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AIBU?

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Original poster

Challenge 25 in supermarkets

154 replies

KissMyFatArse · 13/05/2015 14:09

After school run nipped into well known supermarket for groceries needed for dinner and a couple of bottles of prosecco.

Will admit I was dressed casually and with no makeup but was asked for ID at checkout. After a rummage in bag I realised I didn't have my drivers license.

Manager called over and they both admitted that I was clearly over 18 but unsure if over 25, im 32!

If they can agree I'm above the legal age(and then some!) then why refuse to serve customers?

Aibu to assume if they're happy I'm well above 18 but unsure how close (or over!) 25 I am then they should still be able to serve you as the legal age is 18?.

Surely some common sense needs to applied.

OP posts:
FryOneFatManic · 14/05/2015 21:36

sashh I think your story about the 6 foot student paying does make the point that PsychopathOnTheCyclepath was making, that taller people are assumed to be older than shorter people.

Gileswithachainsaw · 14/05/2015 22:29

The way I always viewed it was, I'll take all the shit, parents and teens can say Wtf they like with regards to whether or not they get served, but if not being served means that at that moment they can't get drunk and fall over and hurt themselves or end up in a&e with alcohol poisoning or drinking and driving then that's fine by me.

The 25 is there to cover those who would otherwise slip through the net if we all looked for U18 instead. that's a good thing Imo. For booze, for appropriate viewing material, for gambling, for cigarettes and anything else. I'll take being shouted at over serving someone who shouldn't be served.

ShinyButtons · 14/05/2015 23:39

I used to work in a supermarket and once asked a girl for ID. She didn't have any, so after huffing and puff and telling me how useless I was she left the shop. Then her mum came in to have a go as well and said she'd buy them instead which seen as she'd just told me she was buying them for her ment I still couldn't sell them without id from the daughter.
What really made worse was that the daughter had a blokey kind of hairstyle and was dressed in a very manly way and I mistook her for a boy... It did not go down well when i said he instead of she to her mother Blush
Although she'd clearly gone to some effort to achieve the manly look so I thought she could have been slightly more flattered and happy that she'd achieved what she set out to do albeit minus the fags. Grin

spillyobeans · 15/05/2015 00:10

Its really stupid. Im nearly 25, married and pregnant and got asked for id for loto ( you have to be 16!!!). But at the same time at my work we have same policy and its not worth losing your job over. And you do get tested by 'mystery shoppers'

LadyCuntingtonThe3rd · 15/05/2015 01:16

Wait. Can someone please explain me why if I AM buying drink and showing my ID, they are asking for my child's ID? If I bought it, it's mine and it's my responsibility. If I really choose to give it to teenager, I will get fined. Why shops are refusing to sell then?
Also, I found this. It doesn't mention anything about grownup who's with under 18 not allowed to buy alcohol. I am actually Confused.

alleypalley · 15/05/2015 01:18

the trading standard rule is to challenge anyone who looks under 25 and the cashier can be fined £1000 and the store upwards of £5000 which many pass on to the staff therefore whether or not they felt you looked over 18 is utterly irrelevant

No they can't be fined for that. The offence is committed when they sell to someone under 18. It is a defence that you checked ID. The "Challenge 25" thing is to remind people to check ID. If they fail to check ID, and the person they sell to is 18 years and a day old, no offence has been committed. Trading standards cannot just make law up.

This is half the problem, people either misunderstanding or misrepresenting the law. The challenge 25/21 policy is also there for companies to show due diligence, if one does slip through the net they can demonstrate that they have policies in place to prevent alcohol being sold to under 18's and that one was just the one that slipped through the net. And so are more likely to get a smaller fine, and a slap on the wrist. There is also a lot of scare mongering going on somewhere, a shop assistant or member of bar staff is not going to go to jail for a first offence.

And legally the store cannot pass on their fine to the member of staff.

alleypalley · 15/05/2015 01:34

Lady to answer your question.

It is against the law to sell alcohol to under 18s.
It is against the law for an adult to buy alcohol for an under age person.
However, retailers can reserve the right to refuse the sale of alcohol to an adult if they’re accompanied by a child and think the alcohol is being bought for the child.
So really it's nothing to do with the law, they have either been trained poorly or they are just jobsworths.

namechange0dq8 · 15/05/2015 01:49

It is against the law for an adult to buy alcohol for an under age person.

But it is not illegal for an adult to buy alcohol and serve it to someone aged between five and eighteen (I think an offence is committed if you hand the bottle over in exchange for money, but I'm not a solicitor who could presumably define it more tightly).

That's what's ludicrous about supermarkets getting arsey with people buying alcohol while accompanied by their children. You can serve the booze you have bought to your teenage children, indeed you can serve the booze you have bought to your distinctly less than teenage children. It is completely insane to argue that there is a licensing, legal or public policy argument for harassing parents buying booze as part of their weekly shop when accompanied by their children. And let's not have all the nonsense about "normalising" alcohol: outside the world of the obsessives, it is normal.

