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*Think 25* ? how annoying

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Comments

  • j.e.j.
    j.e.j. Posts: 9,672 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I was behind someone in Sainsburys, - a lady who looked to be in her 20s with a child with her. The cashier wouldn't let her purchase the bottle of cider she had with her shopping.

    The woman tried to remonstrate with her, pointing out that she was here with her three-year-old daughter and she was paying with her credit card. "You could still be under 18 though" came the reply!!

    How rude!

    I could kind of see their point, as to be fair there was another supermarket nearby which had had its licence revoked because it had been caught so many times serving alcohol to underage kids.

    I still think some of the cashiers delight in being obstructive rude little jobsworths, though!! :p
  • gwhizz75
    gwhizz75 Posts: 189 Forumite
    My fiance and I had a similar experience in Tesco when he had ID and I didn't (we're both mid 20's). It's an absolute joke and I refuse to believe that there is a law out there that states that adults can't buy alcohol when they are with under 18's. At the time, we had a full weeks worth of shopping and one bottle of mid-priced wine. Surely there has to be an element of discretion with this rule?


    I could understand if it was a 19 year old with a bunch of 16 year olds buying bottles of white lightening, but come on! As another poster said, can families not go shopping together now? Why should someone have to go in on their own to buy alcohol? And how would that stop them from giving the booze they buy to underage kids? The kids could just wait outside the shop!


    My fiance did ask what would happen if we bought the shopping together and then he came back in on his own to buy the wine. The manager said he would refuse to serve him... it was quite comical really. It's just crazy and I think some staff members in supermarkets have got the gist of the law wrong. I don't think it was ever meant to mean that adults can't purchase alcohol when they are with under 18's.
  • polejunkie
    polejunkie Posts: 177 Forumite
    Usually if someone is buying alcohol for a minor they make the minor wait outside and out of sight. I know they are 'just doing their job' but its getting to th point of being beyond the joke, clearly we are a family going shopping and as for undercover families, i doubt trading standards would go as far as trying to dupe the cashier by trying to pass off two parents trying to buy alcohol for a 13 year old.
  • polejunkie
    polejunkie Posts: 177 Forumite
    The legal age to drink alcohol at home is 5 years old or something like that not that I was planning on sharing my JD with any of them.
  • Tropez
    Tropez Posts: 3,696 Forumite
    j.e.j. wrote: »
    I was behind someone in Sainsburys, - a lady who looked to be in her 20s with a child with her. The cashier wouldn't let her purchase the bottle of cider she had with her shopping.

    The woman tried to remonstrate with her, pointing out that she was here with her three-year-old daughter and she was paying with her credit card. "You could still be under 18 though" came the reply!!

    How rude!

    It isn't really that rude though.

    Part of the reason that we have such a problem with underage drinking in this country is that young people are perceived to be much older than they actually are which is part of the reason that this Think 25 thing was introduced. I remember being 16 and someone thought I was in my early 20s and had no problem getting into pubs before I was 18. Oddly, it wasn't until I was 26 that I *finally* got ID'd in the UK when trying to buy an 18-rated DVD.

    I constantly got ID'd in the US when I was working there. In some parts of the US, you get ID'd if you look under 30 (although I appreciate that alcohol has a higher overall age restriction).

    Just because somebody "looks" to be in their 20s doesn't mean that they are; they could in fact be under 18 and having a three year old child doesn't prove anything either given we lead Europe in teenage pregnancy rates.

    The credit card might be considered proof she was over 18 but without any ID to accompany it, who is to say that it was actually her credit card? My parents let me use theirs once or twice.
  • make_me_wise
    make_me_wise Posts: 1,509 Forumite
    edited 4 June 2011 at 8:11PM
    Im off down to Asda now to stock up the booze cabinet then. Am currently pregnant so wont be drinking it now, but could do without this hassle when new baby here.

    I dont have a bump yet so wont get evil looks. Have seen other pregnant people stocking up on drinks in supermarkets and getting some awful reactions. Made me laugh, life carries on as normal, preg or not and other members of the family can still drink. People have parties/barbeques etc whilst pregnant!!!!

