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 got asked for ID for petrol once weirdly a lot of the time now I get asked for proof of age if I'm doing a whole shop including loo roll veg and mince but not if I'm just buying a wine or whatever. Then they will let the shop through DP will go to pay they'll see me and think oop, she looks young better check and he will have to show his too

Didn't bother reading the thread, came here after reading the OP.

Nothing makes me angrier than a customer who makes a complaint that can be boiled down to "there was a policy I didn't like, and the shop assistant upheld it".

Do you think we like being argued with? Do you think we set these policies ourselves? Do you think we sit out the back laughing at the customers we "got one over on" with these rules? Because none of that is true.

We're just as at the mercy of corporate whimsy as you are. The difference is, there's a certain kind of customer who seems to think it's okay to use us as whipping boys/complain about us/tell us we're unreasonable for doing as we're told.

They walk into a store and all they care about is themselves. Do they not think we're already doing everything we can to make sure you don't complain about us? Do they not think our days go better/more smoothly/faster when customers treat us well? Do they not think we do all we can to give them what they want so they don't have a reason to go off on us? No, they don't. They don't give a crap if we get in trouble, don't care if we get fired, couldn't care less if we can FEED ourselves. All they want, is what they want, right now, and devil take the hindmost.

I am so sick of being treated like I do these things just to piss people off. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I need to stay employed, so I have to do as I'm told.

If you don't like the policies, by all means write to corporate. But for the love of crimeny, people need to STOP barking at shop assistants who have no choice but to follow policy, and no choice but to stand there and take abuse they don't deserve.

If that happened to me i would be perfectly polite to the shop assistant (not their fault they have to follow stupid rules) but would leave the trolley full of shopping at the till and do my shopping elsewhere.

I had no idea about this. How peculiar. Will take note!

We were not rude to the assistant and said we understood it is not her fault she is just doing her job, we were flabbergasted had never heard of this policy before.
Still think it is ridiculous that we were refused the purchase.
My daughter is 25 in less than a month, she was just helping load the shopping on the conveyor belt. We won't go back and have complained to Aldi directly, but didn't get any sense from them. This is the third time I have had poor experiences in this store, once they didn't take a tag off some meat and this set alarms ringing. They seem to cut corners too much which leads to a poor experience for customers.sorry if you have to work in that environment.
Waitrose here we come.

f you have people with you and they are not over 18 with ID then the shop can't sell you alcohol. E.g you can't but a bottle of wine if your 10 yo kid is standing at the till with you

Utter nonsense. If this was true none of us could buy booze when shopping with our kids, and clearly a great number of us do.

And why would you need to ID people you think might be given the alcohol? If am over 18 it is perfectly legal for me to buy alcohol and give it to my children at home, if I choose to. It breaks no laws and the shop has no role in that.

It's not actually nonsense. Okay it's one thing when a mom comes through with a toddler and a bottle of wine. But when a group of maybe adults comes through the law is that we check EVERYONE. You might think there's room for discretion. Our managers say there's not.

You can be like that,, you can be flabbergasted and pearl-clutchy and shocked that policies exist. You can post your little "well I never" posts on the internet to express your outrage that out got held to the same standards as everyone else. You can threaten take your business elsewhere.

But you sound like a twat.

It was a minor inconvenience that wasn't conducted AT you, that you're making a bigger issue than it was by posting and moaning etc. Unclench.

That you**

Bastarding phone.

Oh dear. So angry. We have shopped there for a few years, have shopped in other supermarkets for decades have never had this before. That's my point. I did not mean to induce such vitriol. End of.

This is not utter nonsense. I mean, it is utter nonsense because it's a ridiculous policy but it happened to my mum in a Morrisons once when I was shopping with her. I was 21!

faithinthesound - it isn't the law, it's your store's policy.

People shouldn't get upset with shop assistants, but I don't see why people shouldn't be allowed to criticize a business's policies. I don't see why it makes them a 'twat' either.

