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Weird! I've purchased alcohol at both pubs and grocery stores in the UK as a tourist. You must have a babyface. :)
That sucks! It means that you look young though, because I'm 37 and I don't get carded in the UK. :(
How long has this rule been in place? I bought alcohol in the UK with my passport when I was 18. I'm 24 now and I still look 16.
@Mrs.D-To-Be: Apparently it's a new crackdown. It used to be you just had to look over 21 not to be carded.
I guess from now on we'll just have to use alcohol delivery services or DH will have to buy at the stores (since he has a bit of gray hair).
huh how strange any pasport or drivers licence should be accepted. As long as it has a photograph and some sort of proof of being genuine (some licenses and passports have holograms or something) so I cant understand why they wouldn accept yours!
They always accepted my Canadian driver's license and passport as ID, that's really strange.
They always accepted my Canadian driver's license and passport as ID, that's really strange.
Well that's a bit annoying. But quite the compliment on your looks!
Maybe you got some clueless cashiers? How do they expect anyone who is not from the UK to buy alcohol?
I remember a few years ago a friend of mine had his wallet stolen so he tried to use his passport to get into a bar. The bouncer wouldn't let him in saying that he was only allowed to accept a driver's license. That is just crazy! I get that they won't take a health card but a passport?? wtf. What if you don't drive?
Well that's a bit annoying. But quite the compliment on your looks!
The cashiers seemed really confused. Apparently the deputy manager wasn't in today and none of them felt like they could make a command decision to let me buy wine.
Also, I shop at this same store 3-4 times a week and buy a bottle of wine more than half of those times and have never had an issue before. I even recognized some of the cashiers who had rung me up before.
I think the new government policy doesn't require UK ID, but this grocery store chain has decided to only take UK IDs.
With a city as full of ex-pats as this one, I'd think they'd at least take passports.
@KatNYC2011: That's really odd! At my local grocier I never get carded as they know me in there, but at other stores my Illinois driver's license has been fine. I'm sure it was just confusion, but still...I'd be inclined to complain if it happened again. At the very least, it's a compliment to you that you look like you could be under 18/25. ;)
@ane7: Haha... I really don't want to look under 18 maybe when I'm in my 30s/40s I'll want to look 10 years younger, but at 27 I'll take just looking like I'm in my early 20s!
I think it was this store's policy to only take UK ID. It doesn't make sense because it's a higher end store in the middle of an area FULL of ex-pats. I bet a lot of them don't have UK ID either, just their home country passports and home country driver's licenses.
Plus my visa and passport are too important to carry around with me every time I go grocery shopping!
Wow! I've had to show my Missouri driver's license a bunch of times and they've always accepted it as proof of ID. That's nuts!
Hopefully they don't give you so much trouble the next time. :\
@zippylef: If they do, I'll take my business elsewhere. There are 2 other grocery stores on either side of this one so it'd be very easy for me to switch. I just happen to like their meat and produce the best. But I don't want to have to go to two stores just so I can get a bottle of wine for dinner.
@KatNYC2011: I don't blame you. It's annoying. I buy my regular groceries on base at the comissary, but their produce is terrible so I always go to Sainsbury's or Tesco in my town for fresh stuff. I hate going to 2 stores.
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Beekeeper
So I went to the grocery store today to get some groceries and a bottle of wine for dinner.
I'm paying at the register and they get to the wine. The cashier asks for ID (sure no problem).
Seeing as I recently moved to the UK I only have my NY driver's license on me so I present that (which I have used for ID before here as well).
They have 4 cashiers looking at it and are telling me they can't accept it as ID. I say something about the fact that I don't feel comfortable carrying my US passport with me all the time, and they say they wouldn't accept that as proof of age either!
That I need some form of ID issued by the UK to buy alcohol.
Here's where the twilight zone part comes in, the drinking age here is 18! I am 27 almost 10 years OVER the drinking age.
They finally agreed that I could buy this one bottle of wine but for next time I need to have some form of UK ID to buy alcohol.
So I guess tourists from other countries cannot buy alcohol here if they are in their 20s since they'll only have a passport to show.
It was nice to be told I look under 25 (which is the new age you have to look over to not be carded) but ridiculous that they wouldn't even accept my US passport as proof of age.