Asked for ID in the supermarket - I'm 50!!

[Saisong]

I felt strangely affronted, rather than taking it as a compliment!

The cashier was a male approaching 70 (he told me), maybe everyone looks young when you get to that age? 😆

I get that cashiers need to be cautions but come on, when you’ve got a customer who clearly is well beyond the age of 25 it is just totally unnecessary and bizarre.

I think I’d just roll my eyes

Ahhhhhhhhh, gotta love the parallel world of mumsnet, where middle aged and senior aged people (55+) get mistaken for 17 years old. Never happens in real life funnily, because away from this weird and wonderful world on mumsnet NOBODY over 50 is mistaken for someone who is not old enough to buy booze. Nope. NOBODY.

@Saisong You look your age, trust me you do, because everyone does within 4-5 years, when you look properly. This man needs to see the optician if you are 50, and he mistook you for someone under the legal age to buy alcohol. The amount of people on here who are claim they are regularly IDd for booze even though they're 42, 48. 50, 55, 75, 99 etc is actually hilarious. It's incredibly entertaining seeing how many people claim it happens to them too.

Even if it does happen, (which it doesn't,) why does anyone need to post on mumsnet about it? Validation? Insecurity? Desperation for people to think they look soooo young. Are you teeny tiny too OP?

The people who post these threads are the same posters who post the 'how old do I look' threads, because they need validation, and compliments, and for people to say 'awww hun you are stunning!' and 'you look 20 years younger babe!'

Quite sad really. You know, to be that insecure that you need a bunch of internet strangers to boost your ego.

Who pays these people? Is it police or local council? You'd think with all the cutbacks this sort of box ticking would be the first to go. Or are they relying on money from the fines? And I don't blame anybody for taking on any job at the moment, but it must be pretty horrible to be employed as one of these checkers and possibly be responsible for somebody losing their job, unless you are totally unfeeling. Presumably these checkers have to be under 18? Awful thing to do at that age, and look back on.

If you're under 30 I'll probably ID you. Otherwise I just enter 32, unless you're probably 40 and been rude. Then I enter 70 as the age!

???

Who pays these people? Is it police or local council?

Trading Standards. Checkers have to look under age.

I used to get asked fairly regularly through my 20s and early 30s which was fine but seems to have tailed off after 35 - I suspect that's having kids that have aged me more rapidly.
I did get asked the other day and I had the youngest child with me. I told her she had made my day as it's 18 years since I was 18!

@WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps I think you need a nice cup of tea and a sit down.

I'm under no illusion that I look anything other than a frumpy middle aged mother btw. Though the gentleman in question may well need better glasses.

@Drivebye thanks, customers like you give the staff a good giggle!

@WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps Wow, who took the jam from your donut.

DH got IDd for booze during covid while wearing a mask and he's 45 and looks every day of it.

Amazon delivered some spirits to my husband a few years ago but wouldn’t hand the parcel over until he produced proof of age…he’s 67 🙄

I used to work in our village shop and we’d get complaints like this all the time. They’d be roundly ignored, once we’d had a good laugh at them

Cashiers are legally responsible for every age restricted sale they put through the till They can be personally fined and the store lose their alcohol licence (or if they retain it, strict conditions put on it). Management (store, or head office) will not (or should not) interfere with it.

One of my ex colleagues failed a test purchase once, one of the conditions put on the store licence was that everyone had to be IDed when selling alcohol/Cuna get tea regardless of age

I have every sympathy with individual staff and stores being super cautious, but it still doesn't mean checking people who are unmistakeably way over the age limit is reasonable. It just enforces bureaucratic creep and ageism. It's not a compliment to be mistaken for someone younger - there's nothing wrong with being the age you are.
I'm 58 and recently a youngish male cashier has asked my age every single time. None of the other staff do it, because there is no way in a million years that I look under 25. I don't look good or bad for my age, I just look 58. When I've told him I'm 58, he makes a few Oh, you don't look it, you look good for your age type comments. The last time this happened, I said that I understood age checking but he couldn't possibly believe I was under 25 and this was patronising. He was very flustered and looked dumbstruck that I wouldn't be flattered. Why do stores advertise a policy of checking people who look under 25 if they in fact intend to implement universal age checks?

Not been id'd in the U.K. but even my 78 year old uncle was id'd in the USA at the baseball, crazy

Iceland do a percentage off for over 60s (I think on a Tuesday). I would not like to be an Iceland cashier having to do that age checking.

Though the flip side has s our local pubs don't id our DD's who are early 20's (and one still buys a kids ticket on the bus she's looks so young) because they are with older people! They are all over 21 I should add

I just laugh and say I’m over 50, no I don’t have ID and they never take it further. What’s even funnier (apart from looking definitely over 25) is that I’m being age checked when I buy 0% beer

I really wish people would actually do at least a bit of research around licensing before they start carrying on about challenge policies and how unfair it all is and how ridiculous staff are being. It's not a God given right to sell or buy alcohol.

To have and keep a license you have to meet certain conditions, they are based in law, but also around being a responsible retailer of alcohol.

There are hefty concequences for the seller and the retailer if those conditions are not adhered to, fines, license restrictions or removal, and ultimately you can be imprisoned if the law is broken, however the law doesn't have to be broken to break a license condition, nor to not convince the licencing authority, trading standards or the police that you're not a responsible retailer.
To that end retailers need to prove they're sticking to the licence and also a responsible retailer. To do that they need proof, an ID log of all purchases that have required ID - and no they don't simply take your word for it if it's empty and you tell them that no one in the last 6 months has needed ID because they were all over 45.

Trading standards and licencing also use 'mystery shoppers' as do retailers themselves (to catch out workers not adhering to policy before the authorities do) and you can fail on any of the conditions of your license and face concequences even if, once again for those who are hard of thinking no laws actually have to be broken, or even potentially broken.

Some places I've worked failing a test purchase is a disciplinary offence.

You can be as annoyed as you like, complain as much as you like, be superior and condescending towards the staff all day long - it will not change. And really, it's hardly the end of the world, in the grand scheme of things if you don't get a bottle of booze, it really isn't that big of a deal, and the reactions to it happening are ridiculously over the top and precious - like when people start talking about power and jobsworths 🤣 grow up, you're really not that important and there's no big conspiracy to keep people from their precious booze.

maybe hes been told to ask more or he got in truble once for not asking someone underage

i used to get id'd till i was 40 would love to now

Well said @Maverickess.

That's a slight overreaction to what is probably a directive from Head Office.

It happened to me whilst wearing a mask (I was 51)! She asked me to pull it down and then insisted on seeing ID.
I would LOVE to think I look 30 years younger than my age, but I think she was just a bit potty..

Why? Have you nothing better to do with your time than to waste others?
It's not the cashier, it's the till. The cashier might think you look older than her granny, but the till says check ID.

Probably feels better than I did when the self checkout flagged alcohol, the checker approached me and then pissed herself laughing saying "well there's no need to ID YOU!"