Shopping in a budget store for wine with a grown up child

[Jenny2710]

She is 24 Iam much older, verging on 60, big shop after a holiday, can't buy alcohol as she does not have id , my shop, my card, what is going on.? Has anyone else had had this? So confused? Annoyed!

I'm not advocating giving alcohol to children but isn't it legal to give children over 5 a small amount of alcohol in the home?

In which case, why does it matter if th3 cashier suspects some of the alcohol being bought might be for them?

I'm not being flippant, just asking.

Thanks for answering my earlier questions!

In which case, why does it matter if th3 cashier suspects some of the alcohol being bought might be for them?

Because the legal age to buy alcohol is 18. If there's any money exchanged in it (whether thats DS asking you to keep his pocket money and pick him up beer instead), you're 'selling' the alcohol. If a cashier suspects you're going to sell to a minor and sells anyway then they're complicit in a 'crime'.

Additionally, if a cashier sells to an under 18 and gets caught they're going to get the sack, potentially a fine of up to £5k and even jail time is on the punishment list. They aren't risking their job and a clean DBS check to ensure you get your vino.

blackteasplease its illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under 18 or to attempt to buy it or buy it for anyone under 18.
So if the cashier suspects this or has evidence etc the transaction go ahead.
If you let a 16 year old taste some when you get home thats not illegal so carry on. But the store cannot knowingly sell it to a underage person or someone attempting to purchase on the behalf of said underage person. What you do with it in your own home is up to you. If that makes sense.xx

*transaction cant go ahead

Blackteas once you have bought alcohol, what you do with it is your choice ... if you choose to give it to your 5 year old in your own home then that's on you. If however you are buying the alcohol on behalf of a child (aka someone under the age of 18) then it is a "proxy sale" which is illegal as it is an offence to buy or attempt to buy alcohol on behalf someone under the age of 18. If a cashier knows or suspects that the person buying the alcohol is attempting to make a proxy sale then they have the right to refuse service if it means not aiding someone in committing an offence.

So buying alcohol for yourself but letting someone under 18 have some at home, fine because that is your responsibility and the cashier is not given any indication that you will be doing that. Buying alcohol with the express intention of giving it to someone 18 is an offence and knowingly allowing the transaction to be completed, the cashier would also be committing an offence

I park my burly, 5' 8 son outside in the car park these days when we visit the UK & are in a supermarket, for fear his presence will kibosh my buying a bottle of wine.

Obviously, I could sink a bottle of scotch with him the minute we were on private premises & that's quite legal. He's just turned 13.

We live in a notionally dry country overseas. Ds is usually the one who signs on my behalf for the booze delivery, as it's ordered on a weekend along with the takeaway he & his sisters are expecting. This is fine.

Truly, the law is an ass in the UK. I've no issue at all with being asked for ID in my 40s. No problem. Just ask for id for ALL liquor sales & save the cashier having to make a judgement, would make sense to me.

But if I'm dodgily buying booze for an underage drinker, I'd make them wait outside in the car park, no?

Just like I now do with my ds. Who won't be getting a sniff of the booze but now can't amble round tesco with me & help carry the bags.

It's utterly a daft set up. I'm an ex pub landlady, so I've checked id for hundreds of people. The responsibility should fairly end at point of sale... & that's without the fact that having bought your booze, be it babycham or Absinthe, you can quite legally hand it over to the teenager you've told to skulk in the car park as soon as you're home.

I did once walk out of Tesco and leave 2 full trolly loads of Christmas food shop at the till when they refused to sell me the wine I was getting for Christmas Dinner. DD was with me and she had come along to help.

So now, if I'm buying a bottle of wine at a supermarket - I send her off to lurk somewhere to pretend she doesn't know me. She is happy to oblige

But if I'm dodgily buying booze for an underage drinker, I'd make them wait outside in the car park, no?

You'd think so, but not always ... like I said upthread, it's not unheard of for a parent to come through a checkout and ask their 17/18 year old a question that shows the alcohol is for them. As soon as I know it's for them I have to refuse the sale if they can't prove they're over 18.

Also you have people come in and do just that - send their kids out so they don't get IDed ... but they do it in the vicinity of the checkout so the cashier or checkout supervisor can see/hear them. If you do that then to the cashier you are acting suspiciously, as if the alcohol wasn't for the teenager, you wouldn't be sending them out, so you must be sending them out to stop them being IDed, ergo this could be a proxy sale and therefore they should refuse the sale.

But if I'm dodgily buying booze for an underage drinker, I'd make them wait outside in the car park, no?

You'd think that, but what plenty of them do is come over to the till, hand over their coins to the one with ID right in front of you, then try and pay. People are very, very stupid at times.

Betsy you are not correct licensing laws state, you can refuse or ID if you think the 'child' with the person purchasing the alcohol might be having the alcohol bought for them.

Sorry my post to Betsy was from the first page!

