General Chat

On a lighter note, I was asked in the chip shop for ID before they let me have the OAP fish'n'chips. I was thrilled and showed them my bus pass. :o))

IT is not only tesco who do this asda,morrisions, and sainsbury'do this as well its the management that drums it into the staff no id no booze .some places is over 25s only.it is mad but with the run up to christmas i bet it will be relaxed.so that they can all profit by our buying booze.

This does seem to be Tesco problem
My daughter who is 29 never gets asked for id when she goes out but cannot buy booze in our local Tescos with out showing her passport,
I do agree that if you look too young that is in everyones best interest that you have to prove your age, but asking a 29 year old is a bit daft,

Then on the other hand my grandson who was 11 at the begining of September was charged full price on the bus as he had no id to prove he was under 16
although he clearly is not

Just Jobsworths i think.

that happend to my son,he was buying a bottle of rum for his dads birthday(he doesnt drink himself) and he was asked for proof of his age(hes 24) he showed his driving licence,they said the photo wasnt him,so he just walked out,he said he felt a fool as people were looking at him,he doesnt shop in tesco anymore.x

Its a bit over the top isnt it,?? I would have walked out and left the trolley full of shopping,,,let them put it back on the shelves..

if you sell to an underage person and are caught there is an on the spot £80 fine to the shop assistant, if it goes to court there is a £2000 fine for the shop assistant plus £20.000 fine for the store.
the shop assistant is disaplined (sp?) then sacked and the store will loose its licence.

as a checkout operator, sorry i am not going to risk this, i cannot afford to make a mistake so if you LOOK under 25 then i will ask you politely for id. if you do not have this i will refuse the sale as we have been told to do.
as for children shopping with adults this is a difficult situation. if the children are small you can ignor this but if they are young adults you have to listen to conversations to see if they are buying for them (it is amazing what you can hear and see money being passed and they dont realise how obvious they are being)
as someone has said, it is commonsense, but the rules are there to protect EVERYONE, me included.

i dont think that pritt stick is age restricted but i know of correction fluid and false nails (that have the glue in them) and have known of some perfume sprays that i have had to refuse to underage customers.
also please dont get me started on games for the p c and games consoles.
i go home feeling sick somedays after the stress i have had just trying to do my job!

it is my day off today.. a stress free day.
tina x

The law was tightened up in 2003 and it placed much more of an onus on the shop and its staff to decide if to sell or not, and makes them liable if the purchaser turns out to be a minor. The shop assistant can be given a fixed penalty ticket of £80. The shop itself can be taken to court, especially for repeat offences.

There are two issues here.

1. Sale to minors. If the person clearly looks as though they are over 18, then that is sufficient. However if there is any doubt whatsoever, the shop can refuse to sell, unless suitable ID is produced. Ignorance is no defence.

2. Sale to adults for the consumption by minors. This is a bit more difficult. It is illegal to sell alcohol knowingly for consumption by a minor. As this is rather more difficult to prove, it seems that some shops are now taking a much firmer line, so as not o get caught out.

The current licensing laws are the brainchild of this labour government, so hardly surprising if they don't work properly.

I was going shopping with my partner Linda.
I was in my mid 30's..my partner Linda was in her mid 40's ( Im her toy boy..lol).
And I wasn't allow to go into the supper market with my partner.... because I was wearing a backpack!!!

You can imagine.....I was furious. I use a backpack to carry shopping. It's not a camping backpack..just a small black one. I carry the tins..and other heavier items in it.

I don't think the jobs worth on the door knew how close he came to getting a good kicking.

I sent letters and bombarded the company with emails threating them with a court case, because as far as I was concerned they were accusing me of being a thief, and I wasn't standing for that.

As you can imagine...they gave in pretty quick... and opologised..etc...but we never shopped there again. The damage was done.

Hi

I wonder if this particular branch had just had a disciplinary or something for selling alcohol to an underage person(s), whether intentionally or not.

I used to work next door to a different supermarket and myself and my colleagues often used this store and their staff knew all of us.

They got a disciplinary/fine etc when the Police did some mystery shops and found they had sold alcohol to an underage lad who actually looked over 21 and the clerk didnt ask for ID.

The day after, one of my colleagues who was over 21 went in to buy some alcohol (she was on her own) and was asked for ID. She didnt have any and argued that they knew who she was and how old she was to be told "no, we cant sell it without"

Obviously, their staff had had a roasting over the fine. (this was the store and not the clerk who was fined).

Claire

dont delete ....Please this is inportant ....coz at some stage there will be BIG trouble over this and the shops have to understand that when ID is shown and the person is over 18/21/25 then thats it ...not then say well the person you are with cant have it so we cant sell it ,,,,


Like peopel have said what if you have a child in a pushchair ....and BOTH my children could drink and I couldnt buy beer

CMD don't delete this, it is interesting to everyone.

Ann
Glos

Our local T's wouldn't sell my daughter a set of plastic cutlery because it had knives in them. She went to M's down the road and the cashier said 'I shouldn't sell you those, they have knives in and you're obviously under 18. But you look trustworthy so I'll let you get them.' !!!

Has anyone heard of Byte cards ?

These are credit card sized laminated cards, with the child's name, date of birth etc. and picture on. The school provides them for free..

In my sons school they have one every couple of years and can be used for id for age appropriate things such as cinema, buses etc.

Very useful for those kids who look older, and younger when they try to use different facilities and are not believed they are the age they really are.

my daughter aged 23 was refused to be served with a lottery ticket. But as I have also worked as a cashier it is up to the cashier to interpret the rules to safeguard her/him self. And the use of the refusal book is well advised as it shows that you dont just sell to anybody.
They are not allowed to drink the stuff on the premises as it is an off-licence and evenin the car park it is still considered on site.
How can you stop anybody from opening a can once they have stepped outside the door but not left the car park?

the cashier is often told that the shop would rather lose a sale than lose the licence

Don't wipe it CMD

It is a reminder that laws are put in place to safeguard the supermarket, and the shopper, but proves they don't work.

Hope daughter & S.I.L. get more than a written apology. More like a few quids worth of vouchers.

UPDATE...
my daughter and s-i-l contacted Te*co today....and spoke to the manager.....who admitted that the cashier HAD acted a bit over the top.....he apologized and is getting a written apology to them...
As it was my son-i-l who was asked for ID which he gave...then that... should have been that......

Dermot......
Yes I still think its a good idea to ask for ID.....but when it is produced from such a good source....then it should have been believed...
also they gave their te*co loyalty card to the cashier, which has their address's and names on!!!
also....there is NO WAY my daughter could be mistaken for underage......

I have worked in retail long enough to know when someones doing a 'jobsworth'...
Thank you everyone....I will wipe this off tommorrow
cmd xxxx

Dermot,

In all honestly no! They take advantage of us locals during the summer when they hike up all the prices when the tourists are here. In the winter they understock on fresh fruit and vegetables so they can manipulate prices.

I'd rather they shut and lots of our smaller shops reappeared in the now 'dead' high street.

I wouldn't be too sorry if the local supermarket closed earlier, every evening there is a little gang of underage hoodies trying to coerse adults into buying their booze and fags. Generally they succeed.
Where, since they have no jobs do these kids get the money from?

Would you mind if your local supermarket closed down?

I think there is a simple answer to all of this.

If we all had our own "Big Brother Personal Number" tattooed onto our foreheads (they would look like barcodes maybe). Then any supermarket, off licence etc could just scan us and they would know our age etc.

Could also be used to top up things like train fares, bus fares etc so no fumbling around with things like ticket machines - save a lot of time as well!

Whaddya reckon?

Jill