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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have stormed out of Netto in a huff because they wouldn't sell me wine

115 replies

LizzieMint73 · 20/09/2010 15:38

Ooh I am so cross. Today I made a special trip to Netto to buy Oyster Bay wine which is on special offer (is normally £9 but they are selling it at a fiver a bottle).

The checkout girl asked for ID on the instruction of the manager who was working on the next till. When I'd picked myself up off the floor (I'm 37 and probably older than both of them) I realised in horror, that no I could not prove my age. I had credit cards and a works ID with photo, but nothing with my date of birth on - they just repeated loads of nonsense parrot fashion over and over that if they let me buy the wine they would lose their jobs and get fined. Worse thing was that they probably accepted that I was over 18 but they would not allow me to buy the wine because I could not prove I was over 25. They would not accept my arguement that no law was being broken because they were happy I was legally able to buy alcohol.

At this point I just said that I didn't have time for this and stormed out leaving the wine and a few other bits on the belt.

I don't like carrying my driving licence because if my bag got nicked they would have my address and my house keys so would have to get the locks changed etc. Similiary, I dont want to have to carry my passport in case it gets lost/stolen.

I accept that I might look more like in my early 30s than late 30s but I think that is more due to many other people looking really old for their age, rather than me looking younger. There is no way that I look under 25 and I think it is a bit much that I have to prove my age. This is the second time this has happended recently and no, it is not a compliment, it is a bloody pain in the arse.

OP posts:

Cammelia · 20/09/2010 15:41

Do you have to be over 25 to buy wine from a supermaket? If you have to be 18 then a credit card should suffice as you can't have a credit card under 18. As you are 37 you must look very good fro your age

MistsAndMellow · 20/09/2010 15:41

It would piss me right off at any age if I'd made a special trip.

LOL at "when I'd picked myself up from the floor" though!

MorrisZapp · 20/09/2010 15:43

I suppose that they aren't obliged to sell you anything, and you aren't obliged to buy anything.

So neither of you were being that U.

TitsalinaBumSquash · 20/09/2010 15:43

I got asked for id to buy a 12 rated computer game last year, im 23 i was

Chil1234 · 20/09/2010 15:48

The promotion's not going to go too well at that branch, is it? Maybe the staff turn everyone away and have a hooky deal going on the side supplying it wholesale to the local pub?

JustAnotherManicMummy · 20/09/2010 15:53

Yabu to go to Netto

I'm sure Waitrose do Oyster Bay on special for not much more all the time. And I think if you get 6 bottles you get 5% discount too. And they'll swap any corked bottles no questions (not that O Bay has a cork).

ruddynorah · 20/09/2010 15:57

You don't have to be over 25. But if you look under 25 you need id to show you are over 18, seeing as lots of under age drinkers can and do look in their early 20s.

By implementing 'challenge 25' the shop is showing due diligence and up holding their licensing objectives.

GlendaTheGrizzlyPiggy · 20/09/2010 15:58

YABVU. Checkout staff have to be so careful these days. They can lose their job & be fined something staggering like £10,000. Not the company, not the shop, them.

Nobody should have to put their job on the line just because you don't feel like carrying ID. If you knew you were going to buy wine then why didn't you take your drivers license just this once?

Pigeonstreetrocks · 20/09/2010 15:59

Yanbu - there's cautious and there's cautious! They were clearly being stupidly over zealous with their Id-ing. This happens to me too and it's frustrating - I'm 30. For example; was in tesco last year and I was buying things like a bag of flour, cleaning products, basic food bits and bobs and a bottle of £15 wine for my husband's birthday - not exactly the sort of things an underage drinker would buy! I don't carry my I.d either so had to leave birthday wine. Husband was slightly put out!

melikalikimaka · 20/09/2010 16:00

How many bottles were you trying to buy?

TotalChaos · 20/09/2010 16:01

but not everyone has a drivers licence or passport (I only have an out of date passport). From a civil liberties point of view it's ridiculous to have to carry this sort of ID when you are 15 years older than the minimum age to by alcohol. I agree that it's not the fault of the checkout staff, these days noone wants their job on the line.

