Giving Up Smoking

Challenge 25 is a voluntary scheme for shopkeepers in the UK aimed at stopping young people from buying age related products that can harm such as cigarettes and alcohol.

That means anybody who doesn’t look 25 will have to produce a correct form of id every time they buy an age related product including party poppers, Red Bull type drinks, DVDs, games, petrol, knives and chocolate liqueurs.

The correct forms of id are passport, driving license and Pass Card with hologram. All have photographs on them and the date of birth, anything else including student cards which have both do not pass muster.

Challenge 21 preceded Challenge 25 and as it was believed that there was still a high amount of youngsters buying and becoming addicted to cigarettes and alchohol the age was raised.

Although well meaning this increase has sparked off anger amongst many low paid shop workers who are at the receiving end of the flack from customers, test purchases from trading standards and if they work for a chain test purchases from head office.

When I first heard about Challenge 25 I thought that it was a good idea. It is difficult to guess somebodies age and we all have different perceptions of age. I work in a shop selling age related products and have many a time asked for id from somebody well over 21 who look younger, but there are many who look far older than their age so the increase to 25 gives shop workers a bigger safety gap.

Shop workers need all of the help they can get because after all they are in the front line and will be fined and get a criminal record if they make a mistake. It is also low paid shop workers who get the abuse when they ask for id or refuse sales. The abuse isn’t always just from those who are refused, sometimes the customer next in the queue offers to buy the product for them and they too can get abusive when they are told that they are not allowed to buy for anybody who has been denied a purchase. If the person refused is under age then whoever buys for them breaks the law besides the shop assistant.

Sometimes you get somebody further up the queue saying that they know the person and how old they are. That sort of verification isn’t allowed so you get a whole queue of shoppers grumbling about how ridiculous this is and making the assistant feel highly uncomfortable and as if they are in the wrong for doing their job.

From thinking that Challenge 25 was a good idea I am now turning against it, or certain aspects of it. What I don’t agree with is that you have to ask everybody who looks under 25 for id every single time they make an age related purchase. That includes EVERYBODY even if you know exactly how old they are, saw their id 10 minutes earlier, work with them, gave birth to them – how ludicrous is that?

If a 23 year old wants to buy a can of red bull (12) or a 12 DVD you have to ask for id and basically be on the receiving end of ridicule from that and other customers around. It isn’t a very nice feeling, over the years I’ve been threatened and had things thrown at me for refusing age related sales. I’ve even had relatives of those denied come into the shop afterwards and shout at me.

Some customers are ignorant of the law. I’ve seen parents browsing the off licence with teenagers who clearly weren’t 18, the legal age to drink in the UK. They ask their children what they want and then get angry when they are told that it is against the law for them to buy booze for under 18s and against the law for us to sell it. Even if the parent is buying for somebody who doesn’t look 25 the youngster will have to produce id.

Whenever anybody is challenged an entry has to be made into a shops ADD log, proving to police and trading standards that checks are being regularly made. As more people are now being challenged it takes longer to serve customers and the queues are growing. Longer queues mean more abuse from customers whether they are buying age related products or not. I used to thoroughly enjoy shop work but the extra pressures are making it a low paid nightmare of a job.

So there is good and bad about Challenge 25. For it to operate more effectively and with less abuse for shop assistants I think that the scheme needs publicising much more and that everybody over 12 is going to have to get id, isn’t that what the government wanted – is big brother here?

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