A policy that doesn't allow for any real exercise of common sense is going to piss people off at times.

It's not the law that everyone has to be id'd in a group.

And supermarket employers who are training staff in an area that does have sone laws and legalities should be training them accurately so they know what is law and what is store/company policy.

@BuzzKillington and @Betsyboo87 my aunt used to work in a wine bar in a part of America that had that policy ID wise - she told me her manger explained to her when training that there was a problem with a specific drug (I can't remember which one!) in that state that, after prolonged usage, aged people horrifically which was why it was in place!

Also just to back up other posters that it will vary between stores (even within the same company) and individual colleagues. Some colleagues will be more militant about it than others and some stores (like ours currently) will have managers who are really hot on people's heels about it because they'll have failed an internal/external test. There are a few grey areas that managers used to sidestep when I asked them about it and mumble something about individual discretion - for example, as with here, parents shopping with children who are teens/early 20s or teens/kids buying films/games that are 12 or 15 who obviously may not have ID other than a passport which they're unlikely to have on them.

One of our internal tests was failed years ago because a colleague served a parent with their 10 year old a 12 film and didn't ask for proof of age of the child. IME parents go nuts when you do that so I would have failed because I normally wouldn't because I don't appreciate the barrage of abuse you inevitably get for it!

Trust us retail colleague that we probably agree with you about it being ridiculous and probably have sympathy for how annoying it is (especially if you're polite about it) but we have managers breathing down our necks and would rather avoid a disciplinary at best and a fine/prison sentence at worst!

This seems like a ridiculous policy. I do all my shopping with DD (17mos). Sometimes I buy alcohol (I have visible grey hair- nobody ID's me any more!). Do they not assume I'm buying the wine for DD? Why discriminate against someone having an adult child with them?! You could give the alcohol to anyone if you were insane enough to (I actually saw parents of a 6yo buy her a WKD in a pub which she drank in front of me!!!). I'd argue age discrimination on this one and ask to see the store policy. And the manager. Speak to someone senior at head office. It's getting barmy now. Are they going to have store detectives start following people back to their vehicles to see what alcohol starved teens they've got stashed there... Idiots.

I have a picture of their passport on my phone. Even though they have changed considerably over the past 4 years it's amazing how many retailer accept this.

Others I pay for the food stuff, leave the store, leave the dc with the food and go back in and come out with only booze. Cashiers who we know won't accept the photo, dc leaves the line.

ragdoll I'd do the same tbh. I can imagine myself sighing, tipping all my shopping bags out onto the till area and walking out, boycotting the store from then on. If they're going to act like arses, so can we.

SoPass reminds me when I was refused alcohol free wine due to not having ID on me. Absolutely barmy.

Theresnonamesleft great idea, hope I remember it when DD looks old enough to be suspected of being a coconspirator

nobody ID's me any more!). Do they not assume I'm buying the wine for DD? Why discriminate against someone having an adult child with them?

It's a balance of probability and common sense ... mum and 1yo daughter, it is extremely improbable that the wine is for the baby and if mum appears over 25 (Challenge 25 policy) there's no need to ID either of them.

Mum and 21 year old daughter, it is not improbable that any alcohol may be consumed by both of the people doing the shopping, especially if they're having conversations about the stuff on the conveyor and it sounds like the shop is a "joint" shop, so if the cashier wants to ID both of them, to cover their own back by following the Challenge 25 rule, they are entitled to do so. If it's a mum and her 21yo daughter and the 21yo is clearly just along to give their mum a hand with the shopping, some cashiers would use their discretion to not ID either of them as the 21 yo is not part of the transaction and the mum is clearly over 25.

