'elf and safety

[Gramaisc]

On my 33rd birthday, I was at a supermarket in Wales.

Sounds like pulp song.

The year before, I'd been in t'Yorkshire Dales.

 

[zebidee]

I nearly had a barney in Asda the other day with their bloody challenge 25 policy over two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

Before anyone says anything, I had my ID with me, but I also had a huge trolley full of shopping to sort, a cranky 3 year old, grumbling tummy and burgeoning headache combined with the stress of having to deal with all 4 of those.

Futhermore, the checkout operator was pushing my stuff through the scanner far faster than i could deal with it, mixing it all up (I'm with db and Gramaisc on the conveyor organisation) and the 3 year old was starting to sound like a broken record about her blooming fruit sweet things.

Checkout lady decided to ask me for ID in the midst of this discomfort, so I said 'Seriously?' In that exasperated tone (you know the one I mean). She looked at my ID and said 'Well, it IS challenge 25.'

I glared at her through my haze of stress and replied, tight lipped, with the highly mature, 'Yeah, but, come on...'
I then packed my bags in silence and lugged my haul back to the car.

I probably handled it quite well considering my mental state at the time, but by Gord my inner monologue was ranting:
"What kind of 17 year old comes shopping at this time with what looks like a full week's family shop with a pre-schooler in tow and their own shopping bags?!"
"The point of a challenge 25 is to catch out under 18s who look like they could be 25, not every single person shopping who looks under 25"
x500 sat in my car until I chilled out and drove home.

Sigh. I think I need to take up meditation.

 

[basil]

I nearly had a barney in Asda the other day with their bloody challenge 25 policy over two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

Before anyone says anything, I had my ID with me, but I also had a huge trolley full of shopping to sort, a cranky 3 year old, grumbling tummy and burgeoning headache combined with the stress of having to deal with all 4 of those.

Futhermore, the checkout operator was pushing my stuff through the scanner far faster than i could deal with it, mixing it all up (I'm with db and Gramaisc on the conveyor organisation) and the 3 year old was starting to sound like a broken record about her blooming fruit sweet things.

Checkout lady decided to ask me for ID in the midst of this discomfort, so I said 'Seriously?' In that exasperated tone (you know the one I mean). She looked at my ID and said 'Well, it IS challenge 25.'

I glared at her through my haze of stress and replied, tight lipped, with the highly mature, 'Yeah, but, come on...'
I then packed my bags in silence and lugged my haul back to the car.

I probably handled it quite well considering my mental state at the time, but by Gord my inner monologue was ranting:
"What kind of 17 year old comes shopping at this time with what looks like a full week's family shop with a pre-schooler in tow and their own shopping bags?!"
"The point of a challenge 25 is to catch out under 18s who look like they could be 25, not every single person shopping who looks under 25"
x500 sat in my car until I chilled out and drove home.

Sigh. I think I need to take up meditation.

or medication........

 

[Withnail]

or medication........

two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

?

 

[Alan B'Stard]

On my 33rd birthday, I was at a supermarket in Wales.

The year before, I'd been in t'Yorkshire Dales.

Sounds like pulp song.

I think that's better.

 

[Gramaisc]

On my 33rd birthday, I was at a supermarket in Wales.

The year before, I'd been in t'Yorkshire Dales.

Sounds like pulp song.

I think that's better.

We could have had a Forum song with each line written by somebody else - next year's Turner Prize could be ours..

 

[basil]

On my 33rd birthday, I was at a supermarket in Wales.

The year before, I'd been in t'Yorkshire Dales.

Sounds like pulp song.

I think that's better.

We could have had a Forum song with each line written by somebody else - next year's Turner Prize could be ours..

To the 12 days of christmas tune.......

 

[shoes]

I nearly had a barney in Asda the other day with their bloody challenge 25 policy over two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

Before anyone says anything, I had my ID with me, but I also had a huge trolley full of shopping to sort, a cranky 3 year old, grumbling tummy and burgeoning headache combined with the stress of having to deal with all 4 of those.

Futhermore, the checkout operator was pushing my stuff through the scanner far faster than i could deal with it, mixing it all up (I'm with db and Gramaisc on the conveyor organisation) and the 3 year old was starting to sound like a broken record about her blooming fruit sweet things.

