To be baffled by Morrison's ID policy

[Babyfacemortified]

I am really at a loss to understand what I have just experienced. Very minor in the scheme of things but I have been left with a lingering uncomfortable feeling.

I made an unplanned stop at my local Morrison's store for a bottle of wine and didn't have my purse with me, just my bank card. So I didn't have any ID with me but I am 33 years old and was dressed for work in business wear so it never crossed my mind that I would be asked for it, even with challenge 25 as I am 8 years over that but to my amazement, I was asked. In many ways, very flattering. This isn't the part that annoyed and bewildered me....

I previously worked in that store for 5 years (starting 16 years ago) and am still on good terms with many of the staff, including management. It's a small town so I still chat to my former colleagues when I see them and keep in touch on Facebook. I didn't have ID, so was refused the sale. This is fine as for whatever reason, the checkout assistant was not confident that I was old enough to buu alcohol.

I asked whether a different member of staff on another checkout could serve me as they would know for a certain fact that I am old enough but was told rhat no, that is not possible and the assistant refused to let me take the wine to another checkout or call a supervisor.

The people behind me in the queue were really nice, as they could obviously tell I am clearly well over 18 (and 25, unfortunately) but I still felt really embarrassed not to mention disappointed at having to leave the lovely Malbec I had been looking forward to!

On the way out, I spotted a supervisor I used to work with and explained the issue to her, told her I realised it was totally my own fault for not having ID but I really did fancy a glass of wine and had a friend coming the following day so could do with something in to offer, so could she aerve me on her checkout but she also refused. She said that although she knew my age, it would be against the law for her to serve me now that her colleague had questioned my age!

Surely this is madness? I absolutely respect the right of the first checkout assistant to refuse if she isn't satisfied that I am old enough, as the consequences of serving someone under 18 can be very serious, but if another checkout assistant and supervisor knew that I was in my 30s they can't be prohibited from serving alcohol can they?

Name changed as very outing.

claramatilda, I understand that that is, can be and has been frustrating for people but there has to be a cut off point somewhere. And 25 is the decided cut off point and the one that is preferred by most councils in an effort to reduce underage sales. The point is if the cashier genuinely thinks you may be under 25 then they HAVE TO ask for ID. They might not think you are under 18, they might guess you are 23 or 24 but they have been told to and will have signed contracts to state that they will ID anyone who they think is under 25. Failure to produce ID = no sale.
Again, it's not a personal attack.

If they're saying it's illegal to sell alcohol to under 25s then obviously they are misinformed, but once they've asked for ID they can't then sell it to you anyway when you fail to provide it. Once the question has been asked that's it and where managers will back them up. If you do have ID with you which shows you as age 18-24 and they refuse a sale then you clearly have grounds for a complaint.

I'm not saying there aren't ever instances where it doesn't seem completely ridiculous but there have to be rules and the majority of examples on this thread are just ones saying 'but I'm mid thirties!', 'but I'm 28!'. The cashier has no idea how old you are unless you prove it.

I'm 29, have been IDd for lottery tickets at age 27, alcohol at age 28 and many times before (I don't think I look under 25 but I can't judge what they judge). That's why I carry ID and when I get the cashier who is apologising to me for asking I think what a difficult day they must have had to try and preempt my potential anger with an apology. They get a well done from me for doing their job!

I think in the instances where people have been refused for having kids with them then it's worth asking that individual stores policy on it to be clear. I don't have that particular problem where I work so couldn't comment.

@sarahtancredi it was alcohol free wine!!!

And I was 30 at the time

Was it in the soft drink section?

As I said earlier and someme else has also explained alcohol free can mean just very very very very low alcohol .

Me and my mum was waiting in line in a Co-Op once, I was holding a bottle of wine which was a gift for someone. My mum said ‘shall I get that for you?’, I replied ‘it’s okay I want to break this £20 anyway’. Got to the cashier and she refused to serve either of us the wine, as I was obviously underage and my mum was trying to buy it for me. I was 28😂.

Challenge 25 is madness full stop. The legal age is 18 so it should be challenge 18, not 25. I’ve always found it bonkers. I’ve been ID’d before whilst out shopping with my DC. I literally said ‘I don’t have my ID but I do have four children if that’s proof at all?’ They luckily always serve me in the end because sometimes common sense must prevail.

