Dear Sir,
I live out of Aycliffe, and love shopping at Aldi, but I rely on my son and two daughters to help as I am disabled.
On 20th September my 22 year old son and 16 year old daughter did the weekly shop for me including two bottles of whisky.
My son wanted cigarettes and a few other things Aldi did not sell so we went on to Tesco’s.
He used the self scanner for things I needed, a bottle of wine and a box of lager for himself. He went to pay and was asked for his ID which was no problem. Strangely, my daughter was also asked for her ID which she did not have so they were told they could not be served!
I Had to get out of the car and accompany my daughter which was totally humiliating and was also refused by the service manager.
I am now really confused as we came out of Tesco and called in at Booze Buster where we were served by a lovely lady who said there was no problem as my son had his ID and was paying for the alcohol and cigarettes. I have since spoken to Morrisons, Asda and Sainsburys who all said the same!
Tesco need to get the facts right with regard to sales of alcohol and cigarettes and to be more sensitive with customers.
Annoyed Customer

Tesco Manager Responds

We have to be really careful to ensure that we adhere to our licensing regulations and on this occasion the cashier believed it was a proxy sale with the lager for one and the wine being for the other so both were ID’d as neither looked 25.  
As the younger did not have ID the sale was refused. We do have a “you say no we say no” policy and empower our cashiers to make the decision at the time of sale as they face personal prosecution and criminal conviction if they serve alcohol to a minor.
I appreciate there is a fine line between protecting our license, complying with legal regulations and serving our customers and I am sure as a local community you would not want us to serve alcohol to minors, however if on this occasion we got it wrong, we sincerely apologise.
Helen Maynard, Manager