Can I have a drink, Nanny? [RPT]

The Observer tells this sorry tale of Nanny State and her equally stupid sister, Nanny Corporation, and their latest misguided idiocy:

Management consultant Jackie Slater thought she was completing a normal shopping trip to Morrisons until the checkout assistant demanded to see her ID before scanning two bottles of wine.

"I told her I was really flattered, but I was the wrong side of 50," she said. But the assistant pointed to her 17-year-old daughter, Emily, and her 18-year-old niece, Annice, who were standing at the end of the checkout chatting.

"She asked: 'Are they with you?' I said they'd come to help me carry the bags back to the car. The assistant said: 'You could be buying the wine for them. It's the policy – I have to see everyone's ID to make sure they are all over 18'."

In vain, Mrs Slater insisted that the wine was for herself and her husband, Peter. But the assistant and then the store manager refused to budge.

Nor was their decision deemed an over-enthusiastic interpretation of company rules. Morrisons' head office last week backed the store.

"Head Office last week backed the store"? What the fuck? Now, this is the sort of mindless corporate stupidity that really boils CF's piss. How dare you, till girl? How dare you, you spotty trainee store manager? How dare you, purveyors-of-battery-hens-to-the-masses Morrisons?

How fucking dare you unilaterally decide what a grown woman - a customer - might or might not do with the stuff you sell them, and refuse them on that basis?

Obviously, you had at the back of your tiny, greasy, hair-netted minds the fact (and it is a fact) that the legal age for the purchase of alcohol from an off-licence, store or supermarket is 18.

But Emily, 17, wasn't actually trying to buy it, was she? She was, apparently, 'standing at the end of the check out'. Not offering a wad of notes and a loyalty card to the gurning imbecile behind the till, who fancied being sheriff for a while. What would you have done, you fuckwitted Morrisons jobsworths, if she'd been just a bit further away? Where do you draw your arbitrary authoritarian line?

  "This wine is not for the person I can see sitting in that car over there in the car park, is it?"

  "You're not buying this wine for the child I remember seeing in here with you last week, are you?"

  "Married, Madam? Any kids? What sort of age would they be then?"

But no, you decided what was going on all alone, didn't you? Had to see "everyone's ID", didn't you, Morrisons till girl? What exactly did that mean, in your small, addled X-factor-and-Heat-magazine-filled brain?  Everyone in 'your' checkout line? Everyone in 'your' shop? Everyone, perhaps, in the fucking country? Imagine the power, the responsibility.

It is, of course, possible that having bought the wine Mrs Slater may have taken it home and shared with it any number of people. Including Emily, her daughter. But get this, Morrisons, as you would all know if you had more brains than God gave the most retarded goose, that would have been perfectly fucking legal.

Even if Emily had been 10 years old, instead of 17, she would be legally allowed to consume alcohol at home. That is also the law. The law you deluded yourselves you were bravely upholding.

So, rather than saying the wine was for herself, Mrs Slater could legitimately have said. "No, the wine is for my daughter. She is going to drive me home, then consume the entire bottle herself." And you would still have had no fucking grounds for withholding it. It's nothing to do with you, see? You're a bloody shop, not the moral fucking maze.

Dear God, the fuckwittery.

Coincidentally, CF's eldest daughter is 17 years old, and he's taking her for a driving lesson later this afternoon. Perhaps on the way back, we'll stop in at the Morrisons in Cambourne, and get a bottle of wine for tonight. She prefers white.

_

[Look back in anger, while CF enjoys his holidays]

23 comments:

Bobski said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bobski said...

Calm down CF.

I have to side with the checkout girl on this one having been in her place.

Her responce was straight out of every supermarket's text book. That text book based upon the fact that if some young-un' all boozed up gets caught by the police and tells them where they got the alcohol that shop would then get a whopping great fine from Big Brother and no end of negative press. All the supermarkets want to avoid that event so they put those rules and procedures in place to prevent it and the employees regardless of their personal opinions agree to uphold those rules when they sign the job contract.