Cammelia · 20/09/2010 16:08

Oh so basically you have look over 25 to be on the safe side, op still obviously got "it" when she's a couple of years short of 40

scaryteacher · 20/09/2010 16:08

You must look good for your age. When I was back in the UK in the summer, no-one in Morrisons or Waitrose asked to see ID for me when I was buying alcohol.

DandyDan · 20/09/2010 16:11

If you can't get a credit card until you're 18, surely that would count as "proof" that you're over 18?

YANBU

I was shopping in my local supermarket once (one of the main four) and they wouldn't let me buy a box of 16 paracetamol as well as a box of 16 ibuprofen.

JustAnotherManicMummy · 20/09/2010 16:11

Someone half-heartedly asked me if I was old enough in Tesco last night

readywithwellies · 20/09/2010 16:13

I get it all the time, including the patronising, oh, you look terribly young comments when I produce my ID to show I am over 30! It is annoying, but the fines are to the actual person serving you and if you earn minimum wage a fine of £1000 would make me ask my granny!

IveStillGotIt · 20/09/2010 16:14

YANBU The thing that pisses me off about this challenge 25 bollocks, is the half-wit jobsworths that try and implement it, without using any common-sense.
The whole point of it (and I've just started working in a shop, so I know all about the scheme), is does the person look younger than 25. If I'm wavering on some-one I'll ask myself "could this person be 17", and I take note of other items their buying, what their wearing, if their with a group of people their own age, or if it is a family out shopping e.t.c.
I actually started a thread ages ago, cause I was nearly refused alcohol, even though I had a full weeks shopping- proves I've got my own house, 10yo DS stood next to me mumming me for stuff- makes it abit bloody obvious I'm over 18, I've never heard of any 7yo giving birth before, and my 32yo DP was there as well i.e A family weekly shop, not a chav wanting cider for the park, yet the jobsworth half-wit was refusing to take note of the common-sense aspects around her. The stupid bint even tried to say my provisional licence wasn't me, cause my hair was a slightly different colour to the photo. Luckily a girl I went to school with, who works there, sorted the situation out, but had she not been there, god knows what would have happened.

Cammelia · 20/09/2010 16:17

Well I've never been asked for proof of age I suppose the proof thing wasn't as strict when I looked young.

comtessa · 20/09/2010 16:23

YANBU. It gets a little with the crazy. My Dad got ID'd once when he was out with me. He was 57 at the time, beard, mostly bald. It was obvious he was buying drinks for my (very young-looking) mother and I (I was 24 years old). No-one asked to see my or my mum's ID. Dad just about fell off his bar stool.

Tippychoocks · 20/09/2010 16:26

I was ID'd last year buying a bottle of Jameson whiskey. Cos that's what you drink at £20 a pop behind Toys R us. I was a very haggard 30 and had no ID - don't do credit cards and don't drive.

at your dad though comtessa

nancydrewrocked · 20/09/2010 16:30

Yanbu - it shows a complete lack of common sense on behalf of the shop assistants.

Years ago I got asked for ID buying a lottery ticket. I didn't have any but the shop assistant in teh small corner type shop had seen me pull up in my car - when I pointed this out her response was "well you could have stolen it". I mean seriously?

IveStillGotIt · 20/09/2010 16:49

nancydrewrocked- was she being serious? I've just spat coffee all over my laptop!!!
That's what I mean though, complete and utter lack of common-sense.
My mate got the "you could have stolen it" line a few years ago. She drove to garage, filled her car up with petrol, went into pay and asked for 20 cigs (the smokeing age was 16 then), was asked for I.D, never had any cause she had just moved house therefor she had sent her DL back to the DVLA so they could change the address, pointed to her car, which had her three DC'S in the back, and was accused of stealing her car!
She was sold eventually, cause she said to the woman "do you think I would have went to all the trouble of stealing a car with my three kids in tow, just to get sold a packet of fags, oh and do you really think I would pay for the petrol if the car was stolen"!!!

thereisalightanditnevergoesout · 20/09/2010 16:53

There was a woman recently (in the last 6 months) - possibly on local tv who was refused alcohol in the local off licence. She didn't have any id. She was in her 70s.

nancydrewrocked · 20/09/2010 16:59

ISGI yes she was being serious and I didn't get my ticket....

Cammelia · 20/09/2010 17:50

thereisalight, perhaps there's a law that one can now be too old to be sold drink

I could fail that test anyday soon

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