Underage drinking campaign humiliates parents

Parents who attempt to buy alcohol at Tesco when they’re shopping with a teenage son or daughter may find themselves turned away at the till. The supermarket has a new policy whereby cashiers are to refuse to sell alcohol to parents if they suspect that they will share that alcohol with someone underage.

The new policy – aimed at tackling underage drinking – came to light when several parents found themselves refused service at the Tesco tills.

TV medium Dominic Zenden tells The Telegraph today that he had tried to buy six bottles of Budweiser whilst shopping with his 15-year-old daughter. ‘I was dumbfounded,’ he says. ‘’There was absolutely no indication that my daughter would be drinking the alcohol – it was for me. But the woman told me that they don’t sell alcohol to people who have children with them.

‘They haven’t got signs up to say that they won’t sell to people who have their children with them,’ Mr Zenden added. ‘If they did it would save a lot of embarrassment at the till.’

A spokesperson for Tesco told The Telegraph: ‘I can understand the frustrations of the customer but I think that any reasonable parent would understand the problem and support our policy.’

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