To want to know why Tesco won't sell me alcohol when I'm with my teenage daughter

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Given that it is perfectly legal for me to give her a glass of wine to drink at home (and has been since she was 5)? Was told in Tesco today that I couldn't buy wine as DD1 was with me. DD1 is 19 but had no ID on her, as we had just nipped out for a few bits. Cashier finally called a manager, who gave me the Spanish Inquisition, and finally said "OK, I trust that you aren't going to give any to your daughter."

It's not like I was buying WKD - I had a bottle of Champagne and one of an expensive Bordeaux!

I used to go shopping with my mum all the time, I would even pick out what alcohol I wanted (17/18/19 at the time) she was never refused service nor asked if I had ID.
My fiancé always gets asked for ID if he is buying alcohol with me

Sainsbury asked for ID when I tried to buy a pair of kitchen scissors. I am 42.

MrsSchadenfreude they should not have refused when she proved to be over 18. The screen flashes with a date for exactly 18 years ago which you check against the ID. But like I say no I'D no sale. It's not worth my job tbh

"If you're buying alcohol everyone has to have ID"

Not true. Only if you look like you might be under 25.

" though I assume if you had a toddler with you it'd be fine."

Why? The mother of a toddler could be under age herself.

" Is it a case of if you don’t look over 25 you will get asked? "

When I was young, the age to go into certain places was 18, but you got in at 16 or 17 because the staff could reasonably claim that you looked 18. I suppose someone could 17 but look 22, which is why they've upped the age.
It gets a bit ridiculous when people in their late twenties and thirties are being asked for ID though.

What bugs me are the words

"If you're LUCKY enough to look under 25"

"What bugs me are the words

"If you're LUCKY enough to look under 25""

As you get older, you'll realise you're lucky if you look younger than you are.

Unusual for a strict Muslim to buy alcohol. Why did you ID her if you could tell by her hands she wasn't a teenager?

There is think 25 in Tesco on everything from Calpol to toddler cutlery and eggs. Although not bleach for some reason, but that's a different thread.

And it's bizarre that it's fine for your DC/ their friends to be about when the online shop is delivered. Yanbu op at all. Least of all because if you wanted to buy Vodka and wkd for DD and her mates they'd let you straight through as long as she was sitting in the car. That law is to protect people from being pressured into buying alcohol for kids, no more or less. Tesco's interpretation of it is frankly bizarre.

As you get older, you'll realise you're lucky if you look younger than you are.

No, as you get older the lucky ones are the ones whose bodies still work properly and are in good health. How old you look becomes more and more irrelevant to anything.

Not exactly on topic, but it’s not always easy to have id. A relative got a learner driving license to use as id but didn’t intend to learn to drive.

When he then wanted to learn to drive 10 or so years later he has problems getting insurance as it made him look like a terrible driver that took so long to pass!

Just as a matter of reference, if you look on the thread about the 16yo coming home drunk from a party in a pub, you'll see the premises (quite rightly) being blamed (alongside the adults supervising the party) for serving someone under age.
As I understand it there's limited defense of 'I didn't know' when it transpires a sale of alcohol has ended up in underage hands. It may be an inconvenience to be refused but these policies and laws were put in place to put the onus and responsibility on the person serving, with big penalties (large fines and imprisonment, loss of license at worst. Loss of job and sanctions on license at best) and to be quite honest keeping my job and staying clear of any trouble is far more important to me than someone having a bottle of wine. My life can be ruined by making the wrong call. You just go without some alcohol. In those circumstances I'm going to err to the side of caution every time I'm afraid. Being served alcohol is not a right, the rules exist and whether you as a customer or me as a server agree or disagree, the penalties ultimately, are mine. So I'm going to follow the rules and keep my job.

beerwench I totally understand that employees have to do as they are told. I also think that alcohol is an optional purchase. However, I am allowed to critique the Tesco management policy that you have to follow (and I would if I worked there). The most bizarre thing for me is the ID'ing of Calpol etc, it becomes more and more difficult to do a shop without 'think 25' coming up on something or another. Which is terrific if you are a 23 year old mother who has left her ID at home (or for various reasons may not have any).

Have also been ID'd for buying a canesten tablet before! There isn't even an age limit... besides the fact I was 25 at the time!

Well I've heard you can get high on canesten tablets if you take 47 in one go

@Increasinglymiddleaged

Yes, you're allowed to critique the policies. (Slightly off topic here) personally I'm quite at the policies and laws that make me responsible for other people's alcohol buying and drinking habits. Children are a different matter of course, and we should protect them as much as we can - but that doesn't mean I agree with the policies described here. It just means that if I don't follow them I can suffer the consequences, which are greater than the consequences of not following them IYSWIM?

Younger people don't even drink as much as middle aged people did at their age. There are loads who don't drink at all. If Tesco wants to police the drinking habits at the nation they should stop selling alcohol to middle aged and older people who are more likely to have a problem.

And I thought it was ok for 16+ to drink at a restaurant with a meal with over 18s/parents

It is. In fact the limit may be younger.

Ah, it is 16.

I used to have a glass of wine with my food in the pub with m&d from being about 14. I guess no-one batted an eyelid as I looked older.

Apart from the student union which required a (fake) NUS card to get in, any other occasion of being IDed was when I was over 18.

Never had this with alcohol and have bought it plenty of times with my teens in tow. But sainsburys wouldn't sell me an 18 rated dvd without id, same assistant wouldn't sell me cigarettes. I had no kids with me on either occasion.and the assistant thought I should take it as a compliment and not a major inconvenience. I don't look young

It isn’t difficult to keep ID - so let that be a lesson learned

?

What happens if your teenager is 14? They don't carry round ID cards and there's no way I'd expect him or her to carry round their passport just so that I could buy a bottle of wine.

Lesson learned is send him or her somewhere else in the shop while I buy the alcohol.

I do wish the supermarkets would apply common sense to this though. Has any shop assistant ever been successfully prosecuted for selling alcohol to someone doing the family shop who happened to have their teenage offspring with them?

Very different from selling alcohol to someone who is obviously under 18/25.

It isn’t difficult to keep ID - so let that be a lesson learned

The middle class perspective. It's circa £40 for a provisional driving licence.

It isn’t difficult to keep ID - so let that be a lesson learned.
I have to check ID for work. I can easily be subject to a ‘fake😆’ transaction. If l didn’t ask for ID , l could quite easily lose my job.
Most teens over 18 carry it.

But what if I'm with my 14yo dd? Im not buying booze for her it's all mine so does that mean I can't buy any booze when I'm with her?

I can easily be subject to a ‘fake😆’ transaction
So trading standards are now sending 45 year olds for a weekly shop with a 17 year old in tow with a couple of bottles of Chablis in the trolley? I think not.....