to think Tescos new rule about alcohol is pointless?

[HotCrossCervix]

They wouldn't sell me a bottle of Merlot because I had a teenager with me.

1. A 16 year old is highly unlikely to be swigging merlot. If the adult were purchasing booze for said teenager, vodka or barcardi breezers would be more likely.

1. What if I had a toddler or 8 year old with me? Would they have refused to sell me my wine?

1. The rule is completely pointless. All I did was tell the teenager to wait outside for me, then I went to a different till and bought my wine. I could have done exactly the same and then passed it straight over to the teenager to swig illegally.

So. Completely pointless and nobbish.

And is it a real rule? or just the till chap being an arse? and what are the details of the rule? Any child at all? Any child over 10? Anyone with a moody teenager in tow?

There's a joke in there cardibach about people who work in Tesco not comprehending that it is possible to be 18 and still at school although I thought A Level students wore their own clothes because they are not bright enough to do A Levels, but that is obviously not the case anyway, as plenty of A Level and University students work part time in supermarkets while they are studying and all the supermarkets have graduate trainee manager programmes that presumably involves having a go at all aspects of working in supermarkets.

That matters not one bit. I know plenty of university educated people with out a single iota of common sense.

And it's common sense that's needed when applying these rules.

There is a really limited list of ID you can accept - it's shown on the till and you have to choose one. I think it was passport, drivers licence, army ID or something called a Citizen Card for teenagers.

When I was about 28 I tried to buy a bottle of wine in Tesco and faced the same sort of thing when my mum tried to buy it instead. They said she was trying to provide a minor with alcohol. It's bloody ridiculous.

Not at DDs school, Ilkley. Full on shirt and tie uniform for them. It dies say on the cardigan/jumper/blazer that they are in the sixth from, though...

I was ID'd in Sainsburys a few years back just before xmas. On my own with a full shop a couple of bottles of wine.

I make it a point not to carry ID. When she refused to sell it to me I refused to buy the food and walked away.

I am 35. Flattering as it might be, I definitely do not look under 25. And anyway, isn't the legal age for buying alcohol in this county 18? So at 35 I was nearly twice the legal age.

Tits.

Oh and guess who I didn't do my big xmas shop with that year ?

It's OK Cardibach, I wasn't accusing you of not knowing how old your DD was .

But what do I know, I left school over 20 years ago and don't have any DCs anyway. I bet they don't call it the sixth form when you do A Levels anymore anyway?

There is a really limited list of ID you can accept - it's shown on the till and you have to choose one. I think it was passport, drivers licence, army ID or something called a Citizen Card for teenagers.

Theoretically speaking I think that PASS card can be used but very few places actually accept them .

My local sainsburys used to only accept UK passports thus preventing a good 20% of the population from purchasing alcohol. Racist, much?

I'd be a bit more understanding if they also stopped fat people buying junk food.

Very few places accept the PASS card, even though it is supposedly endorsed by the home office.

On the website it says (in the small print) that you might have to supply back up ID, such as a passport and I'll be buggered if I'm paying £70 for something just so dd can buy booze.

you know, my ex was skinny as a rake but had dangerously high blood pressure. I don't think there's any need for that proscriptive attitude. if it was a joke, epic fail. if you're serious, you're out of order.

Nothing like this has ever happened bme, thankfully, but my sister did have difficulty buying vanilla extract a couple of years ago, due to the alcohol content. She was 42 at the time

Well, treaclesods that's so ridiculous that I hope no checkout operators are going to try to defend it. They might do tho'.

Ooops! treaclesoda not treaclesods.

Me and DH (early 30s) did our weekly food shop. Spent £87, and included in the shop was ONE SINGULAR 250ml bottle of rose wine. That tiny individual bottle. I was paying for the shop, and the cashier ID'd me. I handed it over. She asked if DH had ID (and he looks in his 30s, easily) and he said no, so she reused to sell it is to us.
I politely said that my understanding was that since I was purchasing the alcohol, she could only refuse to serve me it if she believed It was intended for a minor, and did that mean she really thought that big burly DH was going to drink the lovely rose wine, and if it was a six pack of beer maybe she could say she could reasonably believe he would consume it, but surely not a 250ml bottle of rose? She refused anyway, so we paid for the shop and DH went to the car with it all.

As we were walking off, I realised I had his driving licence in my purse so I went back to the till with my 250ml bottle and and said "silly me, I had his ID all along!", and she said he had to present his own ID to her (he was no longer with me) and she couldn't serve me the alcohol unless he came back to present his own ID to her, and me holding it wasn't enough. I gave up at that point. Some cashiers are jobsworths, some are reasonable.

treaclesods !

Yes, dsis was buying her groceries and is a keen baker, so it would have been pretty clear she was going to bake a cake, not go on some kind of vanilla extract drinking bender

Its all down to human factor. I was refused not only booze, but DH was refused fireworks as he might give them to DC. FFS. Bloody ridiculous. I just try to remember the friendly assistants and go to them.

My friend was buying a scratch card at Tesco and she asked her 3 year old daughter what colour did she think would be lucky. The 3 year old mentioned her favourite colour and the checkout chick refused to sell it to her because she was "buying it for a minor".

FFS etc.

all parties have to have ID not just the person buying it

Some parents do buy alcohol for their kids and are pretty blatant about it. Just throwing that out there.

And the comments about common sense always annoy me. Checkout staff are treated like robots and/or monkeys. They aren't given the luxury of being allowed to use their common sense. These are places where you get lectured for not following the script with people who are obviously in a rush or obviously don't want a chat. As if they'd be allowed to apply common sense to something that could affect alcohol licences when they aren't allowed to assess customer needs in simple ways.

did that mean she really thought that big burly DH was going to drink the lovely rose wine, and if it was a six pack of beer maybe she could say she could reasonably believe he would consume it, but surely not a 250ml bottle of rose?

Really? YABU. DH is a burly, 6 foot bloke. He buys wine, for him...I don't like wine.

Alcohol is alcohol...it's really not 'to be expected' that wine would be for the woman.

I don't get this at all. I regularly buy loads of alcohol at my local, enormous Tesco, with my 16 year old DD in tow and have never been asked for ID for myself or for her and never been refused.

My DD looks 16, not younger or older. I am in the South East. Is it just my Tesco that is lax or is this a regional thing?

Well it had never happened to me before today.

I am thoroughly peeved about it all.

My thoughts exactly, DD1(16) is a very good trolly unloaded and bag packer. DD2(13) is a jolly good trolly pusher.

Fortunately our supermarkets haven't been this stupid yet and I doubt they will be.

MC area where the customers will call the manager, will make a fuss and will waste so much of the shops time it seriously isn't worth it.

Most of us drive 5-15 miles to the supermarket is no skin off the customers nose to spend their £100 a week in Sainsbury's, Morrison's, ASDA or Waitrose. We have too many supermarkets. We do not have to use annoying ones.