ID for buying calpol?

[Lovelyjubbbly]

I was in Morrisons this morning grabbing some shopping and a bottle of calpol for my son who is not well.

I got ID for one bottle of calpol as she said she needed proof I was old enough I’m 30!!!
is there really any need for this pritty obvious I’m not 16 , 18 or even 21.

so what happens if a younger person has a child early at 16 or 18? And have limited family who can get them it if there child is ill?
surely this needs looked at.

I could see the point if i was buying 2 or even 3 bottles but I done my normal shop plus one bottle of medicine!

absolutely livid. So I currently left Morrisons with no medicine for my son I’m I AIBU for been annoyed?

Every shop I have ever worked in (and I’ve worked in a few) you have to be 16 to purchase paracetamol and you can not purchase any more than 2 packs of 16 tablets in one go. Or 1 pack of 16 and 1 bottle of Calpol. No idea exactly what the law is. I thought it was the law but my job is to follow my employer’s policy and sometimes that pisses off customers. It pisses me off more though, I guarantee it. There’s a lot of pressure to not be the person who fucks it up and gets into loads of trouble for it.

My DH was asked for ID buying Calpol. He was 31 at the time and on his way home from a shift at the hospital as a doctor! Still makes me laugh.

I was refused sale of 2 bottles of calpol (1 full sugar as recommended by paediatrician and 1 sugar free because no one wants a toddler high on sugar in the middle of the night) and 1 bottle of ibuprofen suspension in Superdrug because it was over the allowance… despite them having different active ingredients and the quantity of paracetamol in calpol being minute compared to pills. I just went to the next chemist.

@WarningOfGails I went to buy port for my local church communion on a Sunday morning when we’d run out and I didn’t have ID (I was 30) so my younger church colleague had to buy it. They said something about children not being allowed it (it was port in summer) and I said something like “well children will be having it because its literally for communion”

@lola8345 I don't think I've commented on your situation and yet you keep making this all about you. Puzzling.
I won't be engaging in further conversation with you because when someone has already resorted to personal insults and swearing they have nothing further of interest to me.

There are legal restrictions on how much paracetamol or aspirin can be purchased at one time @CunkEverywhereOnEverything but there are no legal age restrictions for buying medicines but shops tend to have their own policies (but it's not the Law)

The only person denying your child medication is you for not carrying ID. Don’t blame checkout staff for enforcing a widely known, long standing shop policy.

I had a most ridiculous situation in a Morrisons once. I got in the queue and noticed the person in front was my postman. I said hi, he said hi back. He then got ID'd for alcohol and the guy behind the counter asked ME for ID too.
I had no id on me, as I was not buying alcohol and also, I am 49!
Even though I protested all this, including the fact that I only recognised him as the postman, I didn't know him, it was still a no.
I felt so guilty that I went to a different shop and bought the wine for him!

children not being allowed it

Well they are anyway, communion or no communion, although this is a particularly interesting example (and an amusing anecdote PP, well done for speaking up!).

This myth in parts of society (that children can't be given alcohol legally at all) seems to perpetuate and perpetuate. Not helped by people being told wrong information at work and then informing their friends that they know because they had training on it.

From the NSPCC, which confirms my understanding but they have written it out concisely:

Underage drinking: what's the law?It's against the law:

• for anyone to buy alcohol if they're under 18 years old
• for under 18 year olds to ask anyone else to buy alcohol for them
• to give a child alcohol if they are under 5 years old.

It's legal:

• for over 18s to buy beer, wine or cider for 16 and 17 year olds if they're having a meal together in licensed premises, like a pub
• for 5 to 17 year olds to drink alcohol at home or other private premises.

I understand the difficulties for staff of administering the age law for alcohol purchase, and then additional 'policies' on top that often confuse the issue further, and there are harsh penalties for getting it wrong, so I try not to get annoyed with individual staff. Retailers should however apply the law correctly in your policies, state them clearly, and TRAIN YOUR STAFF PROPERLY! (Repeatedly if necessary.)

There is however, IMO, too much mission creep in the way the law is being implemented, such as this nonsense about preventing an adult with teenagers doing normal shopping from buy any alcohol, and shopkeepers/staff giving out erroneous information about both the alcohol laws (and medicines) as though it's factually correct legal information.

Obviously there is a reason they are being so cautious, if they mis sold it to a younger person who then overdosed on it they would be in deep shit. Same if they served them alcohol, glue, knives etc. They really can't win, the staff are tested daily by testers hoping to catch them out, it's a shit stressful job, everyone hates being on tills, self service where l work, we are hoping the sooner it all goes online the better for us, no study shifty customers in a strop.

There are two issues here, one is what on earth does someone 25 look like, the other are the rules around buying paracetamol and Brufen, yes there needs to be some checks if you were trying to buy say 10 packets, but as an ex mental health nurse, it’s fair to say I never saw anyone who overdosed on paracetamol who didn’t as they could only buy two packets, simply go from shop to shop.

