AIBU to think daytime alcohol demand points to a wider problem?

[trainboundfornowhere]

I will preempt this by saying I live in Scotland and am basing this on what I’ve seen. I cannot answer for the rest of the uk. 9.15am and I’m in my local supermarket this morning picking up a few bits. I spot my friend who works there putting a bottle of wine back on the shelf and she says that is the third bottle she has had to put back since the shop opened at 7am (Shops can only sell alcohol between 10am-10pm). The customer is complaining about stupid Scottish rules. Monday they refused to sell alcohol to two people mid afternoon who were heavily intoxicated and Tuesday they had to ask someone who was drinking in the foyer to leave. This is sadly something I have noticed not just in that supermarket but others across the city and that this is a snapshot of a wider problem.

What wider problem exactly? People who like doing their weekly food shop before 10am?

I visited Scotland last week to look at a university with dd3. We used buses and every bus we were on, whatever time of day had a few inebriated people travelling - mostly young men. I have never noticed this in England and I travel quite a lot. Don't think the early hours ban would make a difference (have several alcoholics in my close family, two now deceased) but drunk people should not be served.

A couple of years ago I was making pear chutney and the recipe required pear cider. Thanks to Scotland's minimum unit pricing on alcohol non-alcohol Koppaberg was much cheaper than the one with alcohol in it but I still needed my age confirmed at the self-serve checkout. A number of years ago I decided to do my big Christmas shop on the way home from dropping my DD off in the city centre for a stupid o'clock shift at McDonalds. Scotland's alcohol laws meant I couldn't do my full shop when the supermarket was very quiet.
I don't believe that the time restrictions on selling alcohol is serving anything. DH and I have occasionally gone to our local Wetherspoons for lunch when we are both at home during the week. At 1pm I have regularly seen men sitting on their own with numerous empty beer glasses on the table in front of them; time limits and minimum unit pricing makes no difference to these people.

I bought a nice bottle of red on Thursday morning shortly after dropping my DD at the childminders... It's still sat on the counter waiting for me to take it to my friend's house tomorrow for her birthday! I hope people didn't think I was an alcoholic 😣

The real serious drinkers will (maybe!) be the ones buying booze at 10.05, OP. Also please let it be known that I am not off to immediately scoff that entire loaf of bread, block of cheese and whatever else is in my basket, in case anyone is judging me.

Im in England. Ive seen lots of people lose their lives to the drink. Drinking is a public health concern, how do you think public health scotland should tackle heavy drinking? Any policy that does work should be rolled out UK wide imo.

What??

Night shift workers? Someone buying it for later on?

I was caught out by that at Christmas, I don’t really drink but was getting port and Prosecco. The check out assistant said it happened a lot. It’s not like I was planning to drink it whilst driving home! Clearly I’m old but didn’t they used to block off the booze aisle until it was allowed for sale?

I don’t really see the point of restricting supermarket alcohol sales before 10am tbh. I’m assuming your average alchoholic will either have supplies or be needing a lie in from a heavy night. I’m possibly wrong and many people have an epiphany at 8:00am when unable to buy booze.

None of us drink alcohol so I had no idea of licensing laws. I needed a bottle of vodka for a gift and had to walk about supermarket for an hour carrying it under my arm till it was the correct time. One shop assistant I kept passing as I wandered eventually patted my arm and said won't be long now till you can get a drink.

I had to collect my son when he dropped his car off at the garage for repairs. 8.30 am Garage next to Asda, so I thought I’d get some shopping. ans as part of that, I wanted a bottle of malt for my neighbour , who fixed my fence after a storm while I was away. The aisle wasn’t cordoned off, so I didn’t give it a thought, but when I got to the checkout, I was told I couldn’t take it. Scottish, of course. Not yet 10 am. It’s daft. If I were an alcoholic, I’d be buying it the day before so I’d have some, anyway…I know/ have known quite a few alcoholics on the West Coast. Yet you could go to pubs in Glasgow any time of the night or morning as they all had different hours , so buying a pint at 6 am , coming off a shift was possible.
It’s like minimum pricing…it won’t stop drinkers drinking..they just spend less on other things. and we do alcohol pickups any time we come back from England before we get to the border. Last time I did one , H bought 45 bottles of brandy from various Asdas over 200 miles..a few bottles here a.couple there till we got past Carlisle 🤣

I agree minimum pricing and time restrictions don’t do anything. I sadly saw a girl no more than 25 years old with two children under 5 frequently showing up drunk at said supermarket. Without the children I will say. She used to show up twice on the days she came in. The first time she would be sober and buy alcohol with the children in tow and the second time the children were never with her but she was slaughtered and was frequently refused alcohol by the shop the second time. Unfortunately she obviously had a lot of problems though and tried to commit suicide in the car park. She was found by staff before it was too late and hasn’t been seen since. Hopefully she is now getting help. They also have a couple of what they refer to as old alkies who are or at least appear sober when they come in but have all the signs of alcoholism on their faces.

Echoing many posters, I’m also in Scotland and drink maybe one bottle of wine per month max but the 10am-10pm rule is so annoying. I wake early and like to walk the dog then go shopping. If I want to buy alcohol I have to make a second trip later. I’d suggest they could allow alcohol purchases as part of a more substantial shop, but that would be a pain to oversee (what would be considered substantial etc) and the rule is also a pain if you want to pick up a bottle of fizz or similar as a gift on your way to work.

That's Scotland for you.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with you that alcoholism is a horrible affliction and a scourge, but you have made your point very poorly I’m afraid. You just sound super judgey.

Exactly. I think it points to more of a problem if you only ever buy alcohol when you're ready to drink it.

Will that be at the same place they get their dog food too?

During Covid, the supermarkets pushed us all around the shops in a queue, and I know in my local Tesco Extra, the queue started in the booze aisle.
You could not avoid it.

This is the case in Australia - you can’t buy booze at the supermarket, but the bottle shop is usually attached to it. Same building, just an adjacent outlet. It’s performative nonsense.

When my DC lived at home I'd see them off to school and then go to the supermarket if I wasn't working, then I wouldn't have to go out for the rest of the day. I wasn't going to come home and immediately open a bottle of red.

England based so no time limits on buying alcohol 👋
If i went to the shops after the school run or first thing Saturday i would want to buy everything on my list. Even wine. I wouldn't be drinking it then though. I almost never buy booze and then drink it straight away. I would go home and put in the fridge or on the wine rack fir whenever i actually want it.

Seriously? Is this all you have to worry about in your life? Is so, you are very lucky. Why is what other people do any of your business? Just do you.

Do airports in Scotland serve alcoholic drinks early in the morning, or is that also banned? In England the airport bars are full of people having a pre-flight drink at 5am! Personally I can only tolerate coffee at that time!

Good thing that rule doesn't exist in England. The bottle tombola would be a disaster- on donation day there's always a huge queue of parent buying chocolate and wine donations before school run! 🤣

Google tells me airports are exempt from the standard Scottish licensing laws. Seems hypocritical therefore to apply time restrictions on supermarket shopping.