    A bit of common sense with retailers wouldn't go a miss would it.
  • Tropez
    Tropez Posts: 3,696 Forumite
    gwhizz75 wrote: »
    My fiance and I had a similar experience in Tesco when he had ID and I didn't (we're both mid 20's). It's an absolute joke and I refuse to believe that there is a law out there that states that adults can't buy alcohol when they are with under 18's. At the time, we had a full weeks worth of shopping and one bottle of mid-priced wine. Surely there has to be an element of discretion with this rule?


    I could understand if it was a 19 year old with a bunch of 16 year olds buying bottles of white lightening, but come on! As another poster said, can families not go shopping together now? Why should someone have to go in on their own to buy alcohol? And how would that stop them from giving the booze they buy to underage kids? The kids could just wait outside the shop!


    My fiance did ask what would happen if we bought the shopping together and then he came back in on his own to buy the wine. The manager said he would refuse to serve him... it was quite comical really. It's just crazy and I think some staff members in supermarkets have got the gist of the law wrong. I don't think it was ever meant to mean that adults can't purchase alcohol when they are with under 18's.

    Stores are just covering their backsides from potential trouble, whether it be legal trouble or media and public trouble.

    You're correct that the law doesn't say that people cannot purchase alcohol while accompanied by under 18s, but the law does state that a store can be legally culpable for supplying alcohol to a person who intends to distribute that alcohol to under 18s. Even though it is legal for children to drink privately, stores still have to protect themselves from a backlash as best they can and should an adult, accompanied by a child, buy alcohol and then that child is later found tanked up in an alley way, the police are going to want to know where that alcohol came from and with so much CCTV you can bet that there will be a video showing a shopworker selling the alcohol knowing there was a child present.

    When the kid is outside the store, they have deniability - when the kid is in the store, the law is so unbelievably vague that it just isn't worth the hassle for the store because all it takes is either a police investigation, a nuisance lawsuit or a media bashing and that store is suddenly very deeply out of pocket and the poor shopworker is likely to be fired as damage control.
  • polejunkie
    polejunkie Posts: 177 Forumite
    Well the store staff don't know that it's your son! And the policy is if you look under 25 you must prove that you are over 18. End of. And if you have an under 18 with you, most shops will not sell it to you.

    the 13 year old is my daughter.
  • j.e.j.
    j.e.j. Posts: 9,672 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    LOL Tropez. I never used to get asked for ID either till recently (I'm now in my 30s!!)

    Yes, that could have been what the cashier was thinking. I thought it a bit extreme, tbh. That was my take on it. And the self-righteous way the cashier said it. The customer in question didn't look like some teenager after buying booze.

    BUT I know supermarkets can be very Big-Brother like and have evidently put the fear of God into their staff never to sell someone alcohol if there's even a 0.00000000001% chance that it might be for someone underage.

    It just seems a pity as other posters have pointed out that genuine people now fear being humiliated when they go in to buy themselves a bottle of wine!
  • gozaimasu
    gozaimasu Posts: 860 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    I absolutely despise this policy on principle.

    The reason it exists is to prevent underage drinking and stop the retailer from being prosecuted from selling alcohol to someone illegally.

    I genuinely think some cashiers really do delight in making customers' lives a misery. I have had occasions where they have perhaps jokily said somat like "ooooh now are you really old enough to drink alcohol" and such like, but I think that is downright unprofessional. It's a serious issue and if you are going to ID me then just !!!!ing do it and move on to victimise the next poor !!!!!!!.

    I would have no qualms whatsoever about walking about leaving a trolley of shopping if they IDd me and wouldn't accept credit card payment as proof. As much as this isn't official ID, giving out the PIN of a credit card to someone underage is horridly irresponsible and there wouldn't be a lot of people who would do that. Thickos on the checkout don't seem to understand that, but in their defence I suppose they are just doing what they are told.

    Nothing to stop me leaving the shopping and going round the store again to get what I needed, but to be honest I'd rather spend my money somewhere where they weren't going to take the !!!!.
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