Even more totalitarianism at the checkout

This is yet another in the long line of stories that I have published on supermarkets and their weird over-application of bans on selling alcohol to minors. You can see the last such of my postings here. This latest story is from a Sainsburys in Melksham in Worcs, where a 43 year-old RAF squadron leader was prevented from buying three bottles of wine with his shopping because he was accompanied by his 17 year-old son. As is often the case, the store manager backed his member of staff. A Sainsburys spokesman now says that the cashier asked for identification because the teenager had "presented" the wine by placing it on the conveyor belt, thus making it looks as though it was the teenager buying the wine. Now I rarely go to supermarkets but when I do it seems commonplace for children to help their parents by helping take the shopping form the trolley and placing it on the checkout conveyor.

These storied are not just about the application of licensing laws they are also about controlling the public. We can't be allowed to assume that we can buy what we want, we have to be allowed to do so by the store and the government. One final thought, and it is just a thought, I wonder if Squadron Leader Mark Giles was identifiable as being in the military and if this was some sort of anti-war stance taken by the cashier... Just wondering.