Mum and older teenager, it is not impossible that the mum is buying the alcohol for them but it is improbable that the bottle of rioja going through with the weekly shop is for the teenager therefore most cashiers wouldn't ID them. However, if the cashier believes or overhears a conversation which infers that the alcohol is for the teens (eg overhearing the mum ask something as simple as "Did I get the right flavour of Koppaberg?") then it is an indicator that the alcohol may be for the teens and therefore they should be IDed too ...

melj ah common sense, that old chestnut. Varies hugely from person to person. Many over zealous cashiers from this thread. If it's a possibility it should all be treated the same. As someone said have a blanket ID rule for all in that case. You absolutely cannot assume what people are doing, referencing the horrifying WKD swigging 6yo. It's far more worrying that people could be buying alcohol for their toddler than their teenager. I would have found an alcopop drinking 6yo hard to believe had I not seen it with my own eyes. People will do all sorts of stuff. So let's assume the worst and do a comprehensive arse covering rule for shops.

As someone said have a blanket ID rule for all in that case.

Do you know how much grief we get off people if they get IDed under the current Challenge 25 policy? There's no way anyone would introduce a blanket ID rule because all the retail staff would quit after a day of getting yelled at by all the 40 year olds who are clearly over 18 but who now need ID to prove it under the new rule and would rather abandon their entire shopping and "Go somewhere else" than show me the driving licence I can see is in their purse next to their debit card.

Also, your blanket rule would cover the sale of alcohol, but still doesn't cover your "what about if they go home and give it to a 6 year old" scenario, so how do you propose we combat that?

You absolutely cannot assume what people are doing

It's not about assuming what people are doing once they leave the store, it's about knowing what is happening in front of you, as the transaction is occurring. Once we sell you the alcohol, what you do with it is your business. If you choose to take a bottle of vodka home and that evening you go on to do shots with your 5 year old, that is on you and it is not our responsibility to theorise as to what you might do with the alcohol.

HOWEVER, it is an offence to knowingly supply alcohol to a minor, so if during the course of the transaction we have reason to believe it is a proxy sale (aka sale purely for intent to provide it to someone under 18) because of the customer's own actions - whether that's the behaviour of the people involved, discussions overheard or some other action - that the cashier (or another colleague) has personally witnessed, then we have to apply the balance of probability as to whether this alcohol will be supplied to someone other than the person paying for it, and if the people it has been indicated will be the ones consuming it are present and look under 25, they are subject to being IDed

melj seems they have the blanket rule in (at least) some US states and it doesn't seem to cause dramatics there. I don't feel sorry for till staff. Every customer facing role has its challenges. I'm personally not rude to till staff but I'm not going to hold their hand if someone is. If you don't like the challenges of working in a customer facing role, get a job where you don't have to instead of moaning about customers and feeling sorry for yourself.

Blanket rules are fine when they're the standard ... when they're brought in they cause chaos and brings out the worst in people.

Yes every job has it's challenges but I can't just get a new job just like like that because some people think that they can treat me like shit because they have issues with policies I have no control over.

I work in customer services and I love my job, most days. But that doesn't mean that there are never customers that make me want to just walk out because I cannot deal with their shit any more. I don't because I need my job to keep my DD fed and the roof over our heads and it's not like you can just walk into a new job around here.

I have been patronised, humiliated, screamed at, sworn at, called a cunt amongst other things, threatened (with both them reporting me so I lose my job, and with physical violence) and even had stuff thrown at/over me by unhappy customers because I wouldn't break the rules/ignore store policy/do something illegal just because it was what they wanted. So yes I will occasionally feel sorry for myself for having to deal with that kind of behaviour all because someone feels entitled to treat me like shit because I work in a service industry.

melj I reiterate, what you do for a living is your choice. By all means feel sorry for yourself, just don't expect anyone else to.

HOWEVER, it is an offence to knowingly supply alcohol to a minor, so if during the course of the transaction we have reason to believe it is a proxy sale (aka sale purely for intent to provide it to someone under 18)

But the vast majority of the time, there is no reason to think this at all, and yet many places still ID or refuse service. There is no law to say they have to but they do it anyway.