Explain to me why you can't buy alcohol before 10am

aliasojo

Why 10 am?

I don't see the logic but I'm happy to be educated if there are reasonable reasons why.

I dropped daughter off at school this morning then headed off to do the shopping. It was 9.30am when I was at the till so the bottle of wine I had in my trolley was taken off me.

Fair enough, I didn't realise it couldn't be sold until 10am but on my way home I got to thinking why that particular time?

Ames

I wonder what time morning starts? I've bought alcohol in the supermarket after midnight.

Sorry, not much use am I.

browneyedbazzi

You can buy alcohol before 10am at a lot of places. When each shop can sell alcohol depends on their licence and it will have been decided either by the licence holder (they chose times to put on their application for a licence) or by a licensing committee.

aliasojo

It was Tesco btw.

picnmix

Oh, this happened to me the other day and I couldn't quite understand the logic in it, put it down to the licensing laws. The woman in the supermarket was surprised I was trying to buy it so early, I have to add that it was in with a big shop and that I wasn't trying to partake in a tipple at 7.30 in the morning, just trying to get the shopping done whilst my DH was at home with the kids.

Do Off Licenses not open until 10am aswell?

Gillyx

When I worked in a supermarket (in Scotland) it used to be 8am (mon-sat) and 12noon on Sundays. Then it got changed to 10am every day, something about the government trying to cut down on all the drinking that goes on. How that'l help I don't know.

ikkle87

it's dependent on each stores license. Whilst one Tesco may not serve alcohol till after 10am some stores will. I worked at a Sainsburys and have sold bottles of cider at 7am in the past.

robpw2

most of their 24/7 shops you can buy alchol anytime but some of their expresses or metero shops have different rules

aliasojo

Well it seems to me to be one of 'those' rules that are a tad silly then.

browneyedbazzi

Each shop has an individual licence - on it there are hours during which they are allowed to sell alcohol and can be anything up to 24 hours a day because the law allows for a lot of flexibility.

It is up to the licence holder to apply for the hours they want. In some cases hours may be limited by the licensing committee where there are concerns about sales at particular times causing problems (ie a small corner shop in a residential area may be considered inappropriate for a 24 hour licence because people coming and going would cause noise nuisance for neighbours or some shops have their hours restricted if they've had issues with selling to kids at particular times).

gingin_2

Was it an express, or a superstore? I know our council sets different licensing laws based on a supermarket's own "merits". For example the Tesco express next to the homeless shelter is prohibited from selling any alcohol, whereas the Waitrose Express slightly further away is allowed to sell alcohol after 11am but has to be heavily security guarded (big inner city drug and alcohol problem where I live).