Who is to blame then; the checkout girl, the company or Big Brother?

Sam said...

Whilst I agree completely that it should have been sold to the woman (I would prefer their to be no legal age limit for selling alcohol to be frankly honest) at the moment we are in an (awful) system where that is rarely the case.

I Work in a supermarket as someone who regularly has to refuse people. I'd rather not, but as company policy I could get fired, and fined a very minimum of £80, for selling to someone under 18. I am also regularly informed that it is an offence for someone over 18 to buy alcohol for someone under 18, even if it is legal for someone over 5 to drink alcohol in their own homes. I usually don't question cases where it is clearly a parent buying it, but I can see quite easily how it could happen. For most till workers the fine and risk of unemployment is too big a risk to take.

Unfortunately the shop and employees of the shop have to abide by this (stupid) law, or face repercussions. So try not to be too harsh on the girl, she was only doing her job. Take the anger out on the fucking law that puts people in this position.

Anonymous said...

Wife works in Sainsbury's and has to wear a badge 'Are you 25?' and ask for ID for anyone buying alcohol who looks younger than 25.

I hate it, but...

The local Trading Standards sent a 17-year-old in and a till girl sold her alcohol without asking. Girl sacked, Sainsbury's fined.

They are protecting themselves. Can you blame them in Brown's Britain?

Furor Teutonicus said...

Anonymous said...

Wife works in Sainsbury's and has to wear a badge 'Are you 25?' and ask for ID for anyone buying alcohol who looks younger than 25.


And what happens if they ARE under 25?

As C.F pointed out, it is NOT fucking ILLEGAL to buy alcohol from the very SECOND after midnight starting your 18th birthday.

Uncle Marvo said...

I understand the girls's action in that she was only doing what she had been told. I suspect she would have been sacked had the woman been a Trading Standards officer, although what the fuck it has to do with Trading Standards beats me.

I have taken my 8 year-old into a shop and bought fags and alcohol and a copy of High School Musical - The Comic, plus some pretty tooth-damaging confectionery.

Nobody asks me stupid questions. Not twice, anyway. And my kid prefers white too, mixed with soda. The ten y/o prefers lager. So arrest me. Obviously it's doing them harm as they are both near the top of the class, have friends, and don't wind their Mum up too much.

Yes, CF, boil away. You're spot on.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Furious

The law regarding sale of goods is that the display of items for sale by a shop is an 'invitation to treat'. The shopper selects purchases and then makes an 'offer' to the shopkeeper, which the shopkeeper is free to accept or decline.

Once the shopkeeper has accepted the offer, a contract exists between them, whereby the shopkeeper is bound to deliver and the customer to pay.

Whatever the reasons for refusal, it is fully within the rights of the shopkeeper to refuse to accept the customer's 'offer' under established merchantile law.

Under our multitudinous equality laws, things change... if the customer is ethnic or manifestly non Christian or perhaps disabled, he will be able to play victimhood poker with the shopkeeper.

And probably win.

If you are a heterosexual Native Briton there is not a lot you can do except shop elsewhere.

DP

cuthhyra said...

It is getting ridiculous. I got asked my age when buying a bottle of champagne and some leaf tea in Waitrose. I'm a few years over 25 and have a full beard! To be fair to Waitrose though, they simply accepted my answer, although that rather defeats the point of 'proof of age'. Useful for me as I wasn't carrying a driver's license and didn't have any proof of age!

Anonymous said...

The thing to do with these shops is to fill your trolley with loose packed items.e.g. 2 tomatoes, a lemon, 6 spuds, a piece of quiche etc etc. put your booze at the bottom of the trolley.
Then when you rightly tell them to fuck off after demanding your age -tell them where to stick their groceries & walk out.
Unpacking & putting back the abandoned goods will give them something more useful to do with their time than harras their customers.
Petty, but very satisfying - have done it on several occasions even at the same store branch.

Anonymous said...

we all boycott Morrisons and they may get the message

Uncle Marvo said...

