May 19, 2008
Tesco Bans Alcohol Sales to Parents
By Bernice Hurst, Managing Partner, Fine Food Network
Having successfully reduced alcohol sales to teenagers, Tesco is now worried about adults who may be making purchases on their behalf. The store’s latest idea is restricting sales to adults accompanied by young people if the cashier thinks they intend to share their purchases with said underage drinkers.
Staff have been told to “err on the side of caution” when interpreting the policy which Tesco believes “any reasonable parent” will understand and support. Some of those who have been stopped are reportedly angry and unsupportive, however.
The Daily Telegraph says parents refused alcohol have described the rule as humiliating and daft. Debbie Bell, 39, a housewife from York, was told she could not buy a crate of lager at a Tesco Extra in the city with her stepson Michael Bruce, 18. “Michael wasn’t even carrying the beer, he was just standing next to me,” she told the newspaper.
Dominic Zenden, a television medium, was not allowed to buy six bottles of Budweiser when he was accompanied by his 15-year-old daughter Devon because a cashier refused to believe he was not going to share the drink with his daughter.
According to the report, he was “dumbfounded. There was absolutely no indication that my daughter would be drinking the alcohol — it was for me. But the woman told me that they don’t sell alcohol to people who have children with them.”
A Tesco spokesman admitted to understanding customer frustrations but said the store would rather apologize where it has misjudged the situation than sell to underage drinkers.
Discussion questions: What do you think of Tesco’s move not to sell alcohol to parents shopping with their children in a bid to tackle underage drinking? How should grocers handle situations where an adult may be buying alcohol for a minor?
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Tesco should not be making moral judgments on their customers. Tesco’s job is to sell as much legal product as possible and putting fewer restrictions on the products they sell. Why would Tesco care what an adult does with the alcohol? Tesco should be encourage the consumption of all their products. All Tesco should be concerned about is separating as much money from the consumer’s pockets and putting it into their own pockets. This policy does nothing to improve profits.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago. I stopped by a liquor store with a friend on one summer evening to buy some rum and some Coca-Cola, dressed very casually in shorts and sandals. As it turned out, he remembered to grab some cash, but had forgotten his driver’s license before rushing out to pick me up. I said “That’s OK, I’ve got mine.” The liquor store clerk, however, said that she could not sell me the rum unless we BOTH had our drivers licenses. I laughed and said that she could see that we both had crows feet and were obviously not under-aged drinkers. We ended up having to drive a couple blocks down the road, where I went in without him and obtained the precious poison.
What a hoot!
So what’s next, refusing to sell potato chips and sodas to parents with FAT KIDS?
How about just assigning a personal shopping assistant to select the items FOR them to assure they steer clear of the pastry section….
Better to leave bad parenting to bad parents and stick to the business of business.
Wow. Does someone at Tesco have political aspirations?
I had expected this story to bear a U.S. dateline, where officious laws that tell parents what they can/can’t serve to their children thrive, and where TESCO is still trying to navigate the waters; that it happened in the UK is disheartening on many levels; that 17% of people–please, please!, PLEASE! tell me it’s one zealot voting many times over–somehow agree with this ill-considered idea makes it even worse.
I cannot believe the level of [foolishness] of this retailer. If they’re going to start playing the role of parent, then maybe they should just stop selling alcohol and cigarettes altogether.
And while they’re at it, why not get rid of all the high fat junk food and replace it with fresh fruit and healthy snacks?
Lesson to parents: Next time, make the kids wait outside, or just shop somewhere else.
Lesson to retailers: Alienating clients by enforcing self serving morals is a great way to lose business.
As a busy family with three children, none who are old enough to drink or drive, my wife and I are forced to drag the kids around town with us during our multiple trips to Alberstons, Ralph’s, Trader Joe’s and Costco. Our weekly shopping bill often approaches $500 and is certainly not declining in this economy. If one of these grocers felt the need to impart their moral judgment on me at check-out, that would be the last time we walked through those doors.
Underage kids who are determined to drink alcohol will find a way to get it–Tesco or no Tesco. I’d suggest its better to leave the parenting to the parents and stop playing moral grocery police with check-out clerks. If Tesco feels that strongly about the issue then judge yourself internally and stop selling alcohol altogether at all your stores.