I could however, legally take my 16 yr old child to the same Tesco cafe and buy him a glass of wine, beer or cider to have with his dinner.

The shop I work in has a think 25 policy, if you daughter doesn't look 25 and is with you she will be asked for ID especially I she was seen holding the alcohol at any time. The shop is correct, they could get a hearty fine or prison sentence I she isn't.

Blanket ID policies are probably the way to go. Even if it does lead to situations like my FIL not really believing us that he wouldn't be able to buy a drink without his passport when he visited us in the US, despite being visibly over three times the legal minimum age

Also you have people come in and do just that - send their kids out so they don't get IDed ... but they do it in the vicinity of the checkout so the cashier or checkout supervisor can see/hear them. If you do that then to the cashier you are acting suspiciously, as if the alcohol wasn't for the teenager, you wouldn't be sending them out, so you must be sending them out to stop them being IDed, ergo this could be a proxy sale and therefore they should refuse the sale.

I don't send mine out to stop them getting id'd I send them out so I can buy my bottle of wine in peace without having to prove I'm not buying it for them

Has happened to me/us on numerous occasions. Dd2 was shopping for her 21st party with her sister (13) in tow because it was her school holiday. They were supposed to buy about 6 cases of pretty decent wine, plus food. Not allowed. I had to stop on my way home to get them. Dd2 had ID - what 13 yo drinks 3 cases of decent Malbec in the car park, having bought it with their Gold Amex? Along with about £150 of food?

Bought wine for dad's 89th birthday party and was questioned as dd3 was pushing the trolley for me. I'm 53! I had spent loads on food too - afternoon tea for 30. I appreciate there are rules, but I look as boring as they come. Certainly bot buying it for my youngest!

In contrast, ds was dropping same little sister off at Scout camp and stopped at Waitrose on the way to buy beer for a party. No questioning, they thought he was dad!! Didn't even ask for ID! He was 19 at the time, his little sister 12. Woman even said, "Ooh, weekend off for daddy" He doesn't look that old!

dippingmytoesin i am correct and iv explained exactly what you commented on in many posts.
Yes of course they can id the other person if they believe alcohol is for them other times common sense needs to be used.

Buying alcohol with your children (or anyone without ID is fine. You don't have to ID everyone in the party.

If the cashier has reason to believe that orher people in the party will consume the alcohol or be given it, they can ask for ID. For example, if the whole party with people who look under 25 goes to the alcohol section to select wine, this might be flagged up by a worker at that end of the shop and the cashier may be advised that it's likely the whole party is purchasing alcohol together.

If two people come in and buy solely alcohol, a cashier might reasonably assume that alcohol will be consumed by the two people in the party and if they both look under 25 will be IDd

Someone who is doing a big shop with their child (whatever age) normally won't be ID'd.

As a cashier, it also makes sense to err on the side of caution because no one wants a criminal record for serving alcohol to a minor.

hula008 you're ignoring what we're all telling you about our experiences.

Lots of shops are treating JUST doing a normal family shop with a child in tow, as "reason to believe" in itself.

I've been doing large grocery shops with various of my DC for 20 years. I just fill a trolley with food and sometimes I also stick a bottle of wine or some real ale in the trolley.

Just going around the supermarket in the normal way. I dontdiscuss alcohol purchases with my children (maybethe adult one now sometimes but they have ID now). I just shop and chat to whichever DC is with me. Normal dull miming.

Posters can explain until you're blue in the face how it SHOULD work. We all KNOW how it should work.

The problem is it doesnt work like that in many chains. Some extreme over-zealousness is going on.

Tesco and cooperative are particularly bad BTW.

SerfTerf when I was 18 and working for not significantly above minimum wage in a mind numbing job, I didn't particularly care about over zealousness, just about not breaking the law.

It is absolutely not true true that everyone in the party needs ID for an alcohol sale, its an off licence not an on licence.

You just have to follow the law.

Randomly accusing parents of intending to supply alcohol to their children WITHOUT reasonable cause is plain weird and very bad for business.

The thing is, I am now inevitably behaving suspiciously by plonking ds outside so I can buy my plonk!

Anyone clocking me doing that would quite fairly think I'm buying him something I shouldn't be. He's one of those stocky, resting thug face kids that looks like he breaks the arms of people Draco Malfoy doesn't like, tbh, despite actually being a nerdy, gentle soul, so he's got no chance .

Whereas I am, in fact, leaving him outside so his mere bag carrying presence doesn't trigger an over zealous Challenge 45 or whatever it now is.

Fair cop if I were standing there asking 'Ds, Stella or special brew?' but I'm awfully sick of being mucked about when I'm making an entirely legitimate purchase, & all the poor lad is doing is slouching behind my trolley to help with the bags...

Tesco cashier once refused to sell me chicken tikka pieces as the till said she needed to "think 25". I was 38yo but had no ID. I pointed out the till was crazy and you don't need to be 18yo to buy chicken but she wasn't having it. I had to get a supervisor over!