Refused to sell me alcahol

It certainly needs feeding back. How else can the improve. Every business should welcome constructive criticism

 

I was at the self service checkouts in Asda and my 13 year old son was scanning the shopping as I was taking it out of the trolley.

When he was about to scan the beer an assistant said he couldn't scan it as he was under age. I said I know, I'm buying it but she wouldn't let him scan it.

They didn't go as far to ask for ID and they did let me buy it but I thought it was daft at the time. Your situation is even dafter.

 

I was referring to the ID challenge rule. I believe it is aimed at those purchasing alcohol that are over 18 but look under 21 (or 25 in some cases).

 

It's ridiculous I can be awkward at times and I point blank would not have put up with this pillock behind the till. It's no good saying it's his job to ask or he's poorly trained, the shop assistant is basically incompetent and should not be employed. I just can't believe it, I'm sat here getting mad and it's nowt to do with me, I just hate stupid. I'm not a big drinker but I have bought alcohol in a shop with my kids with me and i would have been astounded if that happened to me.

 

This is taken very seriously at supermarkets etc these days
There is a 10,000 fine plus and the risk of losing your operating licence for 3 months

My wife works at one and she says mystery shoppers or test purchases come in to the shop constantly buying alcohol , games and so on
Once or more a week sometimes
They sometimes have with them children who they use to test staff

One girl was suspended for selling a underage girl a Blu-ray
She was with two adults who the girl thought were her parents and she handed the cashier the Blu-ray ,who the girl thought was just getting involved helping shopping like kids love to do.

“As of 2011, the four main supermarket chains (Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons), Marks & Spencer, The Co-operative, Bargain Booze and Waitrose all apply the Challenge 25 policy. Some have further rules, such as requiring ID from all members of a group in order to proceed with the sale (leading to adults well over 25 sometimes being refused service when shopping with a younger partner, friend or child). Furthermore, some supermarkets have trialled a policy of asking all alcohol purchasers for ID irrespective of apparent age, which has led to senior citizens as old as 86 being refused service”
“ Tesco bans alcohol sales to parents if they suspect an adult is buying the drink for a underage youth
Staff have been told to err on the side of caution while interpreting the policy leading to cases of parents out with there children being told to put alcohol back
Tesco believes parents will support the policy and it would rather apologise where it had misjudged the situation than sell to underage drinkers
Parents have described the rule as humiliating and daft”

 

THis is a bizarre 'law' and a real grey area. To me a purchase is the basis of a contact. Consideration offer and acceptance- i.e. You offer me a product_-in this case beer -I accept and hand over money.(consideration) The contract exists between the purchaser and vendor. There is no 3rd party involved.
The shop is assuming that the purchaser is breaking the law by providing alcohol to a minor without proof. The catchall here is the vendor has a right to refuse to sell to anyone they suspect. This surely goes against the principles of innocent until proven guilty. I wonder what would happen if someone threatened to sue them for slandering someone in front of witnesses. i.e. accusing them of committing a criminal act i.e. buying alcohol with intent to supply a minor. Do they do the same if you are buying, say paracetamol or Ibuprofen I wonder?
The law is an ass!

 

It’s exactly the same king of thing grey area with tablets
Somebody tried killing themselves with a paracetamol overdose, they found out where they bought them from and the
Cashier got final written warning for selling them
Not sure how many, no idea if it’s a written or unwritten law how many you are allowed to sell to someone
Not sure how you can be responsible for another persons action
Could try killing yourself with anything
What’s next belts , shoelaces
Wife says you’ve got to be over 25 to buy knitting needles at supermarket he he

 

You can't buy more than 2-3 packets of paracetamol depending on the shop in one go - even if there are two of you there.

 

Lad at the checkout did nowt wrong, merely covering himself.

It might be inconvenient for you, but a big fine would be a hell of a lot more inconvenient for him, especially on a retail wage.

 

Surely if your lad wanted to buy alcohol he'd have gone in dollys, Alabama alligator, silvers or visions. Never failed at 14. Leo's also never refused you.

 

Same here.

Especially when the conveyor belt is full to the brim with 200 quid worth of snap as well.

I'd just walk out and leave the lot where it is

 

I've known this occurs, so on the off chance that the SO wants a tipple but I don't have ID on me then she can buy and I'll go stand outside. It may be ridiculous, but happens as generously explained above (mystery shoppers, police, supermarket policy etc)

 

I was once refused before in Morrisons in town because I was with my ex who hadn't got her ID on her. She didn't drink which made it worse. Better still, I was buying whatever it was for my mates birthday.

