanOpinion

mistyarthur wrote:

The fine for selling alcohol to underaged and the rest has gone up with the new laws to £5000 max now and £80 on the spot still.
You can get into trouble for serving to someone that you know for sure was buying for someone underaged but that is more to do with the fact that they are stood next to the person and gave them money or whatever, one thats hard to get into trouble on again.

What they should do is split the fine 50:50 between the shop and the parents of the child ... maybe if parents knew (or cared) what their kids were up to they might pay more attention.

One other thing, as far as I am aware no shop HAS to sell you anything ... they ultimately reserve the right to refuse to serve anybody.

I work in a big supermarket and got the training and stuff but not until recently did I get told I cannot serve a police officer in uniform!!!! I never knew that and apparently it''s the most common test at my store!

Why not?

Ivan

mistyarthur

Why can't you serve an officer in uniform? I only ment alcohol you can sell them other stuff but it's just a law that a officer in uniform can't but alcohol.
I agree no shop ever has to sell you anything, just look at the tesco thread and the people that got banned and they weren't even doing anything illegal!!!

Mattjimf

carrie483 wrote:

On a similar note, My husband went to our local Spar store to get a couple of cans of beer. There was a bunch of boys hanging around outside so my hubby said hi as some of them are our neighbours kids. When he went to pay the night manager accused my husband of buying the drinks for kids. He was gobsmacked. When he got home i put in a formal complaint. They were amazing. Made the night manager apologize and told us (although it was no excuse and he was disgusted with them) the reason was because Spar had been caught serving underage people and been fined loads of money.

Sorry, i know it is off topic but my point is that if you make a formal complaint it does get taken seriously.

I wouldn't be surprised if you find this happening alot around that shop. All out locals ones are now asking ID for EVERYTHING. I got id'd for a scratch card (16) and i'm 22! And i don't think i look 16. Although i bet i'll be wishing i did in a few years :rolleyes:

Most of the shops up here in Aberdeen refuse to serve people if they look under 21, some jumped up hitlers won't even serve people over 18 with a driving licence or passport, this is supposed to stop underagers getting their mates who are 18 to buy alcohol for them.