To leave my £80 of shopping for the checkout assistant to put away

[mummytopebs]

Was in supermarket doing my shopping got to the till, had £80 worth of shopping in this was 4 cans of john smiths for dh. The drink was at the end of the shopping so everything had gone through, the checkout lady asked for id (I am 29 but do look young but not that young and god its 4 cans of beer with a full shop not some chavvy drink) I said i did not have any on me but i used to work in the said supermarket so said can you call my old manager who will verify my age. She tutted at me and called the line manager who i used to work for, she said yes she is definitly over age it was 6 years when i worked there and i was definitly over 18 then. The jobsworth sorry checkout lady still looked at me distastefully and the manager said it is up to the checkout lady though cos she originally akked for the id. I said can i have it then and she looked at me and went nah !!!!!!!! I said are you joking and hse said no i dont think you are over age!!!!!! So i said well i'll leave it then and she said ok and put the beer down and said thats £80.71p and i said no i will leave the lot - grabbed my dd and flounced out of the shop with an air of triumph.

I dont care if i had been shopping for an hour, i used to work in that supermarket and know she will have to put it all away ha ha ha

You mean explicit not implicit

I suspect the Essex police are disseminating misinformation actually.

It is not illegal to give your child alcohol.

This is strange, because on the rare occasions I do buy wine in Tescos or Morrisons, DD often puts it on the conveyor belt (she's 7) and no-one has ever challenged me. I do sometimes stop her, but only because I'm scared she might break it - I didn't know I'd be accused of supplying a minor.

Do all ASDA's have this over 25 policy?
Have nevr noticed it (but mercifully haven't been to ASDA recently)

Easy answer to all this is to shop online, sod the nanny state, as long as there is an adult to sign (oops id card?) Seriously there obviously would be a higher chance of you having id at home, although i have never been asked on the doorstep! How irritating it would be for the store to have to take back £200 to £300 of shopping back!
I dont think you were being unreasonable at all, i would have done exactly the same, it is illegal under eighteen. If they asked for id and you were unable to give it then equally you have the right to leave the rest of your shopping behind too. No brainer!

Shopping online is fine, as long as you dont leave an under 18 to collect it, they will send it back to the store if an adult is not present to collect shopping. This is Tescos rule anyway, dont know about other home shop services.

HerBeatitudeLittleBella, its illegal to give a child under 5 years of age alcohol, unless supervised for medical purposes.

I do my shopping on-line and I do get my wine delivered. I am also well beyond the age of looking anything near 25. Nor do I yet have my own teenagers.

That doesn't stop me from being horrified at being in a nanny state where I can be refused a legal purchase* if I'm with a teenager because a cashier has "suspicions" about my "intent".

Do you really think that it is OK that somone can refuse you something legal based on suspicion of intent.

How can it be OK that the supermarkets take it upon themselves to make "the law"? If we really believe, as a country, that you should be required to show ID to buy alcohol/knives/glue then it should be decided by Parliament, not enforced by a cartel of overpowerful retailers with their own agenda.

*and yes, of course I realise it's not a "god given right" to buy anything

its better to refuse because of suspicion and be wrong than serve it and be wrong.

Links arms with ThingOne.

So therefore you think it is fine for me not to ask someone who might be over 25 but just look younger for ID, and then run the risk of them trotting out of the shop with their receipt straight into either the POLICE car that has brought them to "test purchase" the shop, or Trading Standards car? Because the police AND trading standards DO do this, and they do it with kids who look a lot older than they are specifically to try and get us to fall foul of the law.

Sorry, but as I said before, I will not risk getting a 2k fine and a criminal record because YOU cannot be arsed to carry ID, to protect both you and myself.

Are you replying to me ilove? If you are perhaps you should re-read what I have written.

Odd they use kids who look a lot older - when DS1 used to take part in these operations they chose him specifically because he looks young for his age.

I have never been asked for ID (well, not for a very long time lol!), even when shopping with teenagers.

Are you sure they use kids who look older? IME they use children who are actually over the age limit but who look under it

IME they do both.

this is so funny!
i once got IDed in poundland.. for dinner forks.

not knives...

forks.

WTF?

sometimes these people have no common sense.. i mean i had two kids with me, a wedding band of my finger and i was OBVIOUSLY not under 16...

PMSL @ it now tho

forks don't come under bladed articles, fine. but for blades it's 18 not 16..btw.

They do both, the three tests I have had in the last few weeks have all been 17 year olds who appear to be around 22/23. They are currently testing that we are correctly applying "Think 25".

No, thingone, I wasn't specifically replying to you

Thenatty- it's Poundland that won't sell disposable razors to the under 21s (cos obviously the only reason for buying razors under that age is to make a shank and stab some other gang member), so frankly it does not surprise me that they confuse forks with knives...

I guess the law is different in Scotland and south of the border? My son had to be old enough to buy the age-restricted items otherwise Trading Standards would have been inducing him to commit a crime!

i would have had no problem being asked id for knives.. to be honest its a dangerous item and i could () be planning to stab someone...

mind you, could do someones eye a serious damage with a fork!

well done!! applauds to you

Nahui- in this country we have a major problem with binge-drinking, both among teenagers and so-called adults. Note someone's comments further down about the British School in Brussels, where the only drunken teens are the British ones despite far less restricted drink sales laws. This appears to be so ingrained in British culture that preventing teenagers from buying drink is not likely to stop it. I'm afraid that the duties now imposed on retailers have very little chance of preventing teens from getting pissed every day of the week if they so wished.

If my teenagers (aged 14 and nearly 16) wanted to get bladdered nightly, there is plenty of alcohol at home for them to pinch. Availability is not the issue. The point is that they appear to have a very healthy relationship with alcohol- one actively dislikes it an will not touch it (the 14 yr old), the nearly 16 yr old will very occasionally have half a small glass of wine with his supper if we are. Frankly I cannot see them adopting a binge-drinking culture any time soon.

Well, Nahui, you've clearly been reading a different thread. You are also assuming that none of us have ever had anything to do with this subject before.

There are many other options to reduce teenage drinking, most of which would be far more effective in my opinon. Remove alcopops from sale. Stop drinks promotions where you get eg 3 shorts for the price of 1 if you're a girl and it's Wednesday. Make it illegal to sell alcohol as a loss leader, as they want to do in Scotland. Stop happy hours. There are more.

All these activities carry on? Why? Because they make the retailers a huge amount of money.

Instead the retailers (and drinks industry) hide behind initiative after initiative such as ID25.

Nahui - you haven't forgotten that the op is 29, have you?