Have to buy food with alcohol in M&S now?

[DedalusBloom]

How new is this as a policy? I tried to buy 3 cans of gin and tonic ( they're currently on offer at 3 for £6) and was told very snippliy by the woman at self checkout that I had to buy a snack to go with them.

I questioned it and she reiterated that I needed to buy some food, and was pointing at the chocolate bars by the tills.

I didn't need or want any food ( in fact I'd just eaten) so I put the cans back and deprived them of a sale.

I wasn't planning on chugging them one after the other on the train home, for gods sake -they were going in the fridge as I prefer ready mixed to home measures so I don't go too mad

I asked another member of staff about it on my way out who said yes, it's the local council's policy. But the previous week I had bought wine at Sainsbury's two doors away with no problem and was unchallenged.

It's not the biggest deal in the world but it does seem a bit Nanny State-ist seeing as I could have gone to the pub opposite and drunk all night without eating anything!

Has anyone else had this or have I been living under a rock?

People wanting to get pissed at stations/on trains tend not to buy alcohol at M&S!

I have a vision of myself now necking M&S Prosecco and munching Percy pigs on a train - how very middle class! 🤣

How ridiculous!

I remember visiting DD in her Uni town, a few years ago. I was booked in to a hotel. We popped in to Asda, and I tried to buy a bottle of wine for later, and because my DD was with me, with no ID, I was refused. I was 47 at the time! Apparently I could have been buying it for her. Maddening!

DH buys a bottle of wine most evenings coming through the station.

Perhaps you just looked dodgy OP .

It's probably the licensing team making it look like they're doing something and M&S making it look like they're a responsible retailer.
Alcohol related problems cost the police/NHS etc a small fortune, and despite the increasingly ridiculous rules being put on retailers that royally fuck off customers, and get their staff bitched at (not suggesting you did OP) nothing much has changed really.
It's lip service to the problems alcohol use and abuse can and does cause instead of actually making people responsible for the amount they drink and their actions after it, they're making the people who sell it responsible instead and they need to protect themselves so then normal customers who don't cause problems go without.

@BigWoollyJumpers

DH buys a bottle of wine most evenings coming through the station.

Perhaps you just looked dodgy OP .

Entirely possible.

@WibbleyPie

It's probably the licensing team making it look like they're doing something and M&S making it look like they're a responsible retailer. Alcohol related problems cost the police/NHS etc a small fortune, and despite the increasingly ridiculous rules being put on retailers that royally fuck off customers, and get their staff bitched at (not suggesting you did OP) nothing much has changed really. It's lip service to the problems alcohol use and abuse can and does cause instead of actually making people responsible for the amount they drink and their actions after it, they're making the people who sell it responsible instead and they need to protect themselves so then normal customers who don't cause problems go without.

Completely agree. It's hard to enforce at either end. It's just so daft when you reach policy that says it's fine for me to buy alcohol as long as I buy a raw chicken at the same time.

Or possibly when you buy a tin of passion fruit martini ( also lush) you should have to chomp down a snickers in front of a cashier and then show her your empty mouth in an " all gone, mummy!" moment.

I tried to buy non Alcoholic wine.

I was surprised to find that it also comes under licensing laws and I was five minutes too early to buy it, despite it being alcohol free.

This is a Richmond M&S thing at the station!! I went today to buy a bottle of wine and had a snippy lady tell me I needed to buy a snack with the wine