Rant about asda

hgotsparkle

PenguinJim wrote: »

I once was buying a few things from Tesco that included a couple of vodka, and had a couple of friends with me. At the checkout I was asked for ID - no problem. I presented my ID (I was 26/27 at the time, my friends were some months older). My friends were then asked for ID. It was my shopping, for me, and they just happened to be with me, but the stupid cashier made the fantastically intelligent point that I might be buying alcohol for them. One of them didn't have ID. Service refused by idiot-woman.

A few years later I'd just entered the UK and not yet sorted out my wallet with my usual array of ID, but stopped at a Tesco (coincidentally enough) to pick up some odds and ends - this time with two friends who were younger than me (and both looked about 20! Damn them!). Ah, you're buying wine, but your friends don't look old enough, says the cashier. No problem, they say, and produce their ID that shows they're in their late twenties. But despite only needing ID because they looked young, and producing ID that showed that they weren't, probably-idiot-woman refused to serve us as I didn't have my ID on me. Partially my fault for not having ID, I know. But I looked much older than my friends who had ID - it just makes no logical sense, as if we were trying to scam the system, I'd have just let them pay by themselves.

In both instances I just had my friends take my car keys and load up the car while I walked back into the store and purchased the alcoholic items by myself, wasting a few minutes each time. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't asked for ID either time.

It's the inconsistency that irritates me. Do supermarkets really refuse to sell wine to parents who happen to have their baby with them? Because if not, then it's simply prejudice. Rules should be applied fairly.

I didn't lose any sleep over it, and I'd forgotten about both incidents until reading this thread, but I'm glad it's reminded me not to shop in Tesco if I'm with anybody else, because the staff are idiots.

The reason for this being: say you just turned 18, and you went to buy some alcohol but you had your friends with you and they aren't yet 17. Yes you can prove your age but whose to say that you aren't going to a party where those 17 year olds will be drinking. Well, if they can't prove that they're also 18 or over, then you won't be getting your booze as allowing you to buy it and then giving it to them would be underage drinking. Yes, its perfectly legal for a 17 year old to drink in their own home, but you don't know that they'll be in their own home and how much they'll drink. Stopping a purchase at the beginning stops underage binge drinking. Yes that 18yo can leave it a bit, and g in the shop alone and try to be served by someone else but that someone else won't know whats going on therefore has done nothing wrong. Its about preventing what you can by preventing what you can see.

PenguinJim

Ah, I see. The supermarket is assuming that everyone who buys alcohol is going to use it to supply minors. That's why they've stopped selling alcohol altogether.

That must be why car dealerships refuse to sell cars to parents whose children are present. Sorry, sir, your child looks 15 to me. Do they have a license? Then I cannot sell you this car, just in case you let your child drive it illegally.

"whose [sic] to say that you aren't going to a party where those 17 year olds will be drinking." - Who's to say that everyone who buys a kitchen knife isn't going to use it in a mugging later? Who's to say that every bottle of booze isn't going to be later poisoned and used in a murder?! How can anyone sell anything under those conditions?

That line of reasoning (and I'm stretching the definition of that word) is simply ridiculous. Here are some similar situations where the purchaser has ID and is still refused service, although my friends and I were quite a bit older.

last night i was in sainsburys with my girlfriend picking up a few bits for the home and a bottle of teachers whiskey for my Pop, as it was on offer.
Went to the checkout and the checkout girl asked for my ID, no probs i thought. Wasn't even offended considering that i'd not shaved for a week and thought i was looking particularly rugged and manly. Gave it to the girl who checked it, all ok.
And then, she asks for my girlfriend's ID...
'She's not buying it, i am' i said.
'sorry,' the checkout girl said, 'i have to see both your IDs'
now my girlfriend is 24, but had left her purse with her ID at home because i was paying for the shopping. So without her ID we couldn't get the whiskey.

I never ever get angry with checkout folk because i've been the other side and know how pointless it is but there was a time when I was nipping over to a mates house to watch the football, his mum asked if I could nip into Tesco and get some cooking wine en-route. I did so and got ID'd for it which i'm used to given I look about 11 but another mate was with me, didn't have ID and they wouldn't let me buy it.

They'd established that I was 23, he looks his age and was also 23, the woman on the checkout next to us actually knew my mate and could vouch that he was 23 and, most crucially, it was a can of COOKING WINE. I really got very angry indeed, supervisors were brought over etc. Utterly ridiculous policy.

But this is why I think some people are singled out:

Me and my 7 year old son have never had such issues.

Apply rules and the law equally to everyone or not at all. I don't think that's asking too much. Especially as this unequal treatment is so unbelievably stupid - if I had intentions to supply minors, I'd just buy the alcohol alone. Meanwhile, parents across the country are buying their kids 18-certificate video games and the brain-dead cashiers don't even consider refusing service in those cases. Edit: apparently, sometimes parents with 8-year-old children in tow are refused service. Some other supermarkets occasionally enforce it, too. I invented the idea based on the assumption that such awesomely stupid things could never actually come to be, but I was wrong! I guess you and I should feel happy about that, hgotsparkle?

(Just to be clear, as has been repeatedly stated throughout this thread, I don't think it's too much to ask for people to have ID to prove their age if they want to do age-restricted activities)

Money-Saving-King

PenguinJim wrote: »

That must be why car dealerships refuse to sell cars to parents whose children are present. Sorry, sir, your child looks 15 to me. Do they have a license? Then I cannot sell you this car, just in case you let your child drive it illegally.

Until they bring out an Asda smart price car I don't think this argument is going to work!

PenguinJim

Never heard of car supermarkets?

Money-Saving-King

PenguinJim wrote: »

Never heard of car supermarkets?

Yeah, they allow kids in though

PenguinJim

Yes, that was my point! Thank you!

Pollycat

Strange that the OP posted originally on 5/9 and hasn't been back since despite 8 pages of replies.

Maybe he returned to Asda later with his father and grandfather to attempt to buy alcohol without id and was arrested......:rotfl:

I wonder why he chose to return with his father instead of id.

If he really looks under 25 surely he'll have problems getting served in pubs too so he'd need some form of id.

Maybe he takes his father to airports as proof of id when he's flying out somewhere.

19lottie82

I'm 32 and still sometimes get ID'd, and it's usually in supermarkets.

If I don't have any with me, it's a pain in the butt, but my own fault.

The licensing board regularly send in under cover underagers to try and catch out cashiers. Selling them alcohol can lead to fines, criminal prosecution and / or losing their job. If they have the slightest doubt that you may not be over 25 they have to ask you for ID.

I have also worked in the licensing trade, and a manager should ALWAYS support (never undermine) their staff when they ask a customer for ID.

2gorgeousgirls

I'd be chuffed if I was asked for id!

Seriously, this situation would have easily been resolved by taking in ID.

Asking your father to accompany you shows that you may be physically over the age of 25 but mentally you're still a child!

More fool your father for going along with it.

Cornucopia

19lottie82 wrote: »

The licensing board regularly send in under cover underagers to try and catch out cashiers. Selling them alcohol can lead to fines, criminal prosecution and / or losing their job. If they have the slightest doubt that you may not be over 25 they have to ask you for ID.

No. If they have the slightest doubt that you may be under 18, they have to ask for ID.

Anything else outside of Scotland is mere store policy.