Getting Asked for ID When Buying ALCOHOL FREE BEER!

[0FrillyKnickers0]

Right.

Before andyone suggests that the till lady was "just doing her job", I totally understand that she was just doing her job (although she could've been nicer), I understand that she was just doing her job. This is not a moan at checkout staff, but at the morons who imposed this rule.

I am 27 weeks pregnant and the weather is super hot. So, I went out with my husband to do the weekly shop and decided to buy some Becks Blue (as it has to be the best AF beer ever). We got to the checkout and she put through all our shopping (veg, meat, cereal...all good sensible stuff) and then she put through the alcohol free beer (we weren't buying any real alcohol, just the Becks Blue). She looked at DH(24) and asked for ID, I snickered to myself as it was AF beer, she then said "I don't know what you're laughing about, I need to see some for you too". I'm 25. Only problem was that although DH had ID (and passed this age test), I didn't have any on me as I didn't think I would need it FOR BUYING ALCOHOL FREE BEER. Well...she wouldn't let us buy it! Neither would her manager.

Needless to say I was pretty pissed off. Apparently it has 0.01% alcohol in which is why they ask for ID. Of course that makes sense because I'm going to get toatlly hammered on a 6 pack of Becks Blue, aren't I .

Seriously. Who are the nitwits that decided to impose such a stupid rule? I bet they don't ID people when buying aftershave which, most likely, has more alcohol in than 0.01%!

Moan over.

I was ID'd last winter - aged 40 - buying a jar of raspberries in rum. Because that's what all the cool teenagers are getting smashed on down the park on a Friday night...

I get this a lot - I buy alcohol free or .5% wine all the time. Usually it doesn't bother me and the cashier will laugh at how silly it is. I did get a bit angry a while back when someone took it on herself to lecture me and SIL about buying a half-dozen bottles of 0.5% wine along with a pregnancy test for me. I would have thought it a bit rude to comment if we'd been buying full-strength wine and a pregnancy test but when it is de-alcoholized it is really stupid!

However, lots of people are very militant. I posted on here a year or so ago about de-alc wine and got a load of preachy replies insisting it was still very, very bad.

I had exactly the same thing happen with alcohol free Kopparberg a few days ago in Sainsbos. The cashier had a complete strop with me about why hadn't I brought any ID with me... Because I'm 26 and buying fizzy pear juice perhaps, love? So I made her wait whilst I went back into the store and bought a bottle of Bass shandy... which actually contained alcohol but went through the till with no problems whatsoever. Madness.

Orange juice has an alcohol content?! Wow. Really? Ten times the beer?

That'd be 5% would it not? If Becks is .5% alcohol (I thought it was?)

OJ does have an alcohol content but fairly sure it's not 10 x .5%!

iirc it's because anything made with natural fruit sugars ferments a tiny bit and produces alcohol.

E.g. most Fentiman's natural drinks have a low alcohol content, even the lemonade and ginger beer.

Ahhh .. ok, I lie anyway, Becks is 0.05, not .5. I still find it a bit unlikely OJ has ten times that, TBH.

LRD all the cool dragons are down with the TeeTotal

The preachiness about AF drinks being bad really annoys me, especially as the preachers are nearly always either pg and moaning that they can't have a real drink or they are admitting they drink a bottle if wine a night

i got IDed buying broccoli once, or at least I think that;s what it was. I was putting it through a self scan thing and the light went on for the assistant to come and put her code in

Oh,are you another non-drinker honey? Nice to have company!

(No excuse for sober lederhosen, though!)

OP here Just checked ABV on Becks Blue and it's 0.05%

Yes LRD, you can often feel in a minority on mnet when you admit it

Personally it's the Broccoli abusers you have to watch Stealth , terrible they are

I'm getting used to it

FWIW, I believe it's not legal to mark something up as having less than 0.05% alcohol? I can't remember where I read that so I may be wrong, but I seem to remember reading it's one of those situations where lots of de-alc stuff has 'trace' amounts of alcohol and all mark it up the same way. Is that right?

I'm 29 and get ID'd all the time, WELL ANNOYING.

And highly embarrassing if I don't have any.

Let's face it though, I actually feel quite smug about it.

Oh yes and I once got ided when buying wine. Fine, I was fairly young, abt 20. I offered my driving licence. It was no good as it didn't have my photo on. It didn't have my photo on as I was of an age where they didn't issue photo licences!

My student ID, annoyingly, has no date on but says 'over 25'. They're never allowed to accept it since it doesn't have my date of birth on it.

Hush with your youthful boasting

The cashier doesn't give me a second glance as they press the button to confirm over 25. Not even a pretend one to be kind to me.

enjoy it while you can because soon enough they'll be pressing that button without even looking at you.

2nd time - buying alcohol free beer and cashier was asking another one could she sell it to me.

Nope it means the cashier is under 18 and techniccally can't sell it to you. The telling the supervisor is to say it is OK for them not you.

yes I really really really think you should get asked for id when buying orange juice as well, it's disgusting that you don't

LRD &Revolting* - OJ alcohol content is 0.1%. The OP described the AF beer she was trying to buy as having a content of 0.01%. That's 10x in my book.

I see both sides of this. If a cashier gets it wrong then their jobs are on the line. On the other hand I was id'd for a decent single bottle of red (not exactly teenage binge fodder) I normally have my driving licence on me but it was getting renewed due it my having it for over 10 years so I am not exactly a border line case! (i then had to row to get my car park money refunded as I had not got anything in store!)

I got id'd in Morrison's for calpol! Luckily I had my id on me but when did calpol become id-able?! It's for 2 month plus and I wasn't buying it for a 1 month old that was waiting for me round the corner as they couldnt get served

Tesco also wouldn't serve me for cigs in the petrol station as my id was out of date but in the store they did

mal - yes, but I think becks blue has 0.05% (no? Seems to say so on the side), and ten times that would be .5. A quick google also comes up with a lot of sites suggesting OJ has less than that, anyway ? I think you're assuming it's a fixed amount but it looks as if the figure comes from someone running spot checks on orange juice in the states and finding variable levels depending how much it fermented. I doubt there's a huge worry drinking normal orange juice.

oh there is, all the local youths at out park are always drinking orange juice and smoking spiderman fags. I don't know what the world is coming to

Forces ID cards, which have a picture and a date of birth aren't allowed as stealth id either when buying pretty much anything it seems alcohol

It isn't just the tiny amount of alcohol in the alcohol free beers that cause it to be age restricted. Part of the age restriction is because it is designed to look like other beers. Unless you read the label you would think it was just another beer. The resoning behind it is if a child likes the taste and gets used to it then they are more likely to move onto regular strength alcohol etc. before they are of regulation age and that leads to alcohol problems etc.

The checkout operator has to ask for i.d. if they are in any doubt to your age. If they sell to an underage person they can get fined, go to jail and lose their job. Challenge 25 was brought in because some 16/17 year olds look like they are much older.

In America some states you have to look over 40 to buy alcohol, and a few everyone has to show i.d.