This is getting ridiculous. Next we’ll have cashiers refusing to ring up alcohol sales entirely because their religions forbid drinking.
A few thoughts:
A policy that gives cashiers arbitrary power over consumer behavior in this way is asking for abuse — perhaps only in a tiny minority of cases, but those are the ones that can lead to big legal liabilities.
I don’t know how it is in the UK, but in my world, the adult procuring alcohol for an underage drinker is unlikely to be a parent, and unlikely to be doing it on a Saturday afternoon in a supermarket, with a case of cabernet sauvignon. So unless British teens are a whole lot more cultured than their American counterparts, the situation Tesco is addressing doesn’t even exist on a large scale.
Better the convenience stores make some effort that targets twentysomethings with teenage companions lurking outside, after 9 pm on weekend evenings, buying sweetened malt beverages and beer.
Prohibition failed. If any retailer attempts to bring it back, their shareholders should replace the management ASAP. Tesco’s competitors should write encouraging letters to help Tesco alienate as many shoppers as possible.
Here’s another idea to wreck a business: ask everyone buying contraceptives to show their marriage licenses. And don’t sell anything with caffeine to shoppers with children. Everyone knows that caffeine is addictive. By protecting the public, Tesco will gain the appreciation of competitors nationwide, not to mention psychiatrists and the bankruptcy bar.
As a retail manager, it is actually the written law in many jurisdictions that a cashier must refuse sale to an adult if they believe that the adult is either buying for a minor or will give the alcohol to the minor. With that said, it is definitely taking it too far to draw the inference in most cases, and will only lead to upsetting law abiding customers.
It is a retailer’s duty to uphold the law, not to make moral judgments about the possible or suspected actions of parents when they are no longer on the retail premises. This is simply dumb retailing. Parents are adults; it is an insult that some checkout operator would make arbitrary decisions about the purpose of their purchase. If a retailer did this to me, I would never patronise their brand again.
In addition to the legal risks associated with this type of arbitrary discrimination, I’d ask another line of questions: how did such a crazy idea get this far? Is this an indicator of greater mistakes to come?
I agree with the group here: this is not an acceptable policy. Sometimes I have run errands with my daughter on a Saturday afternoon, especially if we’re hosting a dinner party that night. So I’m not allowed to pick up a bottle of wine because my 10-year-old happens to be there?
On what basis is the clerk supposed to determine the intent?
After achieving retail superiority in the UK, Tesco has decided to take on the role of moral superiority. Consumers visit retailers to purchase goods, not be judged. I can’t see how this will benefit Tesco or consumers.
Refusing to sell a legal product to an otherwise legally qualified purchaser because of a cashier’s judgment sounds like a discrimination charge in the making. Unless Tesco uniformly refuses to sell alcohol to all adults with underage youth in their party, and I’m not even sure that would stand in a U.S. courtroom, they risk more than just ill will. Though by appointing themselves (or their cashiers) as moral arbiters for shoppers, the ill will should prove painful enough in short order.
When did it become the job of the supplier to deny the sale of an item to a legitimate customer?
I do not know English law but I can just imagine the the lawsuits in this country based on this kind of action. Just look at the problems SW Airlines has because it felt a couple of its customers were dressed inappropriately. Or the problems with pharmacists who have been refusing to sell the day after pill.
I think you are going to see that this is one of those policies that just kind of disappears.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of parents of teenagers? Perhaps the Shadow knows but he isn’t a grocery clerk. Tesco and other retailers should trust their parental customers’ common sense and honesty, and bag their bucks.
This same situation happened to my husband and our 20 year old daughter at Kroger last week when they were shopping for supplies for a last minute BBQ we had at our home. They were completely dumbfounded as well, but after a lot of discussion among our neighborhood pals who came to the BBQ, most of whom have kids 16-24 range, we all agreed that from a retailer POV, they have a right to err on the side of caution. We all actually felt that “at least they are trying” to keep the teens safer.
Truth be known, however, it’s the free standing liquor stores in our area where the “wrong” kind of transactions are taking place, not the grocery stores.
I’m all for curbing teenage drinking, especially so because I have two teenage boys. However, if I were denied a purchase because of some clerk’s imagination regarding who might drink a beverage I’d want to buy, I’d shop elsewhere, and I’d probably urge my friends to do so too. Tesco has a responsibility to refrain from selling alcohol to underage shoppers–that’s where their responsibility and their privilege ends.
