The almost bare provisions cupboard in the kitchen and half empty shelves in the fridge, drove me on an involuntary trip to the local supermarket in Garforth, Tesco. Whilst at the checkout I recalled a recent item on the news about a shopper and her daughter being refused the purchase of a bottle of wine because the daughter, although she was not the purchaser, was unable to provide evidence of her age. [i.e. over 18]. This incident occurred at a branch of Morrisons, so I asked the checkout lady at Tesco what would be the outcome were I in the same position. She concurred that the advice on such situations was complex, but they would take the same approach. Had I been with my youngest daughter, who is 24 and has from time to time been asked to verify her age, even quite recently; I also would have fallen foul of this directive! Hmm!
I continued with my purchases and on completion was advised by the checkout assistant that in view of my expenditure being greater than a threshold derived by Tesco, I was eligible for a reduced purchase of Budweiser; a carton of 15# 330ml bottles for half price! Well call me stupid, but is this not an inducement to buy alchohol, somewhat ironic following the observations made to me about the supermarket’s policy only seconds before.
But returning to the policy, described as complex, by the assistant, I don’t think so!
- I being of mature years and of sound mind decide to purchase a bottle wine.
- I make a selection from the vast array and proceed to the checkout.
- I profer money, or some means of exchange for the afore-mentioned wine.
- My contract is between me and the supermaket.
- There are no other parties to the transaction.
- The Supermarket does not have any duty (obligation) towards third parties.
Where will this lead, could the purchase of a bar of chocolate whilst accompanied by a small child be prevented because you might feed it to him or her, rendering the child obese! We have clearly reached a position where this once great nation has slid down a road so pathetic, driven as it is by well meaning liberal idiots, that I contend we should remove two things from our descriptions of these isles. “Great” should be extracted from attaching to Britain, and because we have allowed such a dreadful mess of devolution to occur, we should also dispence with “United” from its association with Kingdom! Ahmen!