UK Grocer Tells Shoppers to Leave Kids in Car if Buying Booze

Posted by Baylen on May. 22, 2008

England has to be about the most horrid place to live these days.

Tesco is refusing to sell alcohol to parents shopping with their children under rules designed to tackle underage drinking.

The supermarket has told cashiers not to supply alcohol if they suspect an adult is buying the drink for an underage youth.

Staff have been told to “err on the side of caution” when interpreting the policy, leading to cases of parents out shopping with their children being told to put alcohol back on the shelves.

Tesco says it believes parents will support the policy and it would rather apologise where it has misjudged the situation than sell to underage drinkers.

[...]

A Tesco spokesman said: “I can understand the frustrations of the customer but I think that any reasonable parent would understand the problem and support our policy.”

I’m guessing Tesco’s a bit mistaken on this one. As in people are just going to buy their booze–and groceries–elsewhere. More here from the Telegraph.

[Via Slashfood.]

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  • Jay
    I live in London. I moved here from the States five years ago, a time (it seems) when England was much more sensible. Since then the nanny state has grown to almost oppressive levels - smoking bans, exorbitant Green taxes, higher alcohol taxes, attempted taxes on how much trash you throw away... I don't think the UK is the most horrid place to live (I'm thinking Ohio wins that auspicious award, but I'm biased), but I am increasingly unhappy with living here.

    In my opinion, with the "success" of the smoking ban and the total lack of public outrage, the nanny-state has discovered it can ban everything and the English will gladly accept it - read as: "ban everything we love and still tax us to death for it and we'll gladly pay because we're English and we're used to being screwed; it wouldn't be England otherwise." People here seem to love being told how they should live their lives, and they love to tell everyone else how they should live their life as well. It's all so very sad.

    As for Tesco, it's completely bizarre, because families in England love bringing their kids to the pub on Saturdays and Sundays. It's an English tradition. Some pubs even have playgrounds for the kiddies. Will the pubs follow Tesco's lead? "I'm sorry, but we can't serve you a pint because you have your kids with you - it would set a bad example for them, don'tcha think? Here, drink this diet soda, because your kids are also overweight."

    Is there anywhere in the world where people can live their lives?
  • what the hell happened to england? is was such a fun place when i was there in the 1980s. bring back maggie! jk.
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