Oh don't be silly. OP is a 30 yo mother buying a child's medicine who naturally would assume she wouldn't need ID to buy Calpol and immediately did just that elsewhere - so at no time was she denying her child medication. It's not a legal requirement to carry ID, and, unless you drive, at age 30 why would you? Who is going to carry their passport around with them at all times (if she has got one) or pay for unnecessary ID?! It's not a widely known, long standing shop policy to ID an adult (it's not even the Law to ID anyone for medication). And, if you RTWT, you can see it has surprised a lot of posters who collectively have probably bought gallons of Calpol over the years.

again: you live in a country with no government mandated ID. It is BATSHIT of the highest order to expect people to have any, in that case.

As an aside: i live in Germany. There is nothing as good as feminax for period pain. I usually only get to UK once a year. Which means that every drugstore/pharmacy i pass sees me go in to buy 2 packs. 10 or 12 on one day round Kings Cross once. If i really wanted to overdose that is zero effort.

Was shopping with my teen recently and brought wine and they looked at him and made me think they'd ask for his ID. They didn't thank god. As he has none and isn't old enough anyway. Not giving a 30 year old calpol in case she's 15 is madness. You should have asked for another staff member.

🤣🤣🤣

This reminded me of a similar wtf moment I had recently, also involving calpol. Both me and my toddler were unwell recently (I mean, I still am 🙁) so sent my partner out for supplies. He attempted to purchase both a box of paracetamol and a bottle of calpol and was told he had to put one back as he couldn't be sold both 🤯 I get several boxes of paracetamol not being allowed for obvious reasons. But a box of paracetamol and a bottle of calpol?! So he had to trek to 2 different places to get each. Madness.

@SweetPetrichor why I’m I denying my child medicine? I’m 30 lol I definitely do not look young for my age it’s ridiculous unfortunately I was in a rush as he took ill so the first thought in my head wasn’t grabbing ID for calpol lol.

I could totally understand if I was at the checkout buying a full case of medicine then it would look a bit suspicious but it was one bottle of calpol with some shopping nothing to major 😂😂😂

so how come your aloud to buy 2 packs of pain killers per person with no hesitation?
when there’s more paracetamol in them 2 packs alone compared to a small bottle of calpol?

I think they should definitely get a grip and not be so bloody stupit these children are obviously ill and they are holding back giving these to people and been bloody silly! No bloody need for it.

We had the exact same situation, husband went into a shop, after a night of zero sleep with a very poorly toddler, for calpol, blue milk and a box of rusks.... no ID because he's 36 and they refused to serve him. Madness.

All I'm going to say is to complain to the Head Office of the shop 🤷‍♀️
The people instore have zero to do with these rules & have the fear of huge fines/criminal record/prison/job loss if they don't follow them.
And to the person who lost their shit at a young person behind the till? Well done on taking your frustration out on them - almost certainly they went into the staff area & cried/ were upset.
And stocking shelves isn't as easy as you think...checking dates/EANs/descrptions/facings & plans...

And as a shop supervisor, you'd be kicked out without your shopping if you spoke to me or any of my staff like that.
I'd also fill out an incident report & ensure any follow up action (such as being banned) was taken.
Verbal abuse of retail staff is not acceptable.
Check out USDAWs Freedom from Fear campaign

Exactly this. I had terrible periods and was buying my own painkillers by the age of 14 because my mother was negligent when it came to any health matters and accused me of making it up. I would have been stuffed if I couldn’t have bought my own.

Got denied two bottles of Chardonnay in a full weekly shop at Sainsbury's once when I was 24. Was shopping with my partner who was the same age as me and who I owned a house with. When we argued we would hardly be buying a hundred quids worth or onions, cat food, crunchy nut, washing powder and other boring household stuff just to get a couple of bottles of wine the checkout lady just shrugged and said it was policy. Neither of us had ID with our DOB on, but ridiculously my partner had his warrant card as he was a police officer... which was deemed not good enough. We had to leave the wine.

Lucky enough to appear under 25? I wish!

I'm in my 60s and had to prove my age to buy some alcohol free gin the other day.

There was absolutely no reason whatsoever to ID me. The whole situation is ludicrous.

If you buy non alcoholic drinks but in glass bottles that say “no alcohol” they still ID here. Had argument with the supermarket because it clear says there is Nothing in it to be ID over! They wouldn’t shift on it. Apparently you can’t even buy anything looks like alcoholic…..

The supermarket where I work uses Think25 so anyone who looks under 25 has to be IDd for age restricted items. The company sends in test purchasers regularly (at least 1 a week) so people aged 24 will go to your till with paracetamol to see if you ID them. If you fail one of these checks it's an automatic written warning.
People regularly lose their jobs over it so you are unreasonable to expect them to bend the rules for you.
Its really hard to judge age & on the examples on the training no one can guess them all correctly. I often ask people well into their 30s for ID. Not my choice not my rule but can't afford to get sacked either.