The Student Room Group

Lidl call police after parents try to buy gin with teenage daughters with them

Seems like a bizarre incident all round, were Lidl right here? https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/lidl-call-police-after-parents-15295595

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Reply 1
Technically yes. But overzealous.
Reply 2
It's ridiculous. They were trying to buy rhubarb gin, not alcopops targeted at young people.
Original post by Rock Fan
Seems like a bizarre incident all round, were Lidl right here? https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/lidl-call-police-after-parents-15295595


Since when have Lidl been selling 'Rhubarb Gin'! I thought it was just 80% methanol with some replica Soviet-era packaging.
I got halfway through it before a huge ad appeard declaring 'LIDL NOW SELL KAYAKS'

So, fair enough, Lidl now sell kayaks.
The police came because of the disruption. The customers were refusing to leave. So that is fair enough.

The refusal of sale in the first place is hard to understand though. Perhaps there is more to it than we are hearing. Maybe the teenage girl was doing the packing and confused the cashier or something?
Reply 6
The law is: 'Retailers can refuse the sale of alcohol to an adult if they are with a child and the seller thinks it is being bought for the child.'

As Lidl asked the oldest girl for ID, maybe it was something in a conversation between the family members that made staff think the drink was being bought for a daughter.
Reply 7
uhh...well it's not illegal for a child aged five to 16 to drink alcohol at home or on another private premise. so this either is an ad for rhubarb gin or the store hired a bunch of numbskulls. :dontknow:
Reminds me of the time that I broke out into a huge argument with security in Tesco when the cashier refused to sell me teaspoons without ID!

Was a few years ago though. I did get a compensation voucher :smile:
Original post by WaffleApple
Reminds me of the time that I broke out into a huge argument with security in Tesco when the cashier refused to sell me teaspoons without ID!

Was a few years ago though. I did get a compensation voucher :smile:

What was the reasoning behind that?
Original post by Amazing-
What was the reasoning behind that?

Teaspoons at that time was classed as “cutlery” no idea if they changed it now.

I was 19 too so I was really pissed about it.
Original post by Joleee
uhh...well it's not illegal for a child aged five to 16 to drink alcohol at home or on another private premise. so this either is an ad for rhubarb gin or the store hired a bunch of numbskulls. :dontknow:


That true but they still have the legal right to refused to sell alcohol if they believe it could be drink by under 18 or a vulnerable adult. In tesco they refused to sell alcohol to a homeless man because he had drinking problem which their legally allow to do.
Reply 12
The lady at the checkout in Morrisons just had a go at me because I brought 12 items to the 10 item only checkout.

These supermarkets will regret their complacency and poor customer service when Amazon’s sends them out of business.
Original post by StriderHort
I got halfway through it before a huge ad appeard declaring 'LIDL NOW SELL KAYAKS'

So, fair enough, Lidl now sell kayaks.


What’s the minimum age for buying a Lidl canoe?
(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by nulli tertius
What’s the minimum age for buying a Lidl canoe?


The same as for buying a big canoe.

Boom boom!
Original post by Good bloke
The same as for buying a big canoe.

Boom boom!

Ha, didn't even know that LIDL were selling cannoes, I haven't seen any about!

On the subject though, a bit OTT in my opinion and if that happened to me, I would shop elsewhere. I do shop in LIDL supermarkets and normally praise them but may think a bit differently if this is the norm in supermarkets - not that it would matter to me as (a) I don't drink any type of alcohol, and (b) I've been over 18 years of age for quite some time.

On a related note, what's up with this "Think XX" or "Challenge XX" policy anyway? It used to be 21 when it first started, which is fine because most people who look under 21 are probably also under 18 (or are being close to it), but now 25 years of age or even 30 according to Tesco... Will it soon become 30 everywhere - meaning all young people will have to carry ID on them?
30 is almost double the legal age of drinking alcoholic drinks!
What next, 40? 50? 65? Anyone buying alcohol must have ID, regardless of appeared age?
Original post by spotify95
Ha, didn't even know that LIDL were selling cannoes, I haven't seen any about!

On the subject though, a bit OTT in my opinion and if that happened to me, I would shop elsewhere. I do shop in LIDL supermarkets and normally praise them but may think a bit differently if this is the norm in supermarkets - not that it would matter to me as (a) I don't drink any type of alcohol, and (b) I've been over 18 years of age for quite some time.

On a related note, what's up with this "Think XX" or "Challenge XX" policy anyway? It used to be 21 when it first started, which is fine because most people who look under 21 are probably also under 18 (or are being close to it), but now 25 years of age or even 30 according to Tesco... Will it soon become 30 everywhere - meaning all young people will have to carry ID on them?
30 is almost double the legal age of drinking alcoholic drinks!
What next, 40? 50? 65? Anyone buying alcohol must have ID, regardless of appeared age?

I guess it's challenge creep - they get pulled up for selling too much booze to underage customers and the response is to increase the challenge age.
It might have been the screaming at staff that got them kicked out of the shop, and the refusing to leave which got the police involved.

Of course, police were called after the parents tried to buy alcohol. But that's not why shop manager felt the need to call the police.
@Rock Fan The title of this thread needs editing: Lidl call police after parents try to buy gin with teenage daughters with them :smile:
Sounds like the cashier is inadequately trained. If you can see that they are a family shopping together there's no reason to suspect that this would be a proxy sale, it's clearly evident that they wanted to purchase the alcohol for themselves. If the children were random strangers from the street I'd understand, but the fact they are the children of the people purchasing the alcohol is beyond me.

Of course the store manager will always back up the cashier, once they've asked for identification they have to provide. There's no way out. But you can use your own discretion and common sense to know the alcohol wasn't for the children. If that was the case then thousands of families everyday across the country would be getting declined sales for alcohol - on suspicion of a proxy sale.

I'd suspect the person who served them was some 50-something year old woman with a stick up her arse.

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