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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Morrisons refused to let DD pretend to pay for the shopping...

341 replies

AllTheseThingsThatIveDone · 15/06/2018 19:36

Because my shopping included a bottle of wine.

Often pop to my local Morrisons for small top up shops. Popped there this morning to buy a few bits, including a bottle of wine. DD aged 3 likes to 'help' me at the self service checkout, scanning the shopping, and then at the end I lift her up and she uses my debit card to make the contactless payment, or puts the coins in etc.

Today as I was about to lift DD up to pay, the lady overseeing the checkouts rushed over to stop me and said DD wasn't allowed to pay for the shopping. She said it wasn't allowed as then the alcohol could actually be for her, or the debit card could actually be hers. When I pointed out that DD is only 3, and the debit card was mine, and it was clearly me really paying for the shopping she said it didn't matter Hmm

AIBU or is this completely bonkers? I could totally understand this if I had an older teenager with me but it feels like there is no common sense anymore Confused

OP posts:
nottinghillgrey · 16/06/2018 07:27

trip

How nasty.

nottinghillgrey · 16/06/2018 07:27

trip

How nasty.

Pengggwn · 16/06/2018 07:39

tripYouOut

What an unpleasant comment. Actually, the checkout assistant was perfectly correct. What possible practical difference could it make to the OP whether her 3 year old makes the transaction or not? All she had to do was swipe her own card, then let the 3 year old 'swipe it' afterwards. Whereas the assistant could have lost her job. I think it's clear who was doing the smart thing.

SoupDragon · 16/06/2018 07:42

trip ironic coming from someone not smart enough understand the law.

Snugglepiggy · 16/06/2018 08:05

Sorry OP but I'm with the cashier on this one.They have a hard enough job processing transactions efficiently and keeping tills flowing.There are plenty of ways your DD can help without wafting your card around at point of purchase.It's not their fault if there are rules and protocols in place.Yes the world has gone mad.But part of the madness equally is that children are not given clear boundaries in some cases.Totally agree with the PP who said what's wrong with saying No .mummy pays.And I say that as someone who shops with a toddler

Topseyt · 16/06/2018 08:46

Trip, if you think like that you must really be a deeply unpleasant character.

It may be a lower paid or minimum wage job, but that absolutely doesn't mean that checkout assistants are thick, airheads, the lowest of the low as you imply.

Plenty of them are very bright people who work hard and work their way up the ladder.

Others might be graduates taking the job because nothing in their chosen field has come up.

For still others it might be the only job they can get. I considered it seriously myself the last time I was in the soul destroying process of searching for a job.

L0UISA · 16/06/2018 08:52

Usually a sensible policy is that when there are a group of young people together all of them need ID for even one of them to buy alcohol

It's not really sensible to apply this to family groups shopping where there is a significant age difference between the child and the adult. Whether they are 17 or 3. If nothing else it is actually perfectly legal for adults to give their own children alcohol at home under supervision, as long as they aren't forcing them or getting them dangerously drunk

This ^ is an excellent post.

I would like to know if there is any evidence that the way this Policy is being implemented has any impact on under age drinking, knife crime or children accessing games for an older age group.

And I also think that it impacts adversely upon women ( specifically mothers ), which makes it discriminatory . Because mothers are more likely to be doing a supermarket shop than men. And they are more likely to be accompanied by children than men.

Not allowing a woman of 40 to buy a set of cutlery/ video game / bottle of wine because she is accompanied by a toddler or young child is ridiculous.

Sprinklesinmyelbow · 16/06/2018 09:05

People saying it’s the law don’t understand how the law works

KathyBeale · 16/06/2018 09:16

My friend who is in her 30s, once got asked for ID in M&S for buying a fascinator. We never did get to the bottom of why it was age-restricted.

Abetes · 16/06/2018 09:21

I’m with the cashier. And really does it make a difference if your dc can’t tap the card on the machine? It’s a stupid law but it is a law so they are quite right to uphold it.

nottinghillgrey · 16/06/2018 09:23

People saying it’s the law don’t understand how the law works

It's rather simple isn't it?