Checkout lady decided to ask me for ID in the midst of this discomfort, so I said 'Seriously?' In that exasperated tone (you know the one I mean). She looked at my ID and said 'Well, it IS challenge 25.'

I glared at her through my haze of stress and replied, tight lipped, with the highly mature, 'Yeah, but, come on...'
I then packed my bags in silence and lugged my haul back to the car.

I probably handled it quite well considering my mental state at the time, but by Gord my inner monologue was ranting:
"What kind of 17 year old comes shopping at this time with what looks like a full week's family shop with a pre-schooler in tow and their own shopping bags?!"
"The point of a challenge 25 is to catch out under 18s who look like they could be 25, not every single person shopping who looks under 25"
x500 sat in my car until I chilled out and drove home.

Sigh. I think I need to take up meditation.

I hope the wine helped!

 

[zebidee]

or medication........

two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

?

Sounds about right! But then, I don't drink really - the wine was for a little gathering the following night, went down quite well but I think I only had one or two glasses all night.

 

[Gramaisc]

or medication........

two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

?

Sounds about right! But then, I don't drink really - the wine was for a little gathering the following night, went down quite well but I think I only had one or two glasses all night.

If you really can't remember what you drank, then there is the possibility that you may have drunk more than you might be declaring..

 

[Trumpet]

But who knows?

 

[zebidee]

If you really can't remember what you drank, then there is the possibility that you may have drunk more than you might be declaring..

Oh I was only talking about the wine there, not the rest of the alcohol

 

[Goldilox]

I nearly had a barney in Asda the other day with their bloody challenge 25 policy over two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

Before anyone says anything, I had my ID with me, but I also had a huge trolley full of shopping to sort, a cranky 3 year old, grumbling tummy and burgeoning headache combined with the stress of having to deal with all 4 of those.

Futhermore, the checkout operator was pushing my stuff through the scanner far faster than i could deal with it, mixing it all up (I'm with db and Gramaisc on the conveyor organisation) and the 3 year old was starting to sound like a broken record about her blooming fruit sweet things.

Checkout lady decided to ask me for ID in the midst of this discomfort, so I said 'Seriously?' In that exasperated tone (you know the one I mean). She looked at my ID and said 'Well, it IS challenge 25.'

I glared at her through my haze of stress and replied, tight lipped, with the highly mature, 'Yeah, but, come on...'
I then packed my bags in silence and lugged my haul back to the car.

I probably handled it quite well considering my mental state at the time, but by Gord my inner monologue was ranting:
"What kind of 17 year old comes shopping at this time with what looks like a full week's family shop with a pre-schooler in tow and their own shopping bags?!"
"The point of a challenge 25 is to catch out under 18s who look like they could be 25, not every single person shopping who looks under 25"
x500 sat in my car until I chilled out and drove home.

Sigh. I think I need to take up meditation.

I must admit to having had a similar response myself in a near identical (sans toddler) situation in ASDA. I looked her in the eye and and said something along the lines of "I'm a thirty year old man, with a beard and wrinkles. Do you really think I'm buying bleach and tinned anchovies as an elaborate cover for the fact that I'm a 17 year old on my way to a party?" Which prompted a heavy sigh and a roll of the eyes but I was allowed my beer . On another occasion I held up the queue while I went out to get my driver's license from the glove box. If you will ask silly questions you can always expect silly responses...

(for those who are about to respond with "well why don't you carry ID?", I feel I should explain that prior to moving to Stafford it was a good ten years since I'd been IDed, and I had kind of assumed the first time was a one off...)

 

[basil]

I nearly had a barney in Asda the other day with their bloody challenge 25 policy over two bottles of £2 mulled wine!

Before anyone says anything, I had my ID with me, but I also had a huge trolley full of shopping to sort, a cranky 3 year old, grumbling tummy and burgeoning headache combined with the stress of having to deal with all 4 of those.

Futhermore, the checkout operator was pushing my stuff through the scanner far faster than i could deal with it, mixing it all up (I'm with db and Gramaisc on the conveyor organisation) and the 3 year old was starting to sound like a broken record about her blooming fruit sweet things.

Checkout lady decided to ask me for ID in the midst of this discomfort, so I said 'Seriously?' In that exasperated tone (you know the one I mean). She looked at my ID and said 'Well, it IS challenge 25.'

