Happened to my poor co-worker :(

[Miss_Stress]

It was a Saturday afternoon, and my co-worker (a lovely lady, but unfortunately got burned for selling a age-restricted product to somebody underage a few weeks ago, so is now extra-vigilant) was on the till next to mine. These 2 chavs (for any American users who don't know what a chav is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav ) came up to the till with a pair of scissors and some other items. Now, corporate policy is "Think 21", so the person must be 21 in order to buy blades and other associated products. And so begins the problem....

CW: Have you got any ID for these scissors?
Chavs: No....
CW: Sorry but I can't sell you them then, you have to be 21.
Chavs: Well that's f***ing riduculous!

It gets better there is another corporate policy in place which states that customers must spend £5 to pay by card. The till will not physically allow us to accept a payment via card for a transaction that equals less than £5. So what does the chav woman do? Whips her card out for a transaction under £5 (bear in mind, there are signs ALL over the place stating this policy! )

CW: I'm sorry, you need to spend £5 to use your card
Chavs: Well f**k this then! Come on *chav woman* f**k this off, this is f***ing ridiculous, what the f**k seriously, blah blah blah blah

The best part is that we cannot void any part of a transaction, we must get a member of management to do it for us. As such, my poor co-worker had to get someone to come and void off all the stuff that those 2 chavs had left behind, thus holding up a fair number of decent, paying customers!

[Rapscallion]

I live on the decent end of a council estate. Trust me when I say I'm cautious about some of my nearish neighbours.

Rapscallion

[telecom_goddess]

Wow ID for scissors? Really?

[Kogarashi]

Wow ID for scissors? Really?

It can happen.

There are quite a few things that Walmart's registers prompt for age-verification on, aside from the usual alcohol and cigarettes. For most, we don't need to check ID, but we still need to make sure we're not selling to underage folks. The list includes things like R-rated movies and M-rated games, super glue, paint balls, certain cans of spray paint, and white-out. I've actually had to refuse sale of such items twice because the person purchasing them was actually half a year shy of old enough.

[Crossbow]

Anyone under 18 can't buy spraypaint or Sharpie markers in certain areas near me....

[boxxertrumps]

A few weeks ago a girl lifted 3 cans of aerosol duster. Ended up inhaling it, popping a bunch of pills and ODing on it all.
Boss mentioned that he thought the bitterant would be enough to keep the huffers from doing anything with it, but apparently kids just tough it out these days.

Needless to say, we keep canned air behind the counter now...

[Miss_Stress]

Wow ID for scissors? Really?

Yeah - company policy says that because the scissors have blades, people must be 21 to buy them. This is due to a very nasty incident a few years ago involving blades bought from our chain of stores

[Ironclad Alibi]

I live on the decent end of a council estate.

Council estate? Is that equivalent to project housing or public housing in the US?

[telecom_goddess]

Yeah - company policy says that because the scissors have blades, people must be 21 to buy them. This is due to a very nasty incident a few years ago involving blades bought from our chain of stores

So because ONE person messed up and was stupid it has to be a blanket policy....

I really am getting so sick of the "we have to protect everyone like they live in a bubble" mentality.

I suppose that includes butter knives too....not even sure if you sell those but hey

[Rapscallion]

Council estate? Is that equivalent to project housing or public housing in the US?

Depends on what you mean by those terms. In short, it's affordable, low-cost housing built in estates by the local authority. It used to be that if you couldn't afford a house, you could apply to the council and get one on a reasonably low rent. If you were completely without funds, they'd even pay your rent and rates for you. Many have been bought by their tennants these days, hence the reason I was able to buy one from the then-owner.

What I have could have been three-bedroom once, but it's now two large ones, along with a living room, dining room, and kitchen, along with small gardens to front and rear. It's not massive, and I barely even use the spare bedroom for anything approaching small amounts of storage, but I don't rattle around in it.

Rapscallion

[Shalom]

Sounds like what we called "Mitchell-Lama" in New York...

[Ironclad Alibi]

The two have a lot in common. In the US the public/project housing are usually apartments that become undesireable areas (crime, etc.) to live in for those that have options to live elsewhere. The Council Estates sound like a better area.

I think there have been posts from those who work in stores near these areas since they can provide a lot of SCs.

[Rapscallion]

Well, there are council estates that are just a bit downmarket, but not bad, and then there are ones that you tend not to walk around alone after dark. Mine has a bit of both.

Then you have sink estates. These are where the alsatians walk around in pairs and need sandals to stop their paws being sliced by broken glass. The SAS train in such areas.

Rapscallion

[PepperElf]

actually the ID for scissors doesn't surprise me.
sounds like it's an attempt to help prevent knife-crime amongst the teens

[Primer]

Age-check popped up on me for WD-40 the other day at the local wally world.