No alcohol to be sold to under 18's. Child is 3. 3 is under 18.

amyddss · 16/06/2018 09:26

Because of course your 3 year old was going to go home and enjoy a nice big glass of wine with you.. the world has well and truly gone mad.

shakingmyhead1 · 16/06/2018 09:27

if it was in NZ the staff member, the manager and the store would be in for fines from $1000 to $25000 depending on their role in the store and the store its self would have up to a $25000 fine and a time out on selling alcohol for days/weeks so they tend to be vigilant ( especially because the stores/bar is not allowed to pay the fine for any staff or managers, its a personal fine to be paid for by the person who did the selling and the manager who oversees the sale)

The80sweregreat · 16/06/2018 09:36

trip. i have read a few awful comments on Mumsnet before but yours takes the biscuit!
do you feel the same way about people that are carers and care for our elderly or the ones that collect our rubbish and do the recycling or sweep up the streets as you seem to about ones that serve in the stores? we need people to do all kinds of jobs in life otherwise nothing would get done. We cant all be lawyers or doctors or work in education or whatever you deem to be a ' worthwhile job' - without someone overseeing the checkouts or working on them there would nt be any stores open for anyone to shop in! I would say that they are uber smart to have to remember all this information and then have to carry it out - considering how ' joe public' can become easily riled, this cant be easy to do sometimes either when the employees are only doing their job.
I take it you don't shop in shops or supermarkets then as the employees are so ' beneath you'! get a grip!!

RunMummyRun68 · 16/06/2018 09:36

Where I work it's not alcohol but spray paints/knives/other age restricted..... all under the same think 25 the same as alcohol

On a different note..... just seen FOD Instagram stories of his antics taking his older child to a supermarket.... again, indulging her!!

Flying around the store on the trolley..... and hiding on the bread shelf, with her long hair all in the produce, which she then squashed and pulls off the shelf as she emerges from in the racking!!!!

Timeisslippingaway · 16/06/2018 09:39

tripYouOut

What a twat you are

RunMummyRun68 · 16/06/2018 09:43

alley you don't 'ask their age'.... you ask for proof of age or no sale

Photo driving licence, passport or the pass card with hologram ( forgotten its actual name, used to be Portman)

Student ID doesn't count either

tenbob · 16/06/2018 09:45

It's rather simple isn't it?

No alcohol to be sold to under 18's. Child is 3. 3 is under 18.

Do you honestly think that the 3 year old holding the card makes them the buyer? Confused

Because that isn't how UK contract law works. Ergo you don't understand the law

nottinghillgrey · 16/06/2018 09:47

Because of course your 3 year old was going to go home and enjoy a nice big glass of wine with you.. the world has well and truly gone mad.

Well we all know they weren't. But the law is the law and has to be upheld regardless of that fact. Otherwise where does it stop? When they are 10? 11? 12?

The reason the law is in place is to protect everyone involved in the sale and purchase of alcohol. It's not up to the cashier to make the judgment about what is to happen with the alcohol; it's up to them to not sell it to under 18's.

nottinghillgrey · 16/06/2018 09:48

tenbob

Perhaps you could explain? With a link or something?

rogueone · 16/06/2018 09:50

Actually it’s quite clear I am afraid that you can’t take cash from a minor for alcohol. Staff can lose there job. When I got my Ocado shop delivered at Xmas they took the booze back as my DD was under age. Not sure why everyone thinks the world has gone mad even if the DC was doing pretend play. It’s not allowed and it’s simple as that.

FatCow2018 · 16/06/2018 09:53

trip that is bang out of order! I can be a bit cutting but fuck me, how rude are you?!

SeriousSimon · 16/06/2018 09:54

Ridiculous.

I would have flapped her away like an annoying bird and continued to let my child wave the card for the payment.

What exactly would they do? Citizens arrest of a 3 year old? Confiscate your paid for shopping?

The80sweregreat · 16/06/2018 10:00

serious, they probably wouldnt have done anything, but if there happened to be another supervisor or a mystery shopper lurking around the employee might have ended up unemployed or suspended for not following the rules she was told to follow. The employees are explained all this when they start their jobs at induction training and ( as i said before) they probably have had to jump through numerous hoops in order to get and retain that job as it is. there are also cameras everywhere in stores - it could have been picked up on later on. I know its all bonkers, but its the law and rules are rules ( especially these days)

PatchworkGirl · 16/06/2018 10:01

It does sound ridiculous but I once turned someone away for not having ID and then had to refuse to serve their parent too even when she came back alone. She was really angry about this and I felt a bit ridiculous myself tbh, but but getting 'caught' by a secrety shopper/manager would have resulted in a fine (£80 iirc) and probably losing my job. It might seem silly but it's just not worth the risk for the staff.