I do wonder whether it gives some staff a sense of power and entitlement tbh because I definitely look over 25.

I was also asked when I was 36 in ASDA’s, I walked out 10 feet tall with a grin on my face!

Also challenged in Waitrose, and my ds16 at the time, and 6ft stood next to me, burst out laughing and said ‘Mum, I cant wait to tell Dad’, the cashier looked at me and said ‘no way is that your son?’ Mmmmm yep he was the last time I looked. She then called over to the next cashier ‘can you believe this is mother and son?’. At which point 20 pairs of eyes turns to look at us, and I died of embarrassment.

I do wonder whether it gives some staff a sense of power and entitlement tbh because I definitely look over 25

Yes we absolutely love being told to fuck off in multiple languages on a regular basis

We love being yelled at and have stuff chucked on the floor

We love having to call the police to remove people who refuse to leave and will no longer be welcome back now even if they turned up with multiple ID cards

It makes our day.

She said that although she knew my age, it would be against the law for her to serve me now that her colleague had questioned my age

Completely wrong and no court in the land would convict you of selling to an ex-colleague who you know to be over 18.

The law is 18.

The policy is 25.

The OP was over 30.

Complete nonsense. Please supermarkets, train your staff properly.

The irony being he manages the booze section (you have to be over 18 to do so)

Not in my local Waitrose! They see nothing wrong with putting someone under 18 on the cigarette counter. Yeah, makes perfect sense to put someone on the age restricted items who can't sell age restricted items. They just didn't get it at all when I asked them why they didn't make sure someone 18 and over was on that counter. I wasn't buying cigarettes, I was buying a bottle of wine and I deliberately went to that counter so I wouldn't have to hang around or a supervisor. Epic fail there.

for a supervisor

Sometimes it's really really hard to judge ages. I was getting served at 14 in pubs and shops and I've been asked for ID at 35. Shit happens.

When I worked behind bars I was so frightened of being fined, sacked or being ordered off site at festivals that I was really cautious. There were mystery shoppers going round all the time and you were sacked and blacklisted if you were caught, no second chances.
I definitely asked people who were well over 18 but I couldn't be absolutely sure they weren't over 25. I get mistaken for a 25 year old regularly because I looked older as a teen but haven't really aged that much.

You really really have it drummed into you constantly about challenge 25 so I don't blame the staff at all. Plus this policy has been around for fucking ages and is very well advertised so if you go out to buy alcohol or tobacco without ID then you are taking the risk that you won't get served. If you don't like the policy then complain but don't have a go at staff for wanting to keep their jobs and avoid a massive fine.

Were over 25 not weren't.

we are regularly mystery shopped to check we are asking for ID. The people they send in are over 18, so by serving them you are not doing anything illegal. But if you don’t ask for ID you get either a final written warning or instant dismissal depending on how long you have been there
I don’t get this. Challenge 25 means you ask for ID if you think the person may be under 25, to ensure you don’t accidentally sell to an under 18. But if they send you a 22yr old mystery shopper and you don’t ID, how do they prove you thought they were under 25 in order to dismiss you?

cardi

The only real defences at a disciplinary would be, looking at the logs to see if you do in fact regularly check ID.

And I believe you can also request to find out the failure rate of the person used.

Based on those things they then decide if action will be taken or not. And what form that action will take

When I was 31 and very heavily pregnant I ordered some paracetamol and non alcoholic beer from Morrison's and got asked for id. The beer was 0.5% or something so still had alcohol and guess have to be over 16 for paracetamol. Just found it odd been over 30 pregnant in my own house and asked for id for non alcoholic beer. I did have id I the house so was all ok....

I would go without the bottle of wine if it makes sure that the sales assistant doesn't end up in jail with a massive fine.

