Buying Booze

[Bad Company]

A mate of mine told me about this.

Apparently he was in Morrisons buying the weekly groceries including some wine . When he got to the checkout he was asked for his 14 year old son's ID. He asked why and was told that he was 'in a group' and they therefore have to be sure that everybody in the group is old enough. He pointed out that they were a family but apparently it makes no difference.

Surely this is ridiculous. As far as I know it is perfectly legal to allow the 14 year old a drink at home in any event.

Is this a one off or standard supermarket procedure?

 

[Alun]

Did he ask to speak to the supervisor/manager?

 

[Bad Company]

Did he ask to speak to the supervisor/manager?

Yes and was told that was company policy. Needless to say he left his shopping and bought elsewhere. The daft thing is that if he had been with a baby or infant this would probably not have happened?

 

[Sara_H]

I've heard of this before - ridiculous and as your friend did - my reaction would be to leave all my shopping at the checkout and go elsewhere.

 

[Alun]

I would write to their head office, asking them to confirm this policy and pointing out how ridiculous it is. I would not be shopping there again.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I would write to their head office, asking them to confirm this policy and pointing out how ridiculous it is. I would not be shopping there again.

You could also add that Threshers had the same policy shortly before they went broke.

 

[marinyork]

I've heard of this before - ridiculous and as your friend did - my reaction would be to leave all my shopping at the checkout and go elsewhere.

If you do this, it is actually a form of punishment. Since the shop has to put all of the shopping back on the shelf - wasting quite large amounts of time and potentially dispose of any refrigerated or frozen products (resulting in a loss).

 

[SavageHoutkop]

A mate of mine told me about this.

Surely this is ridiculous. As far as I know it is perfectly legal to allow the 14 year old a drink at home in any event.

I'm sure it is fine to allow the 14 year old to drink at home too; but equally I'm sure buying alcohol on behalf of someone who's underage is an offence. So not quite sure how the 14 year old manages to drink if no-one could buy anything they were going to share with him?

 

[ianrauk]

If you do this, it is actually a form of punishment. Since the shop has to put all of the shopping back on the shelf - wasting quite large amounts of time and potentially dispose of any refrigerated or frozen products (resulting in a loss).

what.. you mean like wasting a responsible adults time that want's to do a simple thing as buy some booze?

 

[marinyork]

what.. you mean like wasting a responsible adults time that want's to do a simple thing as buy some booze?

What I said was mostly a neutral statement describing what does happen. If someone wanted to take it as a strategy to try and discourage such practises as the one in the OP then I leave people to reach their own conclusions.

My views on alcohol sales have been said many times in the past. It is completely ludicrous. As people have joked before, the look xyz age for these policies is going up about as fast as people are ageing. At current projections it'll be show 'ID' if you look under 50 when I get to that age.

 

[Bad Company]

The problems the supermarkets have is instructing staff how to differentiate between genuine groups of adult & under age shoppers and a bunch of scrotes one of which is 18.

 

[coffeejo]

Not commenting on this specific case but when I had the misfortune to work on a supermarket till, I was told that if I sold alcohol to a minor, it would be me facing a fine / prison, not the shop.

 

[fossyant]

Well if this happens in my Local Morrisons there will be trouble.

 

[Alun]

If you do this, it is actually a form of punishment. Since the shop has to put all of the shopping back on the shelf - wasting quite large amounts of time and potentially dispose of any refrigerated or frozen products (resulting in a loss).

Yep ! That was the supermarkets decision, though.
I can see what Morrisons are trying to prevent, which is the sale of alcohol to a group of mainly underage youths where one is 18+, I would support that in principle, but their application is wrong.
I can't see Morrisons stating that they will refuse the "Family Unit" a bottle of wine with a weeks shopping, they could lose a lot of business that way.

 

[Nearly there]

It called "think 25 policy" its there to protect companies who sell alcohol as its hard to judge a teenagers age the policy is if someone looks under 25 you ask for I.D,also If an adult is purchasing alcohol with a minor the person can refuse the sale if they suspect that the adult is buying it for the minor.The police use minors to go into super markets etc and try and buy alcohol this is called a test purchase and is designed to make sure sellers of alcohol are adhering to the policy anyone caught out can recieve an on the spot fine £80 (i think) or taken to court,also the offending shop can lose its license to sell alcohol.The Think 25 policy also covers the sale of tobacco video games Dvds fireworks magazines etc You even have to apply the policy if you see someone who appears to be a minor on a booze aisle in a supermarket you can ask for I.D and ask them to leave that aisle even if there just looking.