I glared at her through my haze of stress and replied, tight lipped, with the highly mature, 'Yeah, but, come on...'
I then packed my bags in silence and lugged my haul back to the car.

I probably handled it quite well considering my mental state at the time, but by Gord my inner monologue was ranting:
"What kind of 17 year old comes shopping at this time with what looks like a full week's family shop with a pre-schooler in tow and their own shopping bags?!"
"The point of a challenge 25 is to catch out under 18s who look like they could be 25, not every single person shopping who looks under 25"
x500 sat in my car until I chilled out and drove home.

Sigh. I think I need to take up meditation.

I must admit to having had a similar response myself in a near identical (sans toddler) situation in ASDA. I looked her in the eye and and said something along the lines of "I'm a thirty year old man, with a beard and wrinkles. Do you really think I'm buying bleach and tinned anchovies as an elaborate cover for the fact that I'm a 17 year old on my way to a party?" Which prompted a heavy sigh and a roll of the eyes but I was allowed my beer . On another occasion I held up the queue while I went out to get my driver's license from the glove box. If you will ask silly questions you can always expect silly responses...

(for those who are about to respond with "well why don't you carry ID?", I feel I should explain that prior to moving to Stafford it was a good ten years since I'd been IDed, and I had kind of assumed the first time was a one off...)

Interesting.......

 

[zebidee]

I must admit to having had a similar response myself in a near identical (sans toddler) situation in ASDA. I looked her in the eye and and said something along the lines of "I'm a thirty year old man, with a beard and wrinkles. Do you really think I'm buying bleach and tinned anchovies as an elaborate cover for the fact that I'm a 17 year old on my way to a party?" Which prompted a heavy sigh and a roll of the eyes but I was allowed my beer . On another occasion I held up the queue while I went out to get my driver's license from the glove box. If you will ask silly questions you can always expect silly responses...

(for those who are about to respond with "well why don't you carry ID?", I feel I should explain that prior to moving to Stafford it was a good ten years since I'd been IDed, and I had kind of assumed the first time was a one off...)

Honestly, what I don't get is these situations where all the evidence points to being over 18, but the drone brain kicks in and they insist on ID-ing.

 

[United57]

Upright bottles to being ID'd. What a thread

 

[shoes]

I guess the penalties are great enough to scare the staff into checking everyone who might, even if only remotely, get them into trouble.

 

[Gramaisc]

I guess the penalties are great enough to scare the staff into checking everyone who might, even if only remotely, get them into trouble.

Individual employees, including part-time staff, can be prosecuted for under
age sales. Penalties include imprisonment, fines and loss of any licence.

And there are sometimes 'secret shoppers' used to uncover such activities, I understand. Maybe they just take no chances...

 

[BBC]

Great thread!

As someone who had the fortune (???) to work in one of the Town's major Supermarkets in my teenage years (a while ago!) I can confirm that bottles stood upright on the conveyor belt do often topple off and smash mainly as a result of people overloading the belt and causing a bottleneck (excuse pun). The policy to request bottles to be laid flat is hardly an unreasonable one on the checkout staff's part although I agree it should be communicated better with the aforementioned sign seeming most sensible.

I too like DB and others am fairly regimented about the way I lay my items out - common sense really although as anyone knows who regularly encounters the 'general public' there is precious little of this around!

 

[Theorum]

I have to disagree. Having done the odd risk assessment or two myself, there are two aspects - Hazard and Likelihood. Now life is full of hazards - walking to work, driving a car, upright beer bottles BUT this is balanced by the likelihood of that hazard causing an injury, and in view of the fact that there had been no previous incidents of beer bottles falling off the conveyor, the likelihood is extremely unlikely (?), so the need to lay them flat is not necessary. Also, if the hazard and likelihood is that great, checkout colleagues should be wearing safety boots for when the extremely unlikelihood incident happens!

Its probably not a high likelihood due to most using a bit of common sense and laying objects in their most stable position, seems simple no?

I don't know much about working in a supermarket, however I'm somewhat an expert in beer bottles and I can't ever remember knocking over one already on its side.

I'd say lay them down or shop somewhere with no conveyor belts. The world is very much all our shared oyster.