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

I think Nahui made a good point actually.

Actually I don't think so little of the intelligence of cashiers, that I assume they are unable to tell the difference between a 14 year old and a 45 year old.

I hate all this self-righteous jobsworthy nonsense. Most people in most jobs have enough common sense not to be deliberately obtuse about selling alcohol, knives or anything else. These sort of blanket policies remove common sense and individual judgement from the equation and reduce everyone to idiots or knaves. Can't abide them.

if the trading standards auditors come in the designated premises supervisor can't say 'oh yes we use common sense round here.' they have to be able to show, on paper and by spot checking staff, that due diligence is in place.

if an under age sale did take place then there is no defence in 'we use common sense.' it has to be auditable. a store's defence would include documented staff training and testing around challenge 25 usually at least every 6 months, posters up on the sales floor as well as back stage, plus a refusal book with logged refusals.

I agree proper procedures have to be in place. But they should not replace common sense, they should be complementary.

It is patently absurd to ask a 47 year old grandma her age and then refuse to allow a 22 year old with ID to buy for her.

And it happened in Waitrose! That's the biggest shock. Now if it had been ASDA...

Oh and by the way, I do think there is a serious issue about who the cashiers decide is going to be buying alcohol for minors. People with the wrong accents? Wrong hairstyle? Wrong clothes? Wrong skin colour? What's going to be the deciding factor, eh, and how is it going to be monitored?

Thing is, no underage person in their right mind attempts to buy alcohol in a supermarket in the first place. At least I never did

Place to go is corner shop, and ask person what is cheapest strongest alcohol you can buy for 2.50 with a screw top. Answer was usually liebfraumilch or if you were feeling flush thunderbirds [vom].

I never ever ever attempted to buy booze from a supermarket as a girl, and i really can't imagine that that has changed. It's just not the right sort of place for illegal activity, too brightly lit and too much chance of bumping into your mum/next door neighbour/parish priest.

It's all for show.

I am also surprised that the police are testing that supermarkets are testing the "challenge 25" rule as that is a rule imposed by the industry and not a law.

i dont think cashiers do do that, If they did they would be very wrong.

plenty of teenagers try to buy alcohol at superstores every day, I know this as my husband has the joys of throwing many of them out.

HBLB - I share your concern about how cashiers decide who's buying alcohol to supply to minors and who is buying for themselves but happens to be with a teenager.

But that's the point Trikken, we don't know, do we, because we don't know on what criteria they are basing their "suspicion".

It's not even a "reasonable suspicion" is it?

im sure they would have to have reasonable suspicion, what would you do?

online online lets not bother with all this hastle anyway, tis the only way to shop!!!

I am SOOO glad I no longer live in the UK! Reading all this self righteous bollocks!

I'm very interested in why it is the British kids at the British School of Brussels are considered to be the only binge drinkers. The European School in Brussels, (children of our elected European representatives and their flunkies) is supposed to be a hot bed of drugs and drink and sex!

We did a boot fair at BSB last week, and I was admiring their facilities and recalled the 12000 euro a year price tag. We bought coffee and later, bacon rolls from the students. Not one of them could work out the correct change!

So the Belgian teenagers don't go out and get pissed every weekend. They are free to enjoy a wine or beer with their parents, or on their own. There are none of these draconian restrictions here thank God! My babysitter held a bday party for her 16 year old. It was quite acceptable for them to have beer.

Why do the expats do this then? Too much money and not enough attention probably.

So we still don't know why a cashier will decide that the mum with 2 kids doing a weekly shop is going to supply her 13yr old with alcohol? or why that particular cashier will refuse her even with I.D when the one next door served same mum the week before with no problem

only if the 13 yr old chooses it or does something to indicate it is his would it get refused. not just "oh, there is a teenager, it MUST be for him", thats just silly.

Well fuck it.
I'm going to give up drink and start on the heroin. Nobody asks for id when you buy it.

Yes Trikken I see what your saying, but my 13 yr old had nothing to do with the picking or packing of the wine, her 26yr old sister did, so why was she refused on the basis that she may supply the minor? as I said the week before she did the same shop with no problem.

You can see why I say it must be down to the cashier having a bad day.

I got IDed for a bottle of vanilla essence the other day! I think the lady was just finding it funny that the till had flagged up that she needed to check.

YANBU, I'd loved to have seen that, I'd probably do the same thing

Ooh, TBM, vanilla essence? Dangerous stuff.

They should probably ID people buying Listerine mouthwash as well (fairly high proportion of ethanol afaik), and Bach flower remedies (definitely mostly neat alcohol).

Yes I know sometimes the cashier gets it wrong, as you say they could have been having a bad day, or new maybe?

TBM I did too! So glad it has happened to someone else as well. It is funny now but was vaguely irritating at th time. I had 2 children in double trolley, big shop including a load of baking ingredients, no alcohol at all and was asked for ID. I must have looked thoroughly confused and even the cashier had to check the bottle to make sure it contained alcohol and that the system hadn't gone dolally. Can you imagine how much vanilla essence you would have to consume to get even slightly tipsy?!

TBM

Maybe we should contact all the major supermarkets and direct them to this thread, they could then clarify the policy each store adopts, but I don't think even they could answer all the questions we have raised.

It seems they are not sure themselves

oh yes vanilla essence, im totally teetotal; as is whole household so was very confused when checkout girl said she couldnt serve me without a supervisor as she was underage and the computer had flagged up my alcohol purchase

and this was waitrose