It is indeed the law but where do they draw the line? Do you refuse to sell alcohol to people who have small children with them? Should it be your preference whether you buy alcohol for your son? (I know you weren't but I'm proposing the question)

 

It doesn't bother me too much. If I think of the worse case in each scenario, either me not getting a drink or a kid getting some they shouldn't, I'd rather be inconvenienced. I try to just plan ahead and have ID with me or go stand outside whilst whoever I'm with buys it.

 

i read summit like this in the paper, some women bought some booze and got to the till, she was with her 14 year old daughter but when they got to till her daughter helped me take the booze out of the basket onto the till, and because she "touched" the booze the assistant in the shop wanted to see ID from the daughter n when the mum said the booze weren't for her daughter the assistant said she now couldn't sell the booze to her because the daughter had touched the booze.

I agree shops have laws to follow but common sense should be taken with your situation

 

if you need to blame anyone for these situations then blame the government and local councils as its they who are making these daft rules up.I own a shop and have used the challenge 25 system for near on ten years now.Its getting to the point that retailers both large and small cannot afford to make a mistake no matter how trivial it may seem to the general public,we even get directives sent on the sale of eggs and flour cause kids pelt one another with them.
The council and police actively do test purchases especially in the lead up to xmas but they've gone from sending someone in who is underage to using other tactics like late teenagers who could easily be mistaken for being over 18,my mate who owns a shop had one of his staff fail a test purchase and the teen in question had a beard,he therefore went to court(and won) saying that the example could easily have been taken to be 19 or 20 years old.The aurthorities in different areas use different tactics and one is where the test purchaser is old enough but has younger mates with them so as a retailer you cant be sure who they are buying the booze for so you should really refuse the sale.
Camelot use a tactic where the test purchaser is old enough but they say is borderline in appearance so we should ask for id.

over the years we've had police come in the shop after they've taken booze of underage kids in our nearby park,one woman cop was proper swaggering in her authority as she told me we were going to be held accountable,I told her we didnt sell booze to underage kids,she was adamant they'd been served by us cause the kids had said so,it was only on the production of our cctv footage that showed one of the kids parents buying the 12 pack of fosters that cleared us.I told the cop to go to the kids parents and prosecute them,eventually all they did was give them a verbal,had it been us we would have been in court.

 

On the flip side, the 16-year-old girl I go to games with was sold a bottle of vodka when she was 15.

Even dressed to go out, I don't think she passes Challenge 25. I took malicious pleasure in grassing the shop up. VVankers.

 

Common sense would suggest a simple change to the law.

NO CHANGE: If someone looks like they could be underage then they must provide ID (my daughter was still being asked for hers in pubs etc when she was 25 years old).
CHANGE CURRENT RULE TO ADD: If an adult is in a supermarket accompanied by a minor they need to produce ID for themselves and some form of identification (with photo) for the minor to prove that he/she is their son or daughter e.g. passport (given that it is not illegal for parents to allow their underage children to drink alcohol at home) IF person is unable to do so then decline the sale. There is then NO grey area so vendor is clear on the action he must take. If it ultimately transpires that the child's ID was faked provided the vendor had checked Both IDs (CCTV evidence?) any prosecution should be aimed at the parent and not the vendor.It is not always possible for people to leave their children whilst purchasing shopping (including wines , beer or spirits). The temptation of leaving a child in the car because of this then risks some irresponsible parents doing so in hot weather which is life threatening, unlike buying the odd bottle of booze.

 

There are still quite a few grey areas there which spring to mind. Off the top of my head, people out shopping with kids that aren't their own (other family members, friends etc) and kids with different surnames to the parents. Having to carry around ID for your kid - what if they don't have a passport? - would be a hassle by itself, and seems like overkill.

Unfortunately, the law is extremely harsh, both on licensees and members of staff who sell restricted substances when they shouldn't. As the owner of a licensed business, I'm happy to use my own common sense when deciding who and who not to serve - I have to deal with the consequences of my own actions, whether they come from the customer or the police. If I was on the checkout on minimum wage then I would probably be a lot more careful. Being aware of that is why I'd always back my staff up on their call, even if it was patently ridiculous.

By and large I think the law works fairly well as it is, generally relying on people serving to use their own common sense. Occasionally that will fail, but unfortunately that's just a fact of life. I still get asked for ID despite being the wrong side of 30 (to the disbelief, on several occasions, of other people behind me in the queue), and I don't carry it - in that case I'll just go to another shop. Annoying, but not the end of the world.