In the context of the article, and similar ones I had read last week, it seems Tesco has formulated a policy that is arbitrary and unnecessary. Simply the presence of a minor during the purchase of alcoholic beverages does not constitute intent to provide. In the absence of some overt and obvious act, like “what kind of beer do you want, son?” Tesco should keep their nose out of their customers business. Government intrudes enough. To have big business protruding into our personal lives is a valid reason for both customers and investors to move their cash elsewhere. What is next? Ford refusing to sell a car to someone because their kid is dressed like a “Banger” and might do a drive-by? An attempt by Tesco to expand that policy to Fresh & Easy here in the U.S. would end that grand experiment overnight.
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Tesco should not be making moral judgments on their customers. Tesco’s job is to sell as much legal product as possible and putting fewer restrictions on the products they sell. Why would Tesco care what an adult does with the alcohol? Tesco should be encourage the consumption of all their products. All Tesco should be concerned about is separating as much money from the consumer’s pockets and putting it into their own pockets. This policy does nothing to improve profits.
Something similar happened to me a few years ago. I stopped by a liquor store with a friend on one summer evening to buy some rum and some Coca-Cola, dressed very casually in shorts and sandals. As it turned out, he remembered to grab some cash, but had forgotten his driver’s license before rushing out to pick me up. I said “That’s OK, I’ve got mine.” The liquor store clerk, however, said that she could not sell me the rum unless we BOTH had our drivers licenses. I laughed and said that she could see that we both had crows feet and were obviously not under-aged drinkers. We ended up having to drive a couple blocks down the road, where I went in without him and obtained the precious poison.
What a hoot!
So what’s next, refusing to sell potato chips and sodas to parents with FAT KIDS?
How about just assigning a personal shopping assistant to select the items FOR them to assure they steer clear of the pastry section….
Better to leave bad parenting to bad parents and stick to the business of business.
Wow. Does someone at Tesco have political aspirations?
I had expected this story to bear a U.S. dateline, where officious laws that tell parents what they can/can’t serve to their children thrive, and where TESCO is still trying to navigate the waters; that it happened in the UK is disheartening on many levels; that 17% of people–please, please!, PLEASE! tell me it’s one zealot voting many times over–somehow agree with this ill-considered idea makes it even worse.
I cannot believe the level of [foolishness] of this retailer. If they’re going to start playing the role of parent, then maybe they should just stop selling alcohol and cigarettes altogether.
And while they’re at it, why not get rid of all the high fat junk food and replace it with fresh fruit and healthy snacks?
Lesson to parents: Next time, make the kids wait outside, or just shop somewhere else.
Lesson to retailers: Alienating clients by enforcing self serving morals is a great way to lose business.
As a busy family with three children, none who are old enough to drink or drive, my wife and I are forced to drag the kids around town with us during our multiple trips to Alberstons, Ralph’s, Trader Joe’s and Costco. Our weekly shopping bill often approaches $500 and is certainly not declining in this economy. If one of these grocers felt the need to impart their moral judgment on me at check-out, that would be the last time we walked through those doors.
Underage kids who are determined to drink alcohol will find a way to get it–Tesco or no Tesco. I’d suggest its better to leave the parenting to the parents and stop playing moral grocery police with check-out clerks. If Tesco feels that strongly about the issue then judge yourself internally and stop selling alcohol altogether at all your stores.
This is getting ridiculous. Next we’ll have cashiers refusing to ring up alcohol sales entirely because their religions forbid drinking.
A few thoughts:
A policy that gives cashiers arbitrary power over consumer behavior in this way is asking for abuse — perhaps only in a tiny minority of cases, but those are the ones that can lead to big legal liabilities.
I don’t know how it is in the UK, but in my world, the adult procuring alcohol for an underage drinker is unlikely to be a parent, and unlikely to be doing it on a Saturday afternoon in a supermarket, with a case of cabernet sauvignon. So unless British teens are a whole lot more cultured than their American counterparts, the situation Tesco is addressing doesn’t even exist on a large scale.
Better the convenience stores make some effort that targets twentysomethings with teenage companions lurking outside, after 9 pm on weekend evenings, buying sweetened malt beverages and beer.