OrlandoWoolf · 15/05/2015 08:46

If someone refused to sell me alcohol because I had a teenage child with me, I would make a scene. I would involve the management. I would not be arsey but I would explain the facts. If they still refused to sell, I would make sure that they knew it would be escalated. And I would leave my shopping there.

Common sense needs to be applied as well. Something lacking with some people.

GreenPetal94 · 15/05/2015 08:48

I got IDed at 40, one of my best days!

HellKitty · 15/05/2015 08:50

The lotto one is odd. DS (17) can buy a scratch card but can't cash it in if it wins.

MrsJohnHarrison · 15/05/2015 08:52

The store AND the person who sold to an underager would both get fined. The store fine is bigger.

spillyobeans · 15/05/2015 09:14

hellkitty i was perplexed, i obviously must look like a pregnant, tattooed child Hmm

LadyCuntingtonThe3rd · 15/05/2015 10:06

Ah, okay. So it's once again - shops being dicks. Right.
I'd probably do the same as Orlando said. It's just ridiculous.

knittingdad · 15/05/2015 10:25

Time was, not that long ago, when I was able, underage, to buy alcohol in a pub for my even younger brother. For some reason the government have decided they want to actually enforce the law, and this is the way in which they and the retailers have gone about raising the thresholds for checking ID.

The paranoid cynical part of me sees it as an underhand way of forcing everyone to carry ID with them, but maybe I should just see about brewing my own.

The really unreasonable cases are when they won't sell to people who have brought their children along to shop with them, on the basis that they might give the alcohol to their children. That would effectively make it impossible for parents to ever drink alcohol at home, and we'd be in all sorts of trouble if that were the case...

OrlandoWoolf · 15/05/2015 10:30

DS (9) is particularly good at choosing wine for me. He knows I like Merlot and that New Zealand, Australia or California are good choices. Price £7 or less.

No law against that, is there Grin

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 15/05/2015 10:45

DD1 used to choose my wine based on the prettiness or otherwise of the bottle when she was small. Now 17 yo DD2 has to lurk away from the tills if there's wine in the shopping in case they get arsey.

Actually thinking about it she's going to have to sort out some kind of ID as she's not able to get a driving licence (medical condition) - what is there that's not a passport?

Gileswithachainsaw · 15/05/2015 10:50

a citizen card. Smile

Dani240 · 15/05/2015 10:55

I'm 25 and I got asked for ID at the weekend when buying a bottle of wine with my husband and twin sister. They both had ID. I am heavily pregnant and was obviously not going to be the one drinking the wine! They absolutely refused to use their discretion. I agree that common sense should be applied.

I used to be an underage sales tester for Trading Standards. You had to be at least 18 months younger than the age limit for the product (e.g. no older than 16 1/2 to do the alcohol testing - I was 14 at the time) and if someone asked "Are you 18?" you weren't allowed to say yes. The vendor would really have to not give a fuck to fail the test.

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 15/05/2015 10:57

ta Giles. Although there seems to be another one as well, also an "official UK" one. I'll get her to research it I think.

nokidshere · 15/05/2015 11:27

I got asked for id in Tesco recently. I told the cashier she really needed to visit specsavers!!!! I might (in the right lighting) pass for a 40 something but, at 53 years old there is no way on earth I could be classed as under 25!

nokidshere · 15/05/2015 11:40

actually I just remembered about the strepsils!!! I was buying some in our small local supermarket a few months ago for my son who had a sore throat. So I asked for the strepsils, then turned to my strapping 6 foot something nearly 17 year old (complete with zits and a fluffy beard) and asked him what flavour he would like. She refused to sell them to me because he was under age! No amount of discussion would induce her to sell them to me - even though they quite clearly state that they are for age 12 and up.

FryOneFatManic · 15/05/2015 19:05

Strepsils - I found the following info just now:

"The active ingredient in Strepsils is Dextromethorphan,which can (in largish quantities) be hallucinogenic,which I am sure youngsters have discovered.
This is why Supermarkets(and possibly Pharmacies etc) have an age check on it."

Gruntfuttock · 15/05/2015 19:27

In Morrisons the assistant at the pharmacy refused to sell me Co-Codamol. She told me I'd have to ask my doctor to write a letter saying that I was allowed them! I only wanted one sodding packet!

PandaMummyofOne · 15/05/2015 20:05

I see both sides of the argument. It is annoying when you are legally buying the product but it exists for a reason.

That being said I was pregnant at 23, it was DF's birthday and as an extra present I nipped into the local supermarket to get him a bottle of Jack Daniels. I got asked for ID, which was duly handed over, and they still refused to serve me based on my pregnancy!

Never mind I had a birthday card and bottle bag at the same time cue a very hormonal breakdown and the kindly, elderly, gentleman behind me giving them a lot of grief. Got some free voucher for the upset, which I insisted the gentleman had for helping and believing me

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