To think this is ridiculous? B and M

[Icedlatte97]

I popped into B+M and did some shopping, including a little hand sanitiser that had a key ring thing on it to put on my car keys as I like to have one on me. It was clearly marketed as a children’s one with a motif on it.

I got to the check out and as the cashier scanned the hand sanitiser she said ‘I will need to see some ID for this, you have to be 16 to buy this’. I smiled and said I don’t have any on me but I’m 26’. I didn’t see it in a rude way or anything like that. She looked at me with her eyebrow raised and said ‘are you really’ and then smirked at me, it was like she didn’t believe me. Then she told me she can not sell it to me without ID. Aibu to think this is ridiculous? I have never been asked for ID for hand sanitiser before and thought it was condescending the way she spoke to me

Well it's not 0% alcohol then and shouldn't be sold as such! It absolutely is about common sense.

That's outrageous. What about people with religious/ethical beliefs that mean strictly no alcohol is allowed? No-alcohol wine/beer isn't just consumed by regular drinkers but who happen to be driving.

I can't imagine them trying to get away with allowing 'just a tiny bit of meat' in foods clearly labelled as 'vegan'.

My daughter works in retail and has to ask just in case it's a secret shopper checking up on her. She would lose her job if she got caught out.

Alcohol creates itself, for example in ripe bananas. I am yet to hear any Muslim declare ripe bananas to be haram, and they're 0.2-0.4% ABV. Bread is about 0.1% ABV.

Yes, you've been giving your toddler small quantities of alcohol without even realising.

Even the Vegan Society is happy with vegan products being labelled as may contain milk / egg if the business tries to avoid cross contamination
https://www.vegansociety.com/news/blog/TM2021/allergen-vs-vegan-labelling

What about people with religious/ethical beliefs that mean strictly no alcohol is allowed?

They're fucked ?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0741832986900327

@IBetGordonRamsayDoesntHaveTheseProblems
@SerendipityJane

Thanks a lot for that info - very interesting. Good point about things like bananas, actually.

That surprises me about the Vegan Society, though.

I think B&M are overly strict with their IDing. I went once with my then-17 year old sister to do a relatively big shop, I also got a bar of Baileys chocolate for a gift for our mum (note the chocolate actually had 0% alcohol in it, it was just flavouring) and we both got asked for ID. Because my sister wasn’t old enough, we were refused it. I thought that was ridiculous at the time, especially when the packaging clearly stated it had 0% alcohol in😂

Once I got ID’d to buy a film which was ‘U’ rated. I said are you joking? It’s rated ‘U’ for Universal, my literal 3 year old could come and buy this. She refused to sell it to me because I wouldn’t show her ID.

The reality is that if 'may contain' was considered unacceptable to vegans, there would be far fewer vegan products on the market.

In many cases, both vegan and non vegan products are made on the same equipment. It will be done at different times, with cleaning in-between, but the risks of trace amounts getting in exists. Similarly they might be using milk powder elsewhere in the same factory; that can get into the air and be blown about causing a cross contamination issue.

Few manufacturers would be willing to build a dedicated vegan factory when they haven't even tested the market with that product yet.

There's lots of different reasons for being vegan, but trace amounts of milk or egg don't present a health risk (unless allergic) or increase demand for animal products (if concerned about the environment or animal welfare)

had anyone ever been ID’ed for buying vanilla extract (the liquid kind)? That’s pretty much pure alcohol and you could get drunk on it.

I am quite envious! You must look very young 😁

I actually can’t believe you have taken the time to write a whole post about this issue 🤣 and to be honest I can’t believe that I’m actually replying. For what was a twenty second exchange you’ve wasted a lot of time and energy on it.

It’s also very rarely alcohol free, they usually make it in the same way as the alcohol versions and strip out the alcohol so it is often that it is actually 0.5% alcohol for beer and more for wine, not Prosecco though for some reason.

For reasons of chemistry (look up "azeotrope") it's impossible to remove all the alcohol from a mixture by distilling. You need to go a tiny bit further with sulphuric acid or some such processes.

What other age verification ID is there, other than a passport?
Nothing else is accepted.
I don't have any recognised ID that verifies my age.
Whilst I understand the need for ID, there isn't an easy solution for lots of people.

@Voice0fReason both of my girls have PASS ID cards which are accepted anywhere 🤷‍♀️ www.myidcard.co.uk/

My teenage daughter wanted to buy a false nails kit from b&m but they refused to sell it to her even though I was with her. I then said, I will buy it but they refused as they 'knew I would give it to her'.

You can get a provisional driving licence for around £35. My 17 year old has just applied for hers. She has no intention of learning to drive but will use it for ID. It's hardly breaking the bank.
If you can't afford £36 I doubt you can afford to buy many age restricted products.
Also, as you know it's think 25 so if you are 26 it's hardly unusual to be asked for ID.

I wad forever being asked for ID as I always looked much younger then my age, I got in the habit of carrying my passport (only photo I'd at the time) but I can still rather first time it happened when I was around 21 being questioned in a pub I'd been frequenting for years ( litteraly) and being so annoyed ss the barmaid was rude that I got a lift home, grabbed my passport and took it back to show her. Rather then say thanks and sorry she seemed furious to be proven wrong

Because that is then a proxy sale and the person selling it is still not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to sell someone something that is age restricted if you can reasonably believe that they will give it to someone under the age that it's restricted for.
They could reasonably believe that you were going to give it to her as she'd been refused and you then said you'd buy it, and she presumably couldn't produce ID to show she was the age required.
I suspect it's because there's usually glue in a false nail kit and therefore flagged as an age restricted product.

The relationship of the two people involved is irrelevant.

Many places will only accept a full UK drivers licence, provisional won't cut it
I'm way past the age of needing to worry about this, but -
It's not only luxury items that are age restricted
You think young adults shouldn't be able to have scissors? Tools? Sharp knives?
Just because they don't drive? Bonkers
But you're obviously not going to agree/consider people on lower incomes
And that's fine, we're all more likely to sympathise with people in the same socioeconomic group/class as ourselves
But it's a valid problem people are experiencing

These aren't accepted everywhere. Lots of clubs reject them.

You have to be medically able to drive in order to get a provisional license.
It's a criminal offence to lie to get one, and you have to declare that there is no medical reason why you can't drive when you apply.

@Voice0fReason you seem to be spoiling for a fight 🤣 Crack on...I'm not biting (and pretty sure the OP wasn't trying to be sanitiser in a nightclub...so I'm sure a 'very widely accepted - except in the odd club - PASS 25 card' - would be fine for people who, in 'most situations' and for whatever reason, find themselves in need of ID but have no drivers license! 👍

You must be fun to be around 24/7 🤣🤣🤣

@SpringIntoChaos not spoiling for a fight at all, it's just this is something that has been a problem for me and many of my friends for many years as we can't drive for medical reasons.

There are several supposedly official ID card schemes, I tried Citizen Card. Some places accept it, many places don't. So it just wasn't worth spending the money on. I was even refused permission to buy a bottle of wine in Marks & Spencer. I had my 10-yr-old son with me at the time. It's actually quite humiliating.

I posted, not to cause an argument, or for you to laugh at me, but to reply to your solution.

I never had a problem using a provisional licence, although I admit this was quite a while ago.
Not quite sure how you know anything about my lifestyle or what class i am because I wrote that £36 isn't a huge amount of money. It may be a struggle for some but realistically at some point you are going to be able to afford it.
And I never said that it was just for luxury items, I said many of the items would be, not all.