Supermarket Bans Under 25s From Buying Daily Mail And All Newspapers

ANORAK likes to spot new trends in journalism, and we bring you tales from the aisles, the casebooks of the supermarket police force, who serve to ban you from buying inappropriate goods.

One day supermarkets will ban under 25s from buying newspapers, full as they with scare stories and porn. But not many under 25s buy them, so there may not be any need to bother.

The essential Bournemouth Echo reports on the defiantly named Gill Power-Forward, a product of nominative determinism who will not be stopped:

Gill Power-Forward had just finished at the check-out at the Canford Heath Asda store and was handing the heavier of the two bags to her strapping teenage son Andrew to take to the car.  But she was stunned to be stopped by the cashier, who insisted she carry the heavy bag herself because it had the bottle of wine in – and her son might drink it…

As a strapping lad…

Gill said: “I didn’t know what to say. The world’s gone mad was all I could think – it’s crazy. Suppose I’d been in a wheelchair and was unable to carry the bag.”

Or had to put the bag on your lap. Suppose.

The Guardian brings news from Leeds, and introduces the idea that the shopper’s profession in relevant:

Management consultant Jackie Slater thought she was completing a normal shopping trip to Morrisons until the checkout assistant demanded to see her ID before scanning two bottles of wine.

Management consultants, eh. Would you trust one?

“I told her I was really flattered, but I was the wrong side of 50,” she said. But the assistant pointed to her 17-year-old daughter, Emily, and her 18-year-old niece, Annice, who were standing at the end of the checkout chatting.

“She asked: ‘Are they with you?’ I said they’d come to help me carry the bags back to the car. The assistant said: ‘You could be buying the wine for them. It’s the policy – I have to see everyone’s ID to make sure they are all over 18’.”

And in the Mail:

RAF officer banned from buying alcohol because he was shopping with son, 17

That an RAF officer had to buy his own booze is disgusting enough. But this is too much.

And what about her:

Karen Dumelow is 46. She looks younger. She at a branch of Tesco with her 14-year-lold daughter Emily. She is buying two bottles of wine (white).
The cashier asks for ID. Karen Dumelow is by trade a “fraud investigator”. Says mum to the Porstmouth News:

“The checkout assistant asked Emily for ID and I just told her that obviously she didn’t have any because she is only 14 years old.”

Obviously. And, perhaps, not an ID she wanted to show her mum.

For some it’s booze. For Tesco’s it’s spoons. Tesco’s moves with the times:

Emma Sheppard is unable to buy a packet of teaspoons from her local Tesco’s in Evesham, Worcester. The check out operative has studied the ‘Think 25′ scheme, and wonders if Emma is old enough – over 25 – to buy teaspoons.

Says Emma:

“When the assistant asked me for ID I thought John had sneakily put some booze in the trolley, but then when she held up a pack of spoons we looked at her like she was an idiot.

“We were both a bit taken aback really – what are you going to do with a packet of spoons that means you need ID to buy them? In this crazy world we live in, you have to be over 18 to buy teaspoons it seems.”

Read: Tesco Introduces Products For Over 65s Only

Emma is housewife, says the Mail, which showcases these type of stories to show just how hideous the country becomes when Daily Mail readers rise to positions of authority….

Anorak

Posted: 11th, October 2009 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)