Well that’s all very noble of you, but I think the risk of the sales assistant being incarcerated for not following a policy is pretty small

My husband used to work at a petrol station. A man whom he vaguely knew (friend of a friend scenario) came in to buy cigarettes and my husband sled him for ID and he said “don’t have it but you know I’m old enough”. My husband didn’t know how old he was but he certainly looked to be over 21 (the minimum age for buying tobacco and alcohol here). My husband still refused as yet police do undercover spot checks and if the person behind in the queue had been doing a spot check and my husband didn’t ask this customer for ID my husband would have lost his job. Maybe the same policy happens in the OP’s town and the police do undercover checks and the cashier was afraid of that?

In Walmart here the policy is to ask anyone who “appears to be under 40” for ID. I was recently asked for ID buying a bottle of whisky there and I was thrilled to be considered to be under 40. I’m 45.

Incidentally, did the OP drive there with no license on her? Or did she leave her license in the car? I thought it was now illegal to not have your license with you at all times when driving?

This is Tesco policy too. Once you have been asked for ID they cannot (will not?) serve you until you provide ID.

ID'd for looking under forty
For something you can legally buy at 18
Fuck that for a game of soldiers I really conclude the world has gone utterly batshit

I have sympathy for the staff, but it's overkill as a policy. I remember my friend working in the Virgin Megastore and being embarrassed that she'd asked a 25 yo for ID to buy an 18 film. Now that seems to be the standard.

@sarahtancredi it had less than 0.5% abv or I wouldn’t have been buying it.

Also why not trust my cousin? They trust them to serve everyone else, why lie on my behalf?

Sometimes the challenge policy is just incorrectly carried out. The major supermarket I worked in used to do a challenge 25 prompt for plastic teaspoons. Zero legal requirement there but the system obviously did it for all cutlery

Probably because peppe lie all the time.

You are seeing it as a personal attack on a family member

However to staff they are just one of many staff. Ask any staff member whose been anywhere for more than 6 months and they will tell you that they have known people lie, steel, call in sick all the time, and yes also buy alcohol or enable someone to buy alcohol for someone underage etc

You really need to stop taking it personally . Whatever connection you have to staff members you really are one of hundreds if not thousands of people they see every day and they cant be expected to remember every single person they have asked for ID so they dont offend them by asking again and they cant be expected to risk their job for you, someone they dont know. And how many work colleagues have u worked with at any one time that you would without a shadow of a doubt trust your job to be in their hands and go by their say so .

I do wonder whether it gives some staff a sense of power and entitlement tbh because I definitely look over 25.

Oh yeah, implementing a policy that you think is stupid yourself, being made to ID people anyway, under threat of my job, and being called an idiot at best and threatened personally at worst, by Customers and anything in between really really gives me a power trip! There's nothing like being damned if you do and damned (and unemployed) if you don't to really give you that sense of power!
As for entitlement, yes I do feel entitled to follow a company policy that failure to do can cost me my job, how dare I hey? How dare a lowly shop assistant or bar worker want to do what they're told to keep their job when it deprived some poor, poor person of their glass of malbec! How very entitled 🙄

The only power trip here is from people who continue to blame the people on the till, because it gives them a power trip to put someone who can't fight back in their place, for something that is beyond their control.
And as for entitlement - it's alcohol, a luxury that has health issues attached and therefore is restricted by the government, not life giving elixir that you'll die without. Grow up.

Again, it's far more about the fact most people don't like being told no by someone who they think is beneath them than anything else. Just carry ID, and if you haven't got one, get a citizen card, they're not expensive and an acceptable form of age proof. Problem solved.

"I do wonder whether it gives some staff a sense of power and entitlement tbh because I definitely look over 25."

Yeh, I love getting called all the names under the sun and have people threaten me because I've had the temerity to ask them for proof of age.

Children are not a form of ID.

sweeneytoddsrazor you say it isn't a tick box exercise but that isn't a credible claim. For sure there is a grey area between say 16 and 25, and I imagine that's why the policy is Challenge 25, but none of the retail staff on this thread has explained why people in their 50s are being challenged. We may not look quite our age, but we really don't look 25.
Stores need to train their staff properly. There are all sorts of signs that give away a person's age, and they can be recognised in an instant. Challenging a middle aged person shopping alone can only be because staff are given targets. It's nothing to do with catching offenders.

Fuck I've heard it all now. Targets for IDing people!! Really?!