When you work at a retail store that sells alcohol, you have to know the laws well in order to ensure nobody is breaking them.

What would you do if two friends came into the store to buy alcohol, but upon checkout, only one of them had their ID?

That is what happened in this story, so they had to turn them away. Minutes later, the friend with the ID returned and tried to deny that he was ever there with a friend in a pathetic attempt to get around the rules.

Read through the full story below to see if you think the employees handled it well.

No ID? No Sale! The tale of the vanishing friend…

Background: I have worked in retail for one of the UK’s largest supermarket chains for nearly five years now, seen loads of things.

This seems like a good setup.

However, this is a short and sweet one really takes the cake. I work on the checkouts, with my finishing time until midnight & normally from around 9:30 pm ish I get placed on the self scan machines until closing, which I don’t mind.

In the UK we have a “Think 25” policy for selling age restricted products, such as Lotto, Glue, Knives, and Alcohol etc..the legal age limit to purchase any age restricted products in the UK (for the majority of cases) is 18 – so we would ask ID if you look below 25 just to see that you are over 18.

These customers are acting suspiciously.

Story: As with any Thursday, it came to 9 pm and after coming back from my break, I was asked to go onto self scan for the rest of my shift, no problem.

The first 30 minutes goes through ok, not a problem, then I see these two people come down who look below 25 and have alcohol with them. I had noticed they where speaking to each other, acting all friendly, one male and one female.

I waited until they had scanned their items, a 2L bottle of fizzy juice, one bottle of spirit, and a 6 bottle pack of alco pops (avoiding naming brands here) then they hit the “Pay Now” button which then pops up a message on screen along with an audio prompt, “Assistance is coming.”

Let’s see what happens.

Cast: IAmFromScotland: Me,  C1: Female customer, C2: Male Customer, Sup: Supervisor.

So, I walk over, C2 has his driving license already for me, whilst C2 was standing there on her phone, texting or what ever it is she was doing.

IAmFromScotland: Thanks for that buddy, I’ll just check your friend’s ID to make sure that she’s over 18. Hey there C1, do you have your ID on you?

What a shock, she doesn’t have her ID.

C1: Erm…no sorry I don’t, but I’m over 18 though!

C2: Yeah, she is over 18 – you already checked my ID, so thank’s, can you authorise the booze.

Me not really caring at this point as I have had many customers like this and it was starting to build up a queue.

This guy is not putting up with their attitude.

IAmFromScotland: Sorry, without ID for both of you I am unable to sell you this, as you both are together. I will take the booze and leave it over there.

C2: But…but

IAmFromScotland: As stated sir, I need ID for both of you, to check your age. As you can see, we are busy at the moment, if your friend get’s her ID and comes back with you, I can sell it to you.

These laws can be very strict.

I then go back to helping other customers. In Scotland, as part of the 2005 Licensing act we are only able to sell alcohol between the hours of 10 am and 10 pm – we are unable to sell it a minute before 10 am or a minute later after 10 pm.

There will be fines for me, employer, I will be fired & charged if I sell it outside of these times. This also covers selling it to underage people as well. Might not be the most ideal job I have, only part time and does not get me much money – however bills to pay & all, so need the job.

If I ID one person in a group of people, I need to ID them all, regardless – since they where a party of two, then I needed hers too.

He is coming back for another attempt.

Around 5 minutes go past, it has died down a bit and I see C2 walk towards me, alone…

C2: I’ll take my booze now!

IAmFromScotland: As mentioned before sir, I still need to see your friends ID too, since she was with you. It’s simple as that, if she has no ID – you are not getting the drinks.

Oh, come on, this is pathetic.

C2: What friend? I have no idea what you are on about…

IAmFromScotland: The young woman with black hair, pink top, whom I saw you walk down with, talking too and was on her phone. Her ID is required too, alongside yours, for getting the alcohol too. You can have your 2L fizzy juice no problem.

I hand it to him

Does he expect him to believe this?

C2: She was not with me! She was just standing in the queue, buying items.

IAmFRomScotland: Sir, she was standing right beside you, the queue was behind her. She had no products on her person at all to buy. She was texting on her phone.

Really. Is he going to ask for a manager?

C2 (kinda annoyed now): I have never seen C1 before, I have no memory of meeting her or knowing who she is. Can I speak to your manager please? You are being unhelpful.

I internally sigh, thinking to myself that I, a 37 year old man, does not need some small time Kevin who does not get that he is not getting his booze causing me any more headache or wasting my time….

IAmFromScotland: Sure I can, but she will tell you the same thing as me.

Let’s see what the supervisor has to say.

I then use the headset I was wearing, asked for Sup to come down for assistance and she then came down.

Sup: Hey, IAmFromScotland, what’s up?

IAmFromScotland: This customer here came in with a friend wanting to purchase this alcohol, he had ID, his friend does not. I advised both need ID. They left, 5 minutes later he came back, chances are C1 is outside waiting for him. With no ID for her still wanting to purchase this alcohol. I am refusing sale on grounds of no ID, he is unhappy.

This really isn’t complicated.

C2: What did I tell you? that she was not with me, I have no idea who she is.

I explain to him, again, above of me seeing them coming down, speaking to each other standing beside him etc…

Sup: I am afraid C2 that my Colleague is correct – if ID is asked for one person, regardless of how many are in the party, all ID need to be present. If we feel they are under age we need this ID.

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They are being more patient with this guy than he deserves.

C2 to Me: We are not friends, I don’t know her, why are you not selling me the drink? What is it that makes you think we are friends?

IAmFromScotland: Body language and I heard her call your name as you passed me initially to purchase the booze, sir. Plus it would be illegal for me to sell the booze to you now, as detailed in the 2005 licensing law for Scotland.

The supervisor is handling this well.

Sup: My Colleague has advised the reasons sir why we are refusing the sale too you, I need to go by his judgment. If he was to sell it, it’s not worth loosing his job over.

You can buy the fizzy juice but without her having ID – we can’t sell it to you. It’s simple as that. We can check the CCTV, to trace your movements to see if we where mistaken, but given the fact it’s now 9:45 & doing the CCTV would take more than 30 minutes then you would not still get your booze.

Finally, he has given up.

C2 in a defeated tone: Well that’s not so great customer service then is it?

Then he walks away in a huff, after putting the fizzy juice on the empty self scan machine beside me.

Is the supervisor giving the customer a hint on what to do?

Sup to me as customer is out of ear shot: If they want booze, there are other places they can go to anyway. Just needs to go in himself – right, I have things to do for the last 15 mins of my shift, speak soon IAmFromScotland!

She then goes away to do her things and the rest of my shift goes well without a hitch. Sometimes you get customers who just don’t accept defeat…

I can see why this could be annoying for a customer, but they have to understand that the store has to follow the law and it isn’t worth risking their job just to sell to someone who might be underage.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

The exceptions likely change based on the country or local laws.

How do people not understand these laws?

This shouldn’t be a complicated situation.

Teens can be bold and stupid.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who finds his parking spot at a hocket game in jeopardy from a rude driver.

This commenter has had similar things happen.

The fact that the customers didn’t know the laws makes them even more suspicious. Good thing the workers knew how to handle them perfectly.