Fear the spoon wielding teenagers! O.o

[Lace Neil Singer]

Three stories today; including two age related ones. Oh joy. -.-

1. Class War.

This was quite early on. I was sitting at my till thinking "I don't want to be here" as is my wont on a Sunday morning, when these two kids came up to the till with a trolley load of goods. They were both obviously private school kids; I'm not meaning to sound snobbish, but their accent, manner and everything pointed that way. I on the other hand am either working class or lower middle depending on whether you're using general or the census to class me.

Anyway, the first thing I picked up was a copy of the Sunday Times. Now, this is one of the items that has an age restriction on it; namely, only to be purchased by over 16s. Neither kid is aged anywhere near that. I tell them that I'm sorry but they can't buy the paper. Here is the dialogue, as well as I remember it:

Kid 1 - K1
Kid 2 - K2
Me - Me

Me: I'm sorry, but I can't sell this paper to you.
K1: Excuse me? It's only a paper.
Me: I'm aware of this, but the Times has an age restriction on it. You have to be aged over 16 to buy it.
K2: You're kidding.
K1: It's a stupid rule.
Me: It is, but I have to abide by it. Are your parents around?
K2: They're outside.
Me: If they came in, they could buy the paper, but I can't sell it to you.
K1: Don't bother, we'll buy it elsewhere.

Please assume that all their dialogue is given out in a snotty, master addressing servant voice. I dread to think of the terrible SCness they will end up giving out when they're grown up if they act like this while kids.

2. The spooooons! Fear them!

Teaspoons also have an age restriction; it is 18. Yes, you heard me. You have to be aged 18 to buy spoons at the supermarket. It has caused much merriment when I've been forced to ID someone buying teaspoons; so far I haven't had anyone be nasty, but I've had lots of people who didn't believe me and had to be shown my screen with the age restriction up. It's ridiculous. -.-

3. Charity begins at home.

This really knocked me for six; I didn't say anything, mostly due to not wanting to be yelled at by the trashy mum who did this, but I was shocked at it. She stole a huge handful of those plastic daffodils from the Marie Curie charity box and gave them to her kids; and no, she didn't donate a penny.

[Trayol]

Teaspoons and Time

There must be stories behind these age restrictions. You will tell us them.

[cheese]

Well the Times age restriction (and a lot of other Sunday papers) is because they very often contain a free age-restricted DVD inside. Never heard of the teaspoons thing though

[Lace Neil Singer]

^This. XD Tho there wasn't one this week.

Spoons; not a bloody clue.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

^This. XD Tho there wasn't one this week.

Spoons; not a bloody clue.

Heroin maybe? I know you have to be 18 in the US to buy certain advil medication. They also take your name and number and register you into a system to track how much you buy. Some ppl use it to make meth.

[thegiraffe]

Gabrielle - that's anything that has pseudophedrine in it - what *used* to be the main ingredient in sudafed. I think you're thinking of advil cold and sinus, which would have pseudophedrine in it. Now, they use phenylephrine (PE). Pseudophedrine, in large quantities, can be used to make meth. Therefore, everything that contains it is now over the counter and there are quantity restrictions on it.

Just another example of the masses suffering due to the stupidity of a few.

[Kogarashi]

Sudafed is restricted for the same reason -- it contains a meth ingredient.

I've got one response for the paper and spoons: O.o

And here I thought white-out, superglue, and spray paint was silly. At least the medicine and canned air (dangerous inhalant for "highs") made sense.

[Aethian]

And here I thought white-out, superglue, and spray paint was silly. At least the medicine and canned air (dangerous inhalant for "highs") made sense.

Can cheese has the same inhalant.

[fish3k1]

Can cheese has the same inhalant.

I would love to see someone trying to get high by inhaling cheese

[Aethian]

I would love to see someone trying to get high by inhaling cheese

I have seen it and it was funny as hell when one of the guys actually shook the can and then handed it to his buddy... See if you don't shake the can you can get just inhalant.

[crazylegs]

Are the spoons plastic or metal, or is the policy non discrimantory?

[aurelemsrealm]

I had to laugh about the Sunday Times being age restricted. The spoons I was thinking because they can be used to cook some drugs, but that's about all I could guess on that one. Still seems far-fetched to go to all that trouble because I use spoons for eating, and sometimes maybe to drum on the table in an attempt to annoy my wife or the dog.

Why would they put an age-restricted DVD in the Sunday paper, though? Not that many kids read nowadays, but the newspaper is supposed to be a public, family-friendly forum. I would never have considered that.

[SuperB]

You'd be surprised what ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) classifies as "selling drug paraphernalia".

• Scales and balances for weighing drugs
• Diluents and adulterants, such as quinine hydrochloride, mannitol, mannite,
dextrose, and lactose for cutting illegal drugs
• Blenders, bowls, containers, spoons, and mixing devices used for
compounding illegal drugs
• Capsules, balloons, envelopes, and other containers for packaging small
quantities of illegal drugs. Includes miniature plastic baggies designed to hold
jewelry or beads, but also used to hold illegal drugs
• Containers and other objects for storing or concealing illegal drugs
• Hypodermic syringes, needles, and other items for injecting illegal drugs into
the human body. These are intended for diabetics, but are drug paraphernalia
when made available to other customers
• Pipes made out of metal, wood, acrylic, glass, stone, plastic, or ceramic. They
may be with or without screens. Includes glass tubes commonly marketed as
a bud vase or air freshener. Also includes colorful marking pens which, when
taken apart, contain a pipe that can be used for smoking crack cocaine.
• Pipe screens
• Water pipes - also called "bongs"
• Roach clips (small metal clips used to hold burning material such as a
marijuana cigarette)
• Miniature cocaine spoons and cocaine vials
• A wiry sponge or scouring pad, made for cleaning, but when cut into pieces, is
used as a filter for smoking crack cocaine
• Drug "kits." Some stores sell a number of items packaged together, such as a
miniature flower vial (see photo below), together with chopped-up pieces of
wiry sponge and a butane lighter.

Some of these are obvious but others are legitimate items for any store. I have to wonder how they enforce this list. (they send it out every so often) I mean honestly, how am I to know what types of "bowl, container and mixing devices" are common to the drug users? We sell camping items which do include spoons, bowls and scouring pads "made for cleaning" and since we have so many climbers we sell small quantities (one sponge, one person sets of silverware, etc)

And those little flowers they mention, I could easily see my mother-in-law thinking such a thing would be a cute little counter-top impulse item. She wouldn't have a clue.

[iviles]

Spoons?!?!?!? Wow our regesters dont even prompt us to check id for condoms! Still it would be a kick to tell someone they were to young to buy spoons.

[Whyme]

I can only imagine the chaos that would erupt at my store if we started age restrictions on the Sunday paper and spoons. People still get pissed when we ID them for alcohol and cigarettes.

So, spoons can be used for no good but not knives? I find that odd. A brother of a friend of mine was killed by an 11 year old with a butter knife. It caused quite the hoopla of course and no one believed that a kid could murder anyone with a butter knife. Yet, butter knives were never placed under restriction. Plus, you can poke the hell out of someone with a fork. I guess I'm saying I think all cutlery should be treated equally