We can't boycott Morrison's. It has the best Pie Shop in the world, and its range of fresh fish is a wonder to behold. Anywhere, they're all the same, except for Waitrose.

I boycotted Tesco years ago, after they broke the company I worked for.

Furor Teutonicus said...

19 February 2010 11:12
Anonymous said...

The thing to do with these shops is to fill your trolley with loose packed items.... Then when you rightly tell them to fuck off after demanding your age -tell them where to stick their groceries & walk out.


It is important to do this when the shop is HEAVING (One or two hours before closing on christmas eve, or a bank holiday weekend normally works fine), and with frozen goods, so they have no choice but to do it NOW.

Otherwise they just shove it all aside until a quiet period.

TiredOfIt said...

Uncle Marvo said...

Sorry, the best pie shop(s) in the world are those belonging to Wright's Pies of Stoke. The shop in Hanley I find particulary good. In fact nowadays there aren't any other reasons to go back to Stoke.

Uncle Marvo said...

We used to have a Saxby's. Now we have Morrison's.

Dave H said...

I was asked if I was over 18 by the owner of a local* shop. I'm 44 and look older. This crap is getting seriously out of control.

*Cambourne? Small world, eh? Never been there, sounds like a real dump (one pub, literally sewage in the streets). Besides, I have fond memories of neighbouring Caxton. In my youth I had a lot of sex there.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

This sort of shit will not stop until everyone adopts the correct policy: leave the shopping on the belt, walk out, and never go back.

Mike Sp[illigan said...

But, no one's responded to CF's point about if the girls had been standing just a little further away. For the several commenters who know about Trading Standards and the like, how far away would they have had to stand? - and who would have been responsible for measuring it? Of course, that's tongue in cheek, but it shows how completely, utterly stupid the laws, and the mere "rules" have become.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Mike Sp[illigan said...

But, no one's responded to CF's point about if the girls had been standing just a little further away. ..... Of course, that's tongue in cheek, but it shows how completely, utterly stupid the laws, and the mere "rules" have become.


I had a strange one last summer. I was walking through the local park when I saw some bloody stray dog was following me, about 20 mezters back.

All of a sudden a man and a woman came up and I.D'd themselves as "Ordnungsamt", a kind of PCSO, but that actualy WORK. (Some are even armed!).

Any way they tried to do me for not having my dog on a lead.

I hate bloody dogs more than bastarding kids, and THAT is saying something.

It took three bloody months, and two court appearences, with letters from all my neighbours, and bloody ALL sorts, before they grudingly admitted I did not have to pay a fine.

NOT because it "was not my dog", but because they "could not prove it was"

WHAT THE FUCK!!??

I can imagine people having the same problems in shops now. Try and prove the bastards are NOT "with you".

TiredOfIt said...

"I hate bloody dogs more than bastarding kids"

I thought I was the only one.

lenko said...

Herr Flick: Your papers please... Mmmmm... zey are in order... you may proceed vith your purchase of filthy foreign vein, as long as zey are not for the fallen Madonna vith ze big boobies.

Anonymous said...

I gave up Morrisons when they did this, I thought the same as lenko as Herr Flick!

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2006/03/23/34612/morrisons-nightshift-forced-to-go-cold-turkey-as-smoking-ban-starts-in.html
Morrisons' nightshift forced to go cold turkey as smoking ban starts in Scotland
Michael Millar 23 March 2006 14:35

Scots smoking ban commences on 26 March.
Nightshift workers at the Scottish outlets of supermarket chain Morrisons will be forced to go without a cigarette during 10-hour shifts when new anti-smoking measures come into force on Sunday.

mandyv

Anonymous said...

Should have left all the shopping there at the till.

Or better still, say you'll put them back but, whoops, slipped and broke "oh I can't pay for that, you wouldn't let me, remember?"...

Then again, I am a c**t when it comes to shopping, no patience. So little patience in fact I usually skip paying altogether. Cheaper and keeps you healthy with the running.

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