Sainsbury's wouldn't sell me a beer...

[Flickeh]

Years ago i refused to sell a copy of GTA 3 to a young and obviously underage lad. Five minutes later his mum stormed in and moaned that i made her pay for parking just to come in a buy a game. I told her the reasons why i refused her son, but she was having none of it.

I regularly tell parents that a game isn't suitable for their child. Most just shrug and say "he's played it all before". When i serve a customer who's buying an age rated game i cannot take money from their child as that would mean that i'm selling to a minor. Even if the game is for the parent and the child is only a couple of years old and wants to pass the money over for fun.

 

[oli356]

Same thing happened earlier to me but I was with a friend who is 18 (I'm only 16). Which makes more sense then a 23 year old and a 16 year old.

So we went and he just went into a different store

 

[rypt]

You could well argue that alcohol is dangerous, and therefore its purchase and consumption should be better regulated.

Just like the people that would like heroin or marajuana legalized - typically they would like to see them legalized within a framework that would only allow adults to purchase them under specific circumstances from specific shops, i.e. not a free for all, and certainly not at the supermarket.

You can put barriers in place to getting hold of the alcohol, but in the end if someone wants to drink they'll find a way. As you say you have to looks at why so many youngsters want to get drunk in parks every weekend, and a large part of that comes from both their parents and the society we live in. It's almost culturally accepted for "normal" people to get absolutely off their heads every weekend - and this evidently feeds down into children.

I would like for there to be NO controller substances, beyond some antibiotics to prevent things becoming immune.
Everyone should be free to get/take whatever they want

Want to take Viagra until your penis falls off? Fine
Want to smoke weed? Fine
Want to drink? Fine
Want to ....? Fine

 

[Kenai]

ergo ...if you have one ...you are 18 or more.

Or you borrowed your dad's, your brother's, etc. etc.

Credit card does not and cannot prove age, whether in a lawful sense or a logical sense.

I'm sure you'd probably see it the same way if it was your job on the line making such assumptions - it only takes one misjudgement or bad assumption for a till operative to land themselves in some very hot water.

That's entirely regardless of the fact that I can't remember the last time I used my card in a scenario where the till worker could have ascertained whether it was debit or credit without asking to see it anyway.

 

[Tefal]

And you propose to do this how?

Platinum will do it for 6 boxes of fish fingers, pricey but well worth the investment.

 

[Moeks]

Or you borrowed your dad's, your brother's, etc. etc.
Credit card does not and cannot prove age, whether in a lawful sense or a logical sense.

You missed my point somewhat there, I was talking about the assumption that is made about the honesty or potential lack of, of said person presenting the card ...which is why it's not legal proof of age. I know that it isn't and I know why it isn't ...but the assumption made about a persons honesty and integrity that even brings us to this situation annoys me. It is what it is, but I still dislike it.

 

[Dano]

You missed my point somewhat there, I was talking about the assumption that is made about the honesty or potential lack of, of said person presenting the card ...which is why it's not legal proof of age. I know that it isn't and I know why it isn't ...but the assumption made about a persons honesty and integrity that even brings us to this situation annoys me. It is what it is, but I still dislike it.

That typically is the few spoiling it for the many yet again, seems to be the way society works these days

 

[Abraham]

Of slight relevance to the credit card discussion, can a prepaid credit card easily be distinguished from a normal credit card (I've never seen one). Seeing as they are available to under 18's because no credit is actually involved, they are offered by credit card suppliers though.

 

[TheVoice]

Define abuse ... and being purposely difficult and refusing to sell a perfectly legal good to a person over 18 is not "no good reason"

If you don't have ID, they're well within their rights to refuse you just as you're well within your rights to complain or go elsewhere. That being said, you've got no right to get angry with the person serving you providing they're doing their job properly and applying the policy correctly anyway; they're doing everything that is required of them by the company. It's really not difficult to remain calm and polite, even when things aren't going your way.

They are a company representative dealing with you, as such any comments you make to them can and should be passed on to management.

For most they're "just" an employee, they're doing what their job requires them to do so any complaints you have - especially if they're presented in an aggressive manner - aren't even going to be taken seriously. The best way to complain about something like that is to write a letter, otherwise it likely never gets past the person you're talking to.

There is also plenty of leeway within those "instructions" as different staff will apply them differently

There's no leeway at all, that's the entire point. The only factors that really change the application of the policy are each individual's own judgement of a customer's age, and whether that person can actually be bothered to apply it or not. If it's felt that you're not IDing people who should be getting asked for ID - for either reason - you'll soon find yourself being retrained.

 

[Kezmo]

We got refused last week at burton latimer sainsburys , group of 3
myself 34, the Mrs 24 and her mums fella 42
Me and the Mrs had i.d the 42 year old who to be fair looks old enough to be our dad didn't and tbh didnt think he'd need to bring it.
So the jobs worth at the end of the till told the spotty oik serving us not to sell us alcohol
wtf happend to common sense ?

 

[Dano]

wtf happend to common sense ?

It went out the window when the law started prosecuting innocent staff for making genuine mistakes in their judgement of somebodies age.

 

[Darg]

I worked in an off-license a few years ago. Standard procedure was to ensure that all people there had ID if you thought any might be under 21 (just to make sure that an older looking 16-17 y/o would still get asked). We were responsible if the over 18 who bought the beer then turned around and gave it to the underage kid.

That's the way the law is, it's useless saying that the cashier or the store was at fault. If you have a problem with it go consult your local MP to get the law changed.

 

[-westy-]

This happened because stupidity is rife.

Not really, there are laws about supplying alcohol to anyone underage.

You can also be prosecuted for buying alcohol for a minor, maximum penalty is £2000 fine and up to 6 months in prison (don't ask :/)

To be fair, for every genuine person buying alcohol for themselves with no intention to supply it to minors, there's 10 people who are buying it for people.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Carrying a credit card or debit card does not prove that you are 18+ as there is no picture on any of these cards to identify the owner.

 

[Ahleckz]

What I did think was a bit off, was they would not accept my gf's staff nurse ID as proof she is older than 18 (no way can you be 18 to be a staff nurse), her old Uni ID (you have to be at least 18 to go to uni, also would not accept a 'Platinum' Credit card (again have to be over 18 to obtain this).

Uni IDs used to be notoriously used as fake IDs, hence why very few places will now accept them as ID. Also, I went to uni when I was 16 so your point is moot.

Personally I think it's all gone a bit too far now, I would raise the legal age to buy alcohol to 21 anyway, which would actually do some good I think.

What are your reasons for this? *Insert usual argument re. taxes, war, and the rest*.

 

[Mp4]

whoa this thread has gone nuts

Ill ask for ID no matter if you look 21 -40

I don’t want to get a fine of £80 on the spot fee
I don't want to go to court
I don't want a criminal record
I don't want to be dragged into the store managers office to get a disciplinary
I wouldn’t want Sainsburys or any other store to get bad reputation or loose its alcohol licence
I wouldn’t want the store manager to get a 10k fine
I don't want to loose respect from members of staff

Store policy at the end of the day and its forced on its staff. Think 21 has been around for a while get over it

 

[Moeks]

It's a prompt on the screen ...oh God spare us!

...computer says yay ...computer says nay!

/queue another rant.

 

[fail at the internets]

Im 19 and i look around 17 and i never get ID'd in sainsburys. Go me?