Prohibition failed. If any retailer attempts to bring it back, their shareholders should replace the management ASAP. Tesco’s competitors should write encouraging letters to help Tesco alienate as many shoppers as possible.
Here’s another idea to wreck a business: ask everyone buying contraceptives to show their marriage licenses. And don’t sell anything with caffeine to shoppers with children. Everyone knows that caffeine is addictive. By protecting the public, Tesco will gain the appreciation of competitors nationwide, not to mention psychiatrists and the bankruptcy bar.
As a retail manager, it is actually the written law in many jurisdictions that a cashier must refuse sale to an adult if they believe that the adult is either buying for a minor or will give the alcohol to the minor. With that said, it is definitely taking it too far to draw the inference in most cases, and will only lead to upsetting law abiding customers.
It is a retailer’s duty to uphold the law, not to make moral judgments about the possible or suspected actions of parents when they are no longer on the retail premises. This is simply dumb retailing. Parents are adults; it is an insult that some checkout operator would make arbitrary decisions about the purpose of their purchase. If a retailer did this to me, I would never patronise their brand again.
In addition to the legal risks associated with this type of arbitrary discrimination, I’d ask another line of questions: how did such a crazy idea get this far? Is this an indicator of greater mistakes to come?
I agree with the group here: this is not an acceptable policy. Sometimes I have run errands with my daughter on a Saturday afternoon, especially if we’re hosting a dinner party that night. So I’m not allowed to pick up a bottle of wine because my 10-year-old happens to be there?
On what basis is the clerk supposed to determine the intent?
After achieving retail superiority in the UK, Tesco has decided to take on the role of moral superiority. Consumers visit retailers to purchase goods, not be judged. I can’t see how this will benefit Tesco or consumers.
Refusing to sell a legal product to an otherwise legally qualified purchaser because of a cashier’s judgment sounds like a discrimination charge in the making. Unless Tesco uniformly refuses to sell alcohol to all adults with underage youth in their party, and I’m not even sure that would stand in a U.S. courtroom, they risk more than just ill will. Though by appointing themselves (or their cashiers) as moral arbiters for shoppers, the ill will should prove painful enough in short order.
When did it become the job of the supplier to deny the sale of an item to a legitimate customer?
I do not know English law but I can just imagine the the lawsuits in this country based on this kind of action. Just look at the problems SW Airlines has because it felt a couple of its customers were dressed inappropriately. Or the problems with pharmacists who have been refusing to sell the day after pill.
I think you are going to see that this is one of those policies that just kind of disappears.
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of parents of teenagers? Perhaps the Shadow knows but he isn’t a grocery clerk. Tesco and other retailers should trust their parental customers’ common sense and honesty, and bag their bucks.
This same situation happened to my husband and our 20 year old daughter at Kroger last week when they were shopping for supplies for a last minute BBQ we had at our home. They were completely dumbfounded as well, but after a lot of discussion among our neighborhood pals who came to the BBQ, most of whom have kids 16-24 range, we all agreed that from a retailer POV, they have a right to err on the side of caution. We all actually felt that “at least they are trying” to keep the teens safer.
Truth be known, however, it’s the free standing liquor stores in our area where the “wrong” kind of transactions are taking place, not the grocery stores.
I’m all for curbing teenage drinking, especially so because I have two teenage boys. However, if I were denied a purchase because of some clerk’s imagination regarding who might drink a beverage I’d want to buy, I’d shop elsewhere, and I’d probably urge my friends to do so too. Tesco has a responsibility to refrain from selling alcohol to underage shoppers–that’s where their responsibility and their privilege ends.
In the context of the article, and similar ones I had read last week, it seems Tesco has formulated a policy that is arbitrary and unnecessary. Simply the presence of a minor during the purchase of alcoholic beverages does not constitute intent to provide. In the absence of some overt and obvious act, like “what kind of beer do you want, son?” Tesco should keep their nose out of their customers business. Government intrudes enough. To have big business protruding into our personal lives is a valid reason for both customers and investors to move their cash elsewhere. What is next? Ford refusing to sell a car to someone because their kid is dressed like a “Banger” and might do a drive-by? An attempt by Tesco to expand that policy to Fresh & Easy here in the U.